In previous Around the Grounds articles, I referred to Raspberry Pi as a “$25-$35 computer”. I take that back. It’s now a $51 computer, before shipping and GST is taken into account.

If one were ordering more than a handful of these devices, it would be tempting to get them via a third country or province with little sales tax. For instance, folks in the US could save up to $13 per Pi. The fun of currency conversions and the need to save a few bucks could lead to this.

Remember back in the day when RSS feeds in email clients was all the rage? Mozilla is poised to add a twist to its Thunderbird email-cum-communication client when it adds instant messaging to the program’s nightly builds. The supported protocols off the bat will be Google, Facebook and Twitter. An image of it in action is available here.

And for Python freaks, if you were hanging out for the next release of Python 2.8, then hang no more.

From the 2.8 schedule:

Rule number six: there is no official Python 2.8 release. There never will be an official Python 2.8 release. It is an ex-release. Python 2.7 is the end of the Python 2 line of development.

The official upgrade path from Python 2.7 is to Python 3.