Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer • Hacker News Board

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#391

Post by aorth » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 6:17 PM UTC

rdancer wrote: post #146

aorth wrote: post #112

Fantastic development, but I can't help but think about the years of pain we're going to be in security wise when people inevitably start using these for all sorts of "Internet of Things" purposes. Software stacks on these type of devices inevitably have lackluster cipher suites, sub-par protocol support, unpatched kernel/userland, etc—even if they run all the latest things out right now, they WILL get out of date an…

Not sure what you mean by "these type of devices", but you will be overjoyed that on Raspbian, updating the system is as easy as `apt-get udate && apt-get -y upgrade`, the kernel is currently v4.1.13 [1], and the rest of your comment is also FUD. [1] https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/blob/master/boot/ker...

Updating Raspbian is easy, sure, and I have faith you'll update your media center or the one powering lights in your house, but for $5 I could connect one to all the cows on my farm, or to every car in the fleet of my delivery service, to the soda machine in the office, etc—people are going to use them EVERYWHERE. Then what do we do when we find out that there is a new, practical attack on SHA1, TLSv1.2? Or some exploit in OpenSSL, bash, etc? This is not FUD, this will happen.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#392

Post by VMG » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 6:18 PM UTC

malandrew wrote: post #371

I would love to see someone sell these as preconfigured as minimal bandwidth tor exit nodes with wifi so they can be spread far and wide. Just connect to power, make sure it is connected to a wifi network and then leave it alone. Just make sure it advertises itself as such so that law enforcement knows that it is likely not owned by the owner of the Internet connection and therefore doesn't make sense to do anything…

There are also economical implications. Bandwidth isn't free. Now if you also could charge for your service with micropayments, we have a winner.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#393

Post by Raed667 » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 6:24 PM UTC

VLM wrote: post #290

Raed667 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but if they make like a B2 model + WIFI and just add 10$ to the unit price. That would cover it.

Highly unlikely. For a market as immense as the USA that is way too high. For small markets it'll never pay the labor and local-FCC-equivalent certification costs. There would be tradeoffs and other problems; some countries are very locked down and unamused at the idea of someone telling their wifi they are in Japan despite being somewhere else thus enabling unusual power and freq limitations. Small countries and mar…

This seems now like a first world problem, a nice guide to find would be like "Cheap Wifi dongles that work on raspbian".

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#394

Post by shams93 » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 6:27 PM UTC

for me this is my chance to build a cool digital synth with csound at the core

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#395

Post by tibbon » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 6:29 PM UTC

teh_klev wrote: post #256

cconcepts wrote: post #158

Amazing. If only I'd get my act together and do all the amazing stuff I planned when I bought my first pi - then I could justify buying this

Lol...I'm the same. I have four of the sodding things (Pi#1-B, revised Pi#1-B and two of the model 2 B's) complete with PSU's...all sitting in a box. So many plans, so little time.

I wonder if the problem for most of us isn't the money, but just the time. A cheap computer probably doesn't give us any more time/ease than an expensive computer (which we probably already have 1+ of)

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#396

Post by cobweb » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 6:30 PM UTC

Yaggo wrote: post #284

Too bad they didn't include camera module connector (CSI). Low-latency hardware-encoded h264 stream from camera is one of the most cool features in RPi platform. The Zero would be great e.g. for FPV fying folks, if it supported camera module. (USB cameras aren't answer here, as they typically don't have low-latency hw-encoding.)

That's a shame. I was wondering if I could use a Pi0 with an old USB camera as a cheap IPCam.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#397

Post by rsync » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 6:36 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #343

mSparks wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it matter? broadcom wont sell you them. and you cant legally import them yourself.

Just because Broadcom won't sell them doesn't mean the factory won't make some more. This is China, they have a pretty liberal (and one could argue: more reasonable) approach to issues of intellectual property :). Or at least it used to be so; sadly, in the last few years the US was pressuring Chinese government to crack down on it. Anyway, you can read more about this phenomenon here: [0]. Oh, and one more thing. It…

"So Broadcom may not sell you their chip, but the lady on the first floor of SEG building in Shenzhen just might."

And she will also happily affix a holographic "genuine" sticker to the part and package it in "original" "tamper proof" packaging. Just like brand new!

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#398

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 6:36 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #309

$5 price tag makes sense now considering you can buy a full smartphone for that much now: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/net10-zte-paragon-4g-with-4gb-me... (just don't try to order more than two or hours later your order will be canceled) or http://www.bestbuy.com/site/verizon-wireless-prepaid-motorol...

[deleted]

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#399

Post by Hyperborian » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 6:43 PM UTC

VMG wrote: post #392

malandrew wrote: post #371

I would love to see someone sell these as preconfigured as minimal bandwidth tor exit nodes with wifi so they can be spread far and wide. Just connect to power, make sure it is connected to a wifi network and then leave it alone. Just make sure it advertises itself as such so that law enforcement knows that it is likely not owned by the owner of the Internet connection and therefore doesn't make sense to do anything…

There are also economical implications. Bandwidth isn't free. Now if you also could charge for your service with micropayments, we have a winner.

I believe the implication is that these would be placed in locations that have free wifi available, without necessarily having permission to do so.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#400

Post by Xeoncross » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 6:43 PM UTC

lozf wrote: post #366

pcthrowaway wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right? But there are also plenty of computers with 512 MB of RAM lying around that you can get for free. And they're 'programmable' too.

Physical space, noise, and running costs are also important considerations for many people.

Yes, running this as a useful network device (storage, irc bot, etc..) off a small solar panel is pretty neat side project.