BirdBoxPiCam 2014; #1 The Plan

I bought my first Raspberry Pi mid-2012 with the idea of using it with a bird box camera.

 

Unfortunately there were problems with the EzCap video capture module driver, and I have still not been able to get this going.

However, now armed with a PiCam I'm hoping for better luck with my new project.

How to quickly (and safely) defrost the freezer

So, some clown left the freezer door open last night, and now you have ice, lots of ice.

Or if you've been away for the weekend and left the door slightly ajar, you now have an alpine glacier running through your kitchen!

How do you defrost a vertical freezer quickly, before your valuable stock of burgers go all mushie?

Lubuntu Keyboard Shortcuts

The one thing I hate about my lovely ASUS X401A laptop is the touch-pad.

Its just a plastic rectangle that clicks when you press along three of the sides.

I guess there are two problems with my touch-pad:-

1. Clicking the mouse tends to move the cursor, so I often select the wrong menu option or highlight the wrong text
2. When typing, the cursor sometimes moves, so text gets inserted in the wrong part of the document (maybe my hands get too close to the touch-pad)

Since the laptop boasts "...palm proof technology..." I suspect my problems are due to either the Linux touch-pad driver, or its configuration settings.

A Simple RPi Music Box

Do you have a Raspberry Pi you are not using, or (like me) have a Pi which is only used infrequently, just to try out ideas?

 

Why not connect it to your stereo and put it to use as a music box.

One of my RPi boards is just used for the occassonal experiment. So I thought I'd load my music files onto an unused 4GB sd card and put this Pi to use.

Second-hand cars: the cost/mileage trade-off

Our current car (now our only car) has clocked over 100,000 miles, so time to look around for a replacement.

 

How do you choose between cars of the same make, model and year of manufacture, but with different mileage?

If you choose to buy a car based upon colour, its "babe-magnetic" rating, or just gut instinct, then there's probably little point in reading this post.

But if you want to reign in your initial enthusiasm with a few numbers on a spreadsheet....read on!

Yongnuo Wireless Remote Control WR-159

We just bought one of these little wonders for a Canon 1100D. Great price, nice box, but no instructions.

OK, so it may not be the most difficult bit of tech, but I see others on the net searching for an instruction manual, so this may help someone.

I couldn't find a "WR-159" on the Yongnuo website, but they make a YN-159.

Beginners Guide To Updating Your Raspberry Pi

The software associated with the Raspberry Pi is improved, modified and re-issued very frequently.

 

So even if you purchased your Pi with a pre-installed SD card, sooner or later you will want to update it.

These notes are aimed at those new to the Pi, and written for Raspbian, which is the main (recommended) operating system for the Pi.

MakerBot Replicator: Print Quality #3

We recently invited a guy into our organisation to conduct basic training on our MakerBot Replicator 3D printer for a bunch of department heads and other interested staff.

 

He also gave our machine a bit of a tune-up which has considerably improved print quality.

This post follows on from three previous posts: Replicator, Print Quality & Print Quality #2.

Exploring the ICBIT Bitcoin Exchange API

Just two weeks ago I knew nothing about Bitcoins, and practically nothing about JavaScript.

 

But having been asked to look at the ICBIT API I now know a little about both.

 

This post won't describe Bitcoins (start here) or teach you how to program in JavaScript (maybe start here). Its just about the ICBIT api (start here) which enables you to build applications centred around the ICBIT Bitcoin Exchange.