On a sunny day (Tue, 8 Dec 2015 22:12:09 -0800 (PST)) it happened snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in :
Well, they do. If you have no modern monitor, no USB keyboard, THEN ask yourself the question "Do I Have Diapers?"
This being an electronics design group, it is a nice cheap solution for some embedded applications, does not even need a programmer like a PIC does.
In electronics these days, without an ability to program, write code, you are nowhere, you cannot even test an i2c chip, SPI chip, any other protocol. You cannot hold on 555 timers forever. You may want to learn some HDL too so you can make your 555 timers and more complicated things in hardware in FPGA. BTW that 5$ raspi has an analog output (FBAS) too, so try reading up on it first before your fingers start bouncing of that USB keyboard you claim not to have.
In short: Complexity will always increase, you either spend your life studying and keeping up, or you are out of the (rat) race. Nothing wrong with the last I guess, if that is your thing. Have fun.