If you don’t follow Raspberry Pi on Instagram, you really should, for there you will find #SnazzyRPi, a collection of snazzy-looking Raspberry Pi photographs taken by our very own Fiacre Muller.
4,412 Likes, 90 Comments – Raspberry Pi (@raspberrypifoundation) on Instagram: “Do you have a Raspberry Pi 3 A+? What have you built with it? . And how snazzy is this photo from…”
Here are a few more to whet your appetite. Enjoy.
Join the #SnazzyRPi revolution and share your Raspberry Pi glamour shots on Instagram using #SnazzyRPi
Bringing the digital photo frame into an even more modern age than the modern age it already resides in, Sean Tracey uses image recognition and social media to update his mother on the day-to-day happenings of her grandkids.
Sharing social media content
“Like every grandmother, my mum dotes on her grandchildren (the daughter and son of my sister, Grace and Freddie),” Sean explains in his tutorial for the project, “but they don’t live nearby, so she doesn’t get to see them as much as she might like.”
Sean tells of his mother’s lack of interest in social media platforms (they’re too complex), and of the anxiety he feels whenever she picks up his phone to catch up on the latest images of Grace and Freddie.
So I thought: “I know! Why don’t I make my mum a picture frame that filters my Instagram feed to show only pictures of my niece and nephew!”
Genius!
Image recognition and Instagram
Sean’s Instaframe project uses a Watson Visual Recognition model to recognise photos of his niece and nephew posted to his Instagram account, all via a Chrome extension. Then, via a series of smaller functions, these images are saved to a folder and displayed on a screen connected to a Raspberry Pi 3B+.
Do you like photos and Raspberry Pi? Then check out these other photo-focused Pi projects that we’re sure you’ll love (because they’re awesome) and will want to make yourself (because they’re awesome).
FlipFrame
FlipFrame, the rotating picture frame, rotates according to the orientation of the image on display.
Макс Шремс подава оплаквания срещу Google, Facebook, Instagram и WhatsApp. Причината е, че според него е незаконен изборът, пред който са изправени потребителите им – да приемат условията на компаниите или да загубят достъп до услугите им.
Подходът “съгласи се или напусни”, казва Шремс пред Reuters Television, нарушава правото на хората съгласно Общия регламент за защита на данните (GDPR) да избират свободно дали да позволят на компаниите да използват данните им. Трябва да има избор, смята Шремс.
Шремс е австриецът, който все не е доволен от защитата на личните данни в социалните мрежи и не ги оставя на мира, като превръща борбата си за защита на данните и в професия, юрист е. Този път действа чрез създадена от него неправителствена организация noyb
A hanging plotter, also known as a polar plotter or polargraph, is a machine for drawing images on a vertical surface. It does so by using motors to control the length of two cords that form a V shape, supporting a pen where they meet. We’ve featured one on this blog before: Norbert “HomoFaciens” Heinz’s video is a wonderfully clear introduction to how a polargraph works and what you have to consider when you’re putting one together.
Today, we look at Inky Lines, by John Proudlock. With it, John is creating a series of captivating and beautiful pieces, and with his most recent work, each rendering of an image is unique.
An evolving project
The project isn’t new – John has been working on it for at least a couple of years – but it is constantly evolving. When we first spotted it, John had just implemented code to allow the plotter to produce mesmeric, spiralling patterns.
But we’re skipping ahead. Let’s go back to the beginning.
From pixels to motor movements
John starts by providing an image, usually no more than 100 pixels wide, to a Raspberry Pi. Custom software that he wrote evaluates the darkness of each pixel and selects a pattern of a suitable density to represent it.
The two cords supporting the plotter’s pen are wound around the shafts of two stepper motors, such that the movement of the motors controls the length of the cords: the program next calculates how much each motor must move in order to produce the pattern. The Raspberry Pi passes corresponding instructions to two motor circuits, which transform the signals to a higher voltage and pass them to the stepper motors. These turn by very precise amounts, winding or unwinding the cords and, very slowly, dragging the pen across the paper.
Suspended in-between the two motors is a print head, made out of a new 3-d modelling material I’ve been prototyping called cardboard. An old coat hanger and some velcro were also used.
The earlier drawings that John made used a repeatable method to render image files as lines on paper. That is, if the machine drew the same image a number of times, each copy would be identical. More recently, though, he has been using a method that yields random movements of the pen:
The pen point is guided around the image, but moves to each new point entirely at random. Up close this looks like a chaotic squiggle, but from a distance of a couple of meters, the human eye (and brain) make order from the chaos and view an infinite number of shades and a smoother, less mechanical image.
This method means that no matter how many times the polargraph repeats the same image, each copy will be unique.
A gallery of work
Inky Lines’ website and its Instagram feed offer a collection of wonderful pieces John has drawn with his polargraph, and he discusses the different techniques and types of image that he is exploring.
They range from holiday photographs, processed to extract particular features and rendered in silhouette, to portraits, made with a single continuous line that can be several hundred metres long, to generative images spirograph images like those pictured above, created by an algorithm rather than rendered from a source image.
At the 2018 Python Language Summit, Carl Shapiro described some of the experiments that he and others at Instagram did to look at ways to improve the performance of the CPython interpreter. The talk was somewhat academic in tone and built on what has been learned in other dynamic languages over the years. By modifying the Python object model fairly substantially, they were able to roughly double the performance of the “classic” Richards benchmark.
Attention, case modders: take a look at the Brutus 2, an extremely snazzy computer case with a partly transparent, animated side panel that’s powered by a Pi. Daniel Otto and Carsten Lehman have a current crowdfunder for the case; their video is in German, but the looks of the build speak for themselves. There are some truly gorgeous effects here.
Vorbestellungen ab sofort auf https://www.startnext.com/brutus2 Weitere Infos zu uns auf: https://3nb.de https://www.facebook.com/3nb.de https://www.instagram.com/3nb.de Über 3nb: – GbR aus Leipzig, gegründet 2017 – wir kommen aus den Bereichen Elektronik und Informatik – erstes Produkt: der Brutus One ein Gaming PC mit transparentem Display in der Seite Kurzinfo Brutus 2: – Markencomputergehäuse für Gaming- /Casemoddingszene – Besonderheit: animiertes Seitenfenster angesteuert mit einem Raspberry Pi – Vorteile von unserem Case: o Case ist einzeln lieferbar und nicht nur als komplett-PC o kein Leistungsverbrauch der Grafikkarte dank integriertem Raspberry Pi o bessere Darstellung von Texten und Grafiken durch unscharfen Hintergrund
What’s case modding?
Case modding just means modifying your computer or gaming console’s case, and it’s very popular in the gaming community. Some mods are functional, while others improve the way the case looks. Lots of dedicated gamers don’t only want a powerful computer, they also want it to look amazing — at home, or at LAN parties and games tournaments.
The Brutus 2 case
The Brutus 2 case is made by Daniel and Carsten’s startup, 3nb electronics, and it’s a product that is officially Powered by Raspberry Pi. Its standout feature is the semi-transparent TFT screen, which lets you play any video clip you choose while keeping your gaming hardware on display. It looks incredibly cool. All the graphics for the case’s screen are handled by a Raspberry Pi, so it doesn’t use any of your main PC’s GPU power and your gaming won’t suffer.
The software
To use Brutus 2, you just need to run a small desktop application on your PC to choose what you want to display on the case. A number of neat animations are included, and you can upload your own if you want.
So far, the app only runs on Windows, but 3nb electronics are planning to make the code open-source, so you can modify it for other operating systems, or to display other file types. This is true to the spirit of the case modding and Raspberry Pi communities, who love adapting, retrofitting, and overhauling projects and code to fit their needs.
Daniel and Carsten say that one of their campaign’s stretch goals is to implement more functionality in the Brutus 2 app. So in the future, the case could also show things like CPU temperature, gaming stats, and in-game messages. Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from integrating features like that yourself.
If you have any questions about the case, you can post them directly to Daniel and Carsten here.
The crowdfunding campaign
The Brutus 2 campaign on Startnext is currently halfway to its first funding goal of €10000, with over three weeks to go until it closes. If you’re quick, you still be may be able to snatch one of the early-bird offers. And if your whole guild NEEDS this, that’s OK — there are discounts for bulk orders.
Looking to incorporate some digital making into your Easter weekend? You’ve come to the right place! With a Raspberry Pi, a few wires, and some simple code, you can take your festivities to the next level — here’s how!
If you logged in to watch our Instagram live-stream yesterday, you’ll have seen me put together a simple egg carton and some wires to create circuits. These circuits, when closed by way of a foil-wrapped chocolate egg, instruct a Raspberry Pi to reveal the whereabouts of a larger chocolate egg!
Make it
You’ll need an egg carton, two male-to-female jumper wire, and two crocodile leads for each egg you use.
Connect your leads together in pairs: one end of a crocodile lead to the male end of one jumper wire. Attach the free crocodile clips of two leads to each corner of the egg carton (as shown up top). Then hook up the female ends to GPIO pins: one numbered pin and one ground pin per egg. I recommend pins 3, 4, 18 and 24, as they all have adjacent GND pins.
Your foil-wrapped Easter egg will complete the circuit — make sure it’s touching both the GPIO- and GND-connected clips when resting in the carton.
Wrap it
For your convenience (and our sweet tooth), we tested several foil-wrapped eggs (Easter and otherwise) to see which are conductive.
We’re egg-sperimenting with Easter deliciousness to find which treat is the most conductive. Why? All will be revealed in our Instagram Easter live-stream tomorrow.
The result? None of them are! But if you unwrap an egg and rewrap it with the non-decorative foil side outward, this tends to work. You could also use aluminium foil or copper tape to create a conductive layer.
Code it
Next, you’ll need to create the code for your hunt. The script below contains the bare bones needed to make the project work — you can embellish it however you wish using GUIs, flashing LEDs, music, etc.
Open Thonny or IDLE on Raspbian and create a new file called egghunt.py. Then enter the following code:
We’re using ButtonBoard from the gpiozero library. This allows us to link several buttons together as an object and set an action for when any number of the buttons are pressed. Here, the script waits for all four circuits to be completed before printing the location of the prize in the Python shell.
Your turn
And that’s it! Now you just need to hide your small foil eggs around the house and challenge your kids/friends/neighbours to find them. Then, once every circuit is completed with an egg, the great prize will be revealed.
Give it a go this weekend! And if you do, be sure to let us know on social media.
(Thank you to Lauren Hyams for suggesting we “do something for Easter” and Ben ‘gpiozero’ Nuttall for introducing me to ButtonBoard.)
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.
Unless you’ve been AFK for the last two days, you’ll no doubt be aware of the release of the brand-spanking-new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. With faster connectivity, more computing power, Power over Ethernet (PoE) pins, and the same $35 price point, the new board has been a hit across all our social media accounts! So while we wind down from launch week, let’s all pull up a chair, make yet another cup of coffee, and look through some of our favourite reactions from the last 48 hours.
Twitter
Our Twitter mentions were refreshing at hyperspeed on Wednesday, as you all began to hear the news and spread the word about the newest member to the Raspberry Pi family.
This sort of attention to detail work is exactly what I love about being involved with @Raspberry_Pi. We’re squeezing the last drops of performance out of the 40nm process node, and perfecting Pi 3 in the same way that the original B+ perfected Pi 1.” https://t.co/hEj7JZOGeZ
And I think we counted about 150 uses of this GIF on Twitter alone:
Is something going on with the @Raspberry_Pi today? You’d never guess from my YouTube subscriptions page… 😀
A few members of our community were lucky enough to get their hands on a 3B+ early, and sat eagerly by the YouTube publish button, waiting to release their impressions of our new board to the world. Others, with no new Pi in hand yet, posted reaction vids to the launch, discussing their plans for the upgraded Pi and comparing statistics against its predecessors.
Happy Pi Day World! There is a new Raspberry Pi 3, the B+! In this video I will review the new Pi 3 B+ and do some speed tests. Let me know in the comments if you are getting one and what you are planning on making with it!
It’s Pi day! Sorry, wondrous Mathematical constant, this day is no longer about you. The Raspberry Pi foundation just released a new version of the Raspberry Pi called the Rapsberry Pi B+.
If you have a YouTube or Vimeo channel, or if you create videos for other social media channels, and have published your impressions of the new Raspberry Pi, be sure to share a link with us so we can see what you think!
Instagram
We shared a few photos and videos on Instagram, and over 30000 of you checked out our Instagram Story on the day.
5,609 Likes, 103 Comments – Raspberry Pi (@raspberrypifoundation) on Instagram: “Some glamour shots of the latest member of the #RaspberryPi family – the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ ….”
As hot off the press (out of the oven? out of the solder bath?) Pi 3B+ boards start to make their way to eager makers’ homes, they are all broadcasting their excitement, and we love seeing what they plan to get up to with it.
8 Likes, 1 Comments – Mat (@notenoughtech) on Instagram: “The new #raspberrypi 3B+ suits the industrial setting. Check out my website for #RPI3B Vs RPI3BPlus…”
16 Likes, 3 Comments – Rob Edlin (@niddocks) on Instagram: “The new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ is here and will be used for our Python staging server for our APIs…”
In the news
Eben made an appearance on ITV Anglia on Wednesday, talking live on Facebook about the new Raspberry Pi.
As the latest version of the Raspberry Pi computer is launched in Cambridge, Dr Eben Upton talks about the inspiration of Professor Stephen Hawking and his legacy to science. Add your questions in…
He was also fortunate enough to spend the morning with some Sixth Form students from the local area.
On a day where science is making the headlines, lovely to see the scientists of the future in our office – getting tips from fab @Raspberry_Pi founder @EbenUpton #scientists #RaspberryPi #PiDay2018 @sirissac6thform
Principal Hardware Engineer Roger Thornton will also make a live appearance online this week: he is co-hosting Hack Chat later today. And of course, you can see more of Roger and Eben in the video where they discuss the new 3B+.
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ is now on sale now for $35.
It’s been a supremely busy week here at Pi Towers and across the globe in the offices of our Approved Resellers, and seeing your wonderful comments and sharing in your excitement has made it all worth it. Please keep it up, and be sure to share the arrival of your 3B+ as well as the projects into which you’ll be integrating them.
If you’d like to order a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+, you can do so via our product page. And if you have any questions at all regarding the 3B+, the conversation is still taking place in the comments of Wednesday’s launch post, so head on over.
Should we host in the cloud or on our own servers? This question was at the center of Dmytro Dyachuk’s talk, given during KubeCon + CloudNativeCon last November. While many services simply launch in the cloud without the organizations behind them considering other options, large content-hosting services have actually moved back to their own data centers: Dropbox migrated in 2016 and Instagram in 2014. Because such transitions can be expensive and risky, understanding the economics of hosting is a critical part of launching a new service. Actual hosting costs are often misunderstood, or secret, so it is sometimes difficult to get the numbers right. In this article, we’ll use Dyachuk’s talk to try to answer the “million dollar question”: “buy or rent?”
This column is from The MagPi issue 59. You can download a PDF of the full issue for free, or subscribe to receive the print edition through your letterbox or the digital edition on your tablet. All proceeds from the print and digital editions help the Raspberry Pi Foundation achieve our charitable goals.
“Hey, world!” Estefannie exclaims, a wide grin across her face as the camera begins to roll for another YouTube tutorial video. With a growing number of followers and wonderful support from her fans, Estefannie is building a solid reputation as an online maker, creating unique, fun content accessible to all.
It’s as if she was born into performing and making for an audience, but this fun, enjoyable journey to social media stardom came not from a desire to be in front of the camera, but rather as a unique approach to her own learning. While studying, Estefannie decided the best way to confirm her knowledge of a subject was to create an educational video explaining it. If she could teach a topic successfully, she knew she’d retained the information. And so her YouTube channel, Estefannie Explains It All, came into being.
Her first videos featured pages of notes with voice-over explanations of data structure and algorithm analysis. Then she moved in front of the camera, and expanded her skills in the process.
But YouTube isn’t her only outlet. With nearly 50000 followers, Estefannie’s Instagram game is strong, adding to an increasing number of female coders taking to the platform. Across her Instagram grid, you’ll find insights into her daily routine, from programming on location for work to behind-the-scenes troubleshooting as she begins to create another tutorial video. It’s hard work, with content creation for both Instagram and YouTube forever on her mind as she continues to work and progress successfully as a software engineer.
As a thank you to her Instagram fans for helping her reach 10000 followers, Estefannie created a free game for Android and iOS called Gravitris — imagine Tetris with balance issues!
Estefannie was born and raised in Mexico, with ambitions to become a graphic designer and animator. However, a documentary on coding at Pixar, and the beauty of Merida’s hair in Brave, opened her mind to the opportunities of software engineering in animation. She altered her career path, moved to the United States, and switched to a Computer Science course.
With a constant desire to make and to learn, Estefannie combines her software engineering profession with her hobby to create fun, exciting content for YouTube.
While studying, Estefannie started a Computer Science Girls Club at the University of Houston, Texas, and she found herself eager to put more time and effort into the movement to increase the percentage of women in the industry. The club was a success, and still is to this day. While Estefannie has handed over the reins, she’s still very involved in the cause.
Through her YouTube videos, Estefannie continues the theme of inclusion, with every project offering a warm sense of approachability for all, regardless of age, gender, or skill. From exploring Scratch and Makey Makey with her young niece and nephew to creating her own Disney ‘Made with Magic’ backpack for a trip to Disney World, Florida, Estefannie’s videos are essentially a documentary of her own learning process, produced so viewers can learn with her — and learn from her mistakes — to create their own tech wonders.
Estefannie’s automated gingerbread house project was a labour of love, with electronics, wires, and candy strewn across both her living room and kitchen for weeks before completion. While she already was a skilled programmer, the world of physical digital making was still fairly new for Estefannie. Having ditched her hot glue gun in favour of a soldering iron in a previous video, she continued to experiment and try out new, interesting techniques that are now second nature to many members of the maker community. With the gingerbread house, Estefannie was able to research and apply techniques such as light controls, servos, and app making, although the latter was already firmly within her skill set. The result? A fun video of ups and downs that resulted in a wonderful, festive treat. She even gave her holiday home its own solar panel!
1,910 Likes, 43 Comments – Estefannie Explains It All (@estefanniegg) on Instagram: “A DAY AT RASPBERRY PI TOWERS!! LINK IN BIO @raspberrypifoundation”
And that’s just the beginning of her adventures with Pi…but we won’t spoil her future plans by telling you what’s coming next. Sorry! However, since this article was written last year, Estefannie has released a few more Pi-based project videos, plus some awesome interviews and live-streams with other members of the maker community such as Simone Giertz. She even made us an awesome video for our Raspberry Pi YouTube channel! So be sure to check out her latest releases.
2,264 Likes, 56 Comments – Estefannie Explains It All (@estefanniegg) on Instagram: “Best day yet!! I got to hangout, play Jenga with a huge arm robot, and have afternoon tea with…”
While many wonderful maker videos show off a project without much explanation, or expect a certain level of skill from viewers hoping to recreate the project, Estefannie’s videos exist almost within their own category. We can’t wait to see where Estefannie Explains It All goes next!
Note to readers! Starting next month, we will be publishing our monthly Hot Startups blog post on the AWS Startup Blog. Please come check us out.
As visual communication—whether through social media channels like Instagram or white space-heavy product pages—becomes a central part of everyone’s life, accessible design platforms and tools become more and more important in the world of tech. This trend is why we have chosen to spotlight three design-related startups—namely Canva, Figma, and InVision—as our hot startups for the month of February. Please read on to learn more about these design-savvy companies and be sure to check out our full post here.
Canva (Sydney, Australia)
For a long time, creating designs required expensive software, extensive studying, and time spent waiting for feedback from clients or colleagues. With Canva, a graphic design tool that makes creating designs much simpler and accessible, users have the opportunity to design anything and publish anywhere. The platform—which integrates professional design elements, including stock photography, graphic elements, and fonts for users to build designs either entirely from scratch or from thousands of free templates—is available on desktop, iOS, and Android, making it possible to spin up an invitation, poster, or graphic on a smartphone at any time.
Figma is a cloud-based design platform that empowers designers to communicate and collaborate more effectively. Using recent advancements in WebGL, Figma offers a design tool that doesn’t require users to install any software or special operating systems. It also allows multiple people to work in a file at the same time—a crucial feature.
As the need for new design talent increases, the industry will need plenty of junior designers to keep up with the demand. Figma is prepared to help students by offering their platform for free. Through this, they “hope to give young designers the resources necessary to kick-start their education and eventually, their careers.”
Founded in 2011 with the goal of helping improve every digital experience in the world, digital product design platform InVision helps users create a streamlined and scalable product design process, build and iterate on prototypes, and collaborate across organizations. The company, which raised a $100 million series E last November, bringing the company’s total funding to $235 million, currently powers the digital product design process at more than 80 percent of the Fortune 100 and brands like Airbnb, HBO, Netflix, and Uber.
Integration is boring. And also inevitable. But I won’t be writing about enterprise integration patterns. Instead, I’ll explain how to create an app for integration with Zapier.
What is Zapier? It is a service that allows you tо connect two (or more) otherwise unconnected services via their APIs (or protocols). You can do stuff like “Create a Trello task from an Evernote note”, “publish new RSS items to Facebook”, “append new emails to a spreadsheet”, “post approaching calendar meeting to Slack”, “Save big email attachments to Dropbox”, “tweet all instagrams above a certain likes threshold”, and so on. In fact, it looks to cover mostly the same usecases as another famous service that I really like – IFTTT (if this then that), with my favourite use-case “Get a notification when the international space station passes over your house”. And all of those interactions can be configured via a UI.
Now that’s good for end users but what does it have to do with software development and integration? Zapier (unlike IFTTT, unfortunately), allows custom 3rd party services to be included. So if you have a service of your own, you can create an “app” and allow users to integrate your service with all the other 3rd party services. IFTTT offers a way to invoke web endpoints (including RESTful services), but it doesn’t allow setting headers, so that makes it quite limited for actual APIs.
In this post I’ll briefly explain how to write a custom Zapier app and then will discuss where services like Zapier stand from an architecture perspective.
The thing that I needed it for – to be able to integrate LogSentinel with any of the third parties available through Zapier, i.e. to store audit logs for events that happen in all those 3rd party systems. So how do I do that? There’s a tutorial that makes it look simple. And it is, with a few catches.
I initially followed the GitHub tutorial and had my build fail. It claimed the zapier platform dependency is missing. After I compared it with the example apps, I found out there’s a caret in front of the zapier platform dependency. Removing it just yielded another error – that my node version should be exactly 6.10.2. Why?
The Zapier CLI requires you have exactly version 6.10.2 installed. You’ll see errors and will be unable to proceed otherwise.
It appears that they are using AWS Lambda which is stuck on Node 6.10.2 (actually – it’s 6.10.3 when you check). The current major release is 8, so minus points for choosing … javascript for a command-line tool and for building sandboxed apps. Maybe other decisions had their downsides as well, I won’t be speculating. Maybe it’s just my dislike for dynamic languages.
So, after you make sure you have the correct old version on node, you call zapier init and make sure there are no carets, npm install and then zapier test. So far so good, you have a dummy app. Now how do you make a RESTful call to your service?
Zapier splits the programmable entities in two – “triggers” and “creates”. A trigger is the event that triggers the whole app, an a “create” is what happens as a result. In my case, my app doesn’t publish any triggers, it only accepts input, so I won’t be mentioning triggers (though they seem easy). You configure all of the elements in index.js (e.g. this one):
The log.js file itself is the interesting bit – there you specify all the parameters that should be passed to your API call, as well as making the API call itself:
You can pass the input parameters to your API call, and it’s as simple as that. The user can then specify which parameters from the source (“trigger”) should be mapped to each of your parameters. In an example zap, I used an email trigger and passed the sender as actorId, the sibject as “action” and the body of the email as details.
There’s one more thing – authentication. Authentication can be done in many ways. Some services offer OAuth, others – HTTP Basic or other custom forms of authentication. There is a section in the documentation about all the options. In my case it was (almost) an HTTP Basic auth. My initial thought was to just supply the credentials as parameters (which you just hardcode rather than map to trigger parameters). That may work, but it’s not the canonical way. You should configure “authentication”, as it triggers a friendly UI for the user.
You include authentication.js (which has the fields your authentication requires) and then pre-process requests by adding a header (in index.js):
const authentication = require('./authentication');
const includeAuthHeaders = (request, z, bundle) => {
if (bundle.authData.organizationId) {
request.headers = request.headers || {};
request.headers['Application-Id'] = bundle.authData.applicationId
const basicHash = Buffer(`${bundle.authData.organizationId}:${bundle.authData.apiSecret}`).toString('base64');
request.headers['Authorization'] = `Basic ${basicHash}`;
}
return request;
};
const App = {
// This is just shorthand to reference the installed dependencies you have. Zapier will
// need to know these before we can upload
version: require('./package.json').version,
platformVersion: require('zapier-platform-core').version,
authentication: authentication,
// beforeRequest & afterResponse are optional hooks into the provided HTTP client
beforeRequest: [
includeAuthHeaders
]
...
}
And then you zapier push your app and you can test it. It doesn’t automatically go live, as you have to invite people to try it and use it first, but in many cases that’s sufficient (i.e. using Zapier when doing integration with a particular client)
Can Zapier can be used for any integration problem? Unlikely – it’s pretty limited and simple, but that’s also a strength. You can, in half a day, make your service integrate with thousands of others for the most typical use-cases. And not that although it’s meant for integrating public services rather than for enterprise integration (where you make multiple internal systems talk to each other), as an increasing number of systems rely on 3rd party services, it could find home in an enterprise system, replacing some functions of an ESB.
Effectively, such services (Zapier, IFTTT) are “Simple ESB-as-a-service”. You go to a UI, fill a bunch of fields, and you get systems talking to each other without touching the systems themselves. I’m not a big fan of ESBs, mostly because they become harder to support with time. But minimalist, external ones might be applicable in certain situations. And while such services are primarily aimed at end users, they could be a useful bit in an enterprise architecture that relies on 3rd party services.
Whether it could process the required load, whether an organization is willing to let its data flow through a 3rd party provider (which may store the intermediate parameters), is a question that should be answered in a case by cases basis. I wouldn’t recommend it as a general solution, but it’s certainly an option to consider.
After getting in contact with us to share their latest build with us, we invited Matvey Fridman of Germany-based production company Spiegelbilder Studio to write a guest blog post about their CRT video walls created for the band STRANDKØNZERT.
GERMAN DJENT RAP / EST. 2017. COMPLETE DIY-PROJECT.
CRT video wall
About a year ago, we had the idea of building a huge video wall out of old TVs to use in a music video. It took some time, but half a year later we found ourselves in a studio actually building this thing using 30 connected computers, 24 of which were Raspberry Pis.
How we did it
After weeks and months of preproduction and testing, we decided on two consecutive days to build the wall, create the underlying IP network, run a few tests, and then film the artists’ performance in front of it. We actually had 32 Pis (a mixed bag of first, second, and third generation models) and even more TVs ready to go, since we didn’t know what the final build would actually look like. We ended up using 29 separate screens of various sizes hooked up to 24 separate Pis — the remaining five TVs got a daisy-chained video signal out of other monitors for a cool effect. Each Pi had to run a free software called PiWall.
Since the TVs only had analogue video inputs, we had to get special composite breakout cables and then adapt the RCA connectors to either SCART, S-Video, or BNC.
As soon as we had all of that running, we connected every Pi to a 48-port network switch that we’d hooked up to a Windows PC acting as a DHCP server to automatically assign IP addresses and handle the multicast addressing. To make remote control of the Raspberry Pis easier, a separate master Linux PC and two MacBook laptops, each with SSH enabled and a Samba server running, joined the network as well.
The MacBook laptops were used to drop two files containing the settings on each Pi. The .pitile file was unique to every Pi and contained their respective IDs. The .piwall file contained the same info for all Pis: the measurements and positions of every single screen to help the software split up the video signal coming in through the network. After every Pi got the command to start the PiWall software, which specifies the UDP multicast address and settings to be used to receive the video stream, the master Linux PC was tasked with streaming the video file to these UDP addresses. Now every TV was showing its section of the video, and we could begin filming.
The whole process and the contents of the files and commands are summarised in the infographic below. A lot of trial and error was involved in the making of this project, but it all worked out well in the end. We hope you enjoy the craft behind the music video even though the music is not for everybody 😉
Standard clocks with easily recognisable numbers are so last season. Who wants to save valuable seconds simply telling the time, when a series of LEDs and numerical notation can turn every time query into an adventure in mathematics?
In this video I’ll be showing how I built a binary clock using a Raspberry Pi, NeoPixels and a few lines of Python. I also take a stab at explaining how the binary number system works so that we can decipher what said clock is trying to tell us.
How to read binary
I’ll be honest: I have to think pretty hard to read binary. It stretches my brain quite vigorously. But I am a fan of flashy lights and pretty builds, so YouTube and Instagram rising star Mattias Jähnke, aka engineerish, had my full attention from the off.
“If you have a problem with your friends being able to tell the time way too easily while in your house, this is your answer.”
Mattias offers a beginners’ guide in to binary in his video and then explains how his clock displays values in binary, before moving on to the actual clock build process. So make some tea, pull up a chair, and jump right in.
Binary clock
To build the clock, Mattias used a Raspberry Pi and NeoPixel strips, fitted snugly within a simple 3D-printed case. With a few lines of Python, he coded his clock to display the current time using the binary system, with columns for seconds, minutes, and hours.
418 Likes, 14 Comments – Mattias (@engineerish) on Instagram: “The real kicker with a binary clock is that by the time you’ve deciphered what time it is – you’re…”
The Python code isn’t currently available on Mattias’s GitHub account, but if you’re keen to see how he did it, and you ask politely, and he’s not too busy, you never know.
Make your own
In the meantime, while we batter our eyelashes in the general direction of Stockholm and hope for a response, I challenge any one of you to code a binary display project for the Raspberry Pi. It doesn’t have to be a clock. And it doesn’t have to use NeoPixels. Maybe it could use an LED matrix such as the SenseHat, or a series of independently controlled LEDs on a breadboard. Maybe there’s something to be done with servo motors that flip discs with different-coloured sides to display a binary number.
Whatever you decide to build, the standard reward applies: ten imaginary house points (of absolutely no practical use, but immense emotional value) and a great sense of achievement to all who give it a go.
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:
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.
Конкурентният регулатор Bundeskartellamt е уведомил писмено дружеството Facebook за предварителната си правна оценка в процедура за злоупотреба с господстващо положение, която органът провежда срещу Facebook. На настоящия етап от производството органът приема, че Facebook има господстващо положение на германския пазар за социални мрежи. Органът смята, че Facebook злоупотребява с това господстващо положение и събира неограничен брой данни, вкл. чрез сайтове на трети страни – или собственост на Facebook, като например WhatsApp или Instagram – или сайтове и приложения на други оператори с вградени приложни програмни интерфейси (API) във Facebook.Участието във Facebook е под условие – неограничено одобрение на Общите условия. На потребителите се дава възможност да приемат целия пакет или да откажат ползването на социалната мрежа. Представител на конкурентния регулатор казва, че потребителите не винаги са дали своето ефективно съгласие за проследяването на данните и обединяването на данните в съответния Facebook профил.
Bundeskartellamt по-специално се фокусира върху събирането и използването на потребителски данни от трети страни. Потребителите не могат да очакват данни, които се генерират, когато използват услуги, различни от Facebook, да бъдат добавени към техния профил във Facebook в тази степен – но в действителност данни се предават от уебсайтове и приложения към Facebook. Според конкурентния регулатор потребителите трябва да имат повече контрол над тези процеси и Facebook трябва да им предостави подходящи възможности за ефективно ограничаване на подобно събиране на данни.
Медиите отбелязват, че решението е важно поради факта, че стана дума за конкурентен регулатор и конкурентно право. За разлика от Google, които имат подобни дела и дори санкции, Facebook досега са съумели да избягват санкции за монополни практики.
Производство има и във Франция, но то се осъществява от регулатора за защита на данните по повод обмена на данни между WhatsApp и Facebook.
I need your help. This is a call out for those between 11- and 16-years-old in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Something has gone very, very wrong and only you can save us. I’ve collected together as much information for you as I can. You’ll find it at http://www.raspberrypi.org/pioneers.
The challenge
In August we intercepted an emergency communication from a lonesome survivor. She seemed to be in quite a bit of trouble, and asked all you young people aged 11 to 16 to come up with something to help tackle the oncoming crisis, using whatever technology you had to hand. You had ten weeks to work in teams of two to five with an adult mentor to fulfil your mission.
The judges
We received your world-saving ideas, and our savvy survivor pulled together a ragtag bunch of apocalyptic experts to help us judge which ones would be the winning entries.
Dr Shini Somara is an advocate for STEM education and a mechanical engineer. She was host of The Health Show and has appeared in documentaries for the BBC, PBS Digital, and Sky. You can check out her work hosting Crash Course Physics on YouTube.
Prof Lewis Dartnell is an astrobiologist and author of the book The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch.
Emma Stephenson has a background in aeronautical engineering and currently works in the Shell Foundation’s Access to Energy and Sustainable Mobility portfolio.
151 Likes, 3 Comments – Shini Somara (@drshinisomara) on Instagram: “Currently sifting through the entries with the other judges of #makeyourideas with…”
The winners
Our survivor is currently putting your entries to good use repairing, rebuilding, and defending her base. Our judges chose the following projects as outstanding examples of world-saving digital making.
This is our entry to the pioneers ‘Only you can save us’ competition. Our team name is Computatrum. Hope you enjoy!
Are you facing an unknown enemy whose only weakness is Nerf bullets? Then this is the robot for you! We loved the especially apocalyptic feel of the Computatron’s cleverly hacked and repurposed elements. The team even used an old floppy disc mechanism to help fire their bullets!
Thousands of lines of code… Many sheets of acrylic… A camera, touchscreen and fingerprint scanner… This is our entry into the Raspberry Pi Pioneers2017 ‘Only YOU can Save Us’ theme. When zombies or other survivors break into your base, you want a secure way of storing your crackers.
The Robot Apocalypse Committee is back, and this time they’ve brought cheese! The crew designed a cheese- and cracker-dispensing machine complete with face and fingerprint recognition to ensure those rations last until the next supply drop.
Hi! We are PiChasers and we entered the Raspberry Pi Pionners challenge last time when the theme was “Make it Outdoors!” but now we’ve been faced with another theme “Apocolypse”. We spent a while thinking of an original thing that would help in an apocolypse and decided upon a ‘text-only phone’ which uses local radio communication rather than cellular.
This text-based communication device encased in a tupperware container could be a lifesaver in a crisis! And luckily, the Pi Chasers produced an excellent video and amazing GitHub repo, ensuring that any and all survivors will be able to build their own in the safety of their base.
Pioneers Entry Team Name: The Three Musketeers Team Participants: James, Zach and Tom
We all know that zombies are terrible at geometry, and the Three Musketeers used this fact to their advantage when building their zombie security system. We were impressed to see the team working together to overcome the roadblocks they faced along the way.
We appreciate what you’re trying to do: Zombie Trolls
Playing piggy in the middle with zombies sure is a unique way of saving humankind from total extinction! We loved this project idea, and although the Zombie Trolls had a little trouble with their motors, we’re sure with a little more tinkering this zombie-fooling contraption could save us all.
Most awesome
Our judges also wanted to give a special commendation to the following teams for their equally awesome apocalypse-averting ideas:
PiRates, for their multifaceted zombie-proofing defence system and the high production value of their video
Byte them Pis, for their beautiful zombie-detecting doormat
Unatecxon, for their impressive bunker security system
Team Crompton, for their pressure-activated door system
All our winning teams have secured exclusive digital maker boxes. These are jam-packed with tantalising tech to satisfy all tinkering needs, including:
NAS + CLOUD GIVEAWAY FROM MORRO DATA AND BACKBLAZE
Backblaze and Morro Data have teamed up to offer a hardware and software package giveaway that combines the best of NAS and the cloud for managing your photos and videos. You’ll find information about how to enter this promotion at the end of this post.
Whether you’re a serious amateur photographer, an Instagram fanatic, or a professional videographer, you’ve encountered the challenge of accessing, organizing, and storing your growing collection of digital photos and videos. The problems are similar for both amateur and professional — they vary chiefly in scale and cost — and the choices for addressing this challenge increase in number and complexity every day.
In this post we’ll be talking about the basics of managing digital photos and videos and trying to define the goals for a good digital asset management system (DAM). There’s a lot to cover, and we can’t get to all of it in one post. We will write more on this topic in future posts.
To start off, what is digital asset management (DAM)? In his book, The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers, author Peter Krogh describes DAM as a term that refers to your entire digital photography ecosystem and how you work with it. It comprises the choices you make about every component of your digital photography practice.
Anyone considering how to manage their digital assets will need to consider the following questions:
How do I like to work, and need to work if I have clients, partners, or others with whom I need to cooperate?
What are the software and hardware options I need to consider to set up an efficient system that suits my needs?
How do DAS (direct-attached storage), NAS (network-attached storage), the cloud, and other storage solutions fit into a working system?
Is there a difference between how and where I back up and archive my files?
How do I find media files in my collection?
How do I handle a digital archive that just keeps growing and growing?
How do I make sure that the methods and system I choose won’t lock me into a closed-end, proprietary system?
Tell us what you’re using for digital media management
Earlier this week we published a post entitled What’s the Best Solution for Managing Digital Photos and Videos? in which we asked our readers to tell us how they manage their media files and what they would like to have in an ideal system. We’ll write a post after the first of the year based on the replies we receive. We encourage you to visit this week’s post and contribute your comments to the conversation.
Getting Started with Digital Asset Management
Whether you have hundreds, thousands, or millions of digital media files, you’re going to need a plan on how to manage them. Let’s start with the goals for what a good digital media management plan should look like.
Goals of a Good Digital Media Management System
1) Don’t lose your files
At the very least, your system should preserve files you wish to keep for future use. A good system will be reliable, support maintaining multiple copies of your data, and will integrate well with your data backup strategy. You should analyze each step of how you handle your cameras, memory cards, disks, and other storage media to understand the points at which your data is most vulnerable and how to minimize the possibility of data loss.
2) Find media when you need it
Your system should enable you to find files when you need them.
3) Work economically
You want a system that meets your budget and doesn’t waste your time.
4) Edit or Enhance the images or video
You’ll want the ability to make changes, change formats, and repurpose your media for different uses.
5) Share media in ways you choose
A good system will help you share your files with clients, friends, and family, giving you choices of different media, formats, and control over access and privacy.
6) Doesn’t lock your media into a proprietary system
Your system shouldn’t lock you into file formats, proprietary protocols, or make it difficult or impossible to get your media out of a particular vendor’s environment. You want a system that uses common and open formats and protocols to maintain the compatibility of your media with as yet unknown hardware and software you might want to use in the future.
Media Storage Options
Photographers and videographers differ in aspects of their workflow, and amateurs and professionals have different needs and options, but there are some common elements that are typically found in a digital media workflow:
Data is collected in a digital camera
Data is copied from the camera to a computer, a transport device, or a storage device
Data is brought into a computer system where original files are typically backed up and copies made for editing and enhancement (depending on type of system)
Data files are organized into folders, and metadata added or edited to aid in record keeping and finding files in the future
Files are edited and enhanced, with backups made during the process
File formats might be changed manually or automatically depending on system
Versions are created for client review, sharing, posting, publishing, or other uses
File versions are archived either manually or automatically
Files await possible future retrieval and use
These days, most of our digital media devices have multiple options for getting the digital media out of the camera. Those options can include Wi-Fi, direct cable connection, or one of a number of types and makes of memory cards. If your digital media device of choice is a smartphone, then you’re used to syncing your recent photos with your computer or a cloud service. If you sync with Apple Photos/iCloud or Google Photos, then one of those services may fulfill just about all your needs for managing your digital media.
If you’re a serious amateur or professional, your solution is more complex. You likely transfer your media from the camera to a computer or storage device (perhaps waiting to erase the memory cards until you’re sure you’ve safely got multiple copies of your files). The computer might already contain your image or video editing tools, or you might use it as a device to get your media back to your home or studio.
If you’ve got a fast internet connection, you might transfer your files to the cloud for safekeeping, to send them to a co-worker so she can start working on them, or to give your client a preview of what you’ve got. The cloud is also useful if you need the media to be accessible from different locations or on various devices.
If you’ve been working for a while, you might have data stored in some older formats such as CD, DVD, DVD-RAM, Zip, Jaz, or other format. Besides the inevitable degradation that occurs with older media, just finding a device to read the data can be a challenge, and it doesn’t get any easier as time passes. If you have data in older formats that you wish to save, you should transfer and preserve that data as soon as possible.
Let’s address the different types of storage devices and approaches.
Direct-attached Storage (DAS)
DAS includes any type of drive that is internal to your computer and connected via the host bus adapter (HBA), and using a common bus protocol such as ATA, SATA, or SCSI; or externally connected to the computer through, for example, USB or Thunderbolt.
Solid-state drives (SSD) are popular these days for their speed and reliability. In a system with different types of drives, it’s best to put your OS, applications, and video files on the fastest drive (typically the SSD), and use the slower drives when speed is not as critical.
A DAS device is directly accessible only from the host to which the DAS is attached, and only when the host is turned on, as the DAS incorporates no networking hardware or environment. Data on DAS can be shared on a network through capabilities provided by the operating system used on the host.
DAS can include a single drive attached via a single cable, multiple drives attached in a series, or multiple drives combined into a virtual unit by hardware and software, an example of which is RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive [or Independent] Disks). Storage virtualization such as RAID combines multiple physical disk drive components into one or more logical units for the purposes of data redundancy, performance improvement, or both.
Network-attached Storage (NAS)
A popular option these days is the use of network-attached storage (NAS) for storing working data, backing up data, and sharing data with co-workers. Compared to general purpose servers, NAS can offer several advantages, including faster data access, easier administration, and simple configuration through a web interface.
Users have the choice of a wide number of NAS vendors and storage approaches from vendors such as Morro Data, QNAP, Synology, Drobo, and many more.
NAS uses file-based protocols such as NFS (popular on UNIX systems), SMB/CIFS (Server Message Block/Common Internet File System used with MS Windows systems), AFP (used with Apple Macintosh computers), or NCP (used with OES and Novell NetWare). Multiple protocols are often supported by a single NAS device. NAS devices frequently include RAID or similar capability, providing virtualized storage and often performance improvements.
NAS devices are popular for digital media files due to their large capacities, data protection capabilities, speed, expansion options through adding more and bigger drives, and the ability to share files on a local office or home network or more widely on the internet. NAS devices often include the capability to back up the data on the NAS to another NAS or to the cloud, making them a great hub for a digital media management system.
The Cloud
The cloud is becoming increasingly attractive as a component of a digital asset management system due to a number of inherent advantages:
Cloud data centers employ redundant technologies to protect the integrity of the stored data
Data stored in the cloud can be shared, if desired
Cloud storage is limitless, as opposed to DAS and most NAS implementations
Cloud storage can be accessed through a wide range of interfaces, and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), making cloud storage extremely flexible
Cloud storage supports an extensive ecosystem of add-on hardware, software, and applications to enhance your DAM. Backblaze’s B2 Cloud Storage, for example, has a long list of integrations with media-oriented partners such as Axle video, Cantemo, Cubix, and others
Anyone working with digital media will tell you that the biggest challenge with the cloud is the large amount of data that must be transferred to the cloud, especially if someone already has a large library of media that exists on drives that they want to put into the cloud. Internet access speeds are getting faster, but not fast enough for users like Drew Geraci (known for his incredible time lapse photography and other work, including the opening to Netflix’s House of Cards), who told me he can create one terabyte of data in just five minutes when using nine 8K cameras simultaneously.
While we wait for everyone to get 10GB broadband transfer speeds, there are other options, such as Backblaze’s Fireball, which enables B2 Cloud Storage users to copy up to 40TB of data to a drive and send it directly to Backblaze.
There are technologies available that can accelerate internet TCP/IP speeds and enable faster data transfers to and from cloud storage such as Backblaze B2. We’ll be writing about these technologies in a future post.
CloudNAS
A recent entry into the storage space is Morro Data and their CloudNAS solution. Files are stored in the cloud, cached locally on a CloudNAS device as needed, and synced globally among the other CloudNAS systems in a given organization. To the user, all of their files are listed in one catalog, but they could be stored locally or in the cloud. Another advantage is that uploads to the cloud are done behind the scenes as time and network permit. A file stays local until such time as it it safely stored in the B2 Cloud then it is removed from the CloudNAS device, depending on how often it is accessed. There are more details on the CloudNAS solution in our A New Twist on Data Backup: CloudNAS blog post. (See below for how to enter our Backblaze/Morro Data giveaway.)
Cataloging and Searching Your Media
A key component of any DAM system is the ability to find files when you need them. You’ll want the ability to catalog all of your digital media, assign keywords and metadata that make sense for the way you work, and have that catalog available and searchable even when the digital files themselves are located on various drives, in the cloud, or even disconnected from your current system.
Adobe’s Lightroom is a popular application for cataloging and managing image workflow. Lightroom can handle an enormous number of files, and has a flexible catalog that can be stored locally and used to search for files that have been archived to different storage devices. Users debate whether one master catalog or multiple catalogs are the best way to work in Lightroom. In any case, it’s critical that you back up your DAM catalogs as diligently as you back up your digital media.
The latest version of Lightroom, Lightroom CC (distinguished from Lightroom CC Classic), is coupled with Adobe’s Creative Cloud service. In addition to the subscription plan for Lightroom and other Adobe Suite applications, you’ll need to choose and pay a subscription fee for how much storage you wish to use in Adobe’s Creative Cloud. You don’t get a choice of other cloud vendors.
Another popular option for image editing is Phase One Capture One, and Phase One Media Pro SE for cataloging and management. Macphun’s Luminar is available for both Macintosh and Windows. Macphun has announced that will launch a digital asset manager component for Luminar in 2018 that will compete with Adobe’s offering for a complete digital image workflow.
Any media management system needs to include or work seamlessly with the editing and enhancement tools you use for photos or videos. We’re already talked about some cataloging solutions that include image editing, as well. Some of the mainstream photo apps, such as Google Photos and Apple Photos include rudimentary to mid-level editing tools. It’s up to the more capable applications to deliver the power needed for real photo or video editing, e.g. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, Macphun’s Luminar, and Phase One Capture One for photography, and Adobe Premiere, AppleFinal Cut Pro, or Avid Media Composer (among others) for video editing.
Ensuring Future Compatibility for Your Media
Images come out of your camera in a variety of formats. Camera makers have their proprietary raw file formats (CR2 from Canon, NEF from Nikon, for example), and Adobe has a proprietary, but open, standard for digital images called DNG (Digital Negative) that is used in Lightroom and products from other vendors, as well.
Whichever you choose, be aware that you are betting that whichever format you use will be supported years down the road when you go back to your files and want to open a file with whatever will be your future photo/video editing setup. So always think of the future and consider the solution that is most likely to still be supported in future applications.
There are myriad aspects to a digital asset management system, and as we said at the outset, many choices to make. We hope you’ll take us up on our request to tell us what you’re using to manage your photos and videos and what an ideal system for you would look like. We want to make Backblaze Backup and B2 Cloud Storage more useful to our customers, and your input will help us do that.
In the meantime, why not enter the Backblaze + Morro Data Promotion described below. You could win!
ENTER TO WIN A DREAM DIGITAL MEDIA COMBO
Morro Data and Backblaze Team Up to Deliver the Dream Digital Media Backup Solution
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Visit Dream Photo Backup to learn about this combination of NAS, software, and the cloud that provides a complete solution for managing, archiving, and accessing your digital media files. You’ll have the opportunity to win Morro Data’s CacheDrive G40 (with 1TB of HDD cache), an annual subscription to CloudNAS Basic Global File Services, and $100 of Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage. The total value of this package is greater than $700. Enter at Dream Photo Backup.
Halloween is almost upon us! In honour of one of the maker community’s favourite howlidays, here are some posts from enthusiastic makers on Twitter to get you inspired and prepared for the big event.
Using a @Raspberry_Pi with @pimoroni tilt hat to make a cool puppet for #Halloween https://t.co/pOeTFZ0r29
Made with a Pimoroni Pan-Tilt HAT, a Raspberry Pi, and some VR software on her phone, Lorraine Underwood‘s puppet is going to be a rather fitting doorman to interact with this year’s trick-or-treaters. Follow her project’s progress as she posts it on her blog.
Making my house super spooky for Halloween! https://t.co/w553l40BT0
Harnessing the one song guaranteed to earworm its way into my mind this October, Firr has upgraded his house to sing for all those daring enough to approach it this coming All Hallows’ Eve.
Firr used resources from Adafruit, along with three projectors, two Raspberry Pis, and some speakers, to create this semi-interactive display.
While the eyes can move on their own, a joystick can be added for direct control. Firr created a switch that goes between autonomous animation and direct control.
First #pumpkin of the season for Friday the 13th! @PaintYourDragon’s snake eyes bonnet for the #RaspberryPi to handle the eye animation. https://t.co/TSlUUxYP5Q
The Animated Snake Eyes Bonnet is definitely one of the freakiest products to come from the Adafruit lab, and it’s the perfect upgrade for any carved pumpkin this Halloween. Attach the bonnet to a Raspberry Pi 3, or the smaller Zero or Zero W, and thus add animated eyes to your scary orange masterpiece, as Justin Smith demonstrates in his video. The effect will terrify even the bravest of trick-or-treaters! Just make sure you don’t light a candle in there too…we’re not sure how fire-proof the tech is.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of the zombie virus must be in want of braaaaaaains.
No matter whether you share your Halloween builds on Twitter, Facebook, G+, Instagram, or YouTube, we want to see them — make sure to tag us in your posts. We also have a comment section below this post, so go ahead and fill it with your ideas, links to completed projects, and general chat about the world of RasBOOrry Pi!
…sorry, that’s a hideous play on words. I apologise.
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