Tag Archives: DOJ

Announcing Coolest Projects North America

Post Syndicated from Courtney Lentz original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/coolest-projects-north-america/

The Raspberry Pi Foundation loves to celebrate people who use technology to solve problems and express themselves creatively, so we’re proud to expand the incredibly successful event Coolest Projects to North America. This free event will be held on Sunday 23 September 2018 at the Discovery Cube Orange County in Santa Ana, California.

Coolest Projects North America logo Raspberry Pi CoderDojo

What is Coolest Projects?

Coolest Projects is a world-leading showcase that empowers and inspires the next generation of digital creators, innovators, changemakers, and entrepreneurs. The event is both a competition and an exhibition to give young digital makers aged 7 to 17 a platform to celebrate their successes, creativity, and ingenuity.

showcase crowd — Coolest Projects North America

In 2012, Coolest Projects was conceived as an opportunity for CoderDojo Ninjas to showcase their work and for supporters to acknowledge these achievements. Week after week, Ninjas would meet up to work diligently on their projects, hacks, and code; however, it can be difficult for them to see their long-term progress on a project when they’re concentrating on its details on a weekly basis. Coolest Projects became a dedicated time each year for Ninjas and supporters to reflect, celebrate, and share both the achievements and challenges of the maker’s journey.

three female coolest projects attendees — Coolest Projects North America

Coolest Projects North America

Not only is Coolest Projects expanding to North America, it’s also expanding its participant pool! Members of our team have met so many amazing young people creating in all areas of the world, that it simply made sense to widen our outreach to include Code Clubs, students of Raspberry Pi Certified Educators, and members of the Raspberry Jam community at large as well as CoderDojo attendees.

a boy showing a technology project to an old man, with a girl playing on a laptop on the floor — Coolest Projects North America

Exhibit and attend Coolest Projects

Coolest Projects is a free, family- and educator-friendly event. Young people can apply to exhibit their projects, and the general public can register to attend this one-day event. Be sure to register today, because you make Coolest Projects what it is: the coolest.

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Start a CoderDojo with our free online training

Post Syndicated from Alex Bate original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/start-a-coderdojo-with-our-free-online-training/

You can now sign up to our newest free online course Start a CoderDojo to learn more about CoderDojo and how you can easily set up one of these free coding clubs for young people in your area. With less than two weeks until the course begins, we wanted to tell you about the course’s content and why the course’s creator put it together for you.

Start a CoderDojo || free online learning || Raspberry Pi Foundation

Get support and advice on how to grow your confidence in coding and start a CoderDojo for young people in your area.

What is CoderDojo?

CoderDojo is a global network of free, volunteer-led, community-based programming clubs for young people aged 7 to 17. There are currently more than 1700 Dojos running regularly across 75 countries. All of these clubs were started by individuals who are passionate about giving young people the opportunity to learn to code. Some people assume you need technical skills to start a Dojo, but that’s not true. The most important thing is that you can bring people together for a shared goal.

What is covered on the course?

The course was developed by Philip, CoderDojo’s Educational Content Lead. It gives those who think empowering young people to be tech creators is important the resources and supports to achieve that goal by starting a Dojo. Divided over three weeks and running for about four hours in total, the course provides practical advice and resources on everything you need to know to plan and run a fun, social, and creative coding club for young people.

“In the first week, you’ll look at what coding is, at the worldwide CoderDojo community of coding clubs, and at the creative approach CoderDojos take to helping young people learn to code. In week two, you’ll move on to setting up your Dojo with a team, a venue, and any needed materials. You’ll also look at how to find young people to attend. Week three wraps up the course by giving you sample plans for a Dojo session and a Dojo’s year, and we’ll be talking about how to grow and develop your Dojo over time as your attendees become better coders.”
— Philip

Who is the course for?

Anyone interested in enabling young people to be tech creators should take this course. Parents, teachers, librarians, IT professionals, youth workers, and others have all started Dojos in their community. They say that “it’s an amazing experience that led [them] to expand [their] personal horizons”, and that they “find it really rewarding”.

The course is free and open to all — if you’re interested, then sign up now.

If you’re already mentoring at a Dojo, the course is a great opportunity to revise what you’ve learnt, and a chance to share your insights with newcomers in the discussion sections. Parents and guardians who wish to learn more about CoderDojo and are considering getting involved are also more than welcome to join.

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Artefacts in the classroom with Museum in a Box

Post Syndicated from Alex Bate original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/museum-in-a-box/

Museum in a Box bridges the gap between museums and schools by creating a more hands-on approach to conservation education through 3D printing and digital making.

Artefacts in the classroom with Museum in a Box || Raspberry Pi Stories

Learn more: http://rpf.io/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://rpf.io/ytsub Help us reach a wider audience by translating our video content: http://rpf.io/yttranslate Buy a Raspberry Pi from one of our Approved Resellers: http://rpf.io/ytproducts Find out more about the Raspberry Pi Foundation: Raspberry Pi http://rpf.io/ytrpi Code Club UK http://rpf.io/ytccuk Code Club International http://rpf.io/ytcci CoderDojo http://rpf.io/ytcd Check out our free online training courses: http://rpf.io/ytfl Find your local Raspberry Jam event: http://rpf.io/ytjam Work through our free online projects: http://rpf.io/ytprojects Do you have a question about your Raspberry Pi?

Fantastic collections and where to find them

Large, impressive statues are truly a sight to be seen. Take for example the 2.4m Hoa Hakananai’a at the British Museum. Its tall stature looms over you as you read its plaque to learn of the statue’s journey from Easter Island to the UK under the care of Captain Cook in 1774, and you can’t help but wonder at how it made it here in one piece.

Hoa Hakananai’a Captain Cook British Museum
Hoa Hakananai’a Captain Cook British Museum

But unless you live near a big city where museums are plentiful, you’re unlikely to see the likes of Hoa Hakananai’a in person. Instead, you have to content yourself with online photos or videos of world-famous artefacts.

And that only accounts for the objects that are on display: conservators estimate that only approximately 5 to 10% of museums’ overall collections are actually on show across the globe. The rest is boxed up in storage, inaccessible to the public due to risk of damage, or simply due to lack of space.

Museum in a Box

Museum in a Box aims to “put museum collections and expert knowledge into your hand, wherever you are in the world,” through modern maker practices such as 3D printing and digital making. With the help of the ‘Scan the World’ movement, an “ambitious initiative whose mission is to archive objects of cultural significance using 3D scanning technologies”, the Museum in a Box team has been able to print small, handheld replicas of some of the world’s most recognisable statues and sculptures.

Museum in a Box Raspberry Pi

Each 3D print gets NFC tags so it can initiate audio playback from a Raspberry Pi that sits snugly within the laser-cut housing of a ‘brain box’. Thus the print can talk directly to us through the magic of wireless technology, replacing the dense, dry text of a museum plaque with engaging speech.

Museum in a Box Raspberry Pi

The Museum in a Box team headed by CEO George Oates (featured in the video above) makes use of these 3D-printed figures alongside original artefacts, postcards, and more to bridge the gap between large, crowded, distant museums and local schools. Modeled after the museum handling collections that used to be sent to schools, Museum in a Box is a cheaper, more accessible alternative. Moreover, it not only allows for hands-on learning, but also encourages children to get directly involved by hacking its technology! With NFC technology readily available to the public, students can curate their own collections about their local area, record their own messages, and send their own box-sized museums on to schools in other towns or countries. In this way, Museum in a Box enables students to explore, and expand the reach of, their own histories.

Moving forward

With the technology perfected and interest in the project ever-growing, Museum in a Box has a busy year ahead. Supporting the new ‘Unstacked’ learning initiative, the team will soon be delivering ten boxes to the Smithsonian Libraries. The team has curated two collections specifically for this: an exploration into Asia-Pacific America experiences of migration to the USA throughout the 20th century, and a look into the history of science.

Smithsonian Library Museum in a Box Raspberry Pi

The team will also be making a box for the British Museum to support their Iraq Scheme initiative, and another box will be heading to the V&A to support their See Red programme. While primarily installed in the Lansbury Micro Museum, the box will also take to the road to visit the local Spotlight high school.

Museum in a Box at Raspberry Fields

Lastly, by far the most exciting thing the Museum in a Box team will be doing this year — in our opinion at least — is showcasing at Raspberry Fields! This is our brand-new festival of digital making that’s taking place on 30 June and 1 July 2018 here in Cambridge, UK. Find more information about it and get your ticket here.

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Owner of ShareBeast and AlbumJams Sentenced To Five Years in Prison

Post Syndicated from Andy original https://torrentfreak.com/owner-of-sharebeast-and-albumjams-sentenced-to-five-years-in-prison-180323/

According to the RIAA, ShareBeast.com and AlbumJams.com were responsible for the illegal distribution of “a massive library” of popular albums and tracks.

With a nod to the sensitivity of pre-release piracy, the sites were blamed for offering “thousands of songs” that hadn’t yet reached their official release dates. In September 2015, U.S. authorities shut them down, placing seizure notices on both domains.

The RIAA claimed that ShareBeast was the largest illegal file-sharing site operating in the United States, noting that the site’s IP addresses at the time indicated that at least some hosting had taken place in Illinois.

“Millions of users accessed songs from ShareBeast each month without one penny of compensation going to countless artists, songwriters, labels and others who created the music,” RIAA Chairman & CEO Cary Sherman commented at the time.

Two years later in September 2017, then 29-year-old former ShareBeast operator Artur Sargsyan pleaded guilty to one felony count of criminal copyright infringement, admitting to the unauthorized distribution and reproduction of over one billion copies of copyrighted works.

“Through Sharebeast and other related sites, this defendant profited by illegally distributing copyrighted music and albums on a massive scale,” said U. S. Attorney John Horn.

“The collective work of the FBI and our international law enforcement partners have shut down the Sharebeast websites and prevented further economic losses by scores of musicians and artists.”

The Department of Justice reported that from 2012 to 2015, Sargsyan used ShareBeast as a pirate music repository, illegally hosting music by Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Kanye West, and Justin Bieber, among others. Sargsyan linked to that content from Newjams.net and Albumjams.com, and granted access to the public.

If Sargsyan had responded to takedown notices more positively, it’s possible that things may have progressed in a different direction. The RIAA sent the site more than 100 copyright-infringement emails over a three-year period but to no effect.

This led the music industry group to get out its calculator and inform the DoJ that the total monetary loss to its member companies was “a conservative” $6.3 billion “gut-punch” to music creators who were paid nothing by the service.

Given the huge numbers involved, it’s likely that Sargsyan hoped his 2017 guilty plea would result in a more forgiving sentence. Yesterday, however, the full weight of the law came crashing down.

California resident Artur Sargsyan was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten, Sr., to five years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. The now 30-year-old was also ordered to pay $458,200 restitution and ordered to forfeit $184,768.87.

“Sargsyan operated one of the most successful illegal music sharing websites on the Internet,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak.

“His reproduction of copyrighted musical works were made available only to generate undeserved profits for himself. The incredible work done by our law enforcement partners and prosecutors in light of the complexity of Sargsyan’s operation demonstrates that we will employ all of our resources to stop this kind of theft.”

David J. LaValley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, said that Sargsyan was warned several times that he was violating the law by illegally sharing copyrighted works, but chose to ignore the warnings.

“His sentence sends a message that no matter how complex the operation, the FBI, its federal partners and law enforcement partners around the globe will go to every length to protect the property of hard working artists and the companies that produce their art,” LaValley said.

Given the music group’s lengthy statements on the Sharebeast topic in the past, thus far the RIAA has been relatively brief. Welcoming news of the sentencing via Twitter, the major labels’ figurehead congratulated the law enforcement bodies behind the successful prosecution.

“Congrats to U.S. Attorney BJay Pak + his team along with @TheJusticeDept CCIPS Division and @FBIAtlanta for their leadership on this important case,” the RIAA wrote.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Dotcom’s Bid to Compel Obama to Give Evidence Rejected By High Court

Post Syndicated from Andy original https://torrentfreak.com/dotcoms-bid-to-compel-obama-to-give-evidence-rejected-by-high-court-180321/

With former US president Barack Obama in New Zealand until Friday, the visit provided a golden opportunity for Kim Dotcom to pile on yet more pressure over the strained prosecution of both him and his defunct cloud storage site, Megaupload.

In a statement issued yesterday, Dotcom reiterated his claims that attempts to have him extradited to the United States have no basis in law, chiefly due to the fact that the online dissemination of copyright-protected works by Megaupload’s users is not an extradition offense in New Zealand.

Mainly, however, Dotcom shone yet more light on what he perceives to be the dark politics behind the case, arguing that the Obama administration was under pressure from Hollywood to do something about copyright enforcement or risk losing funding. He says they pulled out all the stops and trampled his rights to prevent that from happening.

In a lengthy affidavit, filed this week to coincide with Obama’s visit, Dotcom called on the High Court to compel the former president to give evidence in the entrepreneur’s retaliatory multi-billion dollar damages claim against the Kiwi government.

This morning, however, Chief High Court Judge, Justice Geoffrey Venning, quickly shut that effort down.

With Obama enjoying a round of golf alongside former Prime Minister and Dotcom nemesis John Key, Justice Venning declined the request to compel Obama to give evidence, whether in New Zealand during the current visit or via letter of request to judicial authorities in the United States.

In his decision, Justice Venning notes that Dotcom’s applications were filed late on March 19 and the matter was only handed to him yesterday. As a result, he convened a telephone conference this morning to “deal with the application as a matter of urgency.”

Dotcom’s legal team argued that in the absence of a Court order it’s unlikely that Obama would give evidence. Equally, given that no date has yet been set for Dotcom’s damages hearing, it will “not be practicable” to serve Obama at a later point in the United States.

Furthermore, absent an order compelling his attendance, Obama would be unlikely to be called as a witness, despite him being the most competent potential witness currently present in New Zealand.

Dotcom counsel Ron Mansfield accepted that there would be practical limitations on what could be achieved between March 21 and March 23 while Obama is in New Zealand. However, he asked that an order be granted so that it could be served while Obama is in the country, even if the examination took place at a later date.

The Judge wasn’t convinced.

“Despite Mr Mansfield’s concession, I consider the application is still premature. The current civil proceedings were only filed on 22 December 2017. The defendants have applied for an order deferring the filing of a statement of defense pending the determination of the hearing of two appeals currently before the Court of Appeal. That application is yet to be determined,” Justice Venning’s decision reads.

The Judge also questions whether evidence Obama could give would be relevant.

He notes that Dotcom’s evidence is based on the fact that Hollywood was a major benefactor of the Democratic Party in the United States and that, in his opinion, the action against Megaupload and him “met the United States’ need to appease the Hollywood lobby” and “that the United States and New Zealand’s interests were perfectly aligned.”

However, Dotcom’s transcripts of his conversations with a lobbyist, which appeared to indicate Obama’s dissatisfaction with the Megaupload prosecution, are dismissed as “hearsay evidence”. Documentation of a private lunch with Obama and the head of the MPAA is also played down.

“Mr Dotcom’s opinion that Mr Obama’s evidence will be relevant to the present claims appears at best speculative,” the Judge notes.

But even if the evidence had been stronger, Justice Venning says that Obama would need to be given time to prepare for an examination, given that it would relate to matters that occurred several years ago.

“He would need to review relevant documents and materials from the time in preparation for any examination. That confirms the current application is premature,” the Judge writes.

In support, it is noted that Dotcom knew as early as February 21 that Obama’s visit would be taking place this week, yet his application was filed just days ago.

With that, the Judge dismissed the application, allowing Obama to play golf in peace. Well, relative peace at least. Dotcom isn’t done yet.

“I am disappointed of course because I believe my affidavit contains compelling evidence of the link between the Obama administration, Hollywood, and my extradition proceeding. However, after seven years of this, I am used to fighting to get to the truth and will keep fighting. Next round!” Dotcom said in response.

“The judgment is no surprise and we’ll get the opportunity to question Obama sooner or later,” he added.

As a further indication of the international nature of Dotcom’s case, the Megaupload founder also reminded people of his former connections to Hong Kong, noting that people in power there are keeping an eye on his case.

“The Chinese Government is watching my case with interest. Expect some bold action in the Hong Kong Courts soon. Never again shall an accusation from the US DOJ be enough to destroy a Hong Kong business. That lesson will soon be learned,” he said.

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Our 2017 Annual Review

Post Syndicated from Oliver Quinlan original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/annual-review-2017/

Each year we take stock at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, looking back at what we’ve achieved over the previous twelve months. We’ve just published our Annual Review for 2017, reflecting on the progress we’ve made as a foundation and a community towards putting the power of digital making in the hands of people all over the world.

In the review, you can find out about all the different education programmes we run. Moreover, you can hear from people who have taken part, learned through making, and discovered they can do things with technology that they never thought they could.

Growing our reach

Our reach grew hugely in 2017, and the numbers tell this story.

By the end of 2017, we’d sold over 17 million Raspberry Pi computers, bringing tools for learning programming and physical computing to people all over the world.

Vibrant learning and making communities

Code Club grew by 2964 clubs in 2017, to over 10000 clubs across the world reaching over 150000 9- to 13-year-olds.

“The best moment is seeing a child discover something for the first time. It is amazing.”
– Code Club volunteer

In 2017 CoderDojo became part of the Raspberry Pi family. Over the year, it grew by 41% to 1556 active Dojos, involving nearly 40000 7- to 17-year-olds in creating with code and collaborating to learn about technology.

Raspberry Jams continued to grow, with 18700 people attending events organised by our amazing community members.



Supporting teaching and learning

We reached 208 projects in our online resources in 2017, and 8.5 million people visited these to get making.

“I like coding because it’s like a whole other language that you have to learn, and it creates something very interesting in the end.”
– Betty, Year 10 student

2017 was also the year we began offering online training courses. 19000 people joined us to learn about programming, physical computing, and running a Code Club.



Over 6800 young people entered Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab, 2017’s two Astro Pi challenges. They created code that ran on board the International Space Station or will run soon.

More than 600 educators joined our face-to-face Picademy training last year. Our community of Raspberry Pi Certified Educators grew to 1500, all leading digital making across schools, libraries, and other settings where young people learn.

Being social

Well over a million people follow us on social media, and in 2017 we’ve seen big increases in our YouTube and Instagram followings. We have been creating much more video content to share what we do with audiences on these and other social networks.

The future

It’s been a big year, as we continue to reach even more people. This wouldn’t be possible without the amazing work of volunteers and community members who do so much to create opportunities for others to get involved. Behind each of these numbers is a person discovering digital making for the first time, learning new skills, or succeeding with a project that makes a difference to something they care about.

You can read our 2017 Annual Review in full over on our About Us page.

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Join us at Raspberry Fields 2018!

Post Syndicated from Alex Bate original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-fields-2018/

This summer, the Raspberry Pi Foundation is bringing you an all-new community event taking place in Cambridge, UK!

Raspberry Fields 2018 Raspberry Pi festival

Raspberry Fields

On the weekend of Saturday 30 June and Sunday 1 July 2018, the Pi Towers team, with lots of help from our community of young people, educators, hobbyists, and tech enthusiasts, will be running Raspberry Fields, our brand-new annual festival of digital making!

Raspberry Fields 2018 Raspberry Pi festival

It will be a chance for people of all ages and skill levels to have a go at getting creative with tech, and it will be a celebration of all that our digital makers have already learnt and achieved, whether through taking part in Code Clubs, CoderDojos, or Raspberry Jams, or through trying our resources at home.

Dive into digital making

At Raspberry Fields, you will have the chance to inspire your inner inventor! Learn about amazing projects others in the community are working on, such as cool robots and wearable technology; have a go at a variety of hands-on activities, from home automation projects to remote-controlled vehicles and more; see fascinating science- and technology-related talks and musical performances. After your visit, you’ll be excited to go home and get making!

Raspberry Fields 2018 Raspberry Pi festivalIf you’re wondering about bringing along young children or less technologically minded family members or friends, there’ll be plenty for them to enjoy — with lots of festival-themed activities such as face painting, fun performances, free giveaways, and delicious food, Raspberry Fields will have something for everyone!

Get your tickets

This two-day ticketed event will be taking place at Cambridge Junction, the city’s leading arts centre. Tickets are £5 if you are aged 16 or older, and free for everyone under 16. Get your tickets by clicking the button on the Raspberry Fields web page!

Where: Cambridge Junction, Clifton Way, Cambridge, CB1 7GX, UK
When: Saturday 30 June 2018, 10:30 – 18:00 and Sunday 1 July 2018, 10:00 – 17:30

Get involved

We are currently looking for people who’d like to contribute activities, talks, or performances with digital themes to the festival. This could be something like live music, dance, or other show acts; talks; or drop-in Raspberry Fields 2018 Raspberry Pi festivalmaking activities. In addition, we’re looking for artists who’d like to showcase interactive digital installations, for proud makers who are keen to exhibit their projects, and for vendors who’d like to join in. We particularly encourage young people to showcase projects they’ve created or deliver talks on their digital making journey!Raspberry Fields 2018 Raspberry Pi festival

Your contribution to Raspberry Fields should focus on digital making and be fun and engaging for an audience of various ages. However, it doesn’t need to be specific to Raspberry Pi. You might be keen to demonstrate a project you’ve built, do a short Q&A session on what you’ve learnt, or present something more in-depth in the auditorium; maybe you’re one of our approved resellers wanting to showcase in our market area. We’re also looking for digital makers to run drop-in activity sessions, as well as for people who’d like to be marshals with smiling faces who will ensure that everyone has a wonderful time!

If you’d like to take part in Raspberry Fields, let us know via this form, and we’ll be in touch with you soon.

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Coding is for girls

Post Syndicated from magda original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/coding-is-for-girls/

Less than four years ago, Magda Jadach was convinced that programming wasn’t for girls. On International Women’s Day, she tells us how she discovered that it definitely is, and how she embarked on the new career that has brought her to Raspberry Pi as a software developer.

“Coding is for boys”, “in order to be a developer you have to be some kind of super-human”, and “it’s too late to learn how to code” – none of these three things is true, and I am going to prove that to you in this post. By doing this I hope to help some people to get involved in the tech industry and digital making. Programming is for anyone who loves to create and loves to improve themselves.

In the summer of 2014, I started the journey towards learning how to code. I attended my first coding workshop at the recommendation of my boyfriend, who had constantly told me about the skill and how great it was to learn. I was convinced that, at 28 years old, I was already too old to learn. I didn’t have a technical background, I was under the impression that “coding is for boys”, and I lacked the superpowers I was sure I needed. I decided to go to the workshop only to prove him wrong.

Later on, I realised that coding is a skill like any other. You can compare it to learning any language: there’s grammar, vocabulary, and other rules to acquire.

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Alien message in console

To my surprise, the workshop was completely inspiring. Within six hours I was able to create my first web page. It was a really simple page with a few cats, some colours, and ‘Hello world’ text. This was a few years ago, but I still remember when I first clicked “view source” to inspect the page. It looked like some strange alien message, as if I’d somehow broken the computer.

I wanted to learn more, but with so many options, I found myself a little overwhelmed. I’d never taught myself any technical skill before, and there was a lot of confusing jargon and new terms to get used to. What was HTML? CSS and JavaScript? What were databases, and how could I connect together all the dots and choose what I wanted to learn? Luckily I had support and was able to keep going.

At times, I felt very isolated. Was I the only girl learning to code? I wasn’t aware of many female role models until I started going to more workshops. I met a lot of great female developers, and thanks to their support and help, I kept coding.

Another struggle I faced was the language barrier. I am not a native speaker of English, and diving into English technical documentation wasn’t easy. The learning curve is daunting in the beginning, but it’s completely normal to feel uncomfortable and to think that you’re really bad at coding. Don’t let this bring you down. Everyone thinks this from time to time.

Play with Raspberry Pi and quit your job

I kept on improving my skills, and my interest in developing grew. However, I had no idea that I could do this for a living; I simply enjoyed coding. Since I had a day job as a journalist, I was learning in the evenings and during the weekends.

I spent long hours playing with a Raspberry Pi and setting up so many different projects to help me understand how the internet and computers work, and get to grips with the basics of electronics. I built my first ever robot buggy, retro game console, and light switch. For the first time in my life, I had a soldering iron in my hand. Day after day I become more obsessed with digital making.

Magdalena Jadach on Twitter

solderingiron Where have you been all my life? Weekend with #raspberrypi + @pimoroni + @Pololu + #solder = best time! #electricity

One day I realised that I couldn’t wait to finish my job and go home to finish some project that I was working on at the time. It was then that I decided to hand over my resignation letter and dive deep into coding.

For the next few months I completely devoted my time to learning new skills and preparing myself for my new career path.

I went for an interview and got my first ever coding internship. Two years, hundreds of lines of code, and thousands of hours spent in front of my computer later, I have landed my dream job at the Raspberry Pi Foundation as a software developer, which proves that dreams come true.

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Where to start?

I recommend starting with HTML & CSS – the same path that I chose. It is a relatively straightforward introduction to web development. You can follow my advice or choose a different approach. There is no “right” or “best” way to learn.

Below is a collection of free coding resources, both from Raspberry Pi and from elsewhere, that I think are useful for beginners to know about. There are other tools that you are going to want in your developer toolbox aside from HTML.

  • HTML and CSS are languages for describing, structuring, and styling web pages
  • You can learn JavaScript here and here
  • Raspberry Pi (obviously!) and our online learning projects
  • Scratch is a graphical programming language that lets you drag and combine code blocks to make a range of programs. It’s a good starting point
  • Git is version control software that helps you to work on your own projects and collaborate with other developers
  • Once you’ve got started, you will need a code editor. Sublime Text or Atom are great options for starting out

Coding gives you so much new inspiration, you learn new stuff constantly, and you meet so many amazing people who are willing to help you develop your skills. You can volunteer to help at a Code Club or  Coder Dojo to increase your exposure to code, or attend a Raspberry Jam to meet other like-minded makers and start your own journey towards becoming a developer.

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Trump Promises Copyright Crackdown as DoJ Takes Aim at Streaming Pirates

Post Syndicated from Andy original https://torrentfreak.com/trump-promises-copyright-crackdown-as-doj-takes-aim-at-streaming-pirates-180308/

For the past several years most of the world has been waking up to the streaming piracy phenomenon, with pre-configured set-top boxes making inroads into millions of homes.

While other countries, notably the UK, arrested many individuals while warning of a grave and looming danger, complaints from the United States remained relatively low-key. It was almost as if the stampede towards convenient yet illegal streaming had caught the MPAA and friends by surprise.

In October 2017, things quickly began to change. The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment sued Georgia-based Tickbox TV, a company selling “fully-loaded” Kodi boxes. In January 2018, the same anti-piracy group targeted Dragon Media, a company in the same line of business.

With this growing type of piracy now firmly on the radar, momentum seems to be building. Yesterday, a panel discussion on the challenges associated with piracy from streaming media boxes took place on Capitol Hill.

Hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), ‘Unboxing the Piracy Threat of Streaming Media Boxes’ went ahead with some big name speakers in attendance, not least Neil Fried, Senior Vice President, Federal Advocacy and Regulatory Affairs at the MPAA.

ITIF and various industry groups tweeted many interesting comments throughout the event. Kevin Madigan from Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property told the panel that torrent-based content “is becoming obsolete” in an on-demand digital environment that’s switching to streaming-based piracy.

While there’s certainly a transition taking place, 150 million worldwide torrent users would probably argue against the term “obsolete”. Nevertheless, the same terms used to describe torrent sites are now being used to describe players in the streaming field.

“There’s a criminal enterprise going on here that’s stealing content and making a profit,” Fried told those in attendance.

“The piracy activity out there is bad, it’s hurting a lot of economic activity & creators aren’t being compensated for their work,” he added.

Tom Galvin, Executive Director at the Digital Citizens Alliance, was also on the panel. Unsurprisingly, given the organization’s focus on the supposed dangers of piracy, Galvin took the opportunity to underline that position.

“If you go down the piracy road, those boxes aren’t following proper security protocols, there are many malware risks,” he said. It’s a position shared by Fried, who told the panel that “video piracy is the leading source of malware.”

Similar claims were made recently on Safer Internet Day but the facts don’t seem to back up the scare stories. Still, with the “Piracy is Dangerous” strategy already out in the open, the claims aren’t really unexpected.

What might also not come as a surprise is that ACE’s lawsuits against Tickbox and Dragon Media could be just a warm-up for bigger things to come. In the tweet embedded below, Fried can be seen holding a hexagonal-shaped streaming box, warning that the Department of Justice is now looking for candidates for criminal action.

What form this action will take when it arrives isn’t clear but when the DoJ hits targets on home soil, it tends to cherry-pick the most blatant of infringers in order to set an example with reasonably cut-and-dried cases.

Of course, every case can be argued but with hundreds of so-called “Kodi box” sellers active all over the United States, many of them clearly breaking the law as they, in turn, invite their customers to break the law, picking a sitting duck shouldn’t be too difficult.

And then, of course, we come to President Trump. Not usually that vocal on matters of intellectual property and piracy, yesterday – perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not – he suddenly delivered one of his “something is coming” tweets.

Given Trump’s tendency to focus on problems overseas causing issues for companies back home, a comment by Kevin Madigan during the panel yesterday immediately comes to mind.

“To combat piracy abroad, USTR needs to work with the creative industries to improve enforcement and target the source of pirated material,” Madigan said.

Interesting times and much turmoil in the streaming world ahead, it seems.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN discounts, offers and coupons

Mission Space Lab flight status announced!

Post Syndicated from Erin Brindley original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/mission-space-lab-flight-status-announced/

In September of last year, we launched our 2017/2018 Astro Pi challenge with our partners at the European Space Agency (ESA). Students from ESA membership and associate countries had the chance to design science experiments and write code to be run on one of our two Raspberry Pis on the International Space Station (ISS).

Astro Pi Mission Space Lab logo

Submissions for the Mission Space Lab challenge have just closed, and the results are in! Students had the opportunity to design an experiment for one of the following two themes:

  • Life in space
    Making use of Astro Pi Vis (Ed) in the European Columbus module to learn about the conditions inside the ISS.
  • Life on Earth
    Making use of Astro Pi IR (Izzy), which will be aimed towards the Earth through a window to learn about Earth from space.

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, speaking from the replica of the Columbus module at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, has a message for all Mission Space Lab participants:

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst congratulates Astro Pi 2017-18 winners

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://rpf.io/ytsub Help us reach a wider audience by translating our video content: http://rpf.io/yttranslate Buy a Raspberry Pi from one of our Approved Resellers: http://rpf.io/ytproducts Find out more about the Raspberry Pi Foundation: Raspberry Pi http://rpf.io/ytrpi Code Club UK http://rpf.io/ytccuk Code Club International http://rpf.io/ytcci CoderDojo http://rpf.io/ytcd Check out our free online training courses: http://rpf.io/ytfl Find your local Raspberry Jam event: http://rpf.io/ytjam Work through our free online projects: http://rpf.io/ytprojects Do you have a question about your Raspberry Pi?

Flight status

We had a total of 212 Mission Space Lab entries from 22 countries. Of these, a 114 fantastic projects have been given flight status, and the teams’ project code will run in space!

But they’re not winners yet. In April, the code will be sent to the ISS, and then the teams will receive back their experimental data. Next, to get deeper insight into the process of scientific endeavour, they will need produce a final report analysing their findings. Winners will be chosen based on the merit of their final report, and the winning teams will get exclusive prizes. Check the list below to see if your team got flight status.

Belgium

Flight status achieved:

  • Team De Vesten, Campus De Vesten, Antwerpen
  • Ursa Major, CoderDojo Belgium, West-Vlaanderen
  • Special operations STEM, Sint-Claracollege, Antwerpen

Canada

Flight status achieved:

  • Let It Grow, Branksome Hall, Toronto
  • The Dark Side of Light, Branksome Hall, Toronto
  • Genie On The ISS, Branksome Hall, Toronto
  • Byte by PIthons, Youth Tech Education Society & Kid Code Jeunesse, Edmonton
  • The Broadviewnauts, Broadview, Ottawa

Czech Republic

Flight status achieved:

  • BLEK, Střední Odborná Škola Blatná, Strakonice

Denmark

Flight status achieved:

  • 2y Infotek, Nærum Gymnasium, Nærum
  • Equation Quotation, Allerød Gymnasium, Lillerød
  • Team Weather Watchers, Allerød Gymnasium, Allerød
  • Space Gardners, Nærum Gymnasium, Nærum

Finland

Flight status achieved:

  • Team Aurora, Hyvinkään yhteiskoulun lukio, Hyvinkää

France

Flight status achieved:

  • INC2, Lycée Raoul Follereau, Bourgogne
  • Space Project SP4, Lycée Saint-Paul IV, Reunion Island
  • Dresseurs2Python, clg Albert CAMUS, essonne
  • Lazos, Lycée Aux Lazaristes, Rhone
  • The space nerds, Lycée Saint André Colmar, Alsace
  • Les Spationautes Valériquais, lycée de la Côte d’Albâtre, Normandie
  • AstroMega, Institut de Genech, north
  • Al’Crew, Lycée Algoud-Laffemas, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
  • AstroPython, clg Albert CAMUS, essonne
  • Aruden Corp, Lycée Pablo Neruda, Normandie
  • HeroSpace, clg Albert CAMUS, essonne
  • GalaXess [R]evolution, Lycée Saint Cricq, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
  • AstroBerry, clg Albert CAMUS, essonne
  • Ambitious Girls, Lycée Adam de Craponne, PACA

Germany

Flight status achieved:

  • Uschis, St. Ursula Gymnasium Freiburg im Breisgau, Breisgau
  • Dosi-Pi, Max-Born-Gymnasium Germering, Bavaria

Greece

Flight status achieved:

  • Deep Space Pi, 1o Epal Grevenon, Grevena
  • Flox Team, 1st Lyceum of Kifissia, Attiki
  • Kalamaria Space Team, Second Lyceum of Kalamaria, Central Macedonia
  • The Earth Watchers, STEM Robotics Academy, Thessaly
  • Celestial_Distance, Gymnasium of Kanithos, Sterea Ellada – Evia
  • Pi Stars, Primary School of Rododaphne, Achaias
  • Flarions, 5th Primary School of Salamina, Attica

Ireland

Flight status achieved:

  • Plant Parade, Templeogue College, Leinster
  • For Peats Sake, Templeogue College, Leinster
  • CoderDojo Clonakilty, Co. Cork

Italy

Flight status achieved:

  • Trentini DOP, CoderDojo Trento, TN
  • Tarantino Space Lab, Liceo G. Tarantino, BA
  • Murgia Sky Lab, Liceo G. Tarantino, BA
  • Enrico Fermi, Liceo XXV Aprile, Veneto
  • Team Lampone, CoderDojoTrento, TN
  • GCC, Gali Code Club, Trentino Alto Adige/Südtirol
  • Another Earth, IISS “Laporta/Falcone-Borsellino”
  • Anti Pollution Team, IIS “L. Einaudi”, Sicily
  • e-HAND, Liceo Statale Scientifico e Classico ‘Ettore Majorana’, Lombardia
  • scossa team, ITTS Volterra, Venezia
  • Space Comet Sisters, Scuola don Bosco, Torino

Luxembourg

Flight status achieved:

  • Spaceballs, Atert Lycée Rédange, Diekirch
  • Aline in space, Lycée Aline Mayrisch Luxembourg (LAML)

Poland

Flight status achieved:

  • AstroLeszczynPi, I Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Krola Stanislawa Leszczynskiego w Jasle, podkarpackie
  • Astrokompasy, High School nr XVII in Wrocław named after Agnieszka Osiecka, Lower Silesian
  • Cosmic Investigators, Publiczna Szkoła Podstawowa im. Św. Jadwigi Królowej w Rzezawie, Małopolska
  • ApplePi, III Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. prof. T. Kotarbińskiego w Zielonej Górze, Lubusz Voivodeship
  • ELE Society 2, Zespol Szkol Elektronicznych i Samochodowych, Lubuskie
  • ELE Society 1, Zespol Szkol Elektronicznych i Samochodowych, Lubuskie
  • SpaceOn, Szkola Podstawowa nr 12 w Jasle – Gimnazjum Nr 2, Podkarpackie
  • Dewnald Ducks, III Liceum Ogólnokształcące w Zielonej Górze, lubuskie
  • Nova Team, III Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. prof. T. Kotarbinskiego, lubuskie district
  • The Moons, Szkola Podstawowa nr 12 w Jasle – Gimnazjum Nr 2, Podkarpackie
  • Live, Szkoła Podstawowa nr 1 im. Tadeusza Kościuszki w Zawierciu, śląskie
  • Storm Hunters, I Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Krola Stanislawa Leszczynskiego w Jasle, podkarpackie
  • DeepSky, Szkoła Podstawowa nr 1 im. Tadeusza Kościuszki w Zawierciu, śląskie
  • Small Explorers, ZPO Konina, Malopolska
  • AstroZSCL, Zespół Szkół w Czerwionce-Leszczynach, śląskie
  • Orchestra, Szkola Podstawowa nr 12 w Jasle, Podkarpackie
  • ApplePi, I Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Krola Stanislawa Leszczynskiego w Jasle, podkarpackie
  • Green Crew, Szkoła Podstawowa nr 2 w Czeladzi, Silesia

Portugal

Flight status achieved:

  • Magnetics, Escola Secundária João de Deus, Faro
  • ECA_QUEIROS_PI, Secondary School Eça de Queirós, Lisboa
  • ESDMM Pi, Escola Secundária D. Manuel Martins, Setúbal
  • AstroPhysicists, EB 2,3 D. Afonso Henriques, Braga

Romania

Flight status achieved:

  • Caelus, “Tudor Vianu” National High School of Computer Science, District One
  • CodeWarriors, “Tudor Vianu” National High School of Computer Science, District One
  • Dark Phoenix, “Tudor Vianu” National High School of Computer Science, District One
  • ShootingStars, “Tudor Vianu” National High School of Computer Science, District One
  • Astro Pi Carmen Sylva 2, Liceul Teoretic “Carmen Sylva”, Constanta
  • Astro Meridian, Astro Club Meridian 0, Bihor

Slovenia

Flight status achieved:

  • astrOSRence, OS Rence
  • Jakopičevca, Osnovna šola Riharda Jakopiča, Ljubljana

Spain

Flight status achieved:

  • Exea in Orbit, IES Cinco Villas, Zaragoza
  • Valdespartans, IES Valdespartera, Zaragoza
  • Valdespartans2, IES Valdespartera, Zaragoza
  • Astropithecus, Institut de Bruguers, Barcelona
  • SkyPi-line, Colegio Corazón de María, Asturias
  • ClimSOLatic, Colegio Corazón de María, Asturias
  • Científicosdelsaz, IES Profesor Pablo del Saz, Málaga
  • Canarias 2, IES El Calero, Las Palmas
  • Dreamers, M. Peleteiro, A Coruña
  • Canarias 1, IES El Calero, Las Palmas

The Netherlands

Flight status achieved:

  • Team Kaki-FM, Rkbs De Reiger, Noord-Holland

United Kingdom

Flight status achieved:

  • Binco, Teignmouth Community School, Devon
  • 2200 (Saddleworth), Detached Flight Royal Air Force Air Cadets, Lanchashire
  • Whatevernext, Albyn School, Highlands
  • GraviTeam, Limehurst Academy, Leicestershire
  • LSA Digital Leaders, Lytham St Annes Technology and Performing Arts College, Lancashire
  • Mead Astronauts, Mead Community Primary School, Wiltshire
  • STEAMCademy, Castlewood Primary School, West Sussex
  • Lux Quest, CoderDojo Banbridge, Co. Down
  • Temparatus, Dyffryn Taf, Carmarthenshire
  • Discovery STEMers, Discovery STEM Education, South Yorkshire
  • Code Inverness, Code Club Inverness, Highland
  • JJB, Ashton Sixth Form College, Tameside
  • Astro Lab, East Kent College, Kent
  • The Life Savers, Scratch and Python, Middlesex
  • JAAPiT, Taylor Household, Nottingham
  • The Heat Guys, The Archer Academy, Greater London
  • Astro Wantenauts, Wantage C of E Primary School, Oxfordshire
  • Derby Radio Museum, Radio Communication Museum of Great Britain, Derbyshire
  • Bytesyze, King’s College School, Cambridgeshire

Other

Flight status achieved:

  • Intellectual Savage Stars, Lycée français de Luanda, Luanda

 

Congratulations to all successful teams! We are looking forward to reading your reports.

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Big Birthday Weekend 2018: find a Jam near you!

Post Syndicated from Ben Nuttall original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/big-birthday-weekend-2018-find-a-jam-near-you/

We’re just over three weeks away from the Raspberry Jam Big Birthday Weekend 2018, our community celebration of Raspberry Pi’s sixth birthday. Instead of an event in Cambridge, as we’ve held in the past, we’re coordinating Raspberry Jam events to take place around the world on 3–4 March, so that as many people as possible can join in. Well over 100 Jams have been confirmed so far.

Raspberry Pi Big Birthday Weekend Jam

Find a Jam near you

There are Jams planned in Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and Zimbabwe.

Take a look at the events map and the full list (including those who haven’t added their event to the map quite yet).

Raspberry Jam Big Birthday Weekend 2018 event map

We will have Raspberry Jams in 35 countries across six continents

Birthday kits

We had some special swag made especially for the birthday, including these T-shirts, which we’ve sent to Jam organisers:

Raspberry Jam Big Birthday Weekend 2018 T-shirt

There is also a poster with a list of participating Jams, which you can download:

Raspberry Jam Big Birthday Weekend 2018 list

Raspberry Jam photo booth

I created a Raspberry Jam photo booth that overlays photos with the Big Birthday Weekend logo and then tweets the picture from your Jam’s account — you’ll be seeing plenty of those if you follow the #PiParty hashtag on 3–4 March.

Check out the project on GitHub, and feel free to set up your own booth, or modify it to your own requirements. We’ve included text annotations in several languages, and more contributions are very welcome.

There’s still time…

If you can’t find a Jam near you, there’s still time to organise one for the Big Birthday Weekend. All you need to do is find a venue — a room in a school or library will do — and think about what you’d like to do at the event. Some Jams have Raspberry Pis set up for workshops and practical activities, some arrange tech talks, some put on show-and-tell — it’s up to you. To help you along, there’s the Raspberry Jam Guidebook full of advice and tips from Jam organisers.

Raspberry Pi on Twitter

The packed. And they packed. And they packed some more. Who’s expecting one of these #rjam kits for the Raspberry Jam Big Birthday Weekend?

Download the Raspberry Jam branding pack, and the special birthday branding pack, where you’ll find logos, graphical assets, flyer templates, worksheets, and more. When you’re ready to announce your event, create a webpage for it — you can use a site like Eventbrite or Meetup — and submit your Jam to us so it will appear on the Jam map!

We are six

We’re really looking forward to celebrating our birthday with thousands of people around the world. Over 48 hours, people of all ages will come together at more than 100 events to learn, share ideas, meet people, and make things during our Big Birthday Weekend.

Raspberry Jam Manchester
Raspberry Jam Manchester
Raspberry Jam Manchester

Since we released the first Raspberry Pi in 2012, we’ve sold 17 million of them. We’re also reaching almost 200000 children in 130 countries around the world through Code Club and CoderDojo, we’ve trained over 1500 Raspberry Pi Certified Educators, and we’ve sent code written by more than 6800 children into space. Our magazines are read by a quarter of a million people, and millions more use our free online learning resources. There’s plenty to celebrate and even more still to do: we really hope you’ll join us from a Jam near you on 3–4 March.

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Coolest Projects: for young people across the Raspberry Pi community

Post Syndicated from Rosa Langhammer original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/coolest-projects-young-people-raspberry-pi-community/

Coolest Projects is a world-leading annual showcase that empowers and inspires the next generation of digital creators, innovators, changemakers, and entrepreneurs. Young people come to the event to exhibit the cool ideas they have been working on throughout the year. And from 2018, Coolest Projects is open to young people across the Raspberry Pi community.

Coolest Projects 2016 Highlights

Coolest Projects is a world leading showcase that empowers and inspires the next generation of digital creators, innovators, changemakers and entrepreneurs! Find out more at: http://coolestprojects.org/

A huge fair for digital making

When Raspberry Pi’s Philip and Ben first visited Coolest Projects, they were blown away by the scope of the event, the number of children and young people who had travelled to Dublin to share their work, and the commitment they demonstrated to work ranging from Scratch projects to home-made hovercraft.

Coolest Projects International 2018 will be held in Dublin, Ireland, on Saturday 26 May. Participants will travel from all over the world to take part in a festival of creativity and tech. We hope you’ll be among them!

Montage of photos from Coolest Projects 2016: a large space with lots of people, mostly children, sharing projects, socialising, and discussing

“It’s a huge fair especially for coding and digital tech – it’s massive and it’s amazing!“

Coolest Projects International and Coolest Projects UK

As well as the flagship international event in Dublin, Ireland, there are regional events in other countries. All these events are now open to makers and creators across the Raspberry Pi community, from Dojos, Code Clubs, and Raspberry Jams.

This year, for the first time, we are bringing Coolest Projects to the UK for a spectacular regional event! Coolest Projects UK will be held at Here East in London on Saturday 28 April. We’re looking forward to discovering over 100 projects that young people have designed and built, and seeing them share their ideas and their passion for technology, make new friends, and learn from one another.

A young boy in a CoderDojo Ninja T-shirt shows another young boy his project, both concentrating intently

Fierce focus at Coolest Projects

Who can take part?

If you’re up to 18 years of age and you’re in primary, secondary, or further education, you can join in. You can work as an individual or as part of a team of up to five. All projects are welcome, whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned expert.

You must be able to attend the event that you’re entering, whether Coolest Projects International or a regional event. Getting together with other makers and their fantastic projects is a really important and exciting part of the event, so you can’t take part with an online-only or video-only entry. There are a few rules to make sure everything runs smoothly and fairly, and you can read them here.

A girl in a CoderDojo Ninja T shirt proudly holds the rocket she has built; it's as long as she is tall

Wiktoria Jarymowicz from Poland presents the rocket she built at Coolest Projects

How do I join in?

Your project should fit into one of six broad categories, covering everything from Scratch to hardware projects. If you’ve made something with tech, or you’ve got a project idea, it will probably fit into one of them! Once you’ve picked your project, you need to register it and apply for your space at the event. You can register for Coolest Projects International 2018 right now, and registration for Coolest Projects UK 2018 will open on Wednesday: join our email list to get an update when it does.

How will you choose who gets a place?

There are places available for 750 projects, and our goal is to have enough room for everyone who wants to come. If more makers want to bring their projects than there are places available, we’ll select entries to show a balance of projects from different regions and different parts of our communities, from groups and individuals, and from girls and boys, as well as a good mixture of projects across different categories.

Poster setting out the process of planning and building a project in six stages, and showing the date of this year's Coolest Projects International: 26 May 2018

I need help to get started, or help to get there

To help get your ideas flowing and guide you through your project, we’ve prepared a set of How to build a project worksheets. And if you’d like to attend Coolest Projects International, but the cost of travel is a problem, you can apply for a travel bursary by 31 January.

Coolest Projects is about rewarding creativity, and we know the Raspberry Pi community has that in spades. It’s about having an idea and making it a reality using the skills you have, whether this is your first project or your fifteenth. We can’t wait to see you at Coolest Projects UK or Coolest Projects International this year!

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Raspbery Pi-newood Derby

Post Syndicated from Alex Bate original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/pinewood-derby/

Andre Miron’s Pinewood Derby Instant Replay System (sorry, not sorry for the pun in the title) uses a Raspberry Pi to monitor the finishing line and play back a slow-motion instant replay, putting an end to “No, I won!” squabbles once and for all.

Raspberry Pi Based Pinewood Derby Instant Replay Demo

This is the same system I demo in this video (https://youtu.be/-QyMxKfBaAE), but on our actual track with real pinewood derby cars. Glad to report that it works great!

Pinewood Derby

For those unfamiliar with the term, the Pinewood Derby is a racing event for Cub Scouts in the USA. Cub Scouts, often with the help of a guardian, build race cars out of wood according to rules regarding weight, size, materials, etc.

Pinewood derby race car

The Cubs then race their cars in heats, with the winners advancing to district and council races.

Who won?

Andre’s Instant Replay System registers the race cars as they cross the finishing line, and it plays back slow-motion video of the crossing on a monitor. As he explains on YouTube:

The Pi is recording a constant stream of video, and when the replay is triggered, it records another half-second of video, then takes the last second and a half and saves it in slow motion (recording is done at 90 fps), before replaying.

The build also uses an attached Arduino, connected to GPIO pin 5, to trigger the recording and playback as it registers the passing cars via a voltage splitter. Additionally, the system announces the finishing places on a rather attractive-looking display above the finishing line.

Pinewood derby race car Raspberry Pi

The result? No more debate about whose car crossed the line first in neck-and-neck races.

Build your own

Andre takes us through the physical setup of the build in the video below, and you’ll find the complete code pasted in the description of the video here. Thanks, Andre!

Raspberry Pi based Pinewood Derby Instant Replay System

See the system on our actual track here: https://youtu.be/B3lcQHWGq88 Raspberry Pi based instant replay system, triggered by Arduino Pinewood Derby Timer. The Pi uses GPIO pin 5 attached to a voltage splitter on Arduino output 11 (and ground-ground) to detect when a car crosses the finish line, which triggers the replay.

Digital making in your club

If you’re a member of an various after-school association such as the Scouts or Guides, then using the Raspberry Pi and our free project resources, or visiting a Code Club or CoderDojo, are excellent ways to work towards various badges and awards. So talk to your club leader to discover all the ways in which you can incorporate digital making into your club!

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Zero WH: pre-soldered headers and what to do with them

Post Syndicated from Alex Bate original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/zero-wh/

If you head over to the website of your favourite Raspberry Pi Approved Reseller today, you may find the new Zero WH available to purchase. But what it is? Why is it different, and what can you do with it?

Raspberry Pi Zero WH

“If you like pre-soldered headers, and getting caught in the rain…”

Raspberry Pi Zero WH

Imagine a Raspberry Pi Zero W. Now add a professionally soldered header. Boom, that’s the Raspberry Pi Zero WH! It’s your same great-tasting Pi, with a brand-new…crust? It’s perfect for everyone who doesn’t own a soldering iron or who wants the soldering legwork done for them.

What you can do with the Zero WH

What can’t you do? Am I right?! The small size of the Zero W makes it perfect for projects with minimal wiggle-room. In such projects, some people have no need for GPIO pins — they simply solder directly to the board. However, there are many instances where you do want a header on your Zero W, for example in order to easily take advantage of the GPIO expander tool for Debian Stretch on a PC or Mac.

GPIO expander in clubs and classrooms

As Ben Nuttall explains in his blog post on the topic:

[The GPIO expander tool] is a real game-changer for Raspberry Jams, Code Clubs, CoderDojos, and schools. You can live boot the Raspberry Pi Desktop OS from a USB stick, use Linux PCs, or even install [the Pi OS] on old computers. Then you have really simple access to physical computing without full Raspberry Pi setups, and with no SD cards to configure.

Using the GPIO expander with the Raspberry Pi Zero WH decreases the setup cost for anyone interested in trying out physical computing in the classroom or at home. (And once you’ve stuck your toes in, you’ll obviously fall in love and will soon find yourself with multiple Raspberry Pi models, HATs aplenty, and an area in your home dedicated to your new adventure in Raspberry Pi. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

Other uses for a Zero W with a header

The GPIO expander setup is just one of a multitude of uses for a Raspberry Pi Zero W with a header. You may want the header for prototyping before you commit to soldering wires directly to a board. Or you may have a temporary build in mind for your Zero W, in which case you won’t want to commit to soldering wires to the board at all.

Raspberry Pi Zero WH

Your use case may be something else entirely — tell us in the comments below how you’d utilise a pre-soldered Raspberry Pi Zero WH in your project. The best project idea will receive ten imaginary house points of absolutely no practical use, but immense emotional value. Decide amongst yourselves who you believe should win them — I’m going to go waste a few more hours playing SLUG!

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Playing tic-tac-toe against a Raspberry Pi at Maker Faire

Post Syndicated from Alex Bate original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/tic-tac-toe-maker-faire/

At Maker Faire New York, we met up with student Toby Goebeler of Dover High School, Pennsylvania, to learn more about his Tic-Tac-Toe Robot.

Play Tic-Tac-Toe against a Raspberry Pi #MFNYC

Uploaded by Raspberry Pi on 2017-12-18.

Tic-tac-toe with Dover Robotics

We came to see Toby and Brian Bahn, physics teacher for Dover High School and leader of the Dover Robotics club, so they could tell us about the inner workings of the Tic-Tac-Toe Robot project, and how the Raspberry Pi fit within it. Check out our video for Toby’s explanation of the build and the software controlling it.

Wooden robotic arm — Toby Goebeler Tic-Tac-Toe arm Raspberry Pi

Toby’s original robotic arm prototype used a weight to direct the pen on and off the paper. He later replaced this with a servo motor.

Toby documented the prototyping process for the robot on the Dover Robotics blog. Head over there to hear more about the highs and lows of building a robotic arm from scratch, and about how Toby learned to integrate a Raspberry Pi for both software and hardware control.

Wooden robotic arm playing tic-tac-toe — Toby Goebeler Tic-Tac-Toe arm Raspberry Pi

The finished build is a tic-tac-toe beast, besting everyone who dares to challenge it to a game.

And in case you’re wondering: no, none of the Raspberry Pi team were able to beat the Tic-Tac-Toe Robot when we played against it.

Your turn

We always love seeing Raspberry Pis being used in schools to teach coding and digital making, whether in the classroom or during after-school activities such as the Dover Robotics club and our own Code Clubs and CoderDojos. If you are part of a coding or robotics club, we’d love to hear your story! So make sure to share your experiences and projects in the comments below, or via our social media accounts.

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Thank you for my new Raspberry Pi, Santa! What next?

Post Syndicated from Alex Bate original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/thank-you-for-my-new-raspberry-pi-santa-what-next/

Note: the Pi Towers team have peeled away from their desks to spend time with their families over the festive season, and this blog will be quiet for a while as a result. We’ll be back in the New Year with a bushel of amazing projects, awesome resources, and much merriment and fun times. Happy holidays to all!

Now back to the matter at hand. Your brand new Christmas Raspberry Pi.

Your new Raspberry Pi

Did you wake up this morning to find a new Raspberry Pi under the tree? Congratulations, and welcome to the Raspberry Pi community! You’re one of us now, and we’re happy to have you on board.

But what if you’ve never seen a Raspberry Pi before? What are you supposed to do with it? What’s all the fuss about, and why does your new computer look so naked?

Setting up your Raspberry Pi

Are you comfy? Good. Then let us begin.

Download our free operating system

First of all, you need to make sure you have an operating system on your micro SD card: we suggest Raspbian, the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s official supported operating system. If your Pi is part of a starter kit, you might find that it comes with a micro SD card that already has Raspbian preinstalled. If not, you can download Raspbian for free from our website.

An easy way to get Raspbian onto your SD card is to use a free tool called Etcher. Watch The MagPi’s Lucy Hattersley show you what you need to do. You can also use NOOBS to install Raspbian on your SD card, and our Getting Started guide explains how to do that.

Plug it in and turn it on

Your new Raspberry Pi 3 comes with four USB ports and an HDMI port. These allow you to plug in a keyboard, a mouse, and a television or monitor. If you have a Raspberry Pi Zero, you may need adapters to connect your devices to its micro USB and micro HDMI ports. Both the Raspberry Pi 3 and the Raspberry Pi Zero W have onboard wireless LAN, so you can connect to your home network, and you can also plug an Ethernet cable into the Pi 3.

Make sure to plug the power cable in last. There’s no ‘on’ switch, so your Pi will turn on as soon as you connect the power. Raspberry Pi uses a micro USB power supply, so you can use a phone charger if you didn’t receive one as part of a kit.

Learn with our free projects

If you’ve never used a Raspberry Pi before, or you’re new to the world of coding, the best place to start is our projects site. It’s packed with free projects that will guide you through the basics of coding and digital making. You can create projects right on your screen using Scratch and Python, connect a speaker to make music with Sonic Pi, and upgrade your skills to physical making using items from around your house.

Here’s James to show you how to build a whoopee cushion using a Raspberry Pi, paper plates, tin foil and a sponge:

Whoopee cushion PRANK with a Raspberry Pi: HOW-TO

Explore the world of Raspberry Pi physical computing with our free FutureLearn courses: http://rpf.io/futurelearn Free make your own Whoopi Cushion resource: http://rpf.io/whoopi For more information on Raspberry Pi and the charitable work of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, including Code Club and CoderDojo, visit http://rpf.io Our resources are free to use in schools, clubs, at home and at events.

Diving deeper

You’ve plundered our projects, you’ve successfully rigged every chair in the house to make rude noises, and now you want to dive deeper into digital making. Good! While you’re digesting your Christmas dinner, take a moment to skim through the Raspberry Pi blog for inspiration. You’ll find projects from across our worldwide community, with everything from home automation projects and retrofit upgrades, to robots, gaming systems, and cameras.

You’ll also find bucketloads of ideas in The MagPi magazine, the official monthly Raspberry Pi publication, available in both print and digital format. You can download every issue for free. If you subscribe, you’ll get a Raspberry Pi Zero W to add to your new collection. HackSpace magazine is another fantastic place to turn for Raspberry Pi projects, along with other maker projects and tutorials.

And, of course, simply typing “Raspberry Pi projects” into your preferred search engine will find thousands of ideas. Sites like Hackster, Hackaday, Instructables, Pimoroni, and Adafruit all have plenty of fab Raspberry Pi tutorials that they’ve devised themselves and that community members like you have created.

And finally

If you make something marvellous with your new Raspberry Pi – and we know you will – don’t forget to share it with us! Our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google+ accounts are brimming with chatter, projects, and events. And our forums are a great place to visit if you have questions about your Raspberry Pi or if you need some help.

It’s good to get together with like-minded folks, so check out the growing Raspberry Jam movement. Raspberry Jams are community-run events where makers and enthusiasts can meet other makers, show off their projects, and join in with workshops and discussions. Find your nearest Jam here.

Have a great festive holiday and welcome to the community. We’ll see you in 2018!

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US Government Teaches Anti-Piracy Skills Around The Globe

Post Syndicated from Ernesto original https://torrentfreak.com/us-government-teaches-anti-piracy-skills-around-the-globe-171217/

Online piracy is a global issue. Pirate sites and services tend to operate in multiple jurisdictions and are purposefully set up to evade law enforcement.

This makes it hard for police from one country to effectively crack down on a site in another. International cooperation is often required, and the US Government is one of the leaders on this front.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has quite a bit of experience in tracking down pirates and they are actively sharing this knowledge with countries that can use some help. This goes far beyond the occasional seminar.

A diplomatic cable obtained through a Freedom of Information request provides a relatively recent example of these efforts. The document gives an overview of anti-piracy training, provided and funded by the US Government, during the fall of 2015.

“On November 24 and 25, prosecutors and investigators from Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, and Turkey participated in a two-day, US. Department of Justice (USDOJ)-sponsored training program on combatting online piracy.

“The program updated participants on legal issues, including data retention legislation, surrounding the investigation and prosecution of online piracy,” the cable adds.

According to the cable, piracy has become a very significant problem in Eastern Europe, costing rightsholders and governments millions of dollars in revenues. After the training, local law enforcement officers in these countries should be better equipped to deal with the problem.

Pirates Beware

The event was put together with help from various embassies and among the presenters were law enforcement professionals from around the world.

The Director of the DoJ’s CCIPS Cybercrime Laboratory was among the speakers. He gave training on computer forensics and participants were provided with various tools to put this to use.

“Participants were given copies of forensic tools at the conclusion of the program so that they could put to use some of what they saw demonstrated during the training,” the cable reads.

While catching pirates can be quite hard already, getting them convicted is a challenge as well. Increasingly we’ve seen criminal complaints using non-copyright claims to have site owners prosecuted.

By using money laundering and tax offenses, pirates can receive tougher penalties. This was one of the talking points during the training as well.

“Participants were encouraged to consider the use of statutes such as money laundering and tax evasion, in addition to those protecting copyrights and trademarks, since these offenses are often punished more severely than standalone intellectual property crimes.”

The cable, written by the US Embassy in Bucharest, provides a lot of detail about the two-day training session. It’s also clear on the overall objective. The US wants to increase the likelihood that pirate sites are brought to justice. Not only in the homeland, but around the globe.

“By focusing approximately forty investigators and prosecutors from four countries on how they can more effectively attack rogue sites, and by connecting rights holders and their investigators with law enforcement, the chances of pirates being caught and held accountable have increased.”

While it’s hard to link the training to any concrete successes, Romanian law enforcement did shut down the country’s leading pirate site a few months later. As with a previous case in Romania, which involved the FBI, money laundering and tax evasion allegations were expected.

While it’s not out of the ordinary for international law enforcers to work together, it’s notable how coordinated the US efforts are. Earlier this week we wrote about the US pressure on Sweden to raid The Pirate Bay. And these are not isolated incidents.

While the US Department of Justice doesn’t reveal all details of its operations, it is very open about its global efforts to protect Intellectual Property.

Around the world..

The DoJ’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) has relationships with law enforcement worldwide and regularly provides training to foreign officers.

A crucial part of the Department’s international enforcement activities is the Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordinator (IPLEC) program, which started in 2006.

Through IPLECs, the department now has Attorneys stationed in Thailand, Hong Kong, Romania, Brazil, and Nigeria. These Attorneys keep an eye on local law enforcement and provide assistance and training, to protect US copyright holders.

“Our strategically placed coordinators draw upon their subject matter expertise to help ensure that property holders’ rights are enforced across the globe, and that the American people are protected from harmful products entering the marketplace,” Attorney General John Cronan of the Criminal Division said just last Friday.

Or to end with the title of the Romanian cable: ‘Pirates beware!’

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—

The cable cited here was made available in response to a Freedom of Information request, which was submitted by Rachael Tackett and shared with TorrentFreak. It starts at page 47 of document 2.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN discounts, offers and coupons

CoderDojo: 2000 Dojos ever

Post Syndicated from Giustina Mizzoni original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/2000-dojos-ever/

Every day of the week, we verify new Dojos all around the world, and each Dojo is championed by passionate volunteers. Last week, a huge milestone for the CoderDojo community went by relatively unnoticed: in the history of the movement, more than 2000 Dojos have now been verified!

CoderDojo banner — 2000 Dojos

2000 Dojos

This is a phenomenal achievement for a movement that’s just six years old and powered by volunteers. Presently, there are more than 1650 active Dojos running weekly, fortnightly, or monthly, and all of them are free for participants — for example, the Dojos run by Joel Bayubasire in Kampala, Uganda:

Joel Bayubasire with Ninjas at his Ugandan Dojo — 2000 Dojos

Empowering refugee children

This week, Joel set up his second Dojo and verified it on our global map. Joel is a Congolese refugee living in Kampala, Uganda, where he is currently completing his PhD in Economics at Madison International Institute and Business School.

Joel understands first-hand the challenges faced by refugees who were forced to leave their country due to war or conflict. Uganda is currently hosting more than 1.2 million refugees, 60% of which are children (World Bank, 2017). As refugees, children are only allowed to attend local schools until the age of 12. This results in lower educational attainment, which will likely affect their future employment prospects.

Two girls at a laptop. Joel Bayubasire CoderDojo — 2000 Dojos

Joel has the motivation to overcome these challenges, because he understands the power of education. Therefore, he initiated a number of community-based activities to provide educational opportunities for refugee children. As part of this, he founded his first Dojo earlier in the year, with the aim of giving these children a chance to compete in today’s global knowledge-based economy.

Two boys at a laptop. Joel Bayubasire CoderDojo — 2000 Dojos

Aware that securing volunteer mentors would be a challenge, Joel trained eight young people from the community to become youth mentors to their peers. He explains:

I believe that the mastery of computer coding allows talented young people to thrive professionally and enables them to not only be consumers but creators of the interconnected world of today!

Based on the success of Joel’s first Dojo, he has now expanded the CoderDojo initiative in his community; his plan is to provide computer science training for more than 300 refugee youths in Kampala by 2019. If you’d like to learn more about Joel’s efforts, head to this website.

Join the movement

If you are interested in creating opportunities for the young people in your community, then join the growing CoderDojo movement — you can volunteer to start a Dojo or to support an existing one today!

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The Raspberry Pi Christmas shopping list 2017

Post Syndicated from Alex Bate original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/christmas-shopping-list-2017/

Looking for the perfect Christmas gift for a beloved maker in your life? Maybe you’d like to give a relative or friend a taste of the world of coding and Raspberry Pi? Whatever you’re looking for, the Raspberry Pi Christmas shopping list will point you in the right direction.

An ice-skating Raspberry Pi - The Raspberry Pi Christmas Shopping List 2017

For those getting started

Thinking about introducing someone special to the wonders of Raspberry Pi during the holidays? Although you can set up your Pi with peripherals from around your home, such as a mobile phone charger, your PC’s keyboard, and the old mouse dwelling in an office drawer, a starter kit is a nice all-in-one package for the budding coder.



Check out the starter kits from Raspberry Pi Approved Resellers such as Pimoroni, The Pi Hut, ModMyPi, Adafruit, CanaKit…the list is pretty long. Our products page will direct you to your closest reseller, or you can head to element14 to pick up the official Raspberry Pi Starter Kit.



You can also buy the Raspberry Pi Press’s brand-new Raspberry Pi Beginners Book, which includes a Raspberry Pi Zero W, a case, a ready-made SD card, and adapter cables.

Once you’ve presented a lucky person with their first Raspberry Pi, it’s time for them to spread their maker wings and learn some new skills.

MagPi Essentials books - The Raspberry Pi Christmas Shopping List 2017

To help them along, you could pick your favourite from among the Official Projects Book volume 3, The MagPi Essentials guides, and the brand-new third edition of Carrie Anne Philbin’s Adventures in Raspberry Pi. (She is super excited about this new edition!)

And you can always add a link to our free resources on the gift tag.

For the maker in your life

If you’re looking for something for a confident digital maker, you can’t go wrong with adding to their arsenal of electric and electronic bits and bobs that are no doubt cluttering drawers and boxes throughout their house.



Components such as servomotors, displays, and sensors are staples of the maker world. And when it comes to jumper wires, buttons, and LEDs, one can never have enough.



You could also consider getting your person a soldering iron, some helpings hands, or small tools such as a Dremel or screwdriver set.

And to make their life a little less messy, pop it all inside a Really Useful Box…because they’re really useful.



For kit makers

While some people like to dive into making head-first and to build whatever comes to mind, others enjoy working with kits.



The Naturebytes kit allows you to record the animal visitors of your garden with the help of a camera and a motion sensor. Footage of your local badgers, birds, deer, and more will be saved to an SD card, or tweeted or emailed to you if it’s in range of WiFi.

Cortec Tiny 4WD - The Raspberry Pi Christmas Shopping List 2017

Coretec’s Tiny 4WD is a kit for assembling a Pi Zero–powered remote-controlled robot at home. Not only is the robot adorable, building it also a great introduction to motors and wireless control.



Bare Conductive’s Touch Board Pro Kit offers everything you need to create interactive electronics projects using conductive paint.

Pi Hut Arcade Kit - The Raspberry Pi Christmas Shopping List 2017

Finally, why not help your favourite maker create their own gaming arcade using the Arcade Building Kit from The Pi Hut?

For the reader

For those who like to curl up with a good read, or spend too much of their day on public transport, a book or magazine subscription is the perfect treat.

For makers, hackers, and those interested in new technologies, our brand-new HackSpace magazine and the ever popular community magazine The MagPi are ideal. Both are available via a physical or digital subscription, and new subscribers to The MagPi also receive a free Raspberry Pi Zero W plus case.

Cover of CoderDojo Nano Make your own game

Marc Scott Beginner's Guide to Coding Book

You can also check out other publications from the Raspberry Pi family, including CoderDojo’s new CoderDojo Nano: Make Your Own Game, Eben Upton and Gareth Halfacree’s Raspberry Pi User Guide, and Marc Scott’s A Beginner’s Guide to Coding. And have I mentioned Carrie Anne’s Adventures in Raspberry Pi yet?

Stocking fillers for everyone

Looking for something small to keep your loved ones occupied on Christmas morning? Or do you have to buy a Secret Santa gift for the office tech? Here are some wonderful stocking fillers to fill your boots with this season.

Pi Hut 3D Christmas Tree - The Raspberry Pi Christmas Shopping List 2017

The Pi Hut 3D Xmas Tree: available as both a pre-soldered and a DIY version, this gadget will work with any 40-pin Raspberry Pi and allows you to create your own mini light show.



Google AIY Voice kit: build your own home assistant using a Raspberry Pi, the MagPi Essentials guide, and this brand-new kit. “Google, play Mariah Carey again…”



Pimoroni’s Raspberry Pi Zero W Project Kits offer everything you need, including the Pi, to make your own time-lapse cameras, music players, and more.



The official Raspberry Pi Sense HAT, Camera Module, and cases for the Pi 3 and Pi Zero will complete the collection of any Raspberry Pi owner, while also opening up exciting project opportunities.

STEAM gifts that everyone will love

Awesome Astronauts | Building LEGO’s Women of NASA!

LEGO Idea’s bought out this amazing ‘Women of NASA’ set, and I thought it would be fun to build, play and learn from these inspiring women! First up, let’s discover a little more about Sally Ride and Mae Jemison, two AWESOME ASTRONAUTS!

Treat the kids, and big kids, in your life to the newest LEGO Ideas set, the Women of NASA — starring Nancy Grace Roman, Margaret Hamilton, Sally Ride, and Mae Jemison!



Explore the world of wearables with Pimoroni’s sewable, hackable, wearable, adorable Bearables kits.



Add lights and motors to paper creations with the Activating Origami Kit, available from The Pi Hut.




We all loved Hidden Figures, and the STEAM enthusiast you know will do too. The film’s available on DVD, and you can also buy the original book, along with other fascinating non-fiction such as Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rachel Ignotofsky’s Women in Science, and Sydney Padua’s (mostly true) The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage.

Have we missed anything?

With so many amazing kits, HATs, and books available from members of the Raspberry Pi community, it’s hard to only pick a few. Have you found something splendid for the maker in your life? Maybe you’ve created your own kit that uses the Raspberry Pi? Share your favourites with us in the comments below or via our social media accounts.

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Our brand-new Christmas resources

Post Syndicated from Laura Sach original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/christmas-resources-2017/

It’s never too early for Christmas-themed resources — especially when you want to make the most of them in your school, Code Club or CoderDojo! So here’s the ever-wonderful Laura Sach with an introduction of our newest festive projects.

A cartoon of people singing Christmas carols - Raspberry Pi Christmas Resources

In the immortal words of Noddy Holder: “it’s Christmaaaaaaasssss!” Well, maybe it isn’t quite Christmas yet, but since the shops have been playing Mariah Carey on a loop since the last pumpkin lantern hit the bargain bin, you’re hopefully well prepared.

To get you in the mood with some festive fun, we’ve put together a selection of seasonal free resources for you. Each project has a difficulty level in line with our Digital Making Curriculum, so you can check which might suit you best. Why not try them out at your local Raspberry Jam, CoderDojo, or Code Club, at school, or even on a cold day at home with a big mug of hot chocolate?

Jazzy jumpers

A cartoon of someone remembering pairs of jumper designs - Raspberry Pi Christmas Resources

Jazzy jumpers (Creator level): as a child in the eighties, you’d always get an embarrassing and probably badly sized jazzy jumper at Christmas from some distant relative. Thank goodness the trend has gone hipster and dreadful jumpers are now cool!

This resource shows you how to build a memory game in Scratch where you must remember the colour and picture of a jazzy jumper before recreating it. How many jumpers can you successfully recall in a row?

Sense HAT advent calendar

A cartoon Sense HAT lit up in the design of a Christmas pudding - Raspberry Pi Christmas Resources

Sense HAT advent calendar (Builder level): put the lovely lights on your Sense HAT to festive use by creating an advent calendar you can open day by day. However, there’s strictly no cheating with this calendar — we teach you how to use Python to detect the current date and prevent would-be premature peekers!

Press the Enter key to open today’s door:

(Note: no chocolate will be dispensed from your Raspberry Pi. Sorry about that.)

Code a carol

A cartoon of people singing Christmas carols - Raspberry Pi Christmas Resources

Code a carol (Developer level): Have you ever noticed how much repetition there is in carols and other songs? This resource teaches you how to break down the Twelve days of Christmas tune into its component parts and code it up in Sonic Pi the lazy way: get the computer to do all the repetition for you!

No musical knowledge required — just follow our lead, and you’ll have yourself a rocking doorbell tune in no time!

Naughty and nice

A cartoon of Santa judging people by their tweets - Raspberry Pi Christmas Resources

Naughty and nice (Maker level): Have you been naughty or nice? Find out by using sentiment analysis on your tweets to see what sort of things you’ve been talking about throughout the year. For added fun, why not use your program on the Twitter account of your sibling/spouse/arch nemesis and report their level of naughtiness to Santa with an @ mention?

raspberry_pi is 65.5 percent NICE, with an accuracy of 0.9046692607003891

It’s Christmaaaaaasssss

With the festive season just around the corner, it’s time to get started on your Christmas projects! Whether you’re planning to run your Christmas lights via a phone app, install a home assistant inside an Elf on a Shelf, or work through our Christmas resources, we would like to see what you make. So do share your festive builds with us on social media, or by posting links in the comments.

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