Raspberry Pi's Eben Upton: A self-employed world

[Pat Pending]

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130402-a-self-employed-world

I'm not sure if we'll all be self employed, as I think there is still a need for large organizations to
pull off the truly Herculean engineering efforts.

[tom66]

WTF BBC?

We're sorry but this site is not accessible from the UK as it is part of our international service and is not funded by the licence fee. It is run commercially by BBC Worldwide, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC, the profits made from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new BBC programmes. You can find out more about BBC Worldwide and its digital activities at www.bbcworldwide.com.

[smashedProton]

WTF BBC?

We're sorry but this site is not accessible from the UK as it is part of our international service and is not funded by the licence fee. It is run commercially by BBC Worldwide, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC, the profits made from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new BBC programmes. You can find out more about BBC Worldwide and its digital activities at www.bbcworldwide.com.

Here is the text for ya...

For the last 20 years we’ve become alienated from technology, says Upton. For many of us technology exists to consume things produced by other people.

In the 1980s, people could learn to program on their home computers, and for Upton it proved to be a transformative experience – it provided a feeling of power when as a child he felt powerless. Now we live in a world of fixed-function devices like games consoles that are non-programmable, or computers that are programmable but it’s hard to learn how.

But as shown by his Raspberry Pi project, a cheap, credit-card-sized computer designed to encourage teaching of programming in schools, children and adults really want to have a deeper relationship with technology. They want to be able to control the technology around them, rather than be its slave.

So you can begin to imagine a world where many people have ideas and can turn those ideas into reality, without having to join a large organisation and give up a part of the value that they create. This self-employed world would lead to a massive increase in productivity and would open the door to a massive improvement in individual wellbeing, thinks Upton.

If you look back in history, people used to work for themselves, it’s only in the last 200-300 years that we have had more of a corporatist era, where more and more people work for large companies. These things are always driven by changes in technology. If we give people access to tools, and allow them to control their environment and destiny, Upton thinks it will allow us to progress down the road to a self-employed future.

If you would like to comment on this video or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

[FrankBuss]

Doesn't make much sense. The Raspberry Pi is easier for learning how to program? All you need nowadays is open a file with notepad, write some JavaScript and then open it with a browser. Can't be much easier. For an easier API and language: install PyGames.

[smashedProton]

Yes, but it is difficult and disorganized to teach yourself something technical without taking the first step with a dev environment

[FrankBuss]

Yes, but it is difficult and disorganized to teach yourself something technical without taking the first step with a dev environment

Right, but you can just use the same programs, which are installed on the Raspbian distribution. Or any other (easy) IDE, like Squeak:



It is not easier or more difficult to use it on a PC.

[smashedProton]

Please show me a dirt simple pc interface then for hobbyists.  The pi has one.  So does arduino

[ddavidebor]

WTF BBC?

We're sorry but this site is not accessible from the UK as it is part of our international service and is not funded by the licence fee. It is run commercially by BBC Worldwide, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC, the profits made from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new BBC programmes. You can find out more about BBC Worldwide and its digital activities at www.bbcworldwide.com.

Here is the text for ya...

For the last 20 years we’ve become alienated from technology, says Upton. For many of us technology exists to consume things produced by other people.

In the 1980s, people could learn to program on their home computers, and for Upton it proved to be a transformative experience – it provided a feeling of power when as a child he felt powerless. Now we live in a world of fixed-function devices like games consoles that are non-programmable, or computers that are programmable but it’s hard to learn how.

But as shown by his Raspberry Pi project, a cheap, credit-card-sized computer designed to encourage teaching of programming in schools, children and adults really want to have a deeper relationship with technology. They want to be able to control the technology around them, rather than be its slave.

So you can begin to imagine a world where many people have ideas and can turn those ideas into reality, without having to join a large organisation and give up a part of the value that they create. This self-employed world would lead to a massive increase in productivity and would open the door to a massive improvement in individual wellbeing, thinks Upton.

If you look back in history, people used to work for themselves, it’s only in the last 200-300 years that we have had more of a corporatist era, where more and more people work for large companies. These things are always driven by changes in technology. If we give people access to tools, and allow them to control their environment and destiny, Upton thinks it will allow us to progress down the road to a self-employed future.

If you would like to comment on this video or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

Impressive amount of bullshit

[ftransform]

Why is it bullshit?

Whats bullshit is coding something in notepad.

Buying a little device, making a light blink, interacting with your environment is fun. 
I think that coding a program on a computer that you use for work, etc, is just not fun. When you have a complicated operating system and tons of advanced programs you can download there is not much incentive to write a program that makes something pop up on your screen, because you see millions of things pop up on your screen, you are desensitized to it.

Programming a little machine that makes a light blink is really out of the ordinary, it has a sort of magical feel to it. I think arduinos/etc are great. I don't own one but still.

[amyk]

If we give people access to tools, and allow them to control their environment and destiny, Upton thinks it will allow us to progress down the road to a self-employed future.

How about releasing the datasheet for the Pi's SoC then...? I find it a bit hypocritical that someone who is making these statements is also behind one of the most proprietary "open" computers around. Maybe that's what the "bullshit" comment was about.

[ddavidebor]

No, bullshit the part about self employment.

[lewis]

No, bullshit the part about self employment.

What's bullshit about it?

[ddavidebor]

" This self-employed world would lead to a massive increase in productivity and would open the door to a massive improvement in individual wellbeing, thinks Upton."

[FrankBuss]

Please show me a dirt simple pc interface then for hobbyists.  The pi has one.  So does arduino

Right, for LED blinking etc. it is not easy with a PC, if you don't use an Arduino. But Eben Upton wrote, that it makes easier to learn programming, and this is wrong. I've just installed the current Raspbian distribution for my Raspberry Pi and if you manage to start X, you can see the following programming related programs:

- Scratch, a really nice Lego-like programming environment: http://scratch.mit.edu , but which you can just run in your browser on PC or Mac, too, but which is available as an offline version for Windows, Mac and Linux

- Idle, a Python IDE, available for Windows, Linux and Mac, too

- Python Games, a list of games written with PyGame, which you can click

- Squeak (hidden in the start menu), as described before, which is also available for Windows and Mac.

Idle is a nice entry level IDE, but of course, it is just a Debian installation, so you could install KDevelop or any other program you like. I really don't see how it is easier to program with the Raspi than with a PC.

When I started with the C64 as a kid, I was not interested in external hardware (later a bit, when I developed a simple ADC for the user-port to sample music for my demos). Some kids might be interesting in blinking LEDs, but I doubt it, in the era of smartphones.

But writing your own game might be still interesting and then later maybe they are interested in hardware, too. For this combination, programming and external hardware, the Raspi is better than a PC, but the same is true for an Arduino, at beginners level. It is even more limited, because no ADC input or DAC output, so for many things which you can do with an Arduino, you'll need extra hardware for the Raspi.

[lewis]

" This self-employed world would lead to a massive increase in productivity and would open the door to a massive improvement in individual wellbeing, thinks Upton."

I don't see anything wrong with that... As a self-employed person myself I can say that my quality of life is significantly improved over what it would be if I was employed. I get to choose my hours, do things I'm passionate about rather than what I'm told to do by some imbecile, and I get to work for, and keep the rewards for, myself rather than my boss.

As for productivity, if I don't work, I don't get paid. That's a great motivator for doing things and being as efficient at it as possible, unlike in some employed work where you can get away with freeloading unnoticed. (Despite the fact that my apprentice would be if he read this, all I seem to do is spend time on eevblog.)

Self-employment is not for everyone, and for some it can be extremely stressful. But I don't think I'd ever go back to work for anyone else again. I couldn't sacrifice the freedom and self-determination.

[ddavidebor]

Yes but you actually work with things made by large company.

If people had not collaborate in large companies, with research division and varius specialized stages in product development... We would still making home with mud and care ourselves with magic instead of antibiotics.

This remind me all the bullshit about multinational company=bad

[tom66]

The only major application I have found for my Pi is custom media centers or doing something that seems ridiculous to do on a PC. I run XBMC on my Pi, and plan to attach one to each TV as a media sink, all streaming content from a central media server. Or perhaps one as a print server, since it would be silly to have a PC idling at 100W 24/7 when the Pi will do it at less than 2W.

[ddavidebor]

And i agree that "is more simple program ras. Pi than pc" is bullshit too

This speech has all the "classic" bullshit parts that every stupid tv programs had.

Like adding false statement on a linear thinking.

I can't describe more, my english is not good in that tipes of things.

[Corporate666]

For as long as technology has been around, people have been promising that the latest technology will be simpler and put the power of creating it into the hands of the average person.  But it has never happened.  Technology gets more complicated, more specialized, and it's creation becomes the domain of big companies and those with special knowledge and further from the ability of the layman.

I remember in the early 1990's when Wolfenstein 3D came out... and it was something that a couple of guys on a modest budget could do.  All sorts of tools came out to make design and programming easier, and you could even buy pre-packaged 3D engines.  But now, game development is done with teams of a couple of hundred people, multi-million dollar budgets, etc. 

Same with hardware.  Look at the first cordless phones... making one would be in the capability of many here.  Compare that to the latest Samsung Galaxy S4.  The resources required to make that are unfathomable.  I bet Samsung has hundreds of people working on that product and they spent hundreds of millions on it.


The Pi guy thinking we will all move towards self employment in the future?  I think he's obviously got access to some pretty strong drugs!

[FrankBuss]

I remember in the early 1990's when Wolfenstein 3D came out... and it was something that a couple of guys on a modest budget could do.  All sorts of tools came out to make design and programming easier, and you could even buy pre-packaged 3D engines.  But now, game development is done with teams of a couple of hundred people, multi-million dollar budgets, etc. 

Good and new game ideas, like Minecraft, can be implemented in a week by one programmer. World of Goo was implemented by a $10,000 budget. The multi-million dollar budget is for the movies in games, 3D graphics, orchestra etc. Usually I prefer indie games, because nobody needs the thousands first person shooter.

Same with hardware.  Look at the first cordless phones... making one would be in the capability of many here.  Compare that to the latest Samsung Galaxy S4.  The resources required to make that are unfathomable.  I bet Samsung has hundreds of people working on that product and they spent hundreds of millions on it.

Right for most complex consumer electronics. But you can still be self-employed with smaller projects, like with a uCurrent, Arduino or something like the Pebble watch. And doing contract work, working as a freelancer for some time in bigger teams. Can be fun sometimes, too.

[ddavidebor]

Yes, but you'll (and i will) be only one person in a word of comoany!

Why? Simple, union make force.

[amyk]

Look at the first cordless phones... making one would be in the capability of many here.  Compare that to the latest Samsung Galaxy S4.  The resources required to make that are unfathomable.  I bet Samsung has hundreds of people working on that product and they spent hundreds of millions on it.

Shanzhai phones from China can be produced for much less... although that relies on a (not-so-legally) open ecosystem that is ironically the exact opposite of what this guy is trying to do with the RPi.

[Rasz]

Look at the first cordless phones... making one would be in the capability of many here.  Compare that to the latest Samsung Galaxy S4.  The resources required to make that are unfathomable.  I bet Samsung has hundreds of people working on that product and they spent hundreds of millions on it.

Shanzhai phones from China can be produced for much less... although that relies on a (not-so-legally) open ecosystem that is ironically the exact opposite of what this guy is trying to do with the RPi.

Exactly. Eben is a VP/PM/whatever in the most close minded company in the world. You need to sign NDA just to be allowed contact with people that decide if you are worthy signing real NDA to get datasheets. They are the exact opposite of open friendly development environment.
People had to resort to emulating Windows kernel (Ndiswrapper) just to be able to use Broadcom products.

They just released camera addon for rpi. You cant change any camera parameters (white balance, exposure, etc), there is no access to raw camera data , no access to camera module i2c bus. Broadcom engineer just said its too difficult for people to figure out so they wont bother ... he also claimed color profiles are SECRET sauce. They are selling $5 cellphone camera module at $25.

[Corporate666]

I remember in the early 1990's when Wolfenstein 3D came out... and it was something that a couple of guys on a modest budget could do.  All sorts of tools came out to make design and programming easier, and you could even buy pre-packaged 3D engines.  But now, game development is done with teams of a couple of hundred people, multi-million dollar budgets, etc. 

Good and new game ideas, like Minecraft, can be implemented in a week by one programmer. World of Goo was implemented by a $10,000 budget. The multi-million dollar budget is for the movies in games, 3D graphics, orchestra etc. Usually I prefer indie games, because nobody needs the thousands first person shooter.

Same with hardware.  Look at the first cordless phones... making one would be in the capability of many here.  Compare that to the latest Samsung Galaxy S4.  The resources required to make that are unfathomable.  I bet Samsung has hundreds of people working on that product and they spent hundreds of millions on it.

Right for most complex consumer electronics. But you can still be self-employed with smaller projects, like with a uCurrent, Arduino or something like the Pebble watch. And doing contract work, working as a freelancer for some time in bigger teams. Can be fun sometimes, too.

There are always exceptions that prove the rule - but I don't think anyone could successfully argue that it is becoming easier for the independent one-man-show to compete in the current electronics world of today.  It's getting harder.  I bet the vast majority of money spent on video games goes to a small number of game developers that employ thousands.  And I bet Dave doesn't earn enough on the uCurrent to make a living on just that - and the Pebble guys were a team that got millions of $$ in funding to make it happen.  I tend to think these examples prove the rule, really.

I'm sure neither of us believes Eben's claim that we are looking at a future where everyone will be self employes through the empowerment of techology, right?

[MikeK]

No, bullshit the part about self employment.

Yep.  A self employed future, where everyone is an entrepreneur, and nobody has healthcare or vacation or security or a pension...