My newest giveaway is a Rasperry Pi complete starter kit, including wi-fi and the works. Sign up now.

In effect, I’m giving away an Analytical Engine.

In the 1840s, Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer program, for a non-electronic computer called the Analytical Engine. A hundred years later, Alan Turing proved that all sufficiently-powerful computers are, in principle, equivalent–whatever one can compute, so can another. So this tiny computer can do anything the multi-ton Analytical Engine could have done.

What’s a Raspberry Pi? A complete computer on a board the size of a credit card.

What can you do with a Raspberry Pi? You can

1. Calculate Bernoulli numbers just like Ada Lovelace
2. Learn programming hands-on (or have your family learn it!)
3. Make a controller for household lights and appliances
4. Build a robot brain
5. Write your own personal assistant
6. Run a very small web server
7. Play Minecraft
8. Make a science project
9. Design your own LED dress
10. Mine Bitcoin
11. Create your own home theater system
12. Lots of other things

To be clear, some of these suggestions might require additional hardware not included with this giveaway, but getting your Maker juices flowing is part of the fun.

(If you are completely out of ideas about what you can do with a tiny computer, the winner can also opt for a new Kindle Fire tablet–which is also equivalent to the Analytical Engine.)

Every verified contestant gets a Magic URL to help other sign up, and upon doing so, you get three more entries for yourself. This way, encouraging others to join in doesn’t dilute your own chances of winning. Very clever. I plan to draw a winner on Ada Lovelace Day–celebrating awesome women in STEM–October 13, 2015.

Here’s the signup link again.

Why am I doing this?

Quite simply, I am raising awareness of Ada Lovelace, one of the most brilliant people to live–yet still fairly unknown. I want more people to be posting the #TeamAda tag on social media. I want more people to put Ada Lovelace in fiction. (Still some ways to go before she’s caught up with Nikola Tesla in fiction!) And lastly, I want people to check out my own Ada Lovelace series, Time Travel Geek Out and sign up for my reading list.

FAQ

Q: I just don’t know what I’d do with a Raspberry Pi. Why should I sign up?
A: The winner can elect to receive a Kindle Fire instead.

Q: This is great! What else can I do to help?
A: Spread the word, ideally via your Magic URL. Also check out Time Travel Geek Out.

One last time, here’s the link for sign up. Thanks!