Oolite Bulletins

This is so awesome! What a great development!

What a thought - full circle!

The thought of a credit card sized computer in my pocket, branded with something suitably Oolite-ish, that, when connected up and booted, runs Linux and then immediately runs Oolite just makes me all a flutter!

The thought that I can run it all day every day for 32p per month flicks a switch (assuming a 700ma supply). The thought that I can (possibly!) again create executable code to run from the !bootstrap throws a few switches.

Like with early microcomputers - how many times did we go to a shop and buy software that represented a milestone in programming techniques for that machine. A year later that looked daft because programmers had learned more about programming the hardware. Quite the opposite of today's machines where we seem to have to wait for the next operating system to be written for the advances that we want.

Phew! Sorry about that. I get a bit carried away sometimes.

Raspberry PI's are, it seems, imminent...

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

That 15 minutes after my normal getting up time - just long enough to boot the laptop up and log on!

I'll see you in the queue then DaddyHoggy!

From their : "About us"

Right the first thing there is :

If you want to find out what the Raspberry Pi is, head to our FAQ page.

a little further down :

the 2000s was very different; a typical applicant now had experience only with web design, and sometimes not even with that.

Well, maybe the world needs more folks with experience in web design.
Most certainly raspberrypi.org badly needs someone with experience in webdesign.

Inviting everyone to read their FAQ, to then load an 8 miles long, 7 MB sized, 1224 elements heavy*, un-navigateable monstruous something of an html page - I hope every web-design-teacher everywhere assigns FAIL to any such "web design".

I wonder how a raspberrypi will fare on that task.

* that's the highest number I saw on Operas loading bar

snork wrote:

Well, maybe the world needs more folks with experience competence in web design.

FTFY. Like writing, it's a damn sight harder to do well than it looks.

It's hard to put into words but, here I go.

Years ago a byte (bite) was the maximum number of bits that could be processed in any one operation at any point in a computer. On most systems that was 8. Now a byte is considered to be 8 bits - not more and not less. Similarly the term mainframe was the frame of memory in which a computer kept track of all other frames. Now it just means 'large box'.

SandJ wrote:

snork wrote:

Well, maybe the world needs more folks with experience competence in web design.

FTFY. Like writing, it's a damn sight harder to do well than it looks.

Web design is a very subjective experience. Trying to make a website that is considered "well-designed" is trying to please everyone in the world at the same time. It's an impossible task.

Good websites should be easy to navigate (the three-click rule). They should be easy on the eye.

That's about it for the consistent rules. After that you need to consider function THEN form, which is the usual mistake of inexperienced web developers when they make it look good before working out what the content is. I know this because I have no idea generally what to do with my own web site which is why it looks OK but has nothing interesting on it.

I have managed to read that FAQ in the meantime.

SandJ wrote:

Like writing, it's a damn sight harder to do well than it looks.

Selezen wrote:

It's an impossible task.

In this case, it would be very simple : Do not incorporate all (2014 so far) comments ever made about the FAQs, the raspi, and everything into the FAQs !
It is even simpler than that, as in : they have been noticed about the problem, several time since the last update of the FAQs.
I would have posted about it over there, but alas - database error on login.
Who knows - maybe their server is too busy to deliver that monster-FAQ to the world.

I remember how I had fun reading the Web Pages That Suck book*, something like this FAQ should have been included.
* strange that there is no WP arcticle about it, back then it was wellknown; and "cult".

The raspi itself - sounds very nice an idea.
But I don't know if I am going to trust someone to build such device and support it sufficiently, if they can't come up with a sensible website.

Here's a reasonable article on the Pi.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17192823

£22 + Vat.

Well, trying to purchase one is proving less than easy. There's some daft page on RS components site where I can 'express an interest' - that's not what I want to do! How typically British as in Rover Group.

The article does warn you may be in for a long wait.