Education, Software

Wolfram Language and Mathematica comes to the #RaspberryPi

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The Wolfram Language and Mathematica on Raspberry Pi, for free | Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced a partnership with Wolfram Research to include Mathematica and the Wolfram language in future images of the Raspbian operating system. It’s intended that this will make the Pi a “first-class platform for teaching computer-based mathematics to children of all ages.”

Mathematica has applications in algebra, calculus, physical sciences, life sciences and even for creative artwork based on mathematical equations.

You can install both packages now by running:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wolfram-engine

The Foundation has created a discussion forum for the software which you can access here.

Read more here

Crowdfunding, Media centre, Video

HDMIPi for #RaspberryPi continues to grow, announces stretch goals and further expansion

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Backers for HDMIPi, the affordable HDMI screen for the Raspberry Pi (among other uses!) have received a massive update newsletter from creators Alex Eames and Dave Mellor. I’ll attempt to summarise:

  • They have announced a stretch goal at £200k (which is currently just £10k away) for a 5.2V power supply for the Pi running off the interface board. This is an excellent stretch goal as a lot of people want to run their entire set-up just by using one power supply.
  • Stretch goals are being met regularly. There are currently multiple choices for the screen surround available: white, pink and blue. Black is the next one to be unlocked (just £5k left to be raised).
  • A new reward level has been created: the Mega level. This level goes for £160 and includes a flexible HDMI cable, a portable wireless keyboard and a low-power wifi dongle. It represents great value-for-money.
  • Alex and Dave are planning to take a trip to Hong Kong and China to finalise the supply chain for the unit to ensure that communication risks are reduced.
  • They have ruled out capacitive touch (on the grounds of cost and complexity) but have opened the door for a resistive touch screen as a possible add-on for the HDMIPi at a later stage.
  • It is now possible to add a power supply unit to your pledge by adding £5 to your pledge. A region-specific PSU will be provided by default.
  • Alex has added links to all the YouTube videos showing demos of the screen prototype to the bottom of the update.

All information, including how to back this project, can be found at http://hdmipi.com

Disclaimer: I am a backer for this Kickstarter.

Making, Wearable

Wearable computer with motorized, retracting eye display powered by #RaspberryPi

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wearable computer with motorized, retracting eye tft - codeninja.de

The Code Ninja has heavily modified a Raspberry Pi (and I do mean heavily) and attached a tiny LCD display to an arm that hovers in front of your eye. A servo system is able to push the display away from your eye and swivel it up. It’s a great project, though please be aware that there is some tinkering on his website that makes it flicker enough to really annoy you.

Read more here