Raspberry Pi Roundup - 31st Dec 2014

The Big News

The big news this week is the release of a new version of the LXDE desktop environment specifically for the Raspberry Pi. Simon Long from the Raspberry Pi Foundation has been working on it and it brings a lot of refinements, improvements and efficiencies as well as much easier-to-use UI customisation tools. Read more here.

Naughty

Brian Corteil has developed a ‘naughty and nice’ machine which magically detects, when you insert your hand, whether you’ve been naughty or nice. Ideal for Christmas time – it could really save Father Christmas a lot of time! Read more about it at the Raspberry Pi Foundation or find out how to make your own by heading over to Adafruit.

Penguins!

Image credit: Alasdair Davies, ZSL

Cambridge Consultants and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) have teamed up to count penguins in Antarctica,having previously used similar equipment to protect rhinos in Kenya and other far-off countries. Pushing the operational limits of our favourite little computer to the max by subjecting it to temperatures below -42°C, the Pi is placed inside a transparent box. The box contains other equipment which takes photos (both normal and in night vision using infrared) and then the Pi is used to transmit the photographs over an Iridium satellite network. They’ve been in place since January this year and have been steadfastly sending back photos ever since. The photos are then analysed to determine how many penguins there are. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has the full story here.