Two interesting things happened last week and neither had anything to do with social networking or privacy. First, a web server fell over. Nothing new in that, you say; happens all the time. Yes, but this wasn't any old web server: it was the machine that hosts the Raspberry Pi site. It was overwhelmed because, on Wednesday at 6am, the project released its first product – a credit card-sized computer board that costs £22 and which, when plugged into a TV and a keyboard, turns into a fully programmable computer running the Linux operating system. "Guys – can you please stop hitting F5 on our website quite so often?" pleaded the webmaster at one stage. "You're bringing the server to its knees." The swamping of the site by people desperate for news indicated that something was up.
The second thing that happened confirmed this hunch. The first batch of 10,000 units to be made available through major device resellers such as RS sold out within minutes of going on sale on Wednesday morning. This was the geeky equivalent of the Glastonbury ticket scrum.
