Raspberry Pi Geek 02

The remarkable Raspberry Pi has spawned a myriad of supporting projects – Android apps, program libraries, specialized Linux distributions, and an assortment of hardware accessories. The rapid changes within these projects is testament to the excitement and enthusiasm that developers around the world have given to the Raspberry Pi.

The DVD attached to this issue of Raspberry Pi Geek offers five diverse Pi distributions for a variety of needs:

• Raspbian “Wheezy” 2013-09-25 [download latest version]
• Pidora 18 (Fedora Remix) [download latest version]
• Raspbmc 2013-09-01 [download latest version]
• OpenELEC 3.2.2 [download latest version]
• Arch Linux 2013-07-22 [download latest version]

The amazing Raspberry Pi camera module opens into a whole new world of useful projects. We'll show you how to use the Pi camera for time-lapse photography, and we'll even help you set up a motion-detecting surveillance camera.

You'll need a little troubleshooting and some basic knowledge of HDMI if you plan to use your BeagleBone Black for multimedia applications.

Your Android device can be a versatile companion for Raspberry Pi. We describe some useful apps to help you make this happen.

ArkOS lets you put your online existence in the cloud without letting your data fall into the hands of commercial data gatherers. The system is easy to administer, and you can expand it using a handy system of extensions.

Making game show-style buzzers for events is easy with a Raspberry Pi. The author takes you through the process step by step.

With a WiFi stick and a few simple steps, you can turn your Raspberry Pi into a Tor proxy that will route all Internet connections from your home network over the anonymous Tor network.

Using Arduino to monitor for smoke or water damage.

Many users were surprised and angered by the discontinuation of Google Reader. However, a replacement is available in the form of Tiny Tiny RSS, which you can use to read newsfeed subscriptions on all your client devices, either via a web interface or an Android app.