Jacob Salmela has created a new version of Raspbian called ‘Pi Hole’. The operating system has been designed to be a DNS-server which blocks ads for your entire network. All you need to do is download the image, install it on an SD card and then point your home devices’ DNS settings to it. It seems quite a sophisticated system with a proper web GUI. Please just remember that ads on many sites are only there so that they can afford to run, so white-list those sites that you like! A full guide to installing it is available on Lifehacker.
September 2015 issue of The MagPi is now available
As the headline says, the new issue of The MagPi magazine has been published. It’s available in WHSmith’s in the UK and Barnes & Noble or MicroCenter in the USA. It’s also available for free in PDF format from The MagPi website and via Google Play and the Apple AppStore. View the magazine by visiting The MagPi website.
#PiWars and the Raspberry Pi featured on Cambridge TV
UPDATE: For some reason this video no longer exists, which is a shame.
A few weeks ago, myself and Tim Richardson headed over to the Cambridge Computer Lab to meet with Adam Page, a news reporter from Cambridge TV. A couple of days ago, the resulting news report was broadcast on local television and it has now appeared online.
You can watch the video by heading over to Vimeo. Thanks to Spencer Organ and Matthew Manning who contributed footage of last year’s competition.
It was most enjoyable meeting Adam and getting to talk about the Raspberry Pi in general and Pi Wars in particular. We are busy planning and constructing courses for Pi Wars at the moment. Tickets are now on sale and you can get hold of them, and learn more about the Pi Wars competition, by visiting the Pi Wars website. If you’d like to leave a comment for Cambridge TV, head over to their website.
Thanks to Adam for making me and Tim pass for photogenic!
Win a SenseHAT for the Raspberry Pi with The Pi Hut
This just turned up in my inbox, so I thought I’d share for those of you reading my blog on this wet (in the UK) Bank Holiday.
The Pi Hut is currently running a competition, ending Tuesday, to win a brand new SenseHAT board. I covered the launch of the SenseHAT with a review and gave it 10/10. It’s a stunning board covered with sensors and a bright 8×8 LED matrix. So, if you’d like to be in with a chance of winning one, all you have to do is one of the following things:
- Join The Pi Hut’s Facebook page and share one of the promotional posts to your friends.
- Follow The Pi Hut on Twitter and re-tweet one of the promotional tweets.
You never know… you just might win!
And don’t forget, Jamie’s also running a 10% off everything sale until Tuesday morning!
Programming autonomy with the Raspberry Pi and the GoPiGo
Dexter Industries’ GoPiGo is a great robotics kit for the Pi. They’ve done several tutorials based on the kit, but this one caught my eye. This code teaches the robot how to be ‘autonomous’ to a certain extent. It allows the robot to keep moving and avoid objects by ‘looking’ left and right and then choosing the correct direction to go according to whether it detects an object in that direction. Take a look at the tutorial here or watch the video below.
Two-faced clock controlled by a Raspberry Pi
Here’s a nice little Instructable project to flex your robotics muscles. Anthony (who is really just a teddy bear – seriously!) has made a nice wall-clock with two hands that are powered by steppers which are controlled by this nice little 4tronix dual stepper board. Read the Instructable here.