www.raspberrypi.org is where I started. I went to the website and after looking around on the homepage, I decided to click on the ‘help’ menu. I found a number of nice, short videos on all sorts of different things. Most importantly, I found a video titled “Quick Start Guide” and after watching it, I discovered I needed NOOBS. Not because I am one (even though I am), but because that is what the operating system for getting started is called. I downloaded a copy, followed the instructions on writing it to a micro-SD card and I was all set to get started learning to code.

Not quite that simple, or so I discovered.  I plugged the card into the RPi, plugged in the old USB keyboard and mouse that I remembered I had in a box of old computer parts left over from my pre-laptop days, plugged one end of the HDMI cable into the RPi and the other end into the spare monitor and then turned it all on.  IT WORKED, by that I mean the lights on the little box turned red, and the monitor said welcome to Noobs, let’s get started, but first you need to answer a couple of questions. 1.) What is your wifi information? I filled in the blanks: network name, encryption method, password and then the menu changed and asked me which opperating system to install.  I had already watched the video on getting started with Noobs so I told the RPi that I wanted to install Raspbian.  Half an hour later, it was ready and again, I had to answer some more questions: What country do I live in? What is my time zone, what kind of keyboard layout do I want? Then it asked me if I wanted to save the settings and reboot? I said yes! Time to learn to code!  

Wait! Not so fast! First I’m going to play with this device, the worlds smallest computer and see what it can do. I opened the web browser, (it’s pretty quick) and typed in “youtube” searched for “The Internet’s Own Boy” and I watched the documentary on Aaron Swartz. It worked perfectly. Exactly how it is supposed to look on a “real computer”.

What did I learn today? I learned that all aspects of raspberrypi.org are released under a Creative Commons license, specifically CC BY-SA, which is also the license used by wikipedia! I am able to share, copy, distribute, transmit, and remix the material I find on their website provided that I attribute the material to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, provide a link to the original resource, indicate if changes were made and if I alter, transform, or build upon these materials I must distribute the materials under the same license. (https://www.raspberrypi.org/creative-commons/) The entire Raspberry Pi Foundation’s resources are free to use as long as you give them credit and if you create anything new with their resources, agree to share alike.

I am more impressed with this group the more I learn about them.

Now do I get to learn to code? Stay tuned for the next installment of “Irwin Learns to Code”.