Introduction
Welcome!
Hi there. Congratulations on being interested enough in the process of learning about the Raspberry Pi to have gotten your hands on this book.
If you haven’t guessed already, this will be a journey of discovery for both of us. I have always enjoyed experimenting with computers and using them to know a bit more about what is happening in the physical environment. I know that this sort of effort has been done already by others, but I want to go provide a basic core for folks who are new to the topic to get them started.
Ambitious? Perhaps :-). But I’d like to think that if you’re reading this, perhaps I managed to make some headway. I dare say that like other books I have written (or are in the process of writing) it will remain a work in progress. They are living documents, open to feedback, comment, expansion, change and improvement. Please feel free to provide your thoughts on ways that I can improve things. Your input would be much appreciated.
You will find that I have typically eschewed a simple “Do this approach” for more of a story telling exercise. This means that some explanations are longer and more flowery than might be to everyone’s liking, but there you go, try to be brave :-)
I’m sure most authors try to be as accessible as possible. I’d like to do the same, but be warned… There’s a good chance that if you ask me a technical question I may not know the answer. So please be gentle with your emails :-).
Email: d3noobmail+rpi@gmail.com
What are we trying to do?
Put simply, we are going to examine the wonder that is the Raspberry Pi, work through some of the options available to us to use it and step through the processes to make that happen.
We’ll look at the history of how the Pi came to be and some of the versions available. We’ll examine the peripherals required to use it effectively and check out the operating system options to get us up and running. As part of the additional ‘cool factor’ we’ll add in some neat things that we can do with the device and there will be am explanation of the Linux commands that we will use as we go.
Who is this book for?
You!
Just by virtue of taking an interest and getting hold of a copy of this book you have demonstrated a desire to learn, to explore and to challenge yourself. That’s the most important criteria you will want to have when trying something new. Your experience level will come second place to a desire to learn.
Having said that, it may be useful to be comfortable using the Windows operating system (I’ll be using Windows 7 for the set-up of the devices since that would probably classify as (currently) the world’s most ubiquitous operating system), you should be aware of Linux as an alternative operating system, but you needn’t have tried it before. The best thing to remember is that before you learn anything new, it pretty much always appears indistinguishable from magic, but once you start having a play, the mystery quickly falls away.
Where can I get more information?
The Raspberry Pi as a concept has provided an extensible and practical framework for introducing people to the wonders of computing in the real world. At the same time there has been a boom of information available for people to use them. The following is a far from exhaustive list of sources, but from my own experience it represents a useful subset of knowledge.
raspberrypi.org
Google+
Google Groups
Raspberry Pi Stack Exchange