Author Topic: Raspberry Pi (Read 9783 times)

JohnAnthonyMarie · « **on:** February 27, 2014, 11:31:49 PM »

This is !!!

from http://www.raspberrypi.org/

My starter kit from Amazon is in the mail!

MaterDominici · « **Reply #1 on:** February 27, 2014, 11:38:02 PM »

http://www.cathinfo.com/catholic.php/Posting-this-from-my-Raspberry-Pi

:cheers:

JohnAnthonyMarie · « **Reply #2 on:** February 28, 2014, 10:14:55 AM »

To be honest, the motivation was born out of laziness and frugality, in that for work I simply need a low cost way to automate sending an email every morning to check-in at the start of my shift. I plan to configure sSMTP and from cron execute a script at 0750 on workdays that sleeps for some random amount of time between 1 and 9 minutes before sending the check-in email.

As necessity is the mother of invention, this motivation appears to be the father.

PerEvangelicaDicta · « **Reply #3 on:** March 01, 2014, 01:51:29 AM »

Thanks for the link J- A-M. I did a little research and found this:

Raspberry Pi: How I spent almost $150 on a $35 computer
http://www.zdnet.com/raspberry-pi-how-i-spent-almost-150-on-a-35-computer-7000020574/

Could be helpful for some.

Matthew · « **Reply #4 on:** March 01, 2014, 03:41:34 AM »

My sister apparently read an article similar to that, and it stuck in her head for some reason.

I'd call it anti-Pi propaganda! lol

Here's a good response:

This article is a little unfair. The Raspberry IS a computer. The Pi is exactly what is advertised. The monitor is the only extra that can possibly be described as expensive. Power supply $5. Keyboard $5. Mouse $5. HDMI cable $2. Bluetooth dongle $2. WiFi dongle $15. Ethernet cable $2. Hardly breaking the bank. Many people will have these already. No idea how the author spent $200.

Many desktop PCs are happily sold as computers with the monitor, keyboard, mouse, wifi, network cable, monitor cable, bluetooth being sold separately. This is not only common practice but it makes sense. Most printers don't come with a USB cable these days.

Many other products require additional accessories. Bicycles for example. Helmets, lights, locks, spare tyres, clothes, shoes. All at an additional cost.

The Pi has NEVER been sold as a replacement for a desktop PC (or "real" computer according to the author).

As for the size, if it's a problem in relation to the other objects surrounding it then you can always strap it to a brick to give it a bit more bulk and weight. It's not the Pi's fault HDMI cables are the size they are. Is an HDMI cable not the same size when you connect it to a PC or Mac?

Tablets are great and can do plenty of things that the Pi can't. I've got both. Connecting a tablet to custom hardware and programming it is either not possible or a massive learning curve. Not very useful for kids. You won't teach anyone to program on an tablet. They'll need a desktop PC for a start to create any apps (that's your $200 gone). Ever tried running servos from a tablet? How about a media server? A motorised camera? What about a security system? Tablets are for consuming content and like falling asleep whenever your back is turned. Useless for hardware tinkering.

Matthew · « **Reply #5 on:** March 01, 2014, 03:58:03 AM »

Quote from: PerEvangelicaDicta

Thanks for the link J- A-M. I did a little research and found this:

Raspberry Pi: How I spent almost $150 on a $35 computer
http://www.zdnet.com/raspberry-pi-how-i-spent-almost-150-on-a-35-computer-7000020574/

Could be helpful for some.

This response is even better:

(From the comments section):

You realize that your CURRENT COMPUTER you have at home/office/etc. - OR EVEN your so-called "more powerful phone" could SSH into this and not need to plug anything but a power cable in the Pi, right?

Oh - of course, because you are a "hotshot" sys-admin. You are making yourself out to be a complete fool.

Oh, and most kits come with a wi-fi dongle, and you can also use one you might have at home/work being a sysadmin and all.

I built a security camera that takes up nearly nil space for 40 dollars. It sends me a notification via email and SMS when it detects movement (depending on time of the day). It stores the video on the cloud, etc. - this is just scratching the surface.

I can SSH into this anytime I wish, I don't need an external monitor, or an HDTV to take advantage of the HDMI port (although it's nice to have the OPTION), same goes for EVERY port minus the power.

I wrote the daemon/assembly myself, and saved about 200 dollars for a wireless security system that has more functionality than most other systems at this price. Heck, I can have it call the police without the monthly fee.

You sir, just made me lose all respect for ZDNet - and even more for sysadmins. It must be sad thinking you are "good" at something when you realistically have no clue whatsoever.

In all seriousness, it makes everyone in our industry look really stupid when you write things like this without understanding anything about it. You say it's "cute", but have no idea what you can do with it and what's possible. People are building robots with these things; do you think you need a monitor/keyboard/mouse?

Why are you even in this field if you don't understand even the simplest things. You call yourself a sysadmin, but likely cannot do anything but plug things into walls.

JohnAnthonyMarie · « **Reply #6 on:** March 06, 2014, 10:12:17 AM »

My Pi is up and running; I love it.

The first task, I want to send an email to work every morning...
sudo -i
apt-get update
apt-get install ssmtp
apt-get install mailutils
vi /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf with
-- root=<my email address>
-- mailhub=<work email server :port>
-- rewriteDomain=<work url>
-- hostname=<work name>
-- UseTLS=Yes
-- AuthUser=<my email>
-- AuthPass=<my password>
vi /etc/passwd
-- <added my work username>
vi /etc/group
-- <added a work group>
passwd <username>
-- <to add password to /etc/shadow>
su - <username>
crontab -e
-- (edit crontab to run /var/tmp/script/checkin script at 7:45 MTWTF)
mkdir /var/tmp/script
vi /var/tmp/script/checkin
-- #!/bin/bash
-- date | mail -s "email test" <destination email>
chmod 755 /var/tmp/script/checkin
mail -s "test email" <email address>
-- (test email functionality)
/var/tmp/script/checkin
-- (test script functionality)
exit exit exit

and Waa-La, task one is done.

JohnAnthonyMarie · « **Reply #7 on:** March 19, 2014, 10:02:10 AM »

My little Pi computer has been running for near two weeks now

$ uptime
07:54:47 up 12 days, 22:14, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05

with very little heat being generated. I am very impressed.

JohnAnthonyMarie · « **Reply #8 on:** April 09, 2014, 03:46:24 AM »

Next for my little Raspberry Pi, I installed FTP and TFTP
(A couple of nice services that are good to have at home)

Installing an File Transfer Protocol (FTP) service

sudo apt-get install vsftpd
nano /etc/vsftpd.conf
Anonymous_enable=NO
Local_enable=YES
Write_enable=YES
Ascii_upload_enable=YES
Ascii_download_enable=YES
sudo service vsftpd restart

Installing a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) service

sudo apt-get install tftpd-hpa
sudo nano /etc/default/tftpd-hpa
TFTP_USERNAME="tftp"
TFTP_DIRECTORY="/srv/tftp"
TFTP_ADDRESS="0.0.0.0:69"
TFTP_OPTIONS="--ipv4 --create --secure"
sudo service tftpd-hpa restart