Tag: Japan

Tokyo: Big Raspberry Jam 2013

Eben and I are going to be out of the UK for much of the rest of May, doing press, meeting partners, visiting Raspberry Pi fans, hanging out with science fair kids and giving talks. We’ll be in Phoenix for Intel ISEF, San Francisco for Maker Faire (come and listen to our talk! We don’t have a stand this year, but Raspberry Pis will be on sale in the Make Shed), and, most excitingly for both of us, in Tokyo for the Japanese Raspberry Pi User Group’s Big Raspberry Jam on May 25.

Masafumi Ohta, who moderates the forums here (he’s most often to be found in the Japanese language forum, but also pops up in the English sections every now and then), is running the event. Admission is free. We’ve heard from people who don’t even live in Japan who are making the trip to Tokyo; it promises to be an amazing day, with lots of hacking sessions, tutorials, talks and opportunities to meet like-minded Pi enthusiasts. We were last in Tokyo back in November; the Pi has become much more easily available in Japan since then, and we’ve even seen an official Japanese translation of the Raspberry Pi User Guide appear since our last visit. Masafumi-san’s been sending me artwork for displays and badges, and notes about the day: we can’t wait to get stuck in. RS Components, who have a large presence in the far east and are one of our two manufacturing distribution partners, will be sponsoring the event.

Eben in Akihabara Electric Town last November.

Masafumi-san has asked me to publish the following information here on the blog. If you’re in Tokyo on the day, please come and see us!

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Japanese Raspberry Pi Users Group will hold the event to welcome Eben and Liz Upton, Founder of Raspberry Pi Foundation coming to Japan. It is for encouraging Raspberry Pi users and community in Japan, now growing up rapidly.

Gathering 150+ people at the big event – 4 sessions, 1 mini session,3 LTs and more. It is also not only for Raspberry Pi users and geeks, but also the Raspberry Pi beginners. RS Components and some companies help the event, and have booths exhibiting Raspberry Pis and some stuff (books,boards,cases…and more).

13:00-13:30 Door Open
13:30-13:40 Greeting from Japanese Raspberry Pi Users Group and RS Components
13:40-14:30 Keynote by Eben Upton of Raspberry Pi Foundation
14:30-14:40 break
14:40-15:10 Session:WordPress Home Server with Raspberry Pi by Yuriko Ikeda
15:10-15:40 Session:Scratch Hacking with Raspberry Pi by Kazuhiro Abe
15:40-15:50 break
15:50-16:20 Session:Let’s play ‘Eject Command’ with Raspberry Pi – CD-ROM Cooking with Raspberry PI by Akira Ouchi
16:20-16:50 Session:Gadget Colloquia for Unix Natives by Hiroyuki Ohno
16:50-17:00 break
17:00-17:15 Mini Session:Raspberry Pi Lego Cases Cooking by Keika Komura
17:15-17:30 Lightning Talks (5 min x3)
17:00-17:50 Introducing Raspberry Pi by RS Components
17:50-18:00 Closing event
19:00- Raspberry PIe after-party for the attendees

For more information please check Japanese Raspberry Pi Users Group website.

Registration: http://atnd.org/event/E0014486 (for Japanese)

http://bigraspberryjamtokyo2013.eventbrite.com (for Non-Japanese).

Deliveries have started!

It’s been a hell of a 24 hours. We’ve been driving up and down the country meeting the people packaging and sending out the Raspberry Pis, doing masterclasses with kids, meeting and eating with our very excellent graphic designer Paul Beech (more meetings should involve bread and dripping, we think) and doing yet more filming with the BBC. We’re not sure when/if it’s being broadcast – we think we may have been bumped by a very photogenic story about a rapidly deflating hot-air balloon and some overhead power cables – but we did get some great pictures from the session with the children. I sincerely don’t know how you teachers do it. I found myself wanting to go and hide behind the whiteboard to do some heavy breathing halfway through the lesson just to get a respite from all the (very smart) questions we were being asked.

Eben shows the kids how to modify a game of Snake. We ended up with the guy sitting to Eben's right (our left) producing a lovely replica of The Matrix's falling green letters (he subsequently made his Dad late for an appointment - sorry, Dad). Some others introduced score counters, the boy Eben's with in the picture learned how to give the game a finish line - and a good time was had by all.

A few people have got their Raspberry Pis today, and more should be arriving on doorsteps on Monday. Serial production has begun, so the backlog should be cleared sooner than some of you were hoping, and we hope that this means that some time over the next week or so element14 and RS will be able to give you firmer delivery estimates than we’ve been able to generate so far.

And finally: how’s your Japanese? Mine’s non-existent, but I still think this is my favourite piece of TV coverage yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETYnmFr5o_s