On Tuesday 07 February 2006 18:08, Ken Boak wrote:
Hi,
Ah --- you made it!
[...]
Any update infor on E2 activities would be appreciated - or should I go to Currys and buy an E3 ? ;-)
I haven't done anything for a while, due to a sudden resurgence of Life (plus a new house and managing to break my breadboarded line level converter). I do mean to go back to it; there's something I actually want to do with my E2.
(Incidentally, I originally got C running on my E2 using the tcc compiler, because I couldn't get gcc to work. tcc produces lousy code and was only suitable for prototyping. For doing real work, I need a better compiler --- but I *still* cannot get gcc to work. I'm using Ubuntu Linux and trying to build a toolchain with the toolchain-source package, and it always fails to compile. Does anyone know where I can get precompiled ARM7 compiler packages?)
[...]
I like the idea from the archives about putting an E3 in a plain box and making it available as a cheap platform for kids etc. There was a project in India to do a sub-$100 laptop for school kids.
It's worth pointing out that the E2 or E3 are only cheap because Amstrad are heavily subsidising them. They plan to make their money back through service charges. So while buying the odd one as a personal toy is reasonable, buying a hundred with an aim to modifying them and then selling them on is considered definitely bad form!
(In fact, Cliff Lawson from Amstrad is on this list and he's said --- later on in the thread you were reading --- that there are plans afoot to introduce an encryption layer specifically to prevent this kind of thing.)