Eben Upton, the executive director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, recently stood in front of a Skyrim map while making a video announcing the auction of the first ten Raspberry Pi computers. These computers are eventually going to retail for $25 and are the Model B boards which include a 700MHz ARM11 processor and 256MB of SDRAM on a board the size of a credit card (more specs here).
So how much are these $25 computers selling for at auction? Just a tad more than $25. The first one listed has already been bid up to £1,750.00 (~$2,700 USD) as of this writing. The second is £850 (~$1,300 USD), the third is £623 (~$970 USD), and the fourth is £565 (~$880 USD). FIVE GOLDEN RINGS . . . could easily be purchased with the same amount of money.
The auction winners get a “$25 computer” with a serial number of ten or lower, along with a certificate of authenticity, a USB power supply, an SD card pre-loaded with Linux (probably Debian), and a sizable tax deduction if UK registered charities are tax deductible where they live. You also get the bragging rights of saying you paid thousands of dollars for a 700 MHz computer, just like a K Street wonk from 1999 boasting about his new Pentium laptop into a Nokia cellphone you could bludgeon someone to death with.