“We’ve seen computers built in Minecraft out of redstone, the game’s version of electricity, circuits, and digital logic. We’ve even seen a few redstone contraptions controlling real-world devices. [Angus]‘ build, though, takes things to a whole new level. He’s created a bridge between Minecraft circuits and their real life counterparts using a Raspberry Pi and a PiFace.”
Embedded Java with #RaspberryPi Focus in Oracle Java Magazine
Oracle’s new Java Magazine features an article on Java’s future on the Raspberry Pi. You will need to register to read it, so make sure you fill in the correct details and tick/untick boxes as relevant.
Turn a #RaspberryPi into a personal VPN / @Raspberry_Pi
Great tutorial from LifeHacker on creating a personal VPN with the help of a Raspberry Pi.
“The Raspberry Pi has very low power consumption, which makes it a great always-on virtual private network (VPN) server. With a VPN, you’ll get secure access to your home network when you’re on the go and can use it for secure web browsing when you’re on public networks. Here’s how to roll your own VPN with the Raspberry Pi.”
Turn A Raspberry Pi Into A Personal VPN | Lifehacker Australia.
Serial communication between #RaspberryPi and #Arduino
Great little tutorial on powering an Arduino from the Pi’s 5V pin and also communicating via serial from the GPIO pins. Well worth a look if you want communication between the two to be faster. As the article points out, by using USB to connect an Arduino to the Pi, you introduce a latent delay between the two. Well worth a look for your Pi-Arduino projects.
15,000 #RaspberryPi units for UK schools courtesy of Google
Today, the Raspberry Pi Foundation received a grant from Google Giving, which will provide 15,000 Raspberry Pi Model Bs for schoolkids around the UK.
Congratulations to the Foundation and kudos to Google for their generosity. Read the Foundation’s article here
Changing the hostname of your #RaspberryPi
For those people who (like me) have more than one Pi, and even for those who have more than one SD card, the ability to change the hostname is invaluable. Here’s how you do it.
You need to change two files.
Firstly, edit (using nano, or other editor) the file
/etc/hostname
Change whatever is currently in there to the name you want. For this example, we’ll set our Pi to have the name ‘banana’. So, ‘banana’ (without the quotes) is the only thing that should be in that file. Save it.
Secondly, edit the file
/etc/hosts
Change the ‘127.0.0.1’ line to (for our example):
127.0.0.1 banana
That’s it! Reboot and you should get a login prompt with your new hostname.