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The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store

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Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store

#201

Post by _archon_ »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #2

I wonder if they will sell you more than one Raspberry Pi Zero? The Zero is advertised as being $5, and it makes me angry every time, because it's not possible to buy it at that price. Every Pi retailer either has a one-per-customer limit, and charges shipping, or, charges up to $15(!) per Zero if you buy more than one. So it's essentially a $15 device being advertised as $5. I shouldn't be so annoyed about it, but I…

Is a Pi Zero worth $15 to you? If so, buy one (or many). If not, don't.

High-demand cars often sell for well over sticker price. A few recent examples are the Civic Type R, the Focus RS when it was 1-3 years old, the BRZ when it came out... Demand is higher than supply, and vendors (car dealers in my car reference) are profiting from that.

I understand your outrage, but the fact that multiple vendors are selling at this high price means that the market is saying the product is worth it. If you choose the perspective that the Zero is a $15 board which you can occasionally buy for $5, you can be free from spite and simply decide if you want one. Ten bucks and a slightly different perspective is a small price for tinkering and being free from anguish!

Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store

#202

Post by thinkmassive »

altmind wrote: post #191
thinkmassive wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly! $5 Zero, $10 Zero W, still an excellent deal compared to alternatives. An ESP dev board or a Feather costs more, and those don’t run Linux. People who complain about the cost making their projects difficult should speak up about the alternatives they’re jumping to instead.

esp32 boards(not a devboard, but rpi is not a devboard too) starts from $4.42 with free shipping on aliexpress. yet you are right - less ports, slower, less memory, no linux and a different microarchitecture.

ESP32 without a devkit is just a surface mount chip. It would be more fair to compare that with the RPi’s SoC alone.

Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store

#203

Post by kingosticks »

qhwudbebd wrote: post #200
kingosticks wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting stuff into schools and getting them to use it is difficult. There was a push some years ago for Lego Mindstorms kit in schools. That stuff was very cool but mostly went unused - nobody knew how to use it, let alone create lessons around it. The RPF's work is better in that it's both cheaper and a more joined up plan with both kit and teacher resources. A big part of their work is running courses for teachers…

I'm not in any feasible target market for them anyway because I'm happy to pay significantly more for higher spec SBCs with mainline kernel support, avoiding proprietary boot loaders/threadx and long-obsolete SoCs. The current crop of RK3399 boards are a great example of that. But I do understand why the lower spec, lower price point devices appeal so much to hobbyists and makers. These people actually buy and use RP…

On what basis do you think they are failing to reach school children?

Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store

#204

Post by qhwudbebd »

kingosticks wrote: post #203
qhwudbebd wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not in any feasible target market for them anyway because I'm happy to pay significantly more for higher spec SBCs with mainline kernel support, avoiding proprietary boot loaders/threadx and long-obsolete SoCs. The current crop of RK3399 boards are a great example of that. But I do understand why the lower spec, lower price point devices appeal so much to hobbyists and makers. These people actually buy and use RP…

On what basis do you think they are failing to reach school children?

Anecdata rather than a rigorously conducted survey across UK schools. It was very much the consensus amongst my teacher friends when I kicked off a discussion on the topic whilst attempting to donate a handful of them. (I had a bunch spare from doing some speed testing on them.)

Interestingly, they also felt the microbit had been much more successful and accessible, so I guess it's not a lost cause to create a product for that market.

Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store

#205

Post by kingosticks »

qhwudbebd wrote: post #204
kingosticks wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On what basis do you think they are failing to reach school children?

Anecdata rather than a rigorously conducted survey across UK schools. It was very much the consensus amongst my teacher friends when I kicked off a discussion on the topic whilst attempting to donate a handful of them. (I had a bunch spare from doing some speed testing on them.) Interestingly, they also felt the microbit had been much more successful and accessible, so I guess it's not a lost cause to create a produc…

The foundation do publish yearly reviews (not sure if they done a 2018 one yet) on their website with statistics they have gathered.

But it's interesting the microbit was considered more successful in your group. Perhaps having the name of the BBC behind it gave it more weight. Or the fact they gave them away free to younger children.

Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store

#206

Post by qhwudbebd »

kingosticks wrote: post #205
qhwudbebd wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdata rather than a rigorously conducted survey across UK schools. It was very much the consensus amongst my teacher friends when I kicked off a discussion on the topic whilst attempting to donate a handful of them. (I had a bunch spare from doing some speed testing on them.) Interestingly, they also felt the microbit had been much more successful and accessible, so I guess it's not a lost cause to create a produc…

The foundation do publish yearly reviews (not sure if they done a 2018 one yet) on their website with statistics they have gathered. But it's interesting the microbit was considered more successful in your group. Perhaps having the name of the BBC behind it gave it more weight. Or the fact they gave them away free to younger children.

I think maybe it's also a simpler device to understand end-to-end, a bit like 8-bit micros were when I was a kid?

Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store

#207

Post by sangnoir »

rusk wrote: post #199
sangnoir wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> feint Incorrect - it's not damning with fake praise - it's damning with super-light praise; the implication being the subject of 'praise' is not that great. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/damn_with_faint_praise

For some strange reason, paper with light lines on it is called feint ruled which is the source of my confusion going all the way back to my school days ... but every day is a school day, evidently.

Wow - that never registered in my mind before and I would have told you, with all conviction, that books say "faint ruled". Apparently[1] it's a 19th century variation of faint as used in the printing industry.

1. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/fein...

Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store

#208

Post by abrugsch »

targ2002 wrote: post #185
abrugsch wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There used to be a random electronics junk and appliances shop in Fareham (I forget the name now, it was late 90's/early 00's) which took on a role as a radio shack disti. I don't know if the town had a tandy when they were around as the chain was deep sixed before I lived there. However the Tandy's I did know as a kid were just like radio shacks in the states - same Archer branded parts, same computers (ever wonder…

I remember this shop very fondly, I used to walk home from school, and pick up quite a few components for various electronics projects, but while I was away at uni it closed, I was very disappointed when I went back to my parents. I can't remember what it was called. But I had a friend who worked there many years ago.

I FOUND IT! It was called Techno Trade street view was only good back to 2008 and it was already something else but a search on the address came up with: https://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/techno-trade-fareham

Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store

#209

Post by IshKebab »

ForHackernews wrote: post #92
IshKebab wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how economics works! If they aren't making a loss at $5 then by now they have had plenty of time to ramp up production to meet demand (and save money since more production means lower costs). The fact that they haven't strongly implies that they are selling it at a loss.

They might well be making a loss at $5! Don't take this too harshly, but the Raspberry Pi foundation's goal is to encourage young children to learn about programming and computer science, not to subsidize the IoT hobbies of wealthy adults who already have careers in computing.

> They might well be making a loss at $5!

Yeah that's what I said?

Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store

#210

Post by kingosticks »

qhwudbebd wrote: post #206
kingosticks wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The foundation do publish yearly reviews (not sure if they done a 2018 one yet) on their website with statistics they have gathered. But it's interesting the microbit was considered more successful in your group. Perhaps having the name of the BBC behind it gave it more weight. Or the fact they gave them away free to younger children.

I think maybe it's also a simpler device to understand end-to-end, a bit like 8-bit micros were when I was a kid?

I think this is it. It's a simpler device which is easier to get started with. At the cost of being able to do less with it but that's a good tradeoff, in primary school at least.
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