Available in any colour you like, as long as you like bright green!
The pi-top is a Raspberry Pi-based laptop that began its commercial life as a crowd-funded project in 2015, and CJE Micro’s released a RISC OS flavoured version in 2016 called the RapidO Top pi-topRO.
Function key fix, configuring the nano-router.
pi-topRO users, it seems, may be feeling somewhat befuddled about using their function keys “in the normal way with the Fn modifier key” – but if you are such a user, you can now be de-befuddled. Chris Evans has revealed, with thanks to Jon Abbott for spotting the cause and solution, that all you need to do is turn off ‘Num Lock’ – which can be via the RISC OS Configure app (double click Boot, or menu click the Switcher icon on the far right of the icon bar), in the keyboard section.
Chris has also confirmed that the nano-routers they supply, that help to bring wireless connectivity to RISC OS which doesn’t otherwise support it, can be configured using the Otter web browser, ported to RISC OS by Chris Gransden. It requires a little more effort than doing the same on another platform, but Chris says “it is practical.”
Finally, you can let your A4 cash in on its pension!
Anyone familiar with the Raspberry Pi scene will be aware of the Pi-Top, a laptop computer based around the credit card-sized computer that was developed after a successful crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo in 2014 – and anyone familiar with the RISC OS scene will know that Chris Evans of CJE Micro’s and Fourth Dimension has, since London 2015, been talking about releasing a RISC OS version of the machine. Continue reading »
The newly established record for how long it takes to publish a show report is broken again! Er… yay?
Wakefield Show floor plan
RISC OS branded Pi-Top acrylic slice in situ
For any discerning RISC OS user who has a Pi-Top – whether bought from 4D as the Pi-TopRO, or elsewhere as just the Pi-Top – one thing obviously missing from the product is any kind of branding to make it a distinctively RISC OS laptop. RISCOSbits‘ Andy Marks has now come up with the solution.
The Pi-based laptop features a slide-out panel between the keyboard and hinges, and RISCOSbits can now supply a RISC OS branded acrylic slice for the that fits neatly in place of the original strip on the v1 Pi-Top. The branding takes the form of a large cog that sits at the right hand edge of the strip, just above the trackpad. Currently available via eBay, the strip costs £11.50 plus £2.50 postage and packing.
The RISC OS Awards poll for 2016 was brought to a close on 29th February. As before, the results were processed and counted on a RISC OS computer (using a home-brewed program to turn the votes into a file for each category, ready to be loaded into Fireworkz), and initially announced on the @RISCOSitory Twitter feed. Those results are now online on the RISC OS Awards website and the various winners have been notified – where possible – by email. Continue reading »
A last minute round-up before the bunker is sealed off for a few days!
Later today, the RISCOSitory/Soft Rock Software bunker will be sealed and secured shut while I disappear into the middle of nowhere for my annual mid-February break. Hopefully, there will be no kind of apocalyptic event while I’m away, so the bunker should be open for business again from next weekend.
In the meantime, I’ve had a last minute catch-up on my reading, and found a few things worth mentioning in a final round-up before I set off. Continue reading »
Didn’t we have a lovely time the day we went to Bangor London?
Looking down the main hall at London 2016
This year’s RISC OS London Show took place on 29th October, and while it wasn’t as large as last year’s event (which I’ll discuss near the end of this report) it was still an enjoyable and worthwhile one. So, without any further preamble, here is a run down of what visitors could have seen, working clockwise from the entrance.
Note, that was “Pah!” not “Bah!” – and there was no sign of a “Humbug!”
Black Friday – the day following Thanksgiving in the Untidy States of Overpuddle, and which has become recognised as the first day of the Christmas shopping season on which many large retailers hold promotional sales – was yesterday. Well, mostly1.
Today is therefore Random Colour Saturday. Continue reading »
Feltham’s calling to the faraway towns, come along and see the best OS around!
It is now just one week until I’ll be heading home from Feltham (and will have already long since reached home, looking at the time) – which means it’s just five days until I’ll be heading in the direction of Feltham.
The day between those two journeys, of course, is when I’ll be in Feltham, exhibiting at this year’s London Show, organised by the RISC OS User Group of London – and here’s why you, the discerning RISC OS user, should be there as a visitor1: Continue reading »