[squeak-dev] A $140 pc for running Squeak

tim Rowledge tim at rowledge.org
Thu Jun 30 23:32:26 UTC 2016


I just got my pi-top CEED (don’t ask me what that stands for…) and after a few minutes setup - inserting the SD card into the provided Pi3, connecting up a couple of cables, inserting the little plastic-magnet ‘feet’ etc - I was up and running.

What on earth is a pi-top CEED you ask? Well, think of a small iMac all-in-one with a quite decent 14” lcd and a pi3 inside. Add your own spare mouse/kbd, plug together, insert power plug (psu provided) and press  the Magic Button. A moment later you have … what? Err, this is a bit odd looking… ah, escape to a normal desktop and all is well. Run some updating to get stuff sorted out a little (the Scratch version definitely needs updating for example) and all is well.

It’s a Pi3 in a nice case with a nice display, a beefy power supply, a neat way of providing space for some add-ons, a proper power switch and a slightly odd OS wrapper. See www.pi-top.com for more details. 

For US$140! OK, so maybe you have to spend $20 on a mouse & keyboard too. And perhaps you want their speaker unit for another $20. You can get just the lcd/case/pus for $99 if you already have a spare Pi. Given that the Pi 7” touch lcd is $70 on its own, this seems a steal to me.

I’m planning to use my three in Scratch classes over the summer. 

tim
--
tim Rowledge; tim at rowledge.org; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
All the simple programs have been written, and all the good names taken.




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