

Why the Raspberry Pi will save the UK - husky
http://petenelson.co.uk/2012/03/why-the-raspberry-pi-will-save-the-uk/

======
gaius
Elephant in corner of room: The City which he is so contemptuous of is the one
industry in the UK that pays technical people fair wages.

I studied Mech Eng at college; no-one does that who doesn't _want_ to be an
engineer. When I graduated in the mid-90s there were no jobs, so I went into
high-tech. But my CV is still floating around, and I occasionally get called
by recruiters in engineering. Now I am no rock star, I am paid well (market
rate) but not extravagantly so. But these engineering jobs pay a fraction of
what I earn, for the equivalent years of experience. And they wonder why no-
one wants to do it?

This comes back to the old class system which is still strong in the UK. No
matter how educated, an engineer is not "one of us" to the management class,
and will never be paid fairly in the old industries, never more than a paper-
pushing middle management bureaucrat who went to the "right" school. Only
high-tech (enlightened) and The City (where managers are so well paid that
they don't feel threatened) pay technical people fairly.

Anyone smart enough to be an engineer - and there are plenty who want to be -
is smart enough to not be exploited in that way. And _that_ is why
manufacturing died in the UK.

~~~
blasterford
Manufacturing actually died in the UK because of the unions. Workers became
greedy, and unproductive. They were unable to compete with other countries,
and instead staged big endless strikes demanding ever rising salaries, better
working conditions etc - which made them even more uncompetitive with emerging
countries.

You can either have great working conditions and pay, or a good manufacturing
industry. Can't have both. Some other poorer country will just treat their
workers worse, and so be more productive.

(I'm reading "Thatcher - the downing street years" at the moment - a great
read).

~~~
arethuza
"You can either have great working conditions and pay, or a good manufacturing
industry."

Someone needs to explain this to the Germans then.

~~~
stoolpigeon
This is a valid point but at the same time - can every country make a lot of
money selling extremely high end luxury goods? It seems to me (but I'm very
open to information that would change this view) that Germany occupies a
rather special position that doesn't scale out world-wide.

~~~
jbarham
> can every country make a lot of money selling extremely high end luxury
> goods?

It seems to be working well for Apple...

In any case, the biggest car company in Germany is VW, and I wouldn't consider
them a "luxury" car manufacturer. And most of the _Mittelstand_ in Germany are
companies that are not household names, but are very successful in their
particular industrial niches.

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alan_cx
I grew up on Apple 1 and 2, BBC Micro, and Sinclair ZX80/81 and Spectrum.
Computing was new, exciting, available, and there was nothing like it or
better at the time. These machines and what they represented were the future.
They were even trendy. They were a 4 day week even!!!

That is not the case now.

While I admire the great priced hardware and look forward to playing with a Pi
applying them to various "problems", I cannot see this kids lark at all. I
showed my kids these things, and they have no interest in them what so ever.
They have PC's, laptops, tablets, smart phones, Xboxs, PS3's, etc, etc. What
do these things do? Not a lot. What can they be made to do? Less than
everything we all ready own. They are impressed with it's size and price, but
that is all. All they see is a very small computer that can do these same
things their current machines can do, just.

Education? Think about schools (UK schools in my case). Budgets are squeezed,
curricula locked down and time tight. Not to mention the lack of low level
computing skills in the staff. Well, high level isnt much better, one of my
kids acts as a class assistant because the teacher is pretty much clueless.
Who is going to champion this and when? How are kids going to be motivated to
do this low level stuff when they have alternatives that are much more
exciting and "hip"?

Im sorry, I don't believe the Pi is going to solve the education aim at all.
The idea is commendable, and I recognise the problem and support any attempt.
But I honestly don't see kids getting excited and I don't see any structure
that will either capture or motivate them.

Sure, they are selling. Rightly too. But who too? 8 year olds, or geek
experimenters like me? I mean, I can see loads of geeky uses. Im loving it.
But any kids? Any primary schools? I was in primary school when I first
encountered a computer. Secondary school it too late.

I dont want to be down on it in any way, it is a brilliant bit of kit,
incredible price too, loads of uses, I must have one, but cant see it starting
an educational revolution like BBC Micro (and many others) did.

I mean, its just too darn complicated. The old ZX81, 4 chips. The circuit is
so simple. The software was simple.

You know, its just so darn complicated now. There is too much of a gap.

Ooooooo. That was long, and a bit garbled. Sorry.... :)

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jgrahamc
This is largely the argument I made in The Guardian:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/11/ict-
brit...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/11/ict-british-
computing-renaissance)

Let's hope it comes true!

~~~
husky
Yes - I read your work in January and it invaded my consciousness. Sorry if I
have regurgitated anything but this message needs to be spread!

~~~
jgrahamc
No need to apologize at all! Let's hope it comes true (and let's hope I can
get my hands on a Raspberry Pi one day :-)

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mikecane
>>>This is where the Raspberry Pi can save us: it’s now affordable for the
government to equip any child in this country with a machine which they could
take home with them and play with.

I have a problem with idealism like that. Andrew Carnegie thought if we had
public libraries, it would enable people to help themselves. And where are we
today? Education is free too, and where are we today?

I'm not saying that it might not help a small crucial group of children who --
through their _own motivation_ \-- will go on to do great things that will
change their lives. But recognize that is the likely reality instead of pining
for a universal enrichment that is never going to happen.

A chicken in every pot sounds good, but not everyone knows how -- or wants to
learn how -- to cook.

~~~
pm90
You are greatly underestimating the value of public libraries. Even if we
agree that only a few motivated individuals actually used the libraries, that
itself is enough justification for their establishment (IMO). For instance,
Richard Feynman used the public libraries extensively, and he has been a
source of motivation for many generations of physicists/ engineers (including
myself). (Being from India, when I was younger, I really did feel the
disappointment of not having access to a public library.)

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ivix
Sorry to go against the herd mentality, but what?

"I write this as the Raspberry Pi is selling at 700 units a second" Really?
That's 42,000 per minute, or a million a day. Sure about that?

This is apart from the fact that the rpi is _just a PC_. There's no new
software, educational or otherwise. You can't just give every schoolchild one
and expect anything particularly new to happen on it's own.

Finally the claim that a new model of computer will 'Save' the UK is so beyond
ludicrous that I don't know where to begin. The device is not even
manufactured in the UK!

I'm all for the sentiments expressed in the article, but let's try and keep
the hysteria in check. There's a lot more work ahead.

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revorad
I'm also hoping that RPi will kick off something here in the UK. But is there
evidence that access to a computer is the main hurdle for kids wanting to
learn programming in the UK? Clearly, the US hasn't had a Raspberry Pi.

~~~
timthorn
It's not about access to a generic computer - it's access to a computer that
positively invites tinkering.

~~~
ashleyf
Absolutely! RPi is cheap but every bit as powerful and _complicated_ as a full
PC. I don't see why everyone is saying it will revolutionize programming
education for kids. They don't need cheap computers. They need _simple_
computers; a "microworld" in which to play as Seymour Papert would say. That's
not the same as an abstracted away or dumbed-down machine. Give them a
constrained, simple environment and they'll have fun stretching it in ways
you'd never imagine.

Something closer to the Fignition side of the spectrum. (I've personally liked
taking my kids back to Papert's Turtle Graphics on such a simple machine:
<http://bit.ly/figlogo>)

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rmc
I share the authors desire for there to be more programmers and that software
will eat the world.

However why do we need a Raspberry Pi? Can't you make software with any
computer (except recent things from Apple)? Or is it a case that RP, being so
popular will get people talking about creating and playing with stuff?

~~~
dazzawazza
This is true but for a lot of parents there is one computer in the house and
it's pretty precious, the kids can't 'fuck it up'.

Now, with a rp, when a kid says "I'm gonna strap my computer to this servo,
and that servo to some junk in the garage and throw it all off of the roof AND
IT WILL FLY!" a few less parent will freak out and there is more of a chance
we can all benefit from what ever is in this kids head..... and latterly
smashed on his lawn :)

There are a lot of ideas in kids heads that just don't see the light of day.

~~~
rmc
Yes experimentation is great. _but_ , many teenagers already have a laptop (or
parents have their own). Surely there's lots of people with 2+ computers.

~~~
dazzawazza
Yeah there are lots but even the poorest can afford a RP, which is more and
more is better.

Even the richest parents would think twice about allowing little alice to
throw her laptop off the roof.

As a kid that grew up without a lot of stuff and my parents struggled to get
me my first computer (Oric 16k). It changed my life. I think the RP will
change more lives and open up more avenues to genuinely poor kids who want to
experiment.

Great ideas are not just generated by middle/upper class kids, us working
class kids have great ideas too _.

_ I realise this is a great generalisation and we live in a 'class-less
society' and money goes up as well as down and some kids will indeed use RP to
record their sisters undressing and some kids will try and snort their RP up
their nose BUT it's a genuine opportunity for ALL kids and I endorse it.

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drucken
Interesting that this article does not mention three things:

1\. The designers of the Raspberry Pi have said that while their intention was
to design and manufacture the device fully within the UK, the latter turned
out to be impossible from a business perspective due to the high import taxes
of materials for electronic assembly.

2\. Why will the untested potential of the Raspberry Pi "save the UK" when an
already extremely successful and much older electronics company like ARM (also
based in Cambridge) has already got there first? ARM's devices are used all
over the world for the lower power efficiency of their CPU designs, most
notably in Apple devices.

ARM's success has had no impact on the trend towards services in the UK
economy since its founding in 1990.

3\. When the size (GDP impact) of the City relative to the UK real economy is
_six_ times larger than the size of Wall Street relative to the US real
economy, you can be sure that if there is any change it will be very slow
indeed.

The UK long ago given up the many benefits of engineering and manufacturing.
It takes a considerable amount of time to ramp up the expertise to build
competitive products in the world today. Just look at the centuries old
Germanic Mittlestand and the 40-year Korean engineering sector development -
the formerly fastest economic developer in the world. Also, engineering in the
UK (unlike in the rest of the EU) has serious cultural and financial downsides
plus little government support.

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andrewcooke
what's with the increasingly histrionic posts here? one small computer will
not "save" a particular country any more than one hack of github will destroy
software development as we know it.

did "raspberry pi might increase interest in software development slightly,
although it's hard to see why this should be restricted to the uk since it's
available internationally" not sound catchy enough?

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DanBC
Cultural note:

Several huge industries have been closed down in the last quarter of the 20th
century. Governments were adamant that subsidies absolutely were not available
to those industries. Many people have lived in relative poverty for years, in
areas with very high rates of unemployment.

And then the banks went into meltdown, because of greedy irresponsible
sometimes criminal behaviour; and these were the same banks that were talking
about the importance of pure market forces and no government intervention; and
these banks were propped up at vast expense to the UK taxpayer; at a time when
many well loved public services are being cut; and those same greedy bankers
(despite being in position when their banks lost billions and needed support
from tax-payers) are taking huge bonuses.

~~~
gaius
Oh PLEASE. Do you honestly believe this?

I suggest you do a little reading, start with the Industrial Reorganization
Committee and the Wilson government (1964).

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fmstephe
I love this article. While reading the comments I had the following thought.
That the RP is somewhat intimidating and exposed as a raw piece of
electronics. While you or I have plenty of keyboards and mice around, and no
doubt schools do too, what about the people who don't? Has anyone reading this
had any experience building something like this? If we could package the
cheapest screen with the cheapest mouse with a small case some people might
find this a useful package. Seems like a good candidate for a kickstarter
project? To be clear I wouldn't intend this as a business, but as a way to
contribute to the RP project. (I think I would actually like to buy on e of
these as I ony own laptops, so I have to buy all these peripherals anyway when
I get my RP)

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willvarfar
I remember the BBC Micro!

Oh for our kids to learn how and why of computers, and grow up to rule them
instead of be ruled by them!

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paraschopra
Off topic, but I LOVE how every post on your blog has a different background
image. Is there a theme for this or you did it custom?

~~~
husky
This is a custom theme called: five3 Personally I really like it too

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gacek
A webdeveloper blog that does not work in an up-to-date browser (Opera)...

I get it when it is WebGL, but not for static text.

~~~
husky
Sorry - but I just used a pre-built theme - because if I didn't do that then I
would never get time to actually write any blog posts as my own site takes a
very low priority for coding time! Saying that I do like this theme and think
the dev did a good job. I have removed that overflow hidden on the body -
thanks for the suggestion - so let's hope it's readable now

~~~
xlevus
for what it's worth, I found the parallax effect on the background image
rather annoying.

Every time I scrolled every single visual reference point of where I was
reading changed.

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kamjam
But won't somebody think of the children!!!

Oh they are. I'll shut up then... :)

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ktizo
This article reminds me of the description of the economy of post-collapse
america in Snowcrash.

“When it gets down to it — talking trade balances here — once we've brain-
drained all our technology into other countries, once things have evened out,
they're making cars in Bolivia and microwave ovens in Tadzhikistan and selling
them here — once our edge in natural resources has been made irrelevant by
giant Hong Kong ships and dirigibles that can ship North Dakota all the way to
New Zealand for a nickel — once the Invisible Hand has taken away all those
historical inequities and smeared them out into a broad global layer of what a
Pakistani brickmaker would consider to be prosperity — y'know what? There's
only four things we do better than anyone else:

music

movies

microcode (software)

high-speed pizza delivery”

