[HLUG] Raspberry PI OpenElec Media centre

[Paul]

Julian,

I think the best thing for kids on the Pi is Scratch. Its colourful and 
engaging and its very easy to get kids drawing pretty pictures!

I am looking to start up a codeclub in Hereford, which is aimed at 10 
and 11 year old children, to give them an insight into coding really. 
But if you talk nicely to the IT teacher at your daughters school, they 
may set one up there :)

Actually, although again, it probably is for people a little geeky, 
Airpi at www.Airpi.es is an easy to assemble ( bit of soldering 
required) system to monitor air conditions, and then allows you to 
uplink up to a website to display the results. It would be nice if 
Herefordshire was the first wall to wall monitored county.

cheers,
Paul.
> Hi
>
> Been a bit quiet on the list so far this year.
>
> I must be the last person in the world to do this, but I finally bought a
> Raspberry PI a week or so back. The aim is to replace an old freeview box
> with an all singing/dancing media box instead to add some functionality,
> like pausing live tv, recordings, etc etc etc.
>
> I already had many parts for this, like PSU and DVB tuner, etc but when
> powered up, just could not get a signal on the DVB tuner. Frustrating.
> Believed it was an issue with power supply draw, so used a powered hub
> instead, but still no better. Just couldn't work it out.
>
> Then put DVB tuner stick in laptop instead - still no signal ...so
> suspected something up with aerial, as I have two different DVB devices to
> try and neither worked.
>
> Then, I thought ... I wonder if switching off my Ethernet over Power device
> is interfering as the socket is right next to the aerial socket? Unplugging
> this was key, and suddenly multiplexes and services started appearing ...
> Often the most silly thing that stops you in your tracks !!
>
> So, mostly working now. A bit slow to turn channel over and still need to
> box up my various bits and bobs, but apart from getting a remote control
> working ... working nicely. Changing the channels by using a mouse just
> seems so weird at the moment.
>
> You have to admit these devices are cool, it's only when you dive into
> using one properly that you discover the myriad of possibilities.
>
> But sadly, I also wonder how many Pi's are languishing unloved,
> misunderstood, in homes. After explaining what I had made to my daughter,
> she said they weren't any good as a friend at school had one and said it
> was 'crap' as it didn't do anything ... I think there's a real risk these
> devices are sometimes just powered up a few times, Raspian played with, and
> the PI never explored at all to find out how much fun you can have with
> them.
>
> Perhaps we ought to think of a useful project for the county that people
> can use their Pi's for ? Or have a Pi day where they can bring their
> devices and we can show them some funky things they can do ... ?
>
> Just a thought ..
>
> Cheers
>
> Julian