We don't serve pies, but we do like a Pi
- ID
- 13416
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 12 Aug 2026, 5:57 PM
- Fetched
- 12 Aug 2026, 6:25 PM
- Provider
- The Register
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.theregister.com/offbeat/2026/08/12/we-dont-serve-pies-but-we-do-like-a-pi/5282944
- Source URL
- https://www.theregister.com/headlines.atom
Summary
- Score
- 2.0
- Created
- 12 Aug 2026, 6:27 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developers
What happened
A Raspberry Pi-powered card tipping machine (TiPJAR hardware) in a London pub crashed, leaving a Raspbian GNU/Linux login terminal visible on the bar with the default hostname 'raspberrypi' and user 'pi'. The Register's offbeat column treats it as a humorous embedded systems bork, noting rc.local on screen and joking about the default credentials.
Why it matters
No practical takeaway for builders beyond the familiar reminder that Raspberry Pi devices shipped into production often retain default hostnames and login users, which is a minor security hygiene issue if you deploy Pi-based kiosks or POS hardware. Otherwise this is entertainment, not actionable.
Discussion angle
A quick laugh segment: how many Pi-based deployments in the wild still ship with default 'pi' user and 'raspberrypi' hostname, and whether that matters for kiosk/POS security.