Month: August 2013

Link and video: Add Voice Control to Your Home with LightwaveRF and a Raspberry Pi

Voice control of our home electronics was promised long ago, but it’s still one of those things that most of us don’t have. If you want to add little voice control to your home on the cheap, blogger Chipos81 shows off how to do it with a Raspberry Pi.

Read more here:
Add Voice Control to Your Home with LightwaveRF and a Raspberry Pi (Lifehacker)

Link: Remotely control your Raspberry Pi

Take control of your Raspberry Pi from your smartphone, tablet or PC, from anywhere in the world

People are starting to do all kinds of things with their Raspberry Pi, like having it open and close a garage door, automate lighting and heating in the home, and so on. Even if you don’t yet have a project like this, this tutorial will still serve as a useful introduction to writing web applications with Python.

Full article here:
Remotely control your Raspberry Pi (Linux User & Developer)

Link: Change the sudo Password Timeout in Ubuntu

In Ubuntu (and any other Ubuntu-based distro), when you use a “sudo” command, the system will prompt you for your password. After the first “sudo” command, the system will remember your password for the next 15 minutes so you don’t have to enter any more password for subsequent “sudo” command. If, however, you feel that the 15 minutes is a bit too long/short, here is how you can change it.

Full article here:
Change the sudo Password Timeout in Ubuntu (Make Tech Easier)

Link: Raspberry Pi – Driving a Relay using GPIO

There’s something exciting about crossing the boundary between the abstract world of software and the physical ‘real world’, and a relay driven from a GPIO pin seemed like a good example of this. Although a simple project, I still learned some new things about the Raspberry Pi while doing it.

Full article here:
Link: Raspberry Pi – Driving a Relay using GPIO (SusaNET)

Related artcle:
Tutorial: How to use your Raspberry Pi like an Arduino (Limina.Log)

Link: How To Use Bash History to Improve Your Command-Line Productivity

Whether you’re new to the Linux command-line or you’re a seasoned veteran, these tricks will help turn your text-based meanderings into full-blown marathons. Save time, speed up your productivity, and enhance your Linux-Fu, all at once!

How To Use Bash History to Improve Your Command-Line Productivity (How-To Geek)

Avoid Bluestacks until they fix their nasty bug!

This started out as a simple link to an installation tutorial that we found:

Now days Android is leading mobile operating system , there are wide range of app and games in android , If you are really fond of using android applications but unfortunately you don’t have any android supported Phone. Then don’t worry you can still enjoy all the Android application and Games on your PC and Laptop, One software will helps you to make your dream come true. Now days Bluestacks is one of the famous and working Software Which convert any android apps in Windows or Mac version. By using Bluestacks software you can run easily any android app on your pc or laptop.

Full article here (but DON’T DO THIS until they fix the bug!):
How to run android apps on pc using bluestacks? (Techypassion)

In addition to the Windows versions, there is also a Mac version of the Bluestacks software, and that’s what we tried. But as soon as you install it and attempt to run it, to comes up with an error message that reads:

“Network Issue. The network is experiencing some problem. Please retry or cancel.”

If you put this error into Google, you find that many other potential users, using both the Windows and Mac versions of this software, have run into this issue. And when one user attempted to get help, what did the company do? They addressed a completely different issue and then marked the thread as “answered”, basically washing their hands of the issue.

Well, this bug still exists, and it stops you cold after you have installed the software. So for now, Bluestacks earns our “avoid this software package” designation. Don’t waste a minute of your life trying to install and run this thing, because several users with more experience than us have apparently tried and failed. But if you ignore our advice and somehow manage to get it working, please leave a comment telling us how you did it!

EDIT: In the meantime, here’s another way to run Android on your PC or Mac, though we haven’t actually tried this one yet:

The Complete Guide to Run Android 4.3 in VirtualBox (Make Tech Easier)

Link: How to Emulate Google Chromecast on Windows, Mac and Linux Desktop

Google’s latest hardware offering, Chromecast was an instant hit as it promised a better way of beaming/ controlling  multimedia content from your mobile phone on to a TV than the current choices we have right now. Now when a popular company like Google is trying to solve an age old problem that haunted Android, with a less expensive ($35) hardware, we should expect it to run out of stock. That is what exactly happened to Chromecast as it ran out of stock on all popular online stores including Google’s own Play store. Now if you have already pre-ordered a Chromecast or is in queue, here is something for you impatient folks, ready to play with few command lines.

Github user (dz0ny) has developed a Python package called Leapcast that can emulate the Chromecast hardware in Chromium environment running on your Mac, Windows and Linux. In order to achieve this hack on your computer all you have to do is carefully follow the steps below.

Full article here:
How to Emulate Google Chromecast on Windows, Mac and Linux Desktop (Compixels)

Link: OctoPi – 3D Printer Web Server Distribution for the Raspberry Pi

I am happy to say that I am a backer of the Rigidbot 3D printer, (which you can pre-order already), I am expecting it to arrive in August. In the meantime, I have ordered a Raspberry Pi to play with and started visiting a local maker community known as XLN.

This led me to find a really cool project called OctoPrint, which lets you control 3D printers using a Raspberry Pi over a web interface, however people were not installing it on their Pis because there was no out-of-the-box solution. Today I am happy to announce that a solution is here! I give you Octoprint + Rapberry Pi = OctoPi. A raspberry Pi distribution which runs OctoPrint out of the box, with support for time-lapse video on webcams (there is also an experiential version in the works that supports streaming from a raspberry Pi camera).

Full article here:
OctoPi – 3D Printer Web Server Distribution for the Raspberry Pi (Guysoft’s Weblog)

Android users: Hate Google Hangouts? Here’s how to get Google Talk back (links)

We know that Google really, really, REALLY wants you to use Hangouts rather than Talk. And we also know that many of you are less than enthusiastic about being switched to Hangouts, for various reasons. Well, it turns out that it may be possible to get Google Talk back. We don’t guarantee this will work, nor that if it does work, it will work forever. But we can at least give you the links that might give you what you actually want, rather than what the Google Overlords would force you to take:

How to get rid of the new Hangout app and revert back to Talk on your Android Phone (for the good, that is!) (Plugged In)

I dont like Hangouts, anyone have the latest Google Talk apk (XDA Developers)