Discussion on:

Raspberry Pi: are you one of the lucky 57?

You don't really need a credit-card sized computer to be a media centre. You can (and should) use any desktop box you have that you have "upgraded" from. Any 5 year old machine can be a decent media centre already.

What you need/want the Pi for is for cool homebrew projects such as robotics, device control, home automation etc. Where it's small size coupled with its low power profile will really make new things possible.

I've ordered a Pi and haven't one gotten yet; not surprised. Not upset either. In another hobby I'm involved in, it can take up to a year to get the item(s) once they are ordered. However, Pi is an example of what not to do when the product was annouced. Someone totally underestimated demand. Some talk about the decline of interest in tech professions. I think the Pi shows that there are still people, lots of them, that want to get their hands "dirty".

A quote from your story:

"Lim said that the focus of the device remains teaching programming skills, and that the priority is to get the Pi into students??? hands after the enthusiast queue has been satisfied."

I know that the specs just begged for the application by making HDMI the hi-res output instead of WXVGA (or whatever it's currently called, the 15-pin Dsub connector), but really.... I'm amazed that the first criteria that any new computer is judged by in the reviews is "how well does it stick a pacifier in my mouth and entertain me?"

I'm assuming the chipset or connector size made HDMI a better choice than *VGA, not the idea that everyone will turn it into a media center.

I'm surprised no one asked how well it runs Crysis or Diablo.

It seems they can use the RTL SDR dongles sothe might be handy radios, for Weather Sats etc