Day 79: Entering the world of Raspberry Pi

Back when the Rasberry Pi came out I was intrigued (a $25 computer the size of a postcard) I immediately ordered one of the first models within weeks of the announcement. Unfortunately it arrived at at time when I was in the midst of another project, and I ended up ‘loaning’ it to a friend who put it to good use right away.  I did not ask for it back.    With the recent release of the PI 2, I was motivated to give the whole Raspberry Pi world another shot.

Actually there were a couple of other motivating factors

1)  I recently attended SxSw and visited a great exhibit in the CREATE tent where they were giving away Dot to Dot PIiboards.  SxSw always inspires me and I saw several ideas powered by the Rasberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi foundation even had

2) I recently discovered the Kano Kit which offered all the components (including a Raspberry Pi) that a 7 year old would need to make their own computer. I took the bait and bought it for my 9 year old grandson and indeed, he followed the well illustrated instruction booklet and had it up and running in about an hour. I think the $179 Kano kit was well worth the price in that it offered the Raspberry Pi along with fun colored accessories, and an instruction set that the children could follow on their own (thus increasing the feeling of empowerment)

3) I visited the GeekBus which had a fabulous portable lab equipped with Raspberry Pi’s. It was so ‘geeky’ and yet so affordable. So of course, I started to wonder, how powerful would an affordable, portable lab like this be? And also,  would it do anything that would especially appeal to girls.

There was only one way to find out.. so I decided to order one for myself. After a bit of research, I decided that the Cana Kit was a great way to get all the components I needed with one click on Amazon and no more expensive that ordering them individually. Since we already had an HDMI TV on our bus, it seemed that the only other accessory I would need was a keyboard, so I added the suggested Rii wireless keyboard.

Let the adventures begin. Stay tuned!