[access-uk] Re: Raspberry PI

  • From: "Michael Ray" <mike.ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:42:45 -0000


I haven't missed the point of the Raspberry Pi at all.
The guys that have created it have been heard on Radio Four saying the way ICT is taught in schools does nothing more than teach kids how to be a secretary and that Microsoft is god. I agree with that sentiment.
But the way to teach a kid how to be a programmer is different now than it was thirty years ago.
Sure it is good for running a webcam, or as a data-logger, as a radio ham I could probably find uses for it in my radio shack. But it is never going to fire-up thousands of kids imaginations when they would be better off with a PC and one of the thousands of downloadable and free programming tools around. 

Mike
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jonathan H" <digitaltoast@xxxxxxxxx> 
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2012 4:10 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Raspberry PI


I can't help but think that a few people here have massively missed the
point of the Raspberry PI.

It wasn't primarily designed to be "a computer to use as a PC", it was
designed to be a learning tool or something to use when a traditional PC
isn't viable. For example, I don't want to leave 300 watts of base unit PC
running 24 hours a day just to run a webcam, a night-vision camera and
upload data from a weather station every 5 minutes. So a PI can sit there
using about 3 watts doing all of the above.

The fact that it has HDMI HD output and can play blu-ray quality media is a
bonus and has certainly helped enthusiasm beyond the core educational
market.

But what the PI is more about is learning the core principles; if I connect
an LED to that pin and type this command, I can make the LED light up.
If I carefully apply 5 volts to this other pin, I can make a loudspeaker
say "ouch".

You say you "doubt the ability of the Raspberry Pi to fire the imagination
of young prospective developers" but it's already sold around 750,000
units, back-orders are running at 2 million currently shipping late
December and they are making 2,000 a day in Wales and 4,000 a day in China.

There's no reason at all why it shouldn't run vinux - it seems kind of
pointless to have one computer SSH into another computer when the second
computer is technically able to run Vinux, it's just the community
willpower it needs. According to the last message in this list:
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!msg/vinux-support/i2na-lY8MYs/6zJTtq7WIeoJ
"Debian for arm does list espeak espeakup and speakup so guessing that is a
good start".

If you want to go simpler still, try something like Arduino or its
Freeduino clone; for as little as £15 you can get an established and
pre-assembed prototyping board with loads of digital and analogue inputs
and outputs. In fact, I'm close to building a light-operated chicken run
door opener and closer for around £25 including solar panel, motor, light
sensor, breadboard, battery etc. As a bonus it will measure and store
exactly how many hours or sunshine there were each day and what time it got
light/dark enough to activate the motor to pull the door.

Incidentally, you don't HAVE to use Python to programme the PI - a friend
of mine has written an internet enabled remote door-unlocking device with a
display, pin-pad,

All these things are what you make of them!


On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 3:12 PM, Michael Ray <mike.ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:


Aman, Steve etc.

Without hijacking the list to go on and on about the Raspberry Pi, Aman
you have hit on the very issue which makes me doubt the ability of the
Raspberry Pi to fire the imagination of young prospective developers.

Connecting via SSH into the Pi may well be very easy...from your PC.  Your
PC is obviously connected to the internet and you are running access
software which gives you the ability to use it.

My point is...why should any young person mess with the Raspberry Pi when
all they have to do if they want to learn how to program is browse the Web
and download one of the thousands of different development tools available? 

Asking a teenager to connect to the Raspberry Pi with the family PC and
learn how to program is like giving them a Ferrari to drive to a remote
location where a bike is waiting for them to play with.

I will probably have a fiddle with the Pi at some time in the future, but
only because, like the guys that developed it, I have nostalgia for the
days of text-only screens on the first computers to make it into the home,
when making a dot cross the screen and shoot a pixellated ghost was
state-of-the-art

Mike

----- Original Message ----- From: "Aman Singer" <aman.singer@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2012 2:35 PM

Subject: [access-uk] Re: Raspberry PI


 Hi, Mike and all.
I'm afraid I've reached the end of my not very considerable resources with 
the PI I have here. I would, of course, love to hear from anyone who has
gotten further with it than I have, or who has any better ideas. My
difficulty is really a lack of Linux knowledge and an inability to solder. 
First, the unit is perfectly accessible to get started with over the
network. I had a sighted person here, but he was not really necessary
except
to get through the setup screens on the distro I happened to download, the 
beginner's distro which is based on Debian. Nothing is easier than to SSH
into the unit, everything works well on that front.
I have tried both Speakup and BRLTTY. I have had very little success
with Speakup, not even being able to get it to run, but BRLTTY seems to be 
working in Braille, at least. I have heard, on the Speakup list, that
there
is something wrong with the sound driver on the Pi itself which causes
Speakup to cut in and out to the point where it is unusable. This was
about
three months ago now, so I'm not sure whether it still applies. I have not 
heard of any BRLTTY users with the PI, but it may well be that I haven't
known where to look.
It is worth noting that there is a serial console built into the
unit, but it requires soldering to a few pins on the board, as far as I
know. If anyone knows of a way to get access to this serial console with a 
cable one plugs in, it would be, I think, most useful, allowing one to
play
with the kernel and so on without the risk of having the access devices
themselves fail and lock the user out of the machine without network
access.
It would be good to hear from anyone who has gotten further with the
unit, and particularly nice to hear from anyone who has actually gotten it 
talking.
Aman


-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk-bounce@**
freelists.org <access-uk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]
On Behalf Of Michael Ray
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2012 7:22 AM
To: Access-UK
Subject: [access-uk] Raspberry PI

Hello list

Has anyone on the list had any hands-on with the little single-board
computer known as Raspberry PI?

I am wondering if anybody has yet had a go at making it accessible,
perhaps
by compiling a Linux kernel for it with the SpeakUp screen-reader running. 

Mike






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