A few years ago, I got a wild hair up my hind-side, and bought a Raspberry Pi to mess with. A small, fully functional computer, running a Linux variant, built around an ARM SoC, it was a pretty nifty bit of kit.
I connected it to my monitor, wired up a keyboard and mouse, added a wifi USB dongle, and had some fun. Did a lot of learning to program Python on it.
But then the move happened, it got chucked into a box, and ignored. With the move done, the house bought, and the project bug biting me again, I have resurrected it.
The first challenge was to actually FIND it. Alas, it was hiding in my monster box of cables and other items. Still connected to the powered USB hub that I had for it.
Lucky.
After a few (dozen) minutes fumbling around with it, I remembered how to power it on (yes, I felt like Beaker) and sure enough all the lights flashed. Of course, I still needed to connect it to a keyboard/mouse/monitor to actually use it.
This morning, I did that, and after a little searching for the login for the standard raspbian (note to self: time to change the login password) I got it up and running.
Of course, since the WiFi router has changed, I had to (slowly) remember how to connect to the wifi in my house. Finally, after testing its connectivity (side note: I always use Cisco as it is about the most reliable site I have ever used), I did a little browsing around where I left it.
Since it has been powered down for over 2 calendar years, there were more than a few updates needed. Holy Christ it took a long time to upgrade the OS (almost 90 minutes!?!?!) but now the OS and all the packages are up to date.
Of course, I spent some time browsing around the educational resources area of Oxford, Cambridge, and RSA and see some cool learning projects I might try as well.
(yes, they are geared to young kids, but heck, I can learn too)
So, hopefully today, the Arduino kit will arrive. I have cleared my workbench in the garage. I have a well lighted area to work with. And fun will be had.
Side Project
If you have visited before, you will note that my blog has a drastically new look and feel. Two years ago (during this holiday shutdown in fact), I re-migrated back to WordPress from Joomla. At the time I picked a very simple (read: bland) theme, and did nothing to jazz it up.
Since my wife is looking to create a second website (Scripts-By-Barbara) I got an interesting WordPress framework, called “GeneratePress” that has some add ons that make it pretty easy to get a sweet look and feel. This is a work in progress, and a training ground for the new Scripts by Barbara page.
Hopefully you like it.
