The early bird catches the Raspberry Pi

According to the latest post on the Raspberry Pi website, “The Raspberry Pi Foundation will be making a big (and very positive) announcement that just might interest you at 0600h GMT on Wednesday 29 February 2012.” This is expected to be the first batch of the tiny computer going on sale; Eben Upton posted a status update on Saturday morning saying that they had “been assured this morning that a first batch of boards will ship to us either today or first thing Monday” – adding that “if you don’t own…

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The South West Show is dead – long live The South West Show

This year’s RISC OS South West Show almost didn’t happen. Paul Middleton of RISCOS Ltd, the show’s organiser for the last few years, revealed recently that he normally waits for the Webbington Hotel, the show’s usual venue, to reduce the prices of the rooms in which the show can be held – and it seems even more recently (early January, according to Archive 23:4, p4), Paul said that he wouldn’t be organising another show. Richard Brown of Orpheus Internet soon stepped up, with Andrew Rawnsley and R-Comp joining him to…

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R-Comp Interactive announces ARMini software scheme for BeagleBoard users

With the BeagleBoard forming the heart of R-Comp Interactive‘s ARMini computer, it’s easy to see that some of R-Comp’s developments and releases for their computer might be relevant to those people who have put together their own RISC OS computers using the board. Well, now those “DIY” users have a way to access those developments: R-Comp have announced an annual subscription based scheme whereby users of home built RISC OS computers based around a BeagleBoard can receive the software* and support enjoyed by ARMini owners.

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Snippets – 10th September 2011

QuadDioph is a new piece of software from Martin Carradus. It’s an application that solves or finds “solution of certain Quadratic Diophantine Equations, of the form x^2 + B.x.y + A.y^2 = z^p, (e.g. x^2 + y^2 = z^2, two squares adding to a square, or x^2 + y^2 = z^3, two squares adding to a cube).” The application is free to download from Martin’s website. Martin Wuerthner has announced that an ARMv7 compatible version of InterGif. Version 6.18 can be used on the BeagleBoard, ARMini, etc. InterGif is an…

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A slice of Raspberry Pi

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…

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The boot’s on the other foot

As sold by R-Comp, the ARMini comes shipped in much the same way any other computer running RISC OS has done – you connect it up, switch on, and moments later you are presented with the familiar RISC OS desktop. For many users, this is what they want – that’s why they’ve bought the ARMini, an out of the box solution, rather than the more DIY approach of a Beagleboard-xm and the necessary bits and pieces to get it up and running. That doesn’t mean users have to stick with…

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Snippets – 21st June 2011

David Higton reported on the RISC OS Open forums that at the Southamton Acorn Users Group meeting on 14th June, to which he took his BeagleBoard for the purposes of this, he “demonstrated copying the files from a bootable SD card to an empty (formatted) SD card and booting from the latter.”

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Boosting the bounties: A pound for pound pledge

RISC OS Open Ltd, who only made a formal announcement about their bounty scheme earlier this week, have followed that news this evening with a pledge that they will, up to a £1,000 total limit, match every donation into the bounty scheme themselves, with the exception of donations to the administration bounty. This means that while this scheme is in place – i.e. until that £1,000 is used up – every £1 you donate to the bounty scheme will be worth £2 to whichever developer is able to fulfull the…

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Announcing the RISC OS Open Bounty Scheme

RISC OS Open Ltd

Anyone reading the RISC OS Open Ltd forum, or who spoke to the team at the recent Wakefield Show or attended their theatre talk, will be aware that a bounty scheme has been brewing. The scheme provides a mechanism whereby developers could receive a cash reward for results in those areas that users have deemed worthy enough to contribute towards. Such a bounty scheme could be beneficial to both developers and users alike, and therefore to the operating system and our little community as a whole. It can benefit developers…

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ARMini on the bounty

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,…

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