Learn object-orientated Python programming with Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi has announced that Laura Sach has developed a new online training course. The course is on object-orientated Python and is sure to appeal to both techies and educators (or both!) alike. Here’s some info about what the course covers:

The course will introduce you to the principles of object-oriented programming in Python, showing you how to create objects, functions, methods, and classes. You’ll use what you learn to create your own text-based adventure game. You will have the chance to share your code with other learners, and to see theirs. If you’re an educator, you’ll also be able to develop ideas for using object-oriented programming in your classroom.

The course starts today (4th September) and you can sign up here. See the video above for a short presentation about the course.

Connected picture frame is an Internet of Things device running from a Raspberry Pi

Frederick Vandenbosch has taken a Raspberry Pi 3 and an Official Touch Screen and created a ‘connected picture frame’. The frame displays pictures which are periodically downloaded from Dropbox and allows the user to ‘like’ individual photos, thus indicating their favourites. These likes are sent over the Internet to the resin.io IoT service. The screen of the frame is turned off and on depending on the settings in the Raspberry Pi’s cron file. You can read more about how the project was done over at Element 14. You can see a video of the frame in action below:

The Return of the Raspberry Pi Christmas Tree from The Pi Hut!

Jamie over at The Pi Hut has just announced that the circuit board Christmas Tree has gone on pre-order. This product comes in two flavours: a pre-soldered tree (for £15) and a soldering kit (for £12). The tree is three-dimensional, slotting together from push-out circuit board parts and features 25 LEDs tied to individual GPIO pins. Take a look over at The Pi Hut. Pre-orders are being taken until October 15th and will be shipped on November 15th following manufacture.

Create animated GIFs on an ejectable cartridge using two Raspberry Pis!

Abhishek Singh has created this awesome GIF camera from two Raspberry Pis. Called the Instagif NextStep, a Pi 3 with a camera and preview screen records a short video clip and then transmits that clip to a Pi Zero which is then ejected in the form of a cartridge. The cartridge has its own Pi, battery and screen and displays the GIF recording.

All the parts are held together using 3D printed cases. You can see a video of it in action below and read a lot more about the build here.

Get started with the NGINX web server on your Raspberry Pi

Gus, over at PiMyLifeUp, has written this great tutorial to get your started with the NGINX web server. He goes through all the commands you’ll need to install it and everything you need to know to get the PHP language working with it correctly. Take a look here. For those of you who have never heard of NGINX, it is a lightweight web server that is considerably less resource-intensive than the more popular Apache.