Raspberry Pi Geek 11

The maker movement just keeps getting stronger, and open hardware and software are right in the middle, combining electronics, code, construction kits, and bits and pieces of whatever's in the spare parts bin to create something new or remake something old.

NOOBS 1.4.0: Choose your favorite Pi distro from a convenient installation window.

In the news: Pi weather station; BBC Micro Bit boards, and Picademy update. 

The Raspberry Pi 2 looks just like its predecessor, the Rasp Pi 1 B+, and has lots of similarities. However, the freshly hatched second generation is much faster.

PiFace Control and Display makes it possible to build a variety of clever Raspberry Pi-based projects that require basic input and output. We help you to get started with this useful board.

Anonymebox lets you surf the Internet anonymously from any computer and any mobile device without installing and setting up Tor software on the clients.

A user wanting to buy a nano-computer might think that performance is all that matters. Comparing the Raspberry Pi 2 with the powerful newcomer Odroid-C1 shows that it is a good idea to consider other features as well.

Semiconductor chips controlled by an I2C bus can be used in many applications. The PCF8583, an eight-pin clock and timer chip, is an interesting example.

A sudden loss of power can create critical problems for many applications. To avoid such outages, the Raspberry Pi has a proper uninterruptible power supply.

Getting a large-format plotter operational presented a personal challenge. A Raspberry Pi with a USB-to-serial dongle was the easiest way to start plotting on my home network.