That's kind of condescending don't you think? These are "stick anywhere" computers with controller capabilities.
I just ordered a couple to play with. I know there are Linux people here - who has one and what amazing things have you done with them?
2x raspi+USB DAC -> pulseaudio remote speaker endpoints, because I can't be bothered to run both speaker and ethernet wire. Another one resets the power on my flaky DSL modem after 10-20 minutes of no internet accessibility.
I've got two Pi's running RaspBMC streaming video and audio from my NAS. Not terribly exciting I know, but a hell of a lot cheaper than buying 2 network media players.
Once I pick up another one, I'm either going to use it for a mini-mame cabinet, or mount it onto the back of an X-Arcade tankstick for (semi)portable 2-player arcade shenanigans. Again, not terribly exciting, but what can I say, I like playing arcade games and being able to watch my anime in every room.
Going to setup an FM Transmitter and drive around tomorrow and watch peoples reactions as I interrupt their station they're listening to:P jk
I hear the FM Transmitter can actually be pretty powerful, I'm about to find out .
I am making one of them into a gaming console, the other runs my home automation system.
At work I have installed a Raspberry pi with attached Dallas temperature sensors near the top of each rack. Each Raspberry run a script that sample the temperature every 2 minutes and store it on a local Mysql database. Data is replicated to a central database. A web application (on a regular VPS) read the database to create a zoomable graph. It also send email alerts if the temperature is outside boundaries or if data cannot be read from the Raspberry; the issue is recorded for statystical analysis.. Temperature resolution is 0.1 degree and the graph is pretty accurate. This whole setup is less costly than the cheapest commercial temperature monitor, has more features, and the Raspberry pi temselves are generic network servers that will be used for further monitoring efforts.
Not sure if this counts, but I've just set an old MicroSD card up with Raspbian, cross compiled the Armory Bitcoin client for ARM and am using it as a cold storage Bitcoin wallet. Just an idea, if anyone was thinking about anything similar. The Raspberry is great for this purpose because you don't need to dedicate it to the task and can instead just swap the MicroSD cards when needed.
https://bitcoinarmory.com/
https://gist.github....Sottile/3646033
https://bitcointalk....1384#msg1691384
I use one for XBMC and another I use to run an HID authentication system to start my car
I'm waiting for the HummingBoard to come out before I glom onto a HackRF One to do portable SDR. The RasPi doesn't really have the horsepower to do the kind of on the fly analytics of SDR that I want to do.
1911ly, I didnt know you were a linux guy too! I'm struggling through learning Mint 16 right now... stupid little differences are a PITA but its kinda fun.
sorry to get off topic... Many people use the Pi's to do stuff like stream movies to their tv's, or one of my favs was just an old school video game emulator they had tucked into their car. I liked that idea because the power supply can be run from a USB like your cell phone charger.
While not the most powerful computers, they support wifi dongles and seem to do simple tasks pretty well.
Note- I dont personally have one. reading up on them prompted me to attempt to learn the basics of linux to justify the purchase of a pi. I'll buy one someday to fool around with, I just suck at linux too much currently to attempt one...