Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff dot com. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette
Speaker 1: and I am an editor at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Sitting across from me, as he always does when we
Speaker 1: record these podcasts, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. When Dick
Speaker 1: Gibson was a little boy, he was not Dick Gibson. Uh.
Speaker 1: And today we're going to sort of discuss one of
Speaker 1: our favorite topics. But you're about to reveal longtime listeners
Speaker 1: will know why this is going to be a difficult one. Yep, yep, yep.
Speaker 1: First of all, this comes to us courtesy of a
Speaker 1: little Facebook feedback. This comes from Arthur. He says, Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I was wondering if you could maybe do a podcast
Speaker 1: on the Raspberry Hi computer PI PI. I love pie.
Speaker 1: Pie is awesome. It's both the number and the food,
Speaker 1: especially when the food in the number converge. Yes, because
Speaker 1: it is in this case raspberry pie is spelled p
Speaker 1: I like the number, but it has raspberry like the
Speaker 1: delicious fruity filling that we all love. So yeah, and
Speaker 1: it is not the next build of Android. No, no,
Speaker 1: in fact, it's specifically not Android. But you know, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: where you do you remember that the episode we recorded
Speaker 1: not too long ago about Commodore sixty four. I do
Speaker 1: recall such an episode. We're laughing to ourselves because in
Speaker 1: recording time, we did that last week, so you know
Speaker 1: that the episodes will be spaced out, so it's not
Speaker 1: that close together anyway. But don't worry, We're already spaced
Speaker 1: out enough as this absolutely. Now. One of the things
Speaker 1: we touched on in the Commodore sixty four episode was
Speaker 1: that this was that machine sold a lot of of
Speaker 1: uh computers to a lot of people. And one of
Speaker 1: the things that people did with those, especially young people,
Speaker 1: and it was fun to create your own programs, to
Speaker 1: learn exactly how programming works. In fact, the Commodore sixty
Speaker 1: four was the best selling computer of all time if
Speaker 1: you look at a very specific model of computer. Yes,
Speaker 1: so the Commodore sixty four sold I think it was
Speaker 1: seventeen million units, which was pretty incredible for a single device,
Speaker 1: especially given the the time at which it was sold
Speaker 1: and uh um, the price at which it sold. Uh,
Speaker 1: that was not the heyday of computing, but it's really
Speaker 1: sort of started the whole snowball rolling. And for a
Speaker 1: lot of people, uh, people who create your favorite software
Speaker 1: games and other programs. Uh, a lot of them sort
Speaker 1: of cut their teeth on the Commodore sixty four not
Speaker 1: which was literally because those were really big, bulky, heavy machines.
Speaker 1: I knew he was going to say that. Uh, no,
Speaker 1: they were. They got their feet wet programming. Let's use
Speaker 1: a different analogy yet, that which, by the way, I
Speaker 1: do not recommend when you're using electrical device. I knew
Speaker 1: he sin as I said. Okay, So actually the device
Speaker 1: we're talking about now, the Raspberry Pie, is created to
Speaker 1: do really very much the same thing. Yeah. In fact,
Speaker 1: there's a great backstory to this device. That's that's what
Speaker 1: I think is the really compelling part of this. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, the device itself is awesome too, but the
Speaker 1: reason behind it is is fantastic. So over in jolly
Speaker 1: old England across the pond, and I promise I'm not
Speaker 1: going to do my terrible fake English accent today, a
Speaker 1: fellow by the name of even Upton, who worked in
Speaker 1: admissions at Cambridge university and also would do lectures there.
Speaker 1: He noticed a disturbing trend. Incoming students who are interested
Speaker 1: in studying computer science seemed to be to have a
Speaker 1: less of a grasp on the way computers work than
Speaker 1: previous generations of students. So, in other words, as time
Speaker 1: has gone on, people, the incoming classes seem to be
Speaker 1: more ignorant of the way computers work than the previous class, which,
Speaker 1: you know, think that's odd because we're in a world
Speaker 1: where computers are much more pervasive than they ever have
Speaker 1: been before, to the point where you might have a
Speaker 1: computer in your pants pocket, as a smartphone or a
Speaker 1: tablet on your on your desk, or or even the
Speaker 1: device you're listening to right now might very well be
Speaker 1: considered a computer. Well at, computers are in lots of things.
Speaker 1: Computers are in your car and in your fridge and
Speaker 1: in all sorts of other stuff. But the thing is, uh,
Speaker 1: today's computers, the computer computer, the one that sits on
Speaker 1: on your desktop or a laptop or desktop machine. Um,
Speaker 1: those computers just work and do everything for you. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So back back when we're talking about the old Commodore
Speaker 1: sixty four days, those were days where you're using UH
Speaker 1: interface where it's all text based. You're typing stuff into
Speaker 1: the computer to get it to do things, and people
Speaker 1: were wondering, well, wait, how does this work? How does
Speaker 1: how does what I type in translate into this action?
Speaker 1: And how can I create my own programs knowing that
Speaker 1: there's this one language I can use to build something
Speaker 1: that that you know, when you execute a command it
Speaker 1: does something kind of cool, and you've got a lot
Speaker 1: of people getting into it and sort of a hobbyist level. Well,
Speaker 1: those people when they would go to school, some of
Speaker 1: them would say, you know, I loved tinkering with that stuff.
Speaker 1: I want to learn more about it. This is what
Speaker 1: I'm going to pursue as a career, and they became
Speaker 1: that generation of computer engineers and scientists. Well, the problem
Speaker 1: is that we've got these devices that are now so
Speaker 1: sophisticated and do so much for us that that level
Speaker 1: of tinkering has been taken out. It's really hard to
Speaker 1: tinker with a device that's running say a sophisticated graphics
Speaker 1: UH graphic user interface. You know you can't. You're not
Speaker 1: seeing the underlying programming that's making this all go, and
Speaker 1: you might very well not have very much exposure to it.
Speaker 1: And in fact, Upton's point was that he said that
Speaker 1: the students he was encountering, most of them, had little
Speaker 1: to no understanding of any programming. If they had anything,
Speaker 1: it was HTML programming, which is not really programming ht
Speaker 1: mls markup language. It changes the way stuff looks, but
Speaker 1: it's not truly a programming language, right. You know, if
Speaker 1: I may be permitted an analogy, I think it's sort
Speaker 1: of like somebody going to say, you know what, I
Speaker 1: want to become a mechanic, and somebody goes, okay, so
Speaker 1: you have a car. What makes it go? Well? I
Speaker 1: step on the gas and it makes it go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but what about the engine? What about the parts of
Speaker 1: an engine? And they go, I don't, I don't know.
Speaker 1: The gas makes it move forward. I know that I
Speaker 1: put the groceries in the trunk and at the other
Speaker 1: end there's something exactly. And that was that was Upton's point,
Speaker 1: was that students only had a very superficial understanding of computers.
Speaker 1: They had nothing. It's it seemed like it was getting
Speaker 1: worse each year. Yeah. Now, I mean you you have
Speaker 1: computers now, um that come with programming language is built
Speaker 1: into the computer when you take it home and unwrap
Speaker 1: it and take it out of the box, it's got
Speaker 1: that stuff. But a lot of people don't even mess
Speaker 1: with it. And he wanted um, he wanted people to
Speaker 1: be able to get started programming in a very inexpensive way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so he Upton realized, and it's this is all
Speaker 1: stated on the Raspberry Pie Pie. It's it's stated on
Speaker 1: their on their web page. So if you go to
Speaker 1: the web page, you can actually read this whole story
Speaker 1: that we're summarizing here. But Upton's point was that he
Speaker 1: knows that access does not automatically solve a problem, no, right,
Speaker 1: but that without access you can't solve a problem. And
Speaker 1: so one of the things he thought would be important
Speaker 1: is to try and create a very very low cost
Speaker 1: computer that would give people the opportunity to really play
Speaker 1: with programming in a way that hasn't been seen. It's
Speaker 1: the days of the Common War sixty four and other
Speaker 1: computers of that era. Yes, And so he set out
Speaker 1: to try and create as an affordable a computer as possible.
Speaker 1: This is essentially it's a nonprofit approach. It's a charity
Speaker 1: approach to this, UM too, so that you could get
Speaker 1: as many of them into schools and into private hands
Speaker 1: as possible, so that people kids mostly could really get
Speaker 1: their hands on some programming and perhaps this would inspire
Speaker 1: the next generation of computer engineers. In fact, they're talking
Speaker 1: about the possibility of a buy one, send one approach
Speaker 1: in the future. Um. They as the time we're recording
Speaker 1: this in January twelve, they just started manufacturing these devices,
Speaker 1: probably within the last uh six to eight weeks from
Speaker 1: what I understand, So they're still pretty new and if
Speaker 1: you go to the shop, they are not actually in
Speaker 1: the shop. The only thing that's in the shop right
Speaker 1: now are stickers for keyboards. Um, so they might they
Speaker 1: might send one later. A lot of the places like
Speaker 1: a one laptop per Child do that where you can
Speaker 1: can purchase a machine for someone else who may not
Speaker 1: otherwise be able to afford one, and they will send
Speaker 1: it out and help somebody get started, which I think
Speaker 1: is is a nice idea. And Raspberry Pie does the
Speaker 1: same thing where you can choose pie where you can
Speaker 1: choose to actually send it to huh. You know, instead
Speaker 1: of purchasing one for yourself, you just spend the money
Speaker 1: in order for someone else to have this device. So
Speaker 1: let's talk about what the device actually is. Well, the device, Um,
Speaker 1: if you're looking for something, if you're one of those
Speaker 1: people who looks at a computer and it just works, Uh,
Speaker 1: this device maybe kind of mystifying to you because it
Speaker 1: doesn't have a case. It looks like a circuit circuit board,
Speaker 1: UM with stuff on it. Yep, it's it's kind of interesting.
Speaker 1: It is. It is. It's the heart of a computer.
Speaker 1: But it's a tiny, tiny size. Actually, I think I
Speaker 1: have the the the diagram looks it looks like this.
Speaker 1: I'll hold it up to the mic and you can
Speaker 1: do you want to look at it at the Raspberry
Speaker 1: Pie site right now, I was gonna I was gonna
Speaker 1: actually give the out the measurements. Okay, eighty five point
Speaker 1: six millimeters by fifty three point nine eight millimeters and
Speaker 1: that's length and width that for. So it's it's tiny, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's about the size of a I don't know,
Speaker 1: a smartphone, a fablet. Yeah, it's the slice you did
Speaker 1: that just in my forehead. It's um, it's got, it's
Speaker 1: got a few UM interfaces soldered onto the board. Um.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's got. It's got a process or chip
Speaker 1: a Broadcom b C M five ARM chip. It's seven
Speaker 1: hundred mega hurts. It's not the fastest thing in the world.
Speaker 1: But it does have an r C A video out,
Speaker 1: an audio jack, UM USB too, an Ethernet jack on
Speaker 1: one of the two. They have an A and and
Speaker 1: B model UM. They have an h B H D
Speaker 1: M I port, micro USB for power, and an SD
Speaker 1: card slot. It also will work on batteries. Yes, four
Speaker 1: double as I think is what it will work on.
Speaker 1: But you can also use the micro USB and plug
Speaker 1: in a cable and either plug that into another device
Speaker 1: or into a wall to power it. So it's got
Speaker 1: no monitor installed, though you can hook it up to one.
Speaker 1: It's got um no, you know, it's got networking capabilities,
Speaker 1: no WiFi. It weighs forty five grams or one tenth
Speaker 1: of a pound. It does have a few L A
Speaker 1: D s to tell you how it's working. Um and
Speaker 1: UM yeah it's it's so essentially what you would do
Speaker 1: with this thing is uh, let's say that you have
Speaker 1: the Model A. Okay, so you would use an HD
Speaker 1: M I out probably for you to go out to
Speaker 1: a television or a monitor, and then you would use
Speaker 1: a three and a half millimeter headphone jack. You would
Speaker 1: plug your headphones and so you could get sound. Although
Speaker 1: like with hdm I, that's gonna carry sound too, so
Speaker 1: you can actually have sounds straight through the monitor if
Speaker 1: your monitor has UM speakers in it, So if you're
Speaker 1: using a television, you could just use the TV speakers. Uh.
Speaker 1: You would also use a USB keyboard and plug that
Speaker 1: into it, and then you've got your keyboard user interface.
Speaker 1: If you want to have a mouse, then what you
Speaker 1: would need to do is get a USB hub, plug
Speaker 1: that into a keyboard. That right, what in which case
Speaker 1: the keyboard itself as a hub. Um. But anyway, you
Speaker 1: gotta have a USB hub, possibly in the shape of
Speaker 1: a keyboard, and then you can plug your mouse into that.
Speaker 1: And the thing is that it doesn't have a hard
Speaker 1: drive on it, but you could get a have a
Speaker 1: clock on it either. Yeah, you can get an external
Speaker 1: hard drive and and plug that into it if you
Speaker 1: wanted to. Um, so you would have the using a
Speaker 1: using a lot of existing technology. You might have to
Speaker 1: actually go out and buy the keyboard. The funny thing
Speaker 1: is the keyboard might actually cost more than the Raspberry Pie.
Speaker 1: It depends on because yeah, the two models. The Model
Speaker 1: A that has no Ethernet is twenty five dollars. The
Speaker 1: model B that has eithernet is a Princely bringing the
Speaker 1: Princely back. There was a Model T and you could
Speaker 1: get it in any color as long as it's black.
Speaker 1: But that's a Ford joke. So yeah, the two models. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's incredibly affordable for a fully functional computer. And you
Speaker 1: might wonder, well, what does this computer run? These are
Speaker 1: designed to run uh, specific Linux distros. Yes, so we're
Speaker 1: not talking Windows or the mac os or or even
Speaker 1: certain Linux distributions like a Buntu do not work with
Speaker 1: it yet. It doesn't run Android at the moment. Originally
Speaker 1: it was going to run a Buntu, but then Buntu realized.
Speaker 1: The people behind a bunt to realize that they were
Speaker 1: not hitting their schedule properly, so they knew that they
Speaker 1: were not gonna be able to build in support for
Speaker 1: Raspberry Pie. Uh. They did at the top, it did
Speaker 1: sound like that. It's something that Canonical, the company behind
Speaker 1: one Too, and other distributions of Linux are are working on,
Speaker 1: but it's not currently available. The specific ones that are
Speaker 1: available at launch are Debian, Fedora, and arch Linux. Those
Speaker 1: are the three that can work right at the top
Speaker 1: of the as soon as it's ships and there have
Speaker 1: been some beta once sent out already. It also sounded
Speaker 1: like it's possible that they that that the makers of
Speaker 1: Raspberry Pie Pie would be willing to accept uh Android,
Speaker 1: but they're not going to port it themselves somebody else.
Speaker 1: If somebody else does it, they'll be cool with that.
Speaker 1: But in other words, this this is a very open
Speaker 1: source kind of approach where the community is going to
Speaker 1: provide a lot of the actual content and functionality beyond
Speaker 1: just the basics that that the foundation that has been
Speaker 1: created to do this will will do. Also, the Model
Speaker 1: A and Model B, I should mention they also have
Speaker 1: different amounts of memory. Yes, a megabytes of memory. Model
Speaker 1: B is two und fifty six megabytes of memory, and
Speaker 1: uh I think I think the Model B actually has
Speaker 1: two USB ports, which could be good because you could
Speaker 1: plug in a WiFi dongle into uh you know, one
Speaker 1: of the Raspberry Pie devices um to to give it
Speaker 1: WiFi connectivity, but it's not built into the to the board. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: That's the nice thing about USB, right is that there's
Speaker 1: so many different peripherals that use that standard that can
Speaker 1: really extend the functionality of any computer, but particularly for
Speaker 1: something like this, where it's just a very creative approach
Speaker 1: to solving this problem. So yeah, the whole goal here
Speaker 1: is that you get this device in as many hands
Speaker 1: as possible, and the Linux distros are designed in such
Speaker 1: a way that that they do kind of harken back
Speaker 1: to that common Wore sixty four day where it's it's
Speaker 1: it requires a certain level of investment on the part
Speaker 1: of the user to learn how the system works and
Speaker 1: and to really kind of explore it. Um. And that's
Speaker 1: the whole purpose of this is not you know, it's
Speaker 1: not just that it's a cheap computer that can get
Speaker 1: into the hands of people. That the ultimate purpose is
Speaker 1: to inspire people to really look into programming and learn
Speaker 1: more about it and and possibly become the next you know,
Speaker 1: genius programmer. Um. And so mainly they're going to be
Speaker 1: working with the Python programming language, but there are also
Speaker 1: other languages supported, including Basic, although it's from what I
Speaker 1: understand it's a form of Basic called BBC Basic. There's
Speaker 1: also the C programming language and Perl. So um, there
Speaker 1: will be other languages probably added in support will be
Speaker 1: added in later. Uh and UH, it's any programming language
Speaker 1: that the limitation is that the program gramming language has
Speaker 1: to have support for Linux because that's the obering system
Speaker 1: and for ARM processors. Yeah, because not every programming language
Speaker 1: works with every processor. It's one of those tricky things
Speaker 1: about computers is that you know, you've just when you
Speaker 1: think you get it all figured out, you realize that
Speaker 1: there's a hardware limitation. Yeah. But those those languages that
Speaker 1: you mentioned, for the most part, are process are neutral.
Speaker 1: I mean those those uh, you know, Python, C Pearl,
Speaker 1: those are they're all you know, cross platform. Um. And
Speaker 1: you might be saying, well, you know, you guys, that
Speaker 1: sounds pretty cool and all, but uh, you know, for
Speaker 1: the general public, why is that interesting? Well, for one thing,
Speaker 1: it gives more people a chance to try out computer
Speaker 1: programming inexpensively. I mean, this is something that if you've
Speaker 1: always wanted to do, this could be a cool way
Speaker 1: to get into uh uh to hacking and learning how
Speaker 1: to write your own software and how computers work. This
Speaker 1: is this is an inexpensive way to get your your
Speaker 1: not your feet wet, you're you're you could dive into
Speaker 1: you could try programming. But um, but yeah, there there's
Speaker 1: also another audience. That again, the Raspberry Pie people are
Speaker 1: not discouraging at all, And those are the people who
Speaker 1: already know how to do this stuff but want to
Speaker 1: try and making something else out of this little computer.
Speaker 1: And of the things I've already seen them do is
Speaker 1: messing with XMBC, which is a media center at an
Speaker 1: open source media center. Um and uh it's available again.
Speaker 1: This is cross platform you can build your own. Remember
Speaker 1: now is a podcast from a long time ago, building
Speaker 1: your own uh media media center. Um. But this and
Speaker 1: this operating system works for existing machines Lennox, Windows, mac
Speaker 1: os ten um works on all of them. But they've
Speaker 1: seen XNBC running on a Raspberry Pie. Um. So the
Speaker 1: question is what can makers do with this device. We
Speaker 1: talked about the Arduino and the micro controller board. This
Speaker 1: is another device like that, exactly in the way that
Speaker 1: you can I would say, this is this is two computers,
Speaker 1: is two circuits. Yes, so uh yeah, I've already heard
Speaker 1: about people who are interested in robotics using this as
Speaker 1: a component in in uh their next robot. I also
Speaker 1: saw a video online of a guy who had created
Speaker 1: a essentially what what it amounts to an Apple TV
Speaker 1: using this where he could he could push video from
Speaker 1: an iPad to a television through the raspberry pie pie.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so, I mean they're the applications are numerous.
Speaker 1: So and and the nice thing is at twenty five
Speaker 1: or thirty five dollars a pop, it's a really affordable component.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're talking about hobbies that you know, hobbyists
Speaker 1: in these areas are sometimes accustomed to spending multiple hundreds
Speaker 1: of dollars on on projects. So when you suddenly have,
Speaker 1: like the brains of your project is twenty five or
Speaker 1: thirty five dollars, that opens up a lot of opportunities.
Speaker 1: I mean, even if you went down to the computer
Speaker 1: store you said, I wanted to build a computer, use
Speaker 1: for my computer to have a computer cheaper than and um,
Speaker 1: I believe they're also talking about a case. So if
Speaker 1: that that's putting you off, Yeah, there's no case right now,
Speaker 1: but that there are plans for that in the future.
Speaker 1: So it's uh, because that's that's one thing some folks
Speaker 1: have said, like, well, it looks a little cluji. It
Speaker 1: looks a little like, you know, you've got this hardware.
Speaker 1: Showing that to some people just seems a little weird,
Speaker 1: like it looks like you naked circuit board. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: looks like looks like someone went crazy and took a
Speaker 1: radio apart or something, and now there's just these pieces
Speaker 1: sitting around. So there is talk about creating a case,
Speaker 1: although I'm sure there's gonna be plenty of people out
Speaker 1: there who are going to. The folks that I think
Speaker 1: really this appeals to are the same ones who will
Speaker 1: go out and build their own cases. Who will you know,
Speaker 1: you'll end up seeing like some really crazy interesting variations
Speaker 1: on cases for the raspberry pie pie. Uh and I've
Speaker 1: already seen a Lego based case. Yeah, yeah, it makes
Speaker 1: perfect sense to me. Yeah, of course you don't want
Speaker 1: to completely steal it off because you've got to not
Speaker 1: only provide access to the porch, but also provide a
Speaker 1: little cooling. Um, make sure a little air can get
Speaker 1: to it. But um, but yeah, I mean for considering
Speaker 1: it will take wired or wireless connections and I'm including
Speaker 1: power in that. Um, you can do all kinds of
Speaker 1: things with this little device, um, and possibly get a
Speaker 1: whole new generation of people interested in what it takes
Speaker 1: to uh to learn programming and learn what you can
Speaker 1: do with computers of all kinds. Um. You know, I
Speaker 1: think this is an excellent opportunity and I'm a great idea. Um.
Speaker 1: And the nice thing is too that all the hackers
Speaker 1: will who are buying up the machines will also provide
Speaker 1: money for the charity side, um, who can then possibly
Speaker 1: distribute these two people who are just getting started, who
Speaker 1: may not necessarily have the money to to get involved. Yeah. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a really cool idea. And I all,
Speaker 1: I can predict already that I'm gonna pick one of
Speaker 1: these up as I can, because I mean, for thirty
Speaker 1: five dollars, how can I not? And Uh, it would
Speaker 1: be just be cool to have something where I could,
Speaker 1: you know, have a device specifically where I'm learning to program,
Speaker 1: maybe do a couple of these hacks, uh and uh
Speaker 1: and just sort of experiment with it, you know, use
Speaker 1: it for what it was intended for, really, to to
Speaker 1: to learn about programming. And uh, frankly, I've I've while
Speaker 1: I know about programming, I've never really gotten into it
Speaker 1: on a deep level. Back when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: I started getting into it with basic, but you know,
Speaker 1: I never went far beyond the program that when you
Speaker 1: tell it to run, it prints out a picture of
Speaker 1: a cake or something, or maybe a pie. I was
Speaker 1: trying to avoid it because I think at this point
Speaker 1: people have been counting up how many times we've said pie.
Speaker 1: They've got to be exhausted by now. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: we'd have to stick with that because the cake is
Speaker 1: a lie. Yes, So this is this is seriously nifty, stuffy,
Speaker 1: um and and these things that you're learning are not
Speaker 1: just applicable to uh, this little computer, but so to
Speaker 1: other computers, and we can start to other stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really good because it will give you the foundation
Speaker 1: the basics that you need to be able to to
Speaker 1: build more complex programs. And uh. And once you get
Speaker 1: that that foot in the door where you've got that understanding,
Speaker 1: then it's really all it's just up to you about
Speaker 1: how far you want to go. So yeah, I'm really
Speaker 1: excited to see how this develops and whether or not
Speaker 1: it ends up being a successful program. I certainly hope
Speaker 1: it is, because it's clear that that the people who
Speaker 1: are part of this foundation, their hearts are in the
Speaker 1: right place. And uh and again you know, they recognize
Speaker 1: that creating an accessible machine is just part of the problem.
Speaker 1: You can't you know, you can't just give people access
Speaker 1: to stuff and expect that to solve everything. But uh,
Speaker 1: it's a good first step. So hopefully maybe maybe in
Speaker 1: a generation or two, maybe maybe less, but maybe like
Speaker 1: in in ten years, when Cambridge is looking at the people,
Speaker 1: the students that are are lying to study computers, they're
Speaker 1: going to find that, uh they're much more um knowledgeable
Speaker 1: about the field than the folks who applied this year. No,
Speaker 1: no slight against anyone who's at Cambridge, by the way,
Speaker 1: I have I have nothing but respect for your comedy programs,
Speaker 1: but I mean that produced half of money Python Okay,
Speaker 1: but um yeah. And and another nice thing is since
Speaker 1: it is a charity organization, I feel comfortable giving out
Speaker 1: their address on the podcast, which is raspberry Pie with
Speaker 1: you know p I not the with an e um
Speaker 1: dot org. Now dot com is also also belongs to them,
Speaker 1: but that's the store specifically. If you want to learn
Speaker 1: more about the device and the and the group that
Speaker 1: that is making it and all of that, go to
Speaker 1: the raspberry pie dot org site and they won't uh
Speaker 1: provide you with all the information you need there. And
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see what kind of crazy hacks
Speaker 1: amount of all this because you know, they're gonna be
Speaker 1: people out there who are going to apply this in
Speaker 1: ways that we just can't even conceive of at this moment,
Speaker 1: and uh, and those are gonna be really awesome. It's
Speaker 1: gonna have an instant following, I think, just because it's
Speaker 1: so affordable and people are gonna want to mess with it,
Speaker 1: even people who are not necessarily uh you know, the
Speaker 1: people you would consider makers or hackers. Now I think
Speaker 1: they'll go, you know, and I can afford that I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try it. Yeah, I got an extra monitor laying
Speaker 1: around here. I can plug this thing in and go.
Speaker 1: Or heck, I've got an extra HD my cable. I
Speaker 1: can take over the TV every now and then. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm me. It'll be fun. So yeah, if any of
Speaker 1: you out there end up purchasing a Raspberry Pie and
Speaker 1: you start playing with it and you guys have like
Speaker 1: your own experiences, definitely let us know. Maybe we'll do
Speaker 1: a follow up episode at some point and talk about
Speaker 1: sort of the the experiences people have had with this
Speaker 1: device and sort of you know, what they've discovered with it,
Speaker 1: whether or not they found it helpful to have something
Speaker 1: like this while learning to program I would love to
Speaker 1: hear that kind of information, So hopefully in a few
Speaker 1: months we'll be able to hear back from some of
Speaker 1: you guys as you experiment with this. If you choose
Speaker 1: to go out and buy one of these um and uh,
Speaker 1: we'll revisit the topic at that point. But if you
Speaker 1: guys have anything else you would like us to talk about,
Speaker 1: any other specific subjects, you can let us know on
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter. Are handled there is tech Stuff hs
Speaker 1: W or send us an email or address is tech
Speaker 1: Stuff at Discovery dot com and Chris and I will
Speaker 1: talk to you again. Really, so be sure to check
Speaker 1: out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join
Speaker 1: how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising
Speaker 1: and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow the house Stuff Works. I
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