David Braben's $25 PC for kids

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38583

David Braben, of 'Elite' fame, is tackling the lack of computer science skills in today's kids with a tiny Linux based PC that can be carried on your keys.

http://www.geek.com/articles/games/game ... 5-2011055/

Alarm · **Posted:** Fri May 06, 2011 15:23

(Not a lot) more here.

I'd certainly buy some to tinker about with.

Bobbyaro · **Joined:** 18th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 11857

That's really cool!

MrChris · **Joined:** 1st Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 30498

That's properly excellent. Tiny things are cool.

Next, though, can someone finally sort me out with those flying fucking cars we were promised? kthnxbibi.

BikNorton · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 10131

Shame it's got USB2 instead of a Thunderbolt but I imagine that would be prohibitively costly; is Ethernet-over-USB2 possible?

Edit: Er, duh, the photo's got one in it.

LewieP · **Joined:** 29th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 7600

I'd buy one of these in a heartbeat. I'd even happily pay double that to pay for one for a schoolkid.

MaliA · **Posted:** Fri May 06, 2011 16:10

Kids nowadays get iPads and iPod touches. I think they'd prefer them.

devilman · **Posted:** Fri May 06, 2011 16:31

I tried to explain to my colleagues who David Braben is, but they've not heard of Elite or even Kinectimals so I gave up there.

myp · **Posted:** Fri May 06, 2011 17:07

*waits for Kalmar to try and run Minecraft using one*

kalmar · **Posted:** Fri May 06, 2011 17:08

Yeah I quite like it! Wonder what the power consumption is like...

LewieP · **Joined:** 29th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 7600

MaliA wrote:

Kids nowadays get iPads and iPod touches. I think they'd prefer them.

Has any child ever learnt to program using an iThing?

Obviously they can learn how to browse the internet and stuff, but this kind of thing is clearly geared at teaching a different set of skills.

Grim... · **Posted:** Fri May 06, 2011 17:30

MaliA wrote:

Kids nowadays get iPads and iPod touches. I think they'd prefer them.

Not a $25 one...

Remedial_Gash · **Posted:** Sun May 08, 2011 12:54

This really fills me with joy. It's proper oldschool, and really cool.

How many kids today spent their formative years typing

10 print "mum is a dickhead"
20 goto 10
run

I'm really excited by this, and having never really played Elite, I love Braben more than anything.

It won't change the world, but the sentiment is aces.

Gash
x

Pod · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 2568

HDMI? On a thing designed to help poor kids?

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38583

Pod wrote:

HDMI? On a thing designed to help poor kids?

Not poor per se, just uneducated. I assume it's HDMI so it can carry sound through one cable and the assumption is the poor kids' parents will have a 50" plasma on tick from Bright House.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

Pod wrote:

HDMI?

One compact port that can carry video and audio, has a plentiful supply of low-cost leads, and is electrically compatible with DVI? Sound perfect to me.

kalmar · **Posted:** Mon May 09, 2011 13:17

I agree with DavPaz. It's not for the 3rd world, there are other approaches used there.

LewieP · **Joined:** 29th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 7600

They also mentioned the possibility of it working with low cost touch screens. Essentially a nuts and bolts tablet.

kalmar · **Posted:** Mon May 09, 2011 13:37

Yup. Large-ish touchscreens for smartphones only cost about $5, you could do some interesting stuff with that.

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David Braben's $25 PC for kids

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