Had a chance over the weekend to do some tinkering ( and work with the
creators on IRC )

First get your hands on Raspbian “wheezy”
To download the image:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads
Information on the Pi only Linux GNU/Debian distro:
<http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads>
http://www.raspbian.org/

When it first starts, make sure to configure ALL the settings! Please note
that the board and distro assume you are in the UK so the keyboard,
language and time settings will be all UK!

This new build give the kernel access to the Math part of the GPU so that
the Pi is not horrendously slow.
But even with the tuneup the Pi is not useable as a PC, this however can be
remedied by tuning the ARM11 chip by overclocking.

*Overclocking:*
It will cause your Pi to overheat and explode in to flames! it kills
babies, it's evil, leads to cancer! it's bad, don't do it!
*Ok for real! Don't do it! Here is there own warning:*
WARNING: Overvolting your Raspberry Pi will permanently set a fuse in your
SoC and invalidate your warranty. Overvolting your Raspberry Pi will
seriously reduce the lifespan of the SoC.

This means messing with the "over_voltage" setting. if you don't mess with
that, your good, you mess with that and your blow the fuse and can never
return your Pi for a refund.
We clear on this? Don't mess with the "over_voltage" setting don't freaking
do it! Stop and think about it for about 2 to 3 hours then think some more,
call a priest or whoever to get you to stop!

Not to listen to my own advice and being a honors EE student ( a long time
ago ) I decided to overclock since waiting 1 to 2 ( or even more ) for a
web page to load or a command to return,
well if I burn up my Pi in a year, I just get another one. I know the risks
and I accept the consequences, a dead board or worse ( thus please PLEASE
do not attempt if you don't know what you are doing! )

Must read:
http://www.memetic.org/raspberry-pi-overclocking/
Making the Pi run at a acceptable rate:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/tag/overclocking

Here are my settings as I have gotten them to work nicely:
I am not referencing where they are set, to PREVENT people from just doing
the settings and screwing up.
If you still really REALLY want to do this read up and figure it out ( and
don't blame me for the house fire or black hole you create! )

########################################################################################################
# uncomment this if your display has a black border of unused pixels
visible and your display can output without overscan
# This got rid of the black borders, makes the Pi render edge to edge on my
1080p screen
disable_overscan=1

# uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work
in DMT (computer monitor) modes
# Nice to pipe the audio to the screen and not have to wire in the
headphone jack
hdmi_drive=2

# My stable sort of overclock settings, no voltage change needed, thus no
fuse blow.
# Working with memetic via IRC, found that mutable of arm_freq work best,
thus the tweaks to core and sdram
arm_freq=800
core_freq=400
sdram_freq=400
kernel=kernel_cutdown.img

# My actual Overclock settings:
# Non aggressive, low over_voltage and stable on my board, results in a
snapy Pi that is useable
#arm_freq=900
#gpu_freq=200
#core_freq=400
#sdram_freq=400
#over_voltage=2
#kernel=kernel_cutdown.img

# Most people are Overclocking with these settings:
# Voltage is high, thus going to look for a cooling solution with the
SquidWrench fokes to see if this can be made workable
# Some people go as high as 1100 or even 1200 on clock and 12 on voltage,
not recommended at all
#arm_freq=1000
#gpu_freq=500
#core_freq=500
#sdram_freq=500
#over_voltage=6
#kernel=kernel_cutdown.img
#######################################################################################################

Now you all have my research, I recommend reading memetic blog he has been
doing the work on getting XBMC and Quake III working on the Pi ( also a
great guy to chat with on IRC on #raspbian )
http://www.memetic.org/category/raspberrypi/

With the able configuration, I can responsibly us the Pi as a terminal or
tinkering platform. Some people love to work on cars I love to work on
small one board computers.
Thus I would like to know if here what cool discoveries that other people
have found.

-- 
/** Joe Apuzzo
 ** Call: KD2AKU
 ** PGP/GPG: key ID BB5C7
 **/
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