8 ms·

Kano: A computer anyone can make

106 points by tmslnz 13y ago

slezyr 13y ago
$19 "Swag" $100 for raspberry pi and... a BOX!!
- tmslnz 13y ago
  And a keyboard with integrated touchpad and software and a pretty decent team behind the project…
  - slezyr 13y ago
    You can easy buy one of this right here and right now. All of that you can buy in the store. http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=keyboard+wireless&catId=&initiative_id=SB_20131119125525 http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=keyboard+wire...
- jhickner 13y ago
  From what I can tell it adds to the $35 pi: - a case w/integrated speaker - a keyboard/trackpad combo - a wifi dongle - nice manual That's not too bad for the added $65. The mini keyboard looks nicer than the ~$20 FAVI ones[1] I usually use. At first I thought they'd figured out a way to add a screen. That would be great. But it looks like you need to supply your own. I work with students in Uganda and it's hard to beat what you get from a $200 netbook. Much faster processor than a pi, plus the screen is integrated. You can't do GPIO stuff like you can with a pi though, so there are trade-offs. Twice the price of this, too. Looks like a great project to me! [1]: http://www.amazon.com/FE01-BL-Wireless-Keyboard-Mouse-Touchpad/dp/B003UE52ME http://www.amazon.com/FE01-BL-Wireless-Keyboard-Mouse-Touchp...
  - ipodize 13y ago
    Just wondering, how do you get those netbooks to Uganda, and what do the students do with them?
    - venomsnake 13y ago
      Play games, have fun, use them as aides in study, as a diary/calendars, some basic tinkering skills, with ad-hoc wifi even micro networks for voice and chat - that is off the top of my head. You will be surprised how little computing power and stable internet you need to be a full digital citizen of the world. A phone line, 100mhz pentium and 8mb of RAM did it for me in 1998 :)
    - tomca32 13y ago
      I can't speak for him, but since he didn't answer, I'll tell you what we do in Rwanda. We educate homeless illiterate kids. In Rwanda, getting your way around a computer is a respected skill and none of those kids have ever touched a computer before. We are trying to give them basic computer skills such as: finding your way online, e-mail usage, searching, file management...there is a ton of simple things like that. We all take them for granted because we use computers every day of our lives. Imagine that you're illiterate and you see this shiny thing that looks like a magic box filled with random symbols. You heard about it before, you heard older men say that it's really powerful and that everybody respects individuals who can operate The Computer. So now you're in front of it. You touched the keyboard for the first time. It's filled with weird symbols, and this shinny thing has weird unearthly colors and glyphs that you cannot make sense of. It's unknown and above all, really frightening. After a couple of months, when their literacy becomes "good enough" and when they can figure out how to do basic computer tasks on their own (or figure out a solution from online sources) we seek funding to send them to boarding school so they get off the streets. This is a difficult transition for those kids, they completely lack self-respect and will be surrounded with kids from rich families that have had a massive advantage over them. But now, they consider themselves a Computer User. A person that can figure out the powerful machine, so their feeling of self-worth rises dramatically and they fare much, much better in the new school environment. And that's it. Nothing really innovative, just teaching homeless street kids some computer skills so they can feel better about themselves and find their way in school.
  - tomca32 13y ago
    I work for an NGO that has IT programs in Rwanda. I would love to see some package similar to this that would somehow integrate a screen with Pi. I just love Pi as a concept and I really want to include it in our programs. As it stands now, we're in the same boat as you. Second hand laptops / netbooks are a far cheaper and simpler solution for us than getting PIs and figuring out what to do with screens, keyboards, etc...
    - slezyr 13y ago
      You can easy buy screen for raspberry pi just type "raspberry pi screen" in ebay. But they aren't cheap $60 min. and 8" maximum
    - DanBC 13y ago
      You (and parent commenter, and others) should get together and have a website for "This is the stuff we need, and why we need it". You'd have a suggestion of a package of RPi, keyboard, screen, etc. You'd give suggestions for what would be good, and what to avoid. You give a total cost, and the amount you can provide to that. You then ask people to donate. You maybe put the faces of children on your request. LIKE WATSI BUT FOR TECH.
      - voltagex_ 13y ago
        Sounds like we could lean on the OLPC guys for that a little bit, at least in the research stages. Kickstarter+Watsi+OLPC+Kiva = ?
- asb 13y ago
  It's actually really quite well priced. Look at the other starter kits on the market - I don't think you'll find others offering the pi + keyboard/mouse + usb power supply + wifi + hdmi cable + speaker + sd card at that price point.
  - slezyr 13y ago
    Keyboard $20 + Wifi Dongle $10 + HDMI cable $5 + SD card let it be $10 + Speaker $3-5 I said nothing about the price. You can buy it in almost any store right now. There is no need for company in kickstarted.
djhworld 13y ago
It's a cute idea but the contents of the box isn't really that much different from what you'd find inside the box of an iPad or....Microsoft Surface or any other piece of consumer electronics. All this seems to be doing is taking most of the burden of having to source a keyboard, mouse and monitor if you want to use the Pi as a dedicated machine. I'm not knocking that, it's just calling it "building a computer" seems wrong. EDIT: I was probably being a bit harsh, it does seem like it's aimed at children. It looks like the booklets that come with it explain aspects of the Pi in a language children can warm to.
- fat0wl 13y ago
  Nah don't be so hard on yourself. This was posted weeks ago and everyone determined it sucks but HN is half just a garbage dump for free advertising of any piece of crummy tech that claims to be part of the maker zeitgeist, so IT'S BACK!!!
  - ChuckMcM 13y ago
    Ok, definitely out harshed the GP. :-) I'm surprised the AdaFruit folks haven't yet created a Pi bundle like this, there closest [1] is more HW oriented. The kickstarter is pitched more toward the software development than the 'maker' development (aka controlled LEDs and stuff). [1] http://www.adafruit.com/products/1014 http://www.adafruit.com/products/1014
    - fat0wl 13y ago
      it's nice to just harsh it out now & then! ;) gotta be polite to the open-source guys but why keep up the facade for these opportunists?
HNJohnC 13y ago
Has someone redefined the word "make"? Because plugging stuff together isn't 'making' anything, in fact it's undermining kids by setting the bar for 'making' so incredibly low.
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  make (n): 1) An empty marketing catchphrase that allows a product to join the "maker" bandwagon
LambdaBoy 13y ago
What exactly are kids learning with this? How to connect cables? How to put together a box? Are you preparing them for a life in manufacturing?
- Bsharp 13y ago
  This is a product for children and people who find computers intimidating. It's meant as a fun introduction to computers and programming. Your comment is like complaining that a LEGO helicopter isn't a real helicopter, and that kids who build them are simply learning how to follow instructions.
  - djhworld 13y ago
    I guess it's just in the name. If someone said to me "build your own computer kit, for kids!" it would invoke a vision of some sort of breadboard/pre printed circuit board, with modules or blocks that you would slot into places the instructions said and told the child what each bit did, even if it was in fluffy language that a child could at least warm to. So the CPU would go in one slot, the memory in the other etc. I know this is EXACTLY how people build gaming PC's right now, but I'm thinking a lot more basic, cheaper and "kid friendly" I'm not an electrical engineer though so I'm not really sure of the limitations of how this could/probably would not work.
    - Bsharp 13y ago
      I agree that that would be more honest, if it's possible - maybe this company could add something like that to their product line. I just think that, although it isn't technically correct, non-tech parents would probably consider this "building a computer", and if their goal is to open their children's minds to computers this will probably do a great job.
mikecane 13y ago
The name made me remember Space: 1999 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kano
jff 13y ago
This is like copy-pasting commands from the Gentoo wiki so you "learn Linux". You don't learn shit, you just insert tab A into slot B, then play Minecraft. Look at the list of things you can "build". You don't actually make any of those things: >Build... >A computer, powered by Raspberry Pi Meaning: "stick it in a pre-made case" > Games like Pong, Snake Either you're playing the installed games, or writing your own... like you could do with any other computer out there. No kit required. > Music and sounds Translation: we have a speaker! > HD video Well, you're not going to be rendering any video on that little ARM processor, but I guess you can play HD video just like every other Pi. > A speaker Comes with a 1/8" connector just like fucking headphones > Towers of dynamite (...in Minecraft) Give me a break. > A wireless server Closest you'll get to building anything, although what might you serve? Well, you can serve anything with a package in Raspbian, no kit required. >A custom case, with stickers, decals, or any printed design You're not building this, it's built for you. Do they remember what this list was titled? It was titled "Build..." not "Included in the package:" > Most Debian Linux packages When I think of "building" a package, I think of compilation. At this point, though, their original concept of a list of things you can build has broken down until it's just a feature list. Every single thing on this list, except for that bullshit about stickers, is just software that you run on a Pi. Pathetic.
- djhworld 13y ago
  > This is like copy-pasting commands from the Gentoo wiki so you "learn Linux". I think you're being a little bit harsh there. When I was 14-15 this is exactly what I did when stepping into the world of Linux. Initially I installed Mandrake and couldn't understand how to do anything or how things were different from Windows. So I gave Gentoo a try and the installation process was pretty heavy going. Yes I didn't really "learn" everything about Linux from just following the instructions, but it did get me used to the command line and how to get around the system. That initial education helped me become more confident about learning how to use Linux and how to fix issues when they arose. I'm 26 now and use OSX as my primary choice, but I love tinkering away in the command line, like an old friend.
  - sliverstorm 13y ago
holyjeebis 13y ago
HN sure does manage to set the bar lower every day I read it. "Hay guise, look at us, we just came out with the same payment processing idea 300 other people did, but ours is more better" "Hay guise, omg u cud totali maek a musics and do minecrafts wen u bild our 'computar based on raspberry pi'" "Hay guise, read my story about how much of an entrapanoor I is" I wonder if this one will be followed up by a "I pitched my shitty idea to the world and failed, so here's another shitty idea" post?
ig1 13y ago
A lot of the comments here seem to fall into the line of "Why would anyone use this Dropbox ? - you can just use rsync". There's a huge gap between a Raspberry Pi which gathers dust in the corner and having a product that parents can buy their kids for xmas which they can use to teach themselves the basics of programming. Yes, parents could source the components individually, install linux, setup up scratch, download some tutorials for their kids, etc. But realistically only very tech savy parents are going to be capable of doing that and even fewer of them actually will.
- holyjeebis 13y ago
  How exactly is putting stickers on a plastic case teaching anyone anything about programming?
- ori_b 13y ago
  The comments are closer to "Installing dropbox is not the same as building a cloud based storage solution." This is a nice raspberry pi starter kit. If it was marketed that way, it would be fine. But it's not. The marketing is simply wrong. This is as much a "build your own computer" setup as plugging a keyboard, mouse, and monitor into a Dell desktop is, and people are very rightly calling bullshit on that.
  - patrickaljord 13y ago
    Most non-tech people I know consider "building your own computer" to mean being able to plug together your main board, hard drive, graphic card etc. This is what this kit do. > This is a nice raspberry pi starter kit. If it was marketed that way, it would be fine. This is why techies suck at marketing, no people would get what this is about. Are you aware that most people have no idea what raspberry pi is? To most people, a "raspberry pi starter kit" would sound like a kit containing a cookbook with a few tools to get you started and prepare a raspberry pie. This marketing is for kids and their non-tech parents. Kids can't obviously compile their kernel from scratch and build their own computer. But it challenges their curiosity, show them how to assemble a computer in a basic way, it makes them want to build stuff and gives them a fun introduction to programming and the command line. Not that bad.
johnchristopher 13y ago
I am curious about the software stack. Google didn't return anything relevant about KanoOS. Can anyone cast a light on this ? (and I like that keyboard)
th0ma5 13y ago
Reading though the comments, I wish there was an easier way to fabricate electronics. Even etching a basic board is an error prone process involving nasty chemicals, and surface mount soldering can be like threading a needle without hands. I don't know a solution to this, maybe more home pick & place robotic arms and using reflow ovens, and some kind of way to print on the paste, who knows. It is a shame that this has all escaped an easier DIY level of skills. I want to be able to do this sort of thing, but it very quickly approaches the point where the time and cost involved to do it outweighs looking around to have someone build something for me instead.
- highphive 13y ago
  It's not building a computer, but there was a post on here a few days ago about a group creating 'sticker circuitry', which essentially consisted of a set of stickers that you could put together to make simple circuits. Seems like a cool idea that gets down to the fundamentals while taking out the hard-to-approach, error-prone aspect.
wes-exp 13y ago
Is it just me or is anyone else getting tired of the constant onslaught of feel-good "code for the children" stuff? After discovering at least three different non-profits dedicated to teaching children to code, I am starting to think it is not children that need help, but adults.
- saraid216 13y ago
  It's a backlash against iPods, really.
- Segmentation 13y ago
  My only problem is that it feels a little too indoctrinating, but then I'm jaded by my personal experience with a developer who is ushering his kids into programming without giving them any career choice. But then I was forced into piano at a young age (in my dad's hope of following him as a musician), so I can't complain too much.
acc00 13y ago
How is that "Build your own computer"? This is how to build one's own computer: http://nand2tetris.org/ http://nand2tetris.org/ No kit required.
morsch 13y ago
The keyboard looks cute, almost tempted to go in for that. Just almost though -- it seems awfully small for grown up hands, and touchpads greatly vary in quality. Also, waiting for more than half a year.
fekberg 13y ago
Without watching the video and just looking over the images, it took a while to notice the difference between getting this and just getting a Raspberry Pi with a keyboard. So the package includes more stuff that makes it interesting for kids and techies to play around with the hardware and the components that come with it; pretty cool, if I had kids I'd definitely want to get something like that.
hipaulshi 13y ago
english accents kids are the best! http://youtu.be/5Tx-JQRxkNw http://youtu.be/5Tx-JQRxkNw
malandrew 13y ago
You guys should add an option to gift kanos to schools at a discount. Like "Buy 5 Kano's for the school of your choice." and "Buy 10 Kano's for the school of your choice."

106 points by tmslnz 13y ago

slezyr 13y ago

$19 "Swag" $100 for raspberry pi and... a BOX!!

tmslnz 13y ago
And a keyboard with integrated touchpad and software and a pretty decent team behind the project…
- slezyr 13y ago
  You can easy buy one of this right here and right now. All of that you can buy in the store. http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=keyboard+wireless&catId=&initiative_id=SB_20131119125525 http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=keyboard+wire...
jhickner 13y ago
From what I can tell it adds to the $35 pi: - a case w/integrated speaker - a keyboard/trackpad combo - a wifi dongle - nice manual That's not too bad for the added $65. The mini keyboard looks nicer than the ~$20 FAVI ones[1] I usually use. At first I thought they'd figured out a way to add a screen. That would be great. But it looks like you need to supply your own. I work with students in Uganda and it's hard to beat what you get from a $200 netbook. Much faster processor than a pi, plus the screen is integrated. You can't do GPIO stuff like you can with a pi though, so there are trade-offs. Twice the price of this, too. Looks like a great project to me! [1]: http://www.amazon.com/FE01-BL-Wireless-Keyboard-Mouse-Touchpad/dp/B003UE52ME http://www.amazon.com/FE01-BL-Wireless-Keyboard-Mouse-Touchp...
- ipodize 13y ago
  Just wondering, how do you get those netbooks to Uganda, and what do the students do with them?
  - venomsnake 13y ago
    Play games, have fun, use them as aides in study, as a diary/calendars, some basic tinkering skills, with ad-hoc wifi even micro networks for voice and chat - that is off the top of my head. You will be surprised how little computing power and stable internet you need to be a full digital citizen of the world. A phone line, 100mhz pentium and 8mb of RAM did it for me in 1998 :)
  - tomca32 13y ago
    I can't speak for him, but since he didn't answer, I'll tell you what we do in Rwanda. We educate homeless illiterate kids. In Rwanda, getting your way around a computer is a respected skill and none of those kids have ever touched a computer before. We are trying to give them basic computer skills such as: finding your way online, e-mail usage, searching, file management...there is a ton of simple things like that. We all take them for granted because we use computers every day of our lives. Imagine that you're illiterate and you see this shiny thing that looks like a magic box filled with random symbols. You heard about it before, you heard older men say that it's really powerful and that everybody respects individuals who can operate The Computer. So now you're in front of it. You touched the keyboard for the first time. It's filled with weird symbols, and this shinny thing has weird unearthly colors and glyphs that you cannot make sense of. It's unknown and above all, really frightening. After a couple of months, when their literacy becomes "good enough" and when they can figure out how to do basic computer tasks on their own (or figure out a solution from online sources) we seek funding to send them to boarding school so they get off the streets. This is a difficult transition for those kids, they completely lack self-respect and will be surrounded with kids from rich families that have had a massive advantage over them. But now, they consider themselves a Computer User. A person that can figure out the powerful machine, so their feeling of self-worth rises dramatically and they fare much, much better in the new school environment. And that's it. Nothing really innovative, just teaching homeless street kids some computer skills so they can feel better about themselves and find their way in school.
- tomca32 13y ago
  I work for an NGO that has IT programs in Rwanda. I would love to see some package similar to this that would somehow integrate a screen with Pi. I just love Pi as a concept and I really want to include it in our programs. As it stands now, we're in the same boat as you. Second hand laptops / netbooks are a far cheaper and simpler solution for us than getting PIs and figuring out what to do with screens, keyboards, etc...
  - slezyr 13y ago
    You can easy buy screen for raspberry pi just type "raspberry pi screen" in ebay. But they aren't cheap $60 min. and 8" maximum
  - DanBC 13y ago
    You (and parent commenter, and others) should get together and have a website for "This is the stuff we need, and why we need it". You'd have a suggestion of a package of RPi, keyboard, screen, etc. You'd give suggestions for what would be good, and what to avoid. You give a total cost, and the amount you can provide to that. You then ask people to donate. You maybe put the faces of children on your request. LIKE WATSI BUT FOR TECH.
    - voltagex_ 13y ago
      Sounds like we could lean on the OLPC guys for that a little bit, at least in the research stages. Kickstarter+Watsi+OLPC+Kiva = ?
asb 13y ago
It's actually really quite well priced. Look at the other starter kits on the market - I don't think you'll find others offering the pi + keyboard/mouse + usb power supply + wifi + hdmi cable + speaker + sd card at that price point.
- slezyr 13y ago
  Keyboard $20 + Wifi Dongle $10 + HDMI cable $5 + SD card let it be $10 + Speaker $3-5 I said nothing about the price. You can buy it in almost any store right now. There is no need for company in kickstarted.

djhworld 13y ago

It's a cute idea but the contents of the box isn't really that much different from what you'd find inside the box of an iPad or....Microsoft Surface or any other piece of consumer electronics. All this seems to be doing is taking most of the burden of having to source a keyboard, mouse and monitor if you want to use the Pi as a dedicated machine. I'm not knocking that, it's just calling it "building a computer" seems wrong. EDIT: I was probably being a bit harsh, it does seem like it's aimed at children. It looks like the booklets that come with it explain aspects of the Pi in a language children can warm to.

fat0wl 13y ago
Nah don't be so hard on yourself. This was posted weeks ago and everyone determined it sucks but HN is half just a garbage dump for free advertising of any piece of crummy tech that claims to be part of the maker zeitgeist, so IT'S BACK!!!
- ChuckMcM 13y ago
  Ok, definitely out harshed the GP. :-) I'm surprised the AdaFruit folks haven't yet created a Pi bundle like this, there closest [1] is more HW oriented. The kickstarter is pitched more toward the software development than the 'maker' development (aka controlled LEDs and stuff). [1] http://www.adafruit.com/products/1014 http://www.adafruit.com/products/1014
  - fat0wl 13y ago
    it's nice to just harsh it out now & then! ;) gotta be polite to the open-source guys but why keep up the facade for these opportunists?

HNJohnC 13y ago

Has someone redefined the word "make"? Because plugging stuff together isn't 'making' anything, in fact it's undermining kids by setting the bar for 'making' so incredibly low.

sliverstorm 13y ago
make (n): 1) An empty marketing catchphrase that allows a product to join the "maker" bandwagon

LambdaBoy 13y ago

What exactly are kids learning with this? How to connect cables? How to put together a box? Are you preparing them for a life in manufacturing?

Bsharp 13y ago
This is a product for children and people who find computers intimidating. It's meant as a fun introduction to computers and programming. Your comment is like complaining that a LEGO helicopter isn't a real helicopter, and that kids who build them are simply learning how to follow instructions.
- djhworld 13y ago
  I guess it's just in the name. If someone said to me "build your own computer kit, for kids!" it would invoke a vision of some sort of breadboard/pre printed circuit board, with modules or blocks that you would slot into places the instructions said and told the child what each bit did, even if it was in fluffy language that a child could at least warm to. So the CPU would go in one slot, the memory in the other etc. I know this is EXACTLY how people build gaming PC's right now, but I'm thinking a lot more basic, cheaper and "kid friendly" I'm not an electrical engineer though so I'm not really sure of the limitations of how this could/probably would not work.
  - Bsharp 13y ago
    I agree that that would be more honest, if it's possible - maybe this company could add something like that to their product line. I just think that, although it isn't technically correct, non-tech parents would probably consider this "building a computer", and if their goal is to open their children's minds to computers this will probably do a great job.

mikecane 13y ago

The name made me remember Space: 1999 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kano

jff 13y ago

This is like copy-pasting commands from the Gentoo wiki so you "learn Linux". You don't learn shit, you just insert tab A into slot B, then play Minecraft. Look at the list of things you can "build". You don't actually make any of those things: >Build... >A computer, powered by Raspberry Pi Meaning: "stick it in a pre-made case" > Games like Pong, Snake Either you're playing the installed games, or writing your own... like you could do with any other computer out there. No kit required. > Music and sounds Translation: we have a speaker! > HD video Well, you're not going to be rendering any video on that little ARM processor, but I guess you can play HD video just like every other Pi. > A speaker Comes with a 1/8" connector just like fucking headphones > Towers of dynamite (...in Minecraft) Give me a break. > A wireless server Closest you'll get to building anything, although what might you serve? Well, you can serve anything with a package in Raspbian, no kit required. >A custom case, with stickers, decals, or any printed design You're not building this, it's built for you. Do they remember what this list was titled? It was titled "Build..." not "Included in the package:" > Most Debian Linux packages When I think of "building" a package, I think of compilation. At this point, though, their original concept of a list of things you can build has broken down until it's just a feature list. Every single thing on this list, except for that bullshit about stickers, is just software that you run on a Pi. Pathetic.

djhworld 13y ago
> This is like copy-pasting commands from the Gentoo wiki so you "learn Linux". I think you're being a little bit harsh there. When I was 14-15 this is exactly what I did when stepping into the world of Linux. Initially I installed Mandrake and couldn't understand how to do anything or how things were different from Windows. So I gave Gentoo a try and the installation process was pretty heavy going. Yes I didn't really "learn" everything about Linux from just following the instructions, but it did get me used to the command line and how to get around the system. That initial education helped me become more confident about learning how to use Linux and how to fix issues when they arose. I'm 26 now and use OSX as my primary choice, but I love tinkering away in the command line, like an old friend.
- sliverstorm 13y ago

holyjeebis 13y ago

HN sure does manage to set the bar lower every day I read it. "Hay guise, look at us, we just came out with the same payment processing idea 300 other people did, but ours is more better" "Hay guise, omg u cud totali maek a musics and do minecrafts wen u bild our 'computar based on raspberry pi'" "Hay guise, read my story about how much of an entrapanoor I is" I wonder if this one will be followed up by a "I pitched my shitty idea to the world and failed, so here's another shitty idea" post?

ig1 13y ago

A lot of the comments here seem to fall into the line of "Why would anyone use this Dropbox ? - you can just use rsync". There's a huge gap between a Raspberry Pi which gathers dust in the corner and having a product that parents can buy their kids for xmas which they can use to teach themselves the basics of programming. Yes, parents could source the components individually, install linux, setup up scratch, download some tutorials for their kids, etc. But realistically only very tech savy parents are going to be capable of doing that and even fewer of them actually will.

holyjeebis 13y ago
How exactly is putting stickers on a plastic case teaching anyone anything about programming?
ori_b 13y ago
The comments are closer to "Installing dropbox is not the same as building a cloud based storage solution." This is a nice raspberry pi starter kit. If it was marketed that way, it would be fine. But it's not. The marketing is simply wrong. This is as much a "build your own computer" setup as plugging a keyboard, mouse, and monitor into a Dell desktop is, and people are very rightly calling bullshit on that.
- patrickaljord 13y ago
  Most non-tech people I know consider "building your own computer" to mean being able to plug together your main board, hard drive, graphic card etc. This is what this kit do. > This is a nice raspberry pi starter kit. If it was marketed that way, it would be fine. This is why techies suck at marketing, no people would get what this is about. Are you aware that most people have no idea what raspberry pi is? To most people, a "raspberry pi starter kit" would sound like a kit containing a cookbook with a few tools to get you started and prepare a raspberry pie. This marketing is for kids and their non-tech parents. Kids can't obviously compile their kernel from scratch and build their own computer. But it challenges their curiosity, show them how to assemble a computer in a basic way, it makes them want to build stuff and gives them a fun introduction to programming and the command line. Not that bad.

johnchristopher 13y ago

I am curious about the software stack. Google didn't return anything relevant about KanoOS. Can anyone cast a light on this ? (and I like that keyboard)

th0ma5 13y ago

Reading though the comments, I wish there was an easier way to fabricate electronics. Even etching a basic board is an error prone process involving nasty chemicals, and surface mount soldering can be like threading a needle without hands. I don't know a solution to this, maybe more home pick & place robotic arms and using reflow ovens, and some kind of way to print on the paste, who knows. It is a shame that this has all escaped an easier DIY level of skills. I want to be able to do this sort of thing, but it very quickly approaches the point where the time and cost involved to do it outweighs looking around to have someone build something for me instead.

highphive 13y ago
It's not building a computer, but there was a post on here a few days ago about a group creating 'sticker circuitry', which essentially consisted of a set of stickers that you could put together to make simple circuits. Seems like a cool idea that gets down to the fundamentals while taking out the hard-to-approach, error-prone aspect.

wes-exp 13y ago

Is it just me or is anyone else getting tired of the constant onslaught of feel-good "code for the children" stuff? After discovering at least three different non-profits dedicated to teaching children to code, I am starting to think it is not children that need help, but adults.

saraid216 13y ago
It's a backlash against iPods, really.
Segmentation 13y ago
My only problem is that it feels a little too indoctrinating, but then I'm jaded by my personal experience with a developer who is ushering his kids into programming without giving them any career choice. But then I was forced into piano at a young age (in my dad's hope of following him as a musician), so I can't complain too much.

acc00 13y ago

How is that "Build your own computer"? This is how to build one's own computer: http://nand2tetris.org/ http://nand2tetris.org/ No kit required.

morsch 13y ago

The keyboard looks cute, almost tempted to go in for that. Just almost though -- it seems awfully small for grown up hands, and touchpads greatly vary in quality. Also, waiting for more than half a year.

fekberg 13y ago

Without watching the video and just looking over the images, it took a while to notice the difference between getting this and just getting a Raspberry Pi with a keyboard. So the package includes more stuff that makes it interesting for kids and techies to play around with the hardware and the components that come with it; pretty cool, if I had kids I'd definitely want to get something like that.

hipaulshi 13y ago

english accents kids are the best! http://youtu.be/5Tx-JQRxkNw http://youtu.be/5Tx-JQRxkNw

malandrew 13y ago

You guys should add an option to gift kanos to schools at a discount. Like "Buy 5 Kano's for the school of your choice." and "Buy 10 Kano's for the school of your choice."