Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd. finally announced

Eben Upton responded to my question "why were you terminated as a director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation?" here: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4148983&cid=44722739

I like the part about resigning in order to separate the control of the two entities,

"though I continue to run the Foundation on a day-to-day basis".  I think the whole point

of requiring charities to publicly declare their trustees is so that the public is clear about

who is running the charity on a day-to-day basis.

I wonder what title he may have used since resigning when signing RPF contracts, if any?

Every project needs a front man/woman,,, so Eben is ok.

Why not join up and get on the bandwagon

I think the point you missed is that there is not just one project, there are two.

There is not just one bandwagon, there are two.

There is not just one board of directors, there are two.

There is not just one charter, there are two.

There is not just one CEO, there are two.

There is not just one bank account, there are two.

One project involves an educational charity which is lobbying the UK govt

regarding educational policies, and is developing educational videos and other

materials.  The other project involves making and selling inexpensive small

computers for a variety of purposes, many of which have nothing to do with education.

You only see one spokesman, one website, one FAQ, one "about us", etc., and for over a year

did not hear the RPi Trading company's charter or operations explained, even though it had

the majority of the employees and activity.  You may think the resulting confusion is

a good thing, or at least par for the course, but I respectfully disagree.

I believe all charitable organizations have to also make money on the side in some form of legality.  It only makes sense,  you have to bring in money to accomplish certain things,,, charity may not cut it    The laws make it difficult,, and lawyers make it almost impossible,,, but there has to be a median.  What is the big problem if some money is made for future developments ??    If 80 percent is all charity,  then i would still call it a charitable organization,,, not worth splitting hairs about.

Chuck Smith

coder27,   This is Chuck Smith responding.

I love the Raspberry-pi and what it is doing for kids and adults.

I realize I do not get involved with all the politics and laws and trading and money.

All I am trying to get across is .. Why not let it run,,, support it,, make it work,, set up classes for kids to program on it,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,  just keep the thing going !!!!     Stay the Course !!!!   I was even thinking of organizing a class at the local school for kids to learn R-pi.  It is catching on !!!!

The competitors can jump on too.

Why Not ??   You guys got a good thing going,, why let some lawyers , politicians and greedy people ruin it ??

Chuck Smith

Most charities rely on donations.  Some charities have separate for-profit subsidiaries that

conduct trading, the profits of which go to the charity.  But in those cases, there is a very

clear separation between the charity's activities and those of the for-profit subsidiary, and

the for-profit trading is not done under the banner or auspices of the charity.

In contrast, the RPi trading for the past year has been done under the banner of the charity,

and very few people had even the slightest inkling that there was any for-profit company involved.

What is the big problem if some money is made for future developments ??

There is no problem whatsoever of a for-profit company operating as a subsidiary of a charity

and donating its profits to the charity, provided of course that it is clear that that's what's going on.

Coder27 :  I imagine it gets very sticky on the legal side of things,,, especially with taxes and such,,,  And if one bad apple in the bushel breaks a law,, all the other apples fall with him.  I understand

All I am trying to get across is .. Why not let it run,,, support it,, make it work,, set up classes for kids to program on it,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,  just keep the thing going !!!!     Stay the Course !!!!   I was even thinking of organizing a class at the local school for kids to learn R-pi.  It is catching on !!!!

why let some lawyers , politicians and greedy people ruin it ??

I think you and I may have a different threshold on what kinds of things

should be overlooked in the interest of kids learning to program.

I don't believe there is any sort of crisis involving a shortage of suitable

computers for kids to learn to program.  I think just about any alternative PC

would be as good or better.  There was a drop in applications at Cambridge

and other schools, but that can be easily attributed to the bursting of the

tech bubble in 2000, and to the many subsequent layoffs due to the ease of

outsourcing to low-wage countries, rather than to any perceived inability for PCs

to support programming.

The R-pi offers a challenge to kids !!!  Anyone can buy a super laptop off the shelves these days,  but does not have a clue how it was put together and how it works.   The R-pi puts a light bulb in a kids head,, Heck no one is going to tell him how to set  it up,, it is HIS to do.     Like when I was a kid in the 60's,,,  I stole my sisters old roller skates,  then got in my dad's work shop and cut them in half.   Then a buddy of mine got a board and we cut it to fit the rollers,,then bolted the rollers on,,,  then we tested it,,, reworked it,,, painted it,,, then all of a sudden,,, Walla,,, a homemade skateboard !!!    Heck,, it was better than buying one off the shelf,, and we learned a lot of things !!   ( at the time they didn't have skateboards,  we made them ourselves for kicks )  

But do ya get my drift ??

Chuck Smith

But do ya get my drift ??

No, sorry I don't.  I can see how an RPi can be used to teach programming,

but not much differently from any other slow linux box.  The hardware isn't made to be

taken apart, you can't even upgrade the memory like on a standard PC.

Since most everything is integrated on the SoC, you can't understand the hardware

by pointing to discrete components, other than connectors and such. 

If you want to use PWM or ADC, an Arduino or BBB is probably better.

I know that it is difficult to communicate with text and words over a long distance and each of us having a unique perspective of how things work,  I apologize for that.    You are more than welcome to visit me sometime, or a group of you.   I live alone in a 4 bedroom home in Glasgow, Delaware in USA.  

My house is kinda a Man-house,  meaning that I put things where ever I want.  But I do keep things very clean.   I got little projects laying around in the rooms.   I got one table for my R-pi and books.   On another table I am putting together a model of an airplane called an A-10 Warthog,  it was a tank killer in world war II.  On another table I have water color painting projects,,, and so on and so on      I am really naive with the R-pi at this point,, but I ran into a R-pi club member (makers ).. so i may learn more soon.   I know all the basics of most computers,    I am just happy to see the r-pi cheap enough for kids.

Chuck Smith

I beg to differ too.   I got a 7 port USB port   and I have all the memory upgrade I want.   and I just bought that Chip Kit Pi  which allows me to hook up to other devices.   so there are possibilities out there,, huh ? 

Chuck Smith

I beg to differ too.   I got a 7 port USB port   and I have all the memory upgrade I want.   and I just bought that Chip Kit Pi  which allows me to hook up to other devices.   so there are possibilities out there,, huh ? 

Chuck Smith

and I have all the memory upgrade I want.

I think you missed my point.

I wasn't implying that the RPi had insufficient memory.

On a standard PC, kids can have all sorts of fun taking it apart and

reassembling, and learning about the different hardware functions,

like you mentioned taking skates apart.  You can take out the memory

and replace it with faster or denser memory, or just take it all apart to

scare your parents and then put it back together.

In contrast, the RPi memory can't be fiddled with.

(suitable safety precautions should of course be followed).

Sure the r-pi memory can be fiddled with,,, silly u     I got a 4gb card,,, and 8gb card,,, 16gb card  and right now I have a 32gb card in the slot,, and partitioned  ...

So ,, yes,, we can fiddle with r-pi memory,,,, but I know what u r talking about,,,

May I politely ask,,, are you a Lady or a gentleman ?  

You may call me Chuck

CHUCK SMITH wrote:

 

Sure the r-pi memory can be fiddled with,,, silly u     I got a 4gb card,,, and 8gb card,,, 16gb card  and right now I have a 32gb card in the slot,, and partitioned  ...

So ,, yes,, we can fiddle with r-pi memory,,,, but I know what u r talking about,,,

NOTE: In computing, memory is RAM. (which is fixed on Raspberry Pi).

i agree to a point with the r-pi memory.   I think the SD card does have a fixed sram,, but it also has a good ram,, and storage,,,, I don't know,,, just a guesstimate