In a blog post, Adafruit's Phillip Torrone reports that the Raspberry Pi has been banned from Zohran Mamdani's inauguration as mayor of New York City. The city has banned the popular single-board computer, along with the Flipper Zero hacking multi-tool.
Torrone objects to the inclusion of these devices on the banned list, arguing that lists for similar events like the New Year's Eve ball drop in Times Square omit them.
Today it's Raspberry Pi and Flipper Zero. Tomorrow it's BeagleBone Blacks, Arduino Qs, ESP32 dev boards, Teensy boards, Pine64s, Orange Pis, Jetson Nanos, USB logic analyzers, SDR dongles, Bus Pirates, Defcon badges, hotel keycards, garage door openers, Tamagotchis, graphing calculators, old Nokias, Game Boys with link cables, a TI-83 held sideways, a Pocket Operator making beeps too abrasively, a Furby with unresolved father issues, and some guy's wristwatch that definitely has a microcontroller in it. Meanwhile, everyone walks through holding a smartphone that can film, scan, transmit, triangulate, and livestream the entire event in 4K.
Mamdani, who will be the first Muslim mayor of NYC, has been the target of numerous Islamophobic attacks and death threats.
Previously:
• Video celebrates Mamdani's historic win and claps back at racial microaggressions
• Remembering Zohran Mamdani's short-lived rap career
• Zohran Mamdani addresses conservative boomers directly
