you have no items in your basket

Tel: UK 0845 757 3888 | Ireland: 01 284 6796

Fancy a slice of Pi

Picture of Mark Amory

Mark Amory

Mark joined QA in March 2010 as a Senior Learning Consultant delivering both Business Applications and Technical courses. Due to the high demand for his technical expertise, Mark no longer delivers Business Applications and now specialises in the technical fields of hardware, networking and security – areas that complement his background as an electrical and mechanical engineer.

Posted by Mark Amory
on 03 July 2012

Last Thursday was a day of anticipation for me, I knew I was to be taking delivery of my newest computer.

The postman was delivering my Raspberry Pi.

After being on a waiting list to get on a waiting list for over 6 months and then in a queue of over 100,000 others, I was eagerly awaiting this momentous occasion.

The release of the Raspberry Pi for many has evoked memories of their first forrays into computing - for some it was the Acorn, others the Commodore, a few (better-off ones) it was a BBC model B - but for me, it was the Sinclair Spectrum.

That machine was a source of many hours of joy (Manic Miner, Jetset willy, Skool Daze, Ant Attak, Knot in 3D, I could go on....), but equally, it was a source of laboured concentration (and many times frustration) of typing in line after line of code (PEEKS, POKES, GOTO's and more) just to get a sprite to run across the screen.

The simplistic nature of the programming interface enabled me and countless others to enter a few lines of code and realise amazing results.

I'm sure that many of you reading this got into I.T. as a result of one of these iconic machines. It truly was the hayday of computing for the masses.

In the interim years, PCs have got bigger, faster, better and the programmes that run on them have got bigger, faster and better - so much so, that it would be next to impossible for a home-brew programmer to come up with something anywhere near the complexity of something like Word, or Photoshop.

In my mind, that's why the world of the app has taken off in a big way. You don't need to be a master programmer to build a playable app - all you need is imagination - look at "Angry Birds" - in essence, that's a game where you throw stuff at other stuff to try to knock it down, but what a game it is - simple, but most of all - PLAYABLE!

This is where the Raspberry Pi come in. As a cheap, yet relatively powerful tool to inspire kids (and non-grown-ups alike) to get back to the roots of computing - by making programs instead of just using them.

One thing that I think is brilliant about the Raspberry Pi is the GPIO (General Purpose IO) pins that enable external connectors to be fed out from the unit to external devices. This will allow programmers the ability to control larger systems by sending the right signals to the right circuits.

I think my first project for the Pi is to build a media server from it - just to see how well it performs.

Then I think I might go back to the 1980's and build an adventure game....

"Hit orc with axe!"

"You don't have an axe"

aaarrrggghh - "Pick up axe"

"You pick up the axe"

"Hit orc with axe!".....

top of page

Useful Information

Portals

About Us

QA - training courses across the UK and Ireland from the leading provider of PRINCE2 and Microsoft training

QA provides PRINCE2 training, project management training, Microsoft training, Cisco training plus an extensive range of 1500 other courses covering all areas of IT, project management, service management, business applications and professional development. We provide PRINCE2 training and all courses in locations including London, Bristol, Reading, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Ireland plus online eLearning and virtual learning.

PRINCE2®, ITIL®, M_o_R®, MoP®, P3O®, MSP® and MoV® are registered trade marks of the Cabinet Office. The Swirl logo™ is a trade mark of the Cabinet Office. The PRINCE2®, ITIL®, M_o_R®, MoP®, P3O®, MSP® and MoV® Accredited Training Organization logos are trade marks of the Cabinet Office. PMI®, PMP®. CAPM® and PMBOK®guide are registered certification marks and trademarks of the Project Management Institute Inc. Green Project Management®, is a registered trademark of GPM Global. BPUG® is a Registered Trade Mark and Registered Community Trade Mark of Best Practice User Group Ltd. IIBA®, the IIBA® logo, BABOK® and Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® are registered trademarks owned by International Institute of Business Analysis. QA is an endorsed education provider of IIBA. IIBA® is a registered trademark owned by International Institute of Business Analysis. The Open Group Certification logo is a trademark and the word TOGAF® is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries. QA Limited is an Accredited TOGAF® 9 Training Course and complies with the accreditation requirements for The Open Group TOGAF® Certification for People program. Cisco, the Cisco logo, and Cisco Systems are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. ILM is a trademark of the City and Guilds of London Institute and is used under licence. Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. APMG Swirl Agile Project Management Device is a Trade Mark of APM Group Ltd. Salesforce is a trademark of salesforce.com, inc.

All third party trademark rights acknowledged

QA reserves the right to improve the specification and format of its courses for the benefit of its customers without notice to the customer.