We’re still trying to figure out exactly what Rasberry Pi is. Is it a computer?
A really cheap one? Seriously? For $35? Evidently, over 5 million of these babies have been sold. Does anybody out there actually USE one?
We’re still trying to figure out exactly what Rasberry Pi is. Is it a computer?
A really cheap one? Seriously? For $35? Evidently, over 5 million of these babies have been sold. Does anybody out there actually USE one?
The LightStream, a tool for distributiong files via WiFi & Bluetooth produced by Renew Outreach is based on the Raspberry Pi platform. See http://www.renewoutreach.com/lightstreams/.
I have a Lightstream device for (1) streaming material in secure locations and (2) sharing files during training events. Great little device.
The ministry OneHundredFold is also building devices for ministry similar to the Lightstream using Raspberry Pi. http://100fold.it/
Here are some excerpts from a letter written by a person working with Raspberry Pi to create devices for ministry use describing a bit about it and contrasting such devices with the simpler technology of the BibleBox:
Building a Raspberry Pi system is a combination of both hardware and software. It is important to understand the the Raspberry Pi is a computer that runs Linux as opposed to an appliance piece of hardware like what the BibleBox uses. Because it is a full blown computer, there are a lot of variables depending on what you want to do with it.
The base computer is $35. At a minimum, you typically need an SD card and power supply (although it can be run on batteries or even off the USB port on a larger computer).
Adding other peripherals like WiFi (~$10) or a large hard drive have their own associated costs.
The software that runs on the device is Linux so almost anything you can do in Linux you can do on this device such as be a WiFi access point, be a web server with almost any content including the same content serviced by the BibleBox.
My husband and son who are programmers have used them for various applications, storing and running videos on our TV, running a model train. They are basically tiny computers. Also people in poor countries could have them and they are used to teach programming in colleges.