SMB Server for BeagleBoard

Sep 262012
 

And a potted history that wouldn’t be out of place on a TV soap, if only there was one about computer software.

Thomas Milius has updated the RISC OS Samba server, smbserver version 0.08, to work on BeagleBoard-xM based systems. His previous update to version 0.08, back in 2009 according to the announcement from Herbert zur Nedden, was to make it run on the IYONIX pc, and that version remains available to download from the same location – the new version being incompatible with that machine – along with a version for the A9home.

SMB, or Server Message Block, is a protocol that originated at IBM in the 1980s, and further developed by Microsoft (as CIFS – Common Internet File System) and others, that allows different computers to share files, printers and more over a network, with one machine acting as a server (on which the resources are held) and the other(s) connecting to it as clients. Continue reading »

RaspberryJams

Aug 192012
 

A better late than never introduction for the RISC OS world to the #RaspberryJam

RISC OS users should by now need no introduction to the Raspberry Pi – but in case there is anyone reading this who has been living as a hermit for the last few years with no access to the internet (or any other news sources) in their cave, it is a very small, incredibly cheap computer based around a Broadcom BCM2835 ‘System on a Chip’ (or SoC). The heart of that SoC is an ARM processor, running at 700Mhz.

The idea behind the computer is to get children programming, to get them interested in computers and understand them – something which had been in an observable decline, with fewer and fewer students with less relevant skills applying to read Computer Science at University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory in recent years. Continue reading »

Raspberry Pi launch causes indigestion

Feb 292012
 
The Raspberry Pi at the RISC OS London Show in October 2011

The launch of the Raspberry Pi this morning was either a resounding success, or it was an abysmal failure, depending on your point of view – and for the network staff of two companies, it must have been a nightmare.

As expected, the first batches of the Model B device went on sale at 6am GMT, with an order restriction of one per customer. Licenced manufacturing deals were set up with Premier Farnell (see footnote) and RS Components, so that the two companies could deal with the distribution of the first batches of the Model B to arrive in the country, and after that they’ll be manufacturing and distributing the boards on behalf of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, which means the device can be manufactured in large volumes much more quickly than the Foundation itself could manage. Farnell and RS Components, who both have worldwide distribution networks, will be manufacturing to meet demand. Continue reading »

A slice of Raspberry Pi

Jul 242011
 

Back in May, on the RISC OS Open forum, Rik Griffin identified a possible new target for a RISC OS port, from The Raspberry Pi Foundation, “a UK registered charity (Registration Number 1129409) which exists to promote the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level, and to put the fun back into learning computing.”

The foundation is developing a very small computer, about the size of a USB stick, with an intended price tag of £10 to £15. David Braben – a name anyone familiar with the Acorn and RISC OS worlds should recognise – took a prototype along to the BBC in May to talk about it and the motivation behind The Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Continue reading »

ARMini on the bounty

Apr 062011
 
ARMini Computer from R-Comp Interactive

As the 2011 Wakefield show creeps ever closer, Andrew Rawnsley of R-Comp has initiated a discussion on the RISC OS Open Ltd forums regarding some areas they’d like to see addressed in RISC OS before their ARMini computer goes from being a ‘coming soon’ to a current machine.

Andrew is quick to point out that they “can’t afford to throw mega-bucks at anything” (an understandable position, given the size of the RISC OS community) and that they’re “basically budgeting money from the ‘pre-order’ pot for dev work.” In some cases, for which he believes the amount of work required is relatively small, the offer is for payment in kind (e.g. free software from their catalogue), rather than money.

Continue reading »

Is there any scope for starting a new Bristol RISC OS user group?

Jan 262010
 

Littered around the country, and possibly overseas as well, there are a number of RISC OS user groups, who meet up on a regular basis, discuss RISC OS issues and have developers and other guests pop in to demonstrate their latest software or give a talk on some aspect of what they do or have done. There used to be such a group for Bristol and the surrounding areas, which I never bothered to join (so in a way I’m partly responsible for what happened next). That group closed down in 2006 due to declining numbers. When its demise was announced, I figured there must still be quite a number of users in the area, so I set up a mailing list for Bristol users.

A mailing list to which nobody subscribed, so after about some time I quietly removed it – there was no need to announce its closure, since it wasn’t going to affect anyone.

A few days ago, though, I was contacted by another Bristol user, Trevor Johnson. He had read of the Bristol user group’s closure on Drobe, and of my setting up the mailing list – and had tried, unsuccessfully, to subscribe. The general point of his email: Is there perhaps any scope for starting a new Bristol user group? Continue reading »