Raspberry Pi!

elderkai

Hey, guys! Just bought a RPi from Amazon. Since they're always so low on stock, I went ahead and spent an extra $10 to get it. I considered looking at other ARM PCs as alternatives, but I figured that the RPi would be my best best for a first considering it's popularity, amount of documentation, and already finished projects with community. Later down the road, I'll probably delve into another companies product.

I spent a long time thinking about what I would do with it. What would my purpose for it be, ya know? With only 512MB of memory, you can only do so much. I can at least do some extra processing with another desktop and have the Pi retrieve it or something. I figured it out though.

I'm going to start out with putting it on my vlan that has a pool of routables and give it one while making it an ssh server for my network. I could then play with Apache, Wordpress/other CMS, and more. On top of that, I have a golden opportunity to get some very basic hands on hardware programming. When I come across more money I can get an Arduino to connect and play with. I also kind of want to assemble this GPIO adapter I saw that connects to two SNES controller ports; that would be fun for emulating arcade/classic games! Aside from all of that, I could just use it for learning stuff I generally have an interest in. I'm not really great with bash scripting, so I can learn and practice that on the go now. For networking, I can have another computer on any network I'm on be a hypervisor in GNS3 and process the topology while I work on it from the RPi. This would help me be able to move into another room and be more focused.

There are lots of things that can be done with this Pi, but I think it really just comes down to the convenience of having a computer that I can easily take with me somewhere. It doesn't have to be study, study, productivity all the time with it. There have been many times that my brother or my girlfriend and I wanted to watch a movie in another room but couldn't because of either certain inputs or just not viable. The Pi can do digital via HDMI(DVI would be easy with adapter) and analog via composite. This would make things much easier.

I'm just making this post to express the realizations I came to today and to hopefully keep me motivated and remember them. If anyone was lost on what to do with theirs if they've had it for awhile and haven't thought about it lately or were just planning on getting one, then maybe this could spark an idea or two. And while I'm at it, to actually provide for some discussion, for those that have a Raspberry Pi, what do you use it for? If you don't have one, what would you do?

DevilWAH

My second pi (512 varity) runs as a upnp media server for my ps3 and computers so I can stream my music and films around the house. It also runs subsonic so I can stream music across the Internet for when I am at work. It also runs transmission as a bit torrent client with a web interface. Linked up to an external hard drive it makes a great media server

My other pi I have been learning to generate star maps on. The idea is to be able to produce a procedually generated galexly of with more than 2000 stars. And then look to galvos and lasers to create a scanner to project it on to a wall.

The pi is great, I also might get a camara for it and try some things out with that.

JasonIT

I have seen a few used as Minecraft servers and one for a ROM-based old school gaming PC (NES, Atari, etc.)

A lot of cool articles of the many uses so far.

J

Kinet1c

I have my pi running Raspbmc with the main media catalog held on a HP Microserver with 8TB storage.

Iristheangel

I gave my buddy my Raspberry Pi and he's written a few articles on what he's done with it that have been featured in LifeHacker: Jeremy's Programming Blog

ally_uk

I still want to get one Mainly to tinker and learn Linux more I have a few basic projects that I want to undertake

* FTP Server which I can access from Windows Machine and upload files
* How to secure this FTP Server and administrate users setup a specific part of the filesystem users can access to upload and and download files.
* SAMBA file server I was thinking of hooking up a large external drive
* Learning about security of SAMBA i.e adding users and adding some form of authentication.
* Torrent Server I want to be able to download files and be able to manage remotely through a web interface
* Backups I need to learn about rsync or some method of backing up
* Bash scripting and Python I suck at programming infact I haven't attempted any programming for years but I have a few ebooks on Python one is python for kids by no starch press I'm going to work through this and if I can't understand any of it then hey programming isn't my forte
* I also want to learn how to setup a blog so Wordpress is something I want to look at in the future

Those are a few areas I am keen on learning when this will happen I am not sure I have just ordered the new version of the Linux Bible which is geared towards Red Hat I have heard good things about this book so will be working my way through it

ChickenNuggetz

I'm very interested in picking one up. I've heard you can buy a solar-powered case to plug the Pi into and run it that way. Not sure if the guy in the UK is still doing it (he was hand making each order apparently) but I'd be very interested in picking that up too. Here's what I'd most likely be using the Pi for:

• FTP server for my network lab
• Box to tinker/learn Linux
• Box to tinker/learn bash and python scripting

Down the road, especially if the solar panels pan out, I could see using it as a simple web server or perhaps a media server.

exampasser

I'm currently running a mail server on one of mine and samba and apache on another. Now if I can only get my Ti Launchpad to communicate with my Pi via USB.

elderkai

Very cool uses here. I'd use mine as an FTP/Bittorrent server, but I just need to get an external HDD first; kinda low on money. I get mine tomorrow, though, so I'm looking forward to it.

@DevilWAH: I never thought of streaming my music library. That's a good idea! Might steal it.

DevilWAH

elderkai wrote: »

@DevilWAH: I never thought of streaming my music library. That's a good idea! Might steal it.

Install Subsonic media streaming server on a Raspberry Pi | MJ2P Blog is a good walk through of installing subsonic. I would suggest looking also at the java8 hardpoint install, (also in that blog) as this gives the web UI a big bost in proformance.

dave330i

I need to pick 1 of these up and build a torrent/media PC for the TV. B-day is coming up in few months. Need to check and see if the 3rd HDMI port on the TV is functional.

tpatt100

I like how these people are using it for their quadrocopters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlv6xCv-Tt0