Deutsche Welle news article on Raspberry Pi - "Raspberry Pi and the new computer science kids"

So if I make a smaller iPhone Apple won't sue me?

Neither do they dry your hands very well.

So the dust goes all over you *every* time you empty it, rather than just when the bags split.

IIRC the iPhone shape & size is the subject of a uniquely American

Dyson extended the state of the art and so are entitled to patent that extension.

I think it's an obvious extension. Our patent system is not open enough for the logic behind such judgements to get the attention they deserve though. I should be able to satisfy myself that its true novelty was examined properly, whereas I don't seem to be able to establish if it was even considered.

Since I saw the patent for exercising a cat with a hand held laser I've had no respect for the US patent system. AFAICT it's about as good at detecting novelty as the average goldfish.

You can excercise your Goldfish with a laser pointer as well. Hey I better patent that! oops to late...

It took Dyson 5 years and over 5000 prototypes to get it working, before his first vacuum cleaner design (the G force).

Look up the patent granted within the past decade or two for alternately pulling on the chains or ropes of a playground swing in order to swing sideways. A patent attorney coached his young son in filing the patent and getting it granted for the purpose of teaching the kid about the process. I know that method was considered non-obvious when I was in grade school a few decades earlier. There _HAS_ to have been discoverable prior art!

Years ago my dad had the 'honour' of having the service contract for some local school computers. All Amstrad PC's failed shortly after installation due to bird dung on the circuit boards and components. He said it was almost impossible to obtain any spares from Amstrad.

What would those be?

Do they make clean room vacs? Or do I have to keep using my nice, quiet stable Nilfisk?

Dual Cyclone was one of the better known ones (which I think may have expired now) which went down to smoke particle size, which effectively removes the smell of cigarette smoke. He has well over 500 patents on cyclone vacuum cleaners. Root cyclone on the newer cleaners can separate out bacteria from the airflow by generating 150,000 G-force.

Not to my knowledge. I wish they did a building site version, because a Dyson is the only thing that copes with the dust output from a wall/plaster chaser, and nothing else comes even close. I use a regular Dyson for that, but it could be easily broken in such an environment if someone drops plaster/bricks on it, or if you forget the plastic dust canister full of brick dust is too heavy to be carried by its handle.

Bollocks. My wife destroyed her other dyson vacuuming up building dust. My cheap cylinder was fine. #

Mine has picked up plenty of old plaster and never complained.

On Sun, 14 Apr 2013 19:32:55 +0000 (UTC), snipped-for-privacy@cucumber.demon.co.uk (Andrew Gabriel) declaimed the following in comp.sys.raspberry-pi:

Out of curiosity... What does one do with the layer of germy scum that must be building up on the inside of the vacuum cleaner?

Ironically the Pis are not that good as a platform for learning programming IMHO.

Yes, the dreaded "ICT". However things are improving as they're starting to add some useful stuff into the curriculum. I think they should do a bit of "office" applications but it should NOT be using just Mircoshaft products.

And hides some useful features so you can no longer find then. Then there's the broken compatibility from all previous versions.

On the other hand a Pi running RISC OS is great for programming - it comes complete with BBC Basic.

The catch is that once you've paid for MS Office, you can do most of what the curriculum requires with it, without needing to expend either time or money setting anything else up. (Even installing extra free software takes time.) Most teachers have at least a passing knowledge of Office, but many lack the willingness to learn anything else. A few are brave enough to learn from the brighter kids, many cannot swallow their pride sufficiently to do that.

I cant see what is wrong with a pi to learn programming on at all.

Unless you consider that assembler is where this must begin.

Linux has just about every language ever written on it, some very decent editors..

And if you have some DOS flavoured BASIC or somesuch, load up a DOS emulator and get GOTO ing.