What $35 of computer gets you
 

Normally don't really get excited about computer stuff but this little guy is pretty cool. A full computer for $35, a Raspberry pi model B. Powered by a usb cable from the monitor which also functions as a usb hub for more devices. Got it to play around with at work to deploy dashboards around the company.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1368130368.jpg

Once the gui is started. Running a Linux Debian based operating system.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1368130398.jpg

Amazing. A long way from my 4.77 MHz Compaq Portable from 1985 that cost $4,000.

Compaq Portable - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One of my students used one this past term for his final project. Made a media center PC out of it

Well worth $35 I do believe.

some people are using them as controller in old Vanagons - WiFi hub, engine mgmt. (may be Sube motors) and PV solar/battery controllers

I got one. Still trying to figure out something cool to put it in, as well as what I am going to do with it..

I have one sitting on my office desk. Got debian booted. Looked around it a bit, and then nothing.

Haven't figured out what I want to do with it yet. There are so many things I could do, but none of them are so groundbreaking that I'm running up to write code all night for...

For about the same, you could get one of these:

http://www.avatelecom.vn/publish/thu...06800_02_L.jpg

The one thing I'm tempted to do it use it in a home stereo setup as an MP3 server, and house it inside an amp along with a terabyte drive and a wif dongle. Then write a front-end that I can access via a web page to send files to the drive, play music off the drive, stream music to the player, or - and this is a big one- play audio/video from youtube. I listen to so much music on youtube just due to the ease of finding the song I want to hear on youtube. I ditched pandora one a long time ago. However I do still play MP3's as the real good stuff I get in high-bitrate.

Anyway, I have an older Yamaha receiver that still sounds superb (it was $1500 or so new) and I think there is some good empty space in the back of it's enclosure to fit the board and a drive in there. And it would still look the same on the outside.

You should check out the Download Helper extension for firefox - any video playing, you can click the icon and download it, or download it and rip the audio out to mp3 file.

I bought one with a case, power supply, etc. to setup a NAS/media server - it worked great (mostly because I found a website that explained step by step how to do it). I had fun, but it's just been sitting for awhile - if anyone is interested in it, shoot me a PM.