[aastronaut]

I think it should be "The art of buying single-board computers and never running them once". I think the "once" is needed in the case of computers. They are as machines not directly comparable to books...

A book, like any media, fulfilled its initial purpose after it has been "consumed" - anything else (looks nice, feels nice, smells nice) are physical, subjective qualities attached to it. You might even buy it solely for these physical qualities, but that's besides the point.

A machine has its purpose in its usage, and that usage requires known resources that should not be carelessly wasted. I personally buy them to enable a utility for myself and have fun discovering it. It fulfilled its initial purpose even if it was powered on just once.

Even those single-board computers that were put to "good use", as building blocks for new devices (eg. [0]), are still not in use the whole time.

[0]: https://www.creativeapplications.net/objects/paragraphica-co...

[rewmie]

> I think it should be "The art of buying single-board computers and never running them once". I think the "once" is needed in the case of computers. They are as machines not directly comparable to books...

I have a few orange pi boards in a drawer that would disagree with you.

[topherjaynes]

hardware equivalent of buying domains for side-projects you never do