Q4OS has announced that their operating system is now available for the Raspberry Pi. It’s not quite complete yet, and some features aren’t available, but it looks good and could prove a valuable alternative. Download the beta image from their website.
Cristov wanted an authentic 80s gameplay experience and so set about creating a Game Boy clone. He used a Raspberry Pi, three custom circuit boards, a 3.5″ TFT screen and actual Game Boy parts for the controls. You can see more pictures of the device here and he’s working on a documented method for reproducing it (although you’ll need a 3D printer to produce the case!)
If you’re in (or near) Germany, you can do a lot worse this weekend than going over to Berlin and dropping by the Maker Faire. There will be lots of tech exhibitors there and in amongst them will be James Mitchell and his Berlin Raspberry Jam stall and, right next door, Pimoroni! Tickets and more information are available here.
So you want to watch Netflix on the television, dim your lights and order pizza at the same time? At the push of a button? Well, now you can with this nifty project that’s been put up on the Netflix Make It website. They used a LIPO-powered Particle Core microcontroller (which has built-in wi-fi) to accept the button input and then transmit it to a Raspberry Pi which controls the relevant appliances and follow-on actions. Take a look at the how-to on their website.
Victoria Button has just seen the completion of the installation of her art project at a shopping centre in Chelmsford. The project, which is at the High Chelmer shopping centre, seeks to highlight the issue of air pollution in our environment and encourage social change. It reads pollution levels from various locations via a council API and then uses that data to determine lighting effects at the installation location. The 12 Raspberry Pi-controlled DMX lights project through four ‘leaves’ made out of squashed plastic bottles and changes throughout the day. The installation is up until the end of October.
You can find out much more by viewing the video of Victoria’s talk at the last Cambridge Raspberry Jam:
Martin Hertig from Switzerland has created an art installation called “Sensible Data” that shows just how easily people give up personal data, and what the pitfalls of that are. You use an iPad to take your photograph and give your email address. The photograph is scanned by a Raspberry Pi to work out your age, gender, ‘beauty’ and mood and this information is then printed onto a faux “passport” for you to take away. The printing is triggered by holding an unidentified button for three seconds… which grabs your fingerprint… To hammer home the point of the lack of control of personal data, you are then emailed the details of a previous participant. You can read more about the installation here and see it in action below:
