Finally getting the love it deserves...

[Syn7]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/te...ream.html?_r=0

[Drake]

I'm pretty sure it has outperformed any expectations from the get-go. It never went unloved, and the demand was massively greater than the creator ever anticipated.

Considering it filled a massive demand gap, I don't know why anybody ever had any sort of lower expectations for it.

[Syn7]

Neither do I. But then the foundation had no idea what they were tapping into either. They went from expecting 5 to 15 thousand units to a backorder of half a million in less than a year.

People in the industry and hobbyists, of course, knew exactly what its potential was. Took awhile for the media to catch on though. It's great exposure. Every school in the world should have one of these for each student. The majik box syndrome is hurting us. As a society we don't know how most of the stuff we use even works. That's pretty sad.

It's cheap and you can abuse it all day. My only problem is that I don't have enough of them. My 512 should be here soon. I also have the Model A on back order. Even when not in use, the ethernet chip draws around 200mA. The model A is ideal for low power projects that don't require that connection.

No display...
352mA - Model-B running stress test (for ARM)
330mA - Model-B idle
143mA - Model-A running stress test (for ARM)
118mA - Model-A idle (with HDMI connected)
110mA - Model-A idle
107mA - Model-B after "sudo halt"
106mA - Model-A, ARM_freq=300MHz (and for all below)
93mA - as above + SDRAM_freq=100MHz
93mA - Model-A idle, GPU_freq=100MHz
90mA - Model-A idle, GPU_freq=100MHz, Vdd=1.0V
80mA - Model-A idle, as above, + SD-card pulled
(power peaks as card is polled)
33mA - Model-A, after "sudo halt"

I wish I had something like this when I was a kid. I took so much flak when I would tear down the appliances. I have learned more by reverse engineering than with any other method, ever. But I always got bitched at for it. Until they needed me to fix something, that is.

[GoldenBrain]

These things are great! I can't think of a single device in modern history with as much potential as this has to spur on critical thinking and creativity in the worlds technically savvy youth.

You can daisy chain a crap load of them together for a mini super computer or network them into your home devices or whatever you like. For schools it should be a no brainer but most high end schools seem to want iPads instead. Nothing wrong with the iPad, I have 2 but the iPad doesn't really inspire my technical curiosity. Instead it inspires my laziness.