Video: Eben at the Bletchley Park Educating Programmers Summit

28th of August 2011 by liz

Eben gave a presentation about Raspberry Pi at the Educating Programmers Summit run by Jason Gorman of Codemanship last week. Many thanks to Codemanship for the video, and for all their support – enjoy!

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67 comments

traffikante on
August 28, 2011 at 11:53 pm said:

interestingly

Comment ↓
- Tom on
  August 29, 2011 at 5:45 pm said:
  
  This is so interesting.
  I can`t wait.
  
  Tom…..
  
  Comment ↓
traffikante on
August 29, 2011 at 12:06 am said:

is it possible to get an alpha version of the board at a high price for those who need it? There may be many versions?

Comment ↓
- liz on
  August 29, 2011 at 12:07 am said:
  
  Afraid not – the Alpha versions are for developers and partners only, and they’re having to share them (we only have 50). I hope you can wait until November!
  
  Comment ↓
  - Dred on
    August 29, 2011 at 12:33 am said:
    
    My Birthday at last day of November, I hope I`ll get RPi like a present )))))))))))
    
    Comment ↓
cristi on
August 29, 2011 at 1:02 am said:

Hello,

some time ago i spent ~$300 for a g-tablet. I was thinking it will make my life easier but now it’s just collecting dust.

It has android os, and i really can’t do anything but watch youtube videos and read some email.

what i was thinking is why not use the board that you guys made with my tablet display…

i could place the Raspberry Pi inside the tablet and connect it to the tablet’s display.

i am not an engineer in this domain, but your company could add some parts that will allow some kind o connectivity with most tablets out there that would some some problem.

im sure that many electronic enthusiasts will be glad to donate some time to make this happened.

Please take this idea and add on it, im getting tired of having so many choices out there that are not capable of interact / interchange with each other.

I believe that accessibility is more important this days, because the computing power is out there already, we just have to find a way to connect them together..

Thanks

Comment ↓
- liz on
  August 29, 2011 at 9:02 am said:
  
  Do drop into our forums (we’re a friendly bunch) – there are quite a few people in the Projects forum already talking about tablets. If you can find a display that has HDMI in, you’re all set.
  
  Comment ↓
sather on
August 29, 2011 at 8:33 am said:

My big question is, whats with a camera?
Will it work?

Comment ↓
- liz on
  August 29, 2011 at 8:43 am said:
  
  It will – there are headers exposed for a camera if you want to attach one directly to the board.
  
  Comment ↓
Mahjabeen on
August 29, 2011 at 11:18 am said:

Hi
Glad I found you
Looking up what Sloes are -not a drinker – found you via Gastronomy Domine.
I’m a mum of three and a maths teacher and wife of IT person and have forgotten my own degree in Mech Eng in the distant past and I’m very interested in the R-Pi for all of us. Good Luck with everything

Comment ↓
- liz on
  August 29, 2011 at 11:22 am said:
  
  Hello! Always great to see teachers here. (We’d like to see more!) And best of luck with the sloes.
  
  Comment ↓
linuxboi on
August 29, 2011 at 11:18 am said:

Hi, a quick question on the pricing. Eben was talking in Dollars rather that GBP – is there any particular reason for that?

Comment ↓
- liz on
  August 29, 2011 at 11:20 am said:
  
  It’s because our components are all priced in dollars, so we have to negotiate with suppliers in dollars, and exchange rates change daily.
  
  Comment ↓
  - linuxboi on
    August 29, 2011 at 11:28 am said:
    
    Thanks, that makes sense. One other question, will there be a limit to how many units one person can purchase on launch, I would like to buy one for myself and two for two of my son’s and maybe a spare?
    
    Comment ↓
    - liz on
      August 29, 2011 at 11:30 am said:
      
      That won’t be any problem.
      
      Comment ↓
Ralph Corderoy on
August 29, 2011 at 11:39 am said:

Interesting to hear a bit more of the history behind the Raspi.

Can you tell us more about how that Gift Aid example would work? You’re a charity so in spending £500 with you, Eben’s figure, you’d have me sign a Gift Aid declaration so HMRC give you another £125?

Comment ↓
- liz on
  August 29, 2011 at 11:47 am said:
  
  Basically, yes. UK taxpayers will be able to tick a box when they buy to activate gift aid; you won’t have to sign anything or fill in any additional paperwork beyond ticking the box. For those who don’t know what gift aid is (from the HMRC website):
  
  The Gift Aid scheme is for gifts of money by individuals who pay UK tax. Gift Aid donations are regarded as having basic rate tax deducted by the donor. Charities or CASCs take your donation – which is money you’ve already paid tax on – and reclaim the basic rate tax from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) on its ‘gross’ equivalent – the amount before basic rate tax was deducted.
  Basic rate tax is 20 per cent, so this means that if you give £10 using Gift Aid, it’s worth £12.50 to the charity. For donations between 6 April 2008 and 5 April 2011 the charity or CASC will also get a separate government supplement of three pence on every pound you give.
  
  My grim experience from working with other charities online is that there is a surprising number of people out there who won’t, for whatever reason, tick that box. (I’ve also had the same experience with paper forms when collecting sponsorship money – you can explain in person when you’re dealing with a small office full of people, but not when it’s the whole Cambridge Science Park!) Any ideas on how we can draw people’s attention to the fact it doesn’t cost them any extra or cause them any hassle would be gratefully received.
  
  Comment ↓
  - jacklang on
    August 29, 2011 at 12:21 pm said:
    
    Small clarification. Gift aid only applies to the donation part.
    If you are purchasing an RP the purchase price is not included, so we split the purchase into two components: the actual purchase and an optional charitable donation. We hope many (most) will make a donation, which will be used by the Foundation for further development and to give RPs to deserving cases ans organisations. In addition to gift aid, you may be able to claim the donation against your tax.
    
    Comment ↓
    - liz on
      August 29, 2011 at 12:23 pm said:
      
      Indeed – sorry for the total lack of clarity!
      
      Comment ↓
  - Ralph Corderoy on
    August 29, 2011 at 7:48 pm said:
    
    “Give *us* some of your tax instead of handing it over to the UK Government (to fritter away). If you’re a UK taxpayer then tick the “Gift Aid” box and we’ll be able to claim back the tax you’ve already paid on your donation; for every £4 you donate we can get another £1 off HMRC and you don’t have to do anything. (If you’re a higher rate taxpayer then you probably already know you can offset the donation against your tax, so it costs you less too.)”
    
    So if this is for the donation part then when Eben talks of a philanthropist with £500 kitting out a classroom the donor isn’t kitting out their kid’s school’s classroom but just generally chipping into the central pot? Nothing wrong with that, just trying to make sure I understand.
    
    Comment ↓
    - liz on
      August 29, 2011 at 8:03 pm said:
      
      Ha – tried that (or something broadly similar) in the past. I hope that we’ll be better able to dint it into people with Raspberry Pi.
      
      Comment ↓
eggn1n3 on
August 29, 2011 at 7:07 pm said:

What about the shipping costs? Eben mentioned that FedEx easily could charge you 50 USD. Are you planning to use normal mail services as well to keep the transport costs down?

Comment ↓
- liz on
  August 29, 2011 at 7:18 pm said:
  
  We most certainly are! (Those shipping costs were referring to a box of Raspis, I believe.) There’s a thread on the General forum at the moment about shipping costs. We haven’t settled on a supplier yet, but we’re trying our best to find one that will work for everybody.
  
  Comment ↓
Joshua A on
August 29, 2011 at 7:27 pm said:

Only one more month!!!
Cant wait to get my hands on one.

Comment ↓
- liz on
  August 29, 2011 at 7:29 pm said:
  
  Er…it’s two! November comes after October, not September. (Thankfully. Because we’ve still got a lot of set-up to do!)
  
  Comment ↓
  - Josh on
    August 29, 2011 at 7:34 pm said:
    
    Well, I guess excitement make one a’lil forgetful.
    
    Comment ↓
  - GoNzO on
    August 30, 2011 at 5:01 pm said:
    
    Sometimes its better to wait more than to discourage users with buggy hardware… :>
    
    Comment ↓
    - liz on
      August 30, 2011 at 5:03 pm said:
      
      We’ve been in development for four years now – we’re on top of things.
      
      Comment ↓
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saulgoode on
August 30, 2011 at 10:07 am said:

Any chance of obtaining a download version of the video? Could it perhaps be posted on Archive.org?

Comment ↓
- liz on
  August 30, 2011 at 11:26 am said:
  
  Afraid we don’t have copyright of this video – the CodeMasters guys filmed it. You could ping them and ask.
  
  Comment ↓
waiter on
August 30, 2011 at 2:55 pm said:

please consider to place 2 network connection (it will be a perfect firewall) and 4 USB (2 usb port are a minimum and to often not enough)

Comment ↓
- GoNzO on
  August 30, 2011 at 4:57 pm said:
  
  You can always connect a USB HUB and network switch. One is enough i think , as far as it wont fail . This needs to be simple and small and cheap (at least in most basic version). I hope soon there will be more versions of this dedicated for many purposes.
  
  Comment ↓
  - waiter on
    August 31, 2011 at 11:36 am said:
    
    (Im not here to hurt, this is just a polite request from one that appreciate this raspberry device and wish to buy asap).
    To add external switch and/or usb port replicator will make useless my idea to have a compact device so as I need. 2 usb are not enough. I hope they will take in count that many people need 4 usb (mouse/keyboard… and infrered barcode reader? and printer?). About second NIC, it is a “nice to have” but please take a look to http://www.fit-pc.com/web/: also they start with one NIC and then move to 2NIC version because of requests of customers.
    
    Comment ↓
    - jamesh on
      August 31, 2011 at 12:18 pm said:
      
      Adding two more USB’s and another ethernet would require a new controller chip and two more plugs, which would unfortunately make the board much bigger and more expensive, negating the purpose of the board (to be small and cheap!)
      
      I use a small USB hub (smaller than the board) on the prototype – works fine.
      
      Comment ↓
      - waiter on
        August 31, 2011 at 1:40 pm said:
        
        I will take raspeberry 1NIC/2USB but I hope you will consider a future raspberry 2 as i wish: is not a problem to pay more if i get more.
      - Paul Menten on
        September 2, 2011 at 5:21 pm said:
        
        Uuuummm, 10/100 only use two pairs. So you already have two network connections via the standard 8P8C (RJ45) jack.
        
        Cool project!
CommanderCoder on
August 30, 2011 at 3:34 pm said:

Can we spend GBP for the Pi or will we need to nip to the post office for USD? I remember talk of it being £15 in May. Is that still the case?

Comment ↓
- liz on
  August 30, 2011 at 3:36 pm said:
  
  You can pay in your home currency, using a card, PayPal or offline. We’ll be pricing in dollars because that’s how our components are priced, and converting into local currencies, which is where the £15 figure comes from.
  
  Comment ↓
GoNzO on
August 30, 2011 at 4:54 pm said:

I hope this will be available and easy to buy, thats the only problem i can imagine! This peace is so interesting, i could make whole home automation and my own NAS and monitoring on those beautys without even getting close to microcontrollers…

Comment ↓
Richard on
August 30, 2011 at 10:50 pm said:

Shippping time is my worry. Bought a couple of books out of the UK last year. It took 5 weeks for them to get here in California. They were sent through you postal system. I am sure at least a week or so of that was our postal system (USPS)

Comment ↓
- liz on
  August 30, 2011 at 10:55 pm said:
  
  I don’t suppose you have any idea who the courier company were, do you? Or was it just sent through the Royal Mail? We’re investigating shipping companies at the moment, and it’s helpful if we know where people have been let down or impressed before.
  
  Comment ↓
  - Sander on
    September 1, 2011 at 10:53 am said:
    
    Liz,
    
    I don’t know where the RasPi’s are made, but if it’s in Hongkong / China, this might be useful:
    
    The stuff I order at DealExterme is always shipped for free. Even 3 USD stuff. Amazing. There was also a CompactDisck-shop in Hongkong shipping for free.
    So I guess there’s some kind of special deal with the Hongkong postal service.
    And it’s reliable too: shipment itself takes about 5 -7 days (Hongkong -> EU), and it has always arrived.
    
    Furthermore: as the RasPi is small, it’s no ‘package’, but can be sent as a letter, AFAIK. That means a much lower tariff.
    
    Comment ↓
    - liz on
      September 1, 2011 at 11:16 am said:
      
      We’re manufacturing in the UK – a lot of the reasoning behind RP is to do with reinvigorating the UK tech industry, so what better place to do our manufacturing?
      
      Comment ↓
      - Jack on
        September 2, 2011 at 5:17 am said:
        
        Bravo!
  - Chris on
    September 6, 2011 at 6:02 pm said:
    
    Please, please, please don’t use Home Delivery Network (aka Yodel). They’re so bad it’s unreal. They are the type of company where your parcel has been signed for (by you apparently) and yet you have absolutely no knowledge of it! 3 days later it actually arrives despite the customer support people insisting that you’re trying to pull a fast one!
    
    Anyway, keep up the great work, I’m really excited about this project, got some great ideas for the lil box!
    
    Comment ↓
Richard on
August 30, 2011 at 11:04 pm said:

Royal mail to US mail no tracking at all.

Comment ↓
- liz on
  August 30, 2011 at 11:22 pm said:
  
  Thanks. That’s worth knowing.
  
  Comment ↓
tomh on
August 31, 2011 at 3:27 pm said:

Looks like the video has been interlaced by mistake – try de-interlacing the original video file, then upload into YouTube again, if you want to get rid of those funny horizontal lines whenever anything moves. Thanks for uploading it though! There’s an explanation of interlacing here http://vimeo.com/1513146?pg=embed&sec=1513146

Comment ↓
- liz on
  August 31, 2011 at 3:29 pm said:
  
  Afraid it’s not our vid – the conference filmed and uploaded it.
  
  Comment ↓
- jamesh on
  August 31, 2011 at 3:32 pm said:
  
  Assuming you are talking about the video of Eben, I’m not seeing a problem – may be at your end (tried 360 and 720p, windowed and full screen, on WinXP in Firefox). Colour balance sucks though….
  
  Comment ↓
e1000sn on
September 1, 2011 at 3:01 am said:

When you guys initially release this thing it is going to sell out immediately. There will be wait-lists for months primarily due to the older geeky crowd trying to get this gadget.

You should release it at a much higher price, say $125, and then decrease the price a dollar at a time over a several month period. Frame the premium price as a charitable donation. This way you can quench the early adopter rush while adding to the organization’s capital. Eventually you will get to the $25 pricepoint, but if you go there immediately you will end up running the organization into the ground trying to satisfy demand from customers who don’t technically ‘need’ it in the way you intend.

Personally, I’d pay around $50 to get a module.

Comment ↓
jamesh on
September 1, 2011 at 8:52 am said:

Well, nice idea, but may well annoy everybody (ie. everybody!) who is expecting $25/$35!

Also depends on how many are made in the first production run – not a known figure yet. And not an easy figure to pull out of the air.

We like to think also, that people will like to make a donation along with their purchase, or perhaps buy one/donate one.

Comment ↓
- e1000sn on
  September 1, 2011 at 9:25 pm said:
  
  It may annoy people to have to pay more to get a first-run device, but it will also annoy people to have to wait some indeterminate time for orders to be filled. A buy-one-get-one deal would almost work, but it probably wouldn’t reduce order volume on a per-unit basis.
  
  The price slope would be an effective way to reduce initial order load while extracting maximum profit from those who can afford it. It doesn’t have to be just a money grab; the money could go to paying experts for the development of a curriculum. Once the early adopter crowd is saturated then the low price will be much more stable.
  
  Comment ↓
  - liz on
    September 1, 2011 at 9:30 pm said:
    
    I don’t think the wait will be indeterminate; the boards are quick to produce.
    
    Comment ↓
hilltop on
September 1, 2011 at 1:39 pm said:

Slightly concerned that Eben said he’s becoming less ambitious as time goes by re: building a complete curriculum around the r-pi. It’s great that other organisations are likely to be in a position to offer support, but lets not forget one of the best things about the original BBC Models A and B was the User Guide, which included a full beginners guide to programming and the OS.

A printed guide (book) is clearly out of the question for a $25 product, but to allay my concerns maybe an addition to the FAQ along the lines of “Will there be comprehensive setup/usage/support materials available for (non-techie) teachers/parents/kids available from raspberrypi.org” could be made? Surely if the goal as Eben describes is more capable CS undergraduates, then in parallel to the launch of the r-pi should be a new computer literacy project relevant to the 21st century that is accessible to all.

Comment ↓
- liz on
  September 1, 2011 at 1:44 pm said:
  
  That comment should be understood in the context of the other talks from the conference, where teachers and third parties were talking about creating materials. If you have the time, I’d recommend looking at the other videos from the conference on YouTube, which should help explain!
  
  Comment ↓
Tom Sobieski on
September 3, 2011 at 11:07 am said:

As a 64 year old hacker and experimenter with 8 grand children, I’m so interested in this.
Do you have a mailing list for updates and so on ?

Comment ↓
- liz on
  September 3, 2011 at 11:27 am said:
  
  We do – if you go to the home page, there’s a form you can fill in at top right.
  
  Comment ↓
  - Chris on
    September 6, 2011 at 6:05 pm said:
    
    Not 100% sure if the sign up form is working. I’ve tried signing up twice but the whirry-whirry (I think we all agree that this is the technical term for it) just keeps spinning round!
    Does this mean I’m signed up or not?
    
    Comment ↓
Hervé on
September 4, 2011 at 10:16 am said:

I just discover your site. I get interessed when your next platforms will come out to buy one.
Liked to keep in touch.

Comment ↓
Mark on
September 7, 2011 at 5:27 am said:

In the video, they mentioned a list of reasons why children are not learning to program, with availability of a computer being just one issue. Perhaps there can be a follow up post listing what the other reasons are.
I’m a programming teacher, and interested in getting kids interested in programming, so I’d love to know…
Thanks,
Mark.

Comment ↓
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beautifulsmall on
September 9, 2011 at 12:01 am said:

There was alot of talk about learning to write SW. But you are making a piece of hardware and the SW must be tailored to the HW. This board “decodes HD MPEG”
If the board contained an IR , UV and visible light detector and emitter, these cost pence and are real world sensors, add an accelerometer , gyro and RF comms all of which are minute. Can bus, motor drivers, Yes have usb and a monitor link but the SW engineers need to be able to write drivers for a wide section of devices, not just route video.

Comment ↓
Judd on
September 12, 2011 at 11:18 pm said:

Eben, or Liz,

I am a a Software Architect, and am very interested in your wonderful invention.

In this blog post video, I heard Eben mention a desire to get these into the hands of Engineers / Developers (which I am). I also happen to work with about 500 other Engineers. In fact, I heard about the Raspberry Pi through a blog post by our CIO.

Could you contact me, I would like to serve your need for engineers’ early adoption, and help promote this evolutionary technology.

Regarding Educating Programmers, this is also right up the alley of young people who are Lego Mindstorm & Arduino programmers. Tons of possibilities due to the size of the computer!

Comment ↓
- jamesh on
  September 13, 2011 at 7:58 am said:
  
  I’m afraid that all the alpha boards are already allocated. But we are hoping that once the board is officially released, everybody will be working on the technology to help towards our education goals (and other goals) – yourself included!
  
  I think the Lego angle may well be very interesting too.
  
  Comment ↓
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