I turned on a Raspberry Pi for the first time today with the intention of figuring out how to get the GPIO pins to work. Alas, I instead plugged in my Edimax EW-7811Un Wireless Adapter, and spent most of my day trying to get learn to make it work.

If anyone is attempting a similar feat, follow this guide.

Update: here is a guide for turning your Edimax EW-7811Un into an access point