[ale] Basic/playing-around distro

[Steve Litt]

On Sun, 18 Jun 2017 10:42:12 -0400
Greg Clifton <gccfof5 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Picking up where SteveT left off, wouldn't a $40 RPi3 be adequate to
> the task? With TDP in the range of an old school (pre LED) kid's
> night light at something like what 8 watts power consumption, you
> could run it fanless, reducing both noise and failure points. Just
> guessing, but a minimally tasked older system, esp. if P4, would
> likely draw over 10x more power.
> 
> I'm not great with math, but if I did the numbers right
> 8Wx24x365/1000 = 70.08kWH/year at average of $0.10/kWH = $7.01/year
> for the Pi vs ~ $70/year for the PC (even more if P4). So it wouldn't
> take too many months to recover the cost of new RPi based system vs
> using an old decommissioned PC.

But wait,  there's more! Your RPi3 would be great for bragging rights.
Your RPi3 would help give you the experience to help you later build RPi
based MythTV. I don't know what you do for a living, but I'm betting it
will raise your market value.

LOL, it might even help your love life. After several years of
marriage, my wife Sylvia had seen me author books, fly all over the
country giving classes, and write programs to make computers do what I
wanted them to do. She understood this stuff was cool, but kinda took
it for granted.

Then, one day, she saw me soldering. Her eyes grew wide, her face
filled with color as she said "you can do that ?????????". Let's just
say she was impressed.

Greg's right. RPi3 is cheap to buy, cheap to run, and will forever
improve your life.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
June 2017 featured book: The Key to Everyday Excellence
http://www.troubleshooters.com/key