Raspberry Pi

So in less than a week a computer will be available for about £30 that encourages you to 'code' with among other things.  What struck me about this computer is that it's basically got the same specs as a very expensive smartphone without the screen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi#Specifications) except you plug it into a screen and keyboard like a standard desktop computer instead.  

I have to say I want one but I have no idea why.  I already have a desktop computer and it works fine, not to mention much more powerful, but I still want it.  It's strange because I don't normally feel the need to get the latest gadget unless I'm sure I'd use it, but here I go wanting it.  There's just little things about it that make me want it just because it's nice to have the option to dabble in a bit of code just because it's there for me to dabble with, but I know I'll never do it.  It doesn't have a flashy ad campaign to make it look better than it is, just a bunch of balding men doing demonstrations (refer to videos I've enlosed).  All of these things I'd be able to do with the computer I'm typing this post with right now.  It's more powerful, it can also connect to the internet and because, like the Raspberry pi it also uses a version of the Linux operating system (in my case Ubuntu) which means that if I wanted to I could download any software the Raspberry Pi uses for free and dabble with it in the same way I would use the Pi.  But I don't, once in a blue moon maybe out of curiosity I'd take it upon myself to gain a little knowledge but I never go into it in great detail before just going back to writing these blogs and playing poker on facebook and watching stuff on the iplayer etc.  The only thing the Pi can do better is that it only needs a few watts to run it on, which is fairly impressive.

But still I want it.  Is it because I could do stuff for much less than a 10th of the price I paid for this computer?  That can't be it, there's a reason I didn't pay £500 for an iphone when there are plenty of smartphones that can do the same job for less than £100.  Maybe I'll never know, and when I get one, and believe me I will get one, and when I do I'll prove myself right and it'll just gather dust in the drawer somewhere.

I was planning on ending it here but when I touched on the price point I had a thought.  Bloody hell the iphone is vastly over priced isn't it.  I'm looking at the specifications on both (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_4S#Processor.2C_memory.2C_and_storage) here and I'm thinking, "where does iphone get off charging well over ten times more than this with only just over double the 'under the hood' specifications?"  I realise the touchscreen etc. will have bumped the price up but 'over ten times the price'?  I think everyone needs to think about how we're all wasting out money.

rant over.