the Raspberry Pi - beginnings

The Raspberry Pi computer arrived today!

What’s a Raspberry Pi? go to raspberrypi.org The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming.
The idea behind a tiny and cheap computer for kids came in 2006, when Eben Upton and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory, including Rob Mullins, Jack Lang and Alan Mycroft, became concerned about the year-on-year decline in the numbers and skills levels of the A Level students applying to read Computer Science in each academic year. From a situation in the 1990s where most of the kids applying were coming to interview as experienced hobbyist programmers, the landscape in the 2000s was very different; a typical applicant might only have done a little web design.
Something had changed the way kids were interacting with computers. A number of problems were identified: the colonisation of the ICT curriculum with lessons on using Word and Excel, or writing webpages; the end of the dot-com boom; and the rise of the home PC and games console to replace the Amigas, BBC Micros, Spectrum ZX and Commodore 64 machines that people of an earlier generation learned to program on.

This little thing, the size of a credit card, costs under £50 produces full HD output, and is a powerful as an Intel dual core computer.

After the launch, hundreds of thousands were ordered, and after a couple of months wait; mine is here.

Here's the first steps:

the size of a credit card - but with full HD graphics, and equivalent to an intel dual core processor. That's an HDMI cable at the back to give an idea of the scale

the underside. The SD card holds the operating system (Linux Debian Squeeze)  downloaded free

all the connections made: clockwise from top; HDMI; USB power: USB mouse and keyboard; network

power up - successful boot first time!

it's plugged into the TV via HDMI, but could use a monitor just as well

Login:

all lights blazing!

the user interface

right out of the box - internet access

some of the pre installed programs - many more to download from the Linux community

simple word processing

in full swing!

This is mental training, a chance to learn computing, logic, robotics, hardware and software, all as part of the wider Linux and raspberry pi community. 


A way to ward off mental senility, and have a bit of fun!


Check out the community site for some real positive thinking!


More to follow (when I get the time!)

An eventful week

We've been working flat out on the Gallery (again!) this week. 
Comments from visitors led us to decide that the 'industrial look' floor was not the solution, so we took another trip up to Ikea and got some laminate flooring, along with an oven for the bread and cakes.


Laying the floor was trickier than we thought! But worth it as the overall finish of the gallery has been jumped up a few notches.

Charlie: I can't take much more of this!

the beginning

half way breather

almost there - with lights!

complete

the kitchen area -  with Charlie & Furby

Our electrician came this week and now we have light and power, it looks great.


And to round the week off, we had our first party with old friends - a perfect celebration Thanks to all for a great night!

Thunder Moon

thanks to spaceweather.com for this brilliant post:

THUNDER MOON: Picture this: The sound of distant thunder draws you to the window. Lightning zig-zags across the night sky, storm clouds part, and a brilliant beam of moonlight lances through the curtain, spotlighting the observer.

Tonight, this could happen to you. There's a full Moon, the "Thunder Moon," named after the electrical storms of summer. David Hoffmann photographed the waxing Thunder Moon last night in Ashland, Oregon:

The Moon reaches maximum illuminattion on Tuesday, July 3rd, at 18:52 UT. Look for it rising in the east at sunset, and enjoy the thunder moonlight.

travel worn

It's July, and we're back in the saddle at the Turnip House, 


As of today we'll be open 7 days a week, from 11am to 5pm


The Gallery is ready for action, and the 'great tidy up' is progressing outside!


We had a reality check when we got home, a message on our answering machine 

" We were looking for your place, but all we found was this burnt out old house"

Oh to see ourselves as others see us!


We need to create more of a 'finished' look to at least part of our empire in order to become user friendly.


More to follow!




Meanwhile, our trip took us to all four / five countries in the British Isles here's a sample:

misty 5am Leitrim Valley

Leaving Dublin with tails

Anglesey

on the Cam outside Trinity College

The Trent, at Littleborough

The Scottish Borders

Stirling University campus

to Belfast by sea

Ready for the Off!

We're away over the pond tomorrow to see Kate Eleanor in Cambridge, visit our friends at  Littleborough Music Fest in Nottinghamshire and attend James and Lauren's graduation in Stirling. A very full and exciting few days awaits us!


When we get back, July will be nearly upon us, and we will be open, in the gallery, 7 days a week. So we've been working feverishly to get things ready, and to get the garden and greenhouse fit to leave to their own devices.


The results are incomplete, but almost there!

the modified bench and table (thanks, Angela & Martin!))

the dresser - still full of tools!

new display stands - and our road signs

a cosy corner

kitchen area

sunshine

we finished the greenhouse - today!

doesn't it look grand!

the picnic lawn,
tamed for the moment thanks to the loan of Frank's ride-on mower, a great toy

Turnip House Trassey Valley c.1800's

Thanks to David from Tory Bush Cottages I saw this picture for the first time today:

To the right middle ground is our old house.  Looking great - at least a hundred years ago!


The Lawrence Collection of pictures is renowned around these parts as a fantastic record of the times. I've been meaning to look them up in the records office since coming back in 1987, but never found the time. 


Now thanks to the National Library of Ireland, they are all online:

Fantastic resource, rightly available to all, thanks to the power of the internet!

The Transit of Venus

No one reading this will still be alive the next time Venus crosses the sun in 2117. That makes today special. On June 5th at 3:09 pm PDT, the second planet begins its historic 7-hour transit of the solar disk.

this quote thanks to Space Weather.com



A great video from Nasa:

The Gallery By Night

This weekend the Gallery has become a hint of what will be: furniture in, old bits of timber. cardboard, tolls and junk cleared away, and the kitchen worktops fitted,. All leads to a real change!


Here's some pictures from today:


Starting at the end. Sitting in the dusk, with the candles lit - we can really feel the quality of this space.

looking through from the kitchen

almost complete

Saturday

Sunday

See you soon!

Furniture

It's time to think about getting the furniture back into the Mourne end of the gallery.


That at least half of the gallery is at that stage is very exciting!


We've been rounding up all the furniture that we made for the old Turnip House. It has been much abused over the last year or so, moved stored and bumped around.


We have spent the afternoon sprucing it up and making modifications:

Charlie, as ever, is not impressed by furniture moving - makes him uncomfortable!

the long bench

This was designed as a corner unit, and fits together at right angles with another short piece. This is not suited to the new place

So, modifications were required 

the insides - used to be two drawers here.

We removed the corner piece, and made a new end piece to match the other side. We were able to reuse part of the corner piece (in green)

 Painted it ...

Just the part!

 Some more chairs and tables - sanding and painting has done the trick


All soon to be viewed in the Gallery!