Astro Pi Mission Zero: guarantee your code’s place in space

Today is the official launch day of Astro Pi Mission Zero, part of the 2018–2019 European Astro Pi Challenge, an ESA Education programme run in collaboration with us at Raspberry Pi. In this challenge, students and young people get the chance to have their computer programs run in space on the International Space Station!

Text an astronaut!

Students and young people will have until 20 March 2019 to form teams and write a simple program to display their personal message to the astronauts onboard. The Mission Zero activity can be completed in a couple of hours with just a computer and an internet connection. You don’t need any special equipment or prior coding skills, and all participants that follow the guidelines are guaranteed to have their programs run in space.

Translations

This year, to help many more people take part in their native language, we have translated the Mission Zero resource, guidelines, and web page into 19 different languages! Head to our languages section to find your version of Mission Zero.

Take part in Astro Pi Mission Zero

To participate, the teams’ teacher or mentor needs to register for a classroom code that will let students submit their programs. Teams then follow our online resource to write their programs using the browser-based Trinket emulator: with just a few lines of Python, your team will create a program for one of the two Astro Pi computers aboard the ISS!

Each team’s program will run for 30 seconds aboard the Space Station, visible for all the astronauts including this year’s challenge ambassadors: ESA astronaut and ISS Commander Alexander Gerst and CSA astronaut David Saint-Jacques.

Astro Pi returns for a new 2018/19 challenge!

Ever wanted to run your own experiment in space? Then you’re in luck! ESA Education, in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, is pleased to announce the launch of the 2018/2019 European Astro Pi Challenge!

Every team that submits a valid Mission Zero entry will also receive a certificate showing the flight path of the ISS above Earth at the exact time their code ran!

The challenge is open to teams of students and young people who are aged 14 years or younger (at the time of submission) and from ESA Member or Associate Member States*. The teams must have at least two and no more than four members, and they must be supervised by an adult teacher or mentor.

Have fun, and say hi to the astronauts from us!

About the European Astro Pi Challenge

The European Astro Pi Challenge is an ESA Education project run in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It offers students and young people the amazing opportunity to conduct scientific investigations in space by writing computer programs that run on Raspberry Pi computers on board the International Space Station (ISS). The Astro Pi Challenge is divided into two separate missions with different levels of complexity: Mission Zero (the basic mission), and Mission Space Lab (one step further). This year’s Mission Space Lab is closing for applications at the end of October. Click here for more information about it.

*ESA Member States in 2018:
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

ESA Associate States in 2018: Canada, Slovenia
In the framework of the current collaboration agreement between ESA and the Republic of Malta, teams from Malta can also participate in the European Astro Pi Challenge. ESA will also accept entries from primary or secondary schools located outside an ESA Member or Associate State only if such schools are officially authorised and/or certified by the official Education authorities of an ESA Member or Associate State (for instance, French school outside Europe officially recognised by the French Ministry of Education or delegated authority).

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We have the plague

Apologies to our daily visitors (we love you guys); we don’t have a proper blog post for you today because we’re all really ill. (I have food poisoning, Helen is coughing up goo and can barely speak or breathe, and Alex is being sick.)

You’ve got a day until Halloween; if you’re looking for inspiration, we’ve got several years of archived spooky project posts for you to check out. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and have a little lie down.

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Trick or (the ultimate) treat!

I’ll keep today’s blog post short and sweet, because Liz, Helen, and I are all still under the weather.

Raspberry Pi 4!

Don’t tell Eben, Liz, or the rest of the team I showed you this, but here’s your Halloween ‘trick or treat’ gift: an exclusive sneak peek at the Raspberry Pi 4.

We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming from tomorrow.

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Dance magic, dance

 Firstly, I’d like to apologise for rickrolling you all yesterday. I would LIKE to, but I can’t — it was just too funny to witness.

But as I’m now somewhat more alive and mobile, here’s a proper blog post about proper things. And today’s proper thing is these awesome Raspberry Pi–powered dance costumes from students at a German secondary school:

In the final two years at German gymnasiums (the highest one of our secondary school types), every student has to do a (graded) practical group project. Our school is known for its superb dancing groups, which are formed of one third of the students (voluntarily!), so our computer science teacher suggested to make animated costumes for our big dancing project at the end of the school year. Around 15 students chose this project, firstly because the title sounded cool and secondly because of the nice teacher .

Let me just say how lovely it is that students decided to take part in a task because of how nice the teacher is. If you’re a nice teacher, congratulations!

The students initially tried using Arduinos and LED strips for their costumes. After some failed attempts, they instead opted for a Raspberry Pi Zero WH and side-emitting fibre connected to single RGB LEDs — and the result is rather marvellous.

To power the LEDs, we then had to shift the voltage up from the 3.3V logic level to 12V. For this, we constructed a board to hold all the needed components. At its heart, there are three ULN2803A to provide enough transistors at the smallest possible space still allowing hand-soldering.

Using pulse-width modulation (PWM), the students were able to control the colour of their lights freely. The rest of the code was written during after-school meetups; an excerpt can be found here, along with a complete write-up of the project.

I’m now going to hand this blog post over to our copy editor, Janina, who is going to write up a translated version of the above in German. Janina, over to you…

[Ed. note: Nein, danke.]

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Open Source Linux Powered System76 Thelio Desktops Is Here

The top 500 most powerful supercomputers on the planet run Linux operating system. Linux has a 100% market share of those machines and a large share of cloud computing, VMs, and bare metal market too. Obviously, developers and people who care about their privacy need Linux pre-installed so that they can get back to work ASAP. System76 released new desktop systems with Linux pre installed. The Thelio desktops computer available with both AMD and Intel CPU. AMD is more user-friendly to the Linux and provides a better price-performance ratio.

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Brand-new books from The MagPi and HackSpace magazine

Hey folks, Rob from The MagPi here! Halloween is over and November has just begun, which means CHRISTMAS IS ALMOST HERE! It’s never too early to think about Christmas — I start in September, the moment mince pies hit shelves.

What most people seem to dread about Christmas is finding the right gifts, so I’m here to help you out. We’ve just released two new books: our Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book volume 4, and the brand-new Book of Making volume 1 from the team at HackSpace magazine!

Book of Making volume 1

The Book of Making volume 1 contains 50 of the very best projects from HackSpace magazine, including awesome project showcases and amazing guides for building your own incredible creations. Expect to encounter trebuchets, custom drones, a homemade tandoori oven, and much more! And yes, there are some choice Raspberry Pi projects as well.

The Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book volume 4

Volume 4 of the Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book is once again jam-packed with Raspberry Pi goodness in its 200 pages, with projects, build guides, reviews, and a little refresher for beginners to the world of Raspberry Pi. Whether you’re new to Pi or have every single model, there’s something in there for you, no matter your skill level.

Free shipping? Worldwide??

You can buy the Book of Making and the Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book volume 4 right now from the Raspberry Pi Press Store, and here’s the best part: they both have free worldwide shipping! They also roll up pretty neatly, in case you want to slot them into someone’s Christmas stocking. And you can also find them at our usual newsagents.

Both books are available as free PDF downloads, so you can try before you buy. Check out the Hackspace website for Book of Making’s PDF, and our website for the new Project Books one! When you purchase any of our publications, you contribute toward the hard work of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, so why not double your giving this holiday season by helping us put the power of digital making into the hands of people all over the world?

Anyway, that’s it for now — I’m off for more mince pies!

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KDE has been deprecated in RHEL 7.6 and future version of RHEL

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is well known to set defaults across the industry. For example, RHEL pushed systemd so hard that all other Linux distro adopted for good or bad reasons. Now Red Hat announced that KDE Plasma Workspaces (KDE) been deprecated from RHEL 7.6 and all future version of RHEL.

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Can’t Drive This, the 4D arcade machine

A Raspberry Pi–powered arcade display with hidden interactive controls won over the crowds at Gamescom. Rosie Hattersley and Rob Zwetsloot got the inside scoop.

If you’re going to add a little something extra to wow the crowd at the Gamescom video games trade fair, a Raspberry Pi is a surefire way of getting you noticed. And that’s the way Pixel Maniacs went about it.

The Nuremberg-based games developer retrofitted an arcade machine with a Raspberry Pi to showcase its intentionally silly Can’t Drive This precarious driving game at Gamescom.

Complete with wrecking balls, explosions, an inconvenient number of walls, and the jeopardy of having to construct your road as you negotiate your way, at speed, across an ocean to the relative safety of the next lump of land, Can’t Drive This is a fast‑paced racing game.

Splash action

Pixel Maniacs then took things up a notch by providing interactive elements, building a mock 4D arcade game (so-named because they feature interactive elements such as motion cabinets). The fourth dimension, in this case, saw the inclusion of a water spray, fan, and console lights. For its Gamescom debut, Pixel Maniacs presented Can’t Drive This in a retro arcade cabinet, where hordes of gaming fans gathered round its four-way split screen to enjoy the action.

Adding Raspberry Pi gaming to the mix was about aiding the game development process as much as anything. Andi Scholz, Pixel Maniacs’ software engineer, told The MagPi that the team wanted an LED matrix with 256 RGB LEDs to render sprite-sheet animations. “We knew we needed a powerful machine with enough RAM, and a huge community, to get the scripts running.”

Pixel Maniacs’ offices have several Raspberry Pi–controlled monitors and a soundboard, so the team knew the Pi’s potential.

The arcade version of the game runs off a gaming laptop cunningly hidden within the walls of the cabinet, while the Raspberry Pi delivers the game’s surprise elements such as an unexpected blast from a water spray. A fan can be triggered to simulate stormy weather, and lights start flashing crazily when the cars crash. Holtz explains that the laptop “constantly sends information about the game’s state to the Raspberry Pi, via a USB UART controller. The Pi reads these state messages, converts them, and sends according commands to the fans, water nozzle, camera, and the LED light matrix. So when players drive through water, the PC sends the info to the Pi, and [the latter] turns on the nozzle, spraying them.”

The arcade idea came about when Pixel Maniacs visited the offices of German gaming magazine M! Games and spied an abandoned, out-of-order 1980s arcade machine lurking unloved in a corner. Pixel Maniacs set about rejuvenating it, Da Doo Ron Ron soundtrack and all.

Sustained action

Ideas are one thing; standing up to the rigours of a full weekend’s uninterrupted gameplay at the world’s biggest games meet is something else. Holtz tells us, “The Raspberry Pi performed like a beast throughout the entire time. Gamescom was open from 9am till 8pm, so it had to run for eleven hours straight, without overheating or crashing. Fortunately, it did. None of the peripherals connected to the Pi had any problems, and we did not have a single crash.”

Fans were enthusiastic too, with uniformly positive feedback, and one Gamescom attendee attempting to buy the arcade version there and then. As Andi Scholz says, though, you don’t sell your baby. Instead, Pixel Maniacs is demoing it at games conventions in Germany this autumn, before launching Can’t Drive This across gaming platforms at the end of the year.

This article was printed in The MagPi issue 75. Get your copy of The MagPi in stores now, or download it as a free PDF here.

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A world-class computing education

I am delighted to share some big news today. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is part of a consortium that has secured over £78 million in government funding to make sure every child in every school in England has access to a world-leading computing education.

National Centre for Computing Education

Working with our partners, STEM Learning and the British Computer Society, we will establish a new National Centre for Computing Education, and deliver a comprehensive programme of support for computing teachers in primary and secondary schools. This will include resources, training, research, certification, and more.

All of the online resources and courses will be completely free for anyone to use. Face-to-face training will be available at no cost to teachers in priority schools, and at very low cost to teachers in other schools. We will also provide bursaries to ensure that schools can release teachers to take part in professional development.

An unprecedented level of investment

This level of investment in computing education is unprecedented anywhere in the world. It is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the way we teach computing and computer science.

The announcement follows the Royal Society’s report from last November, which drew attention to the scale of the challenge. The report was quickly followed by a commitment from the Chancellor in last year’s budget statement that the government would invest £100 million in computing education across the UK. Earlier this year, the Department for Education launched a procurement process focused on England, and today’s announcement is the outcome of that process.

The consortium has been tasked with delivering three pieces of work:

• A National Centre for Computing Education, which will establish a network of Computing Hubs to provide continuing professional development (CPD) and resources for computing teachers in primary and secondary schools and colleges. The Centre will also facilitate strong links with industry.
• A teacher training programme to upskill existing teachers to teach GCSE Computer Science.
• A programme to support AS- and A-level Computer Science students and teachers with high-quality resources and CPD.

A powerful coalition

One of the things I am most excited about is the amazing coalition of partners that has come together around the plans. The consortium brings together subject expertise and knowledge, significant experience of creating brilliant learning experiences and resources, and a track record of delivering high-quality professional development for educators. But we can’t do it on our own.

For example, we’re working with the University of Cambridge team that created Isaac Physics to adapt and extend that platform and programme to support teachers and students of Computer Science A Level.

Our friends at Google have provided practical support and a grant of £1 million to help us create free online courses that will help teachers develop the knowledge and skills to teach computing and computer science.

We’re working with the Behavioural Insights Team to make it as easy as possible for teachers to get involved with the programme, and with FutureLearn to provide high-quality online courses.

We’ll also be working in partnership with industry, universities, and non-profits, pooling our expertise and resources to provide the support that educators and schools desperately want. That’s not just a vague promise. As part of the bid process, we secured specific commitments from over 60 organisations who pledged to work with us to make our vision a reality.

Get involved

Over the coming weeks we’ll be sharing more about our plans. In the meantime, here’s how you can get involved:

1. Check out the launch website for the National Centre for Computing Education and register your email for updates.
2. Spread the word to teachers, school leaders, industry, non-profits, and anyone else you think might be interested. Send them a link to this blog, or share it on social media.
3. Help us find amazing, talented people who can join the team to bring this all to life.

A message to readers outside England

Improving computing education should be a priority for every education system and every government in the world. This announcement is focused on computing in schools in England because it’s about funding that has come from the government for that purpose.

I am proud that the Raspberry Pi Foundation will be playing its part in transforming computing education in England. But our mission is global, and our commitment is that the resources and online courses we create will be freely available to anyone, anywhere in the world.

If you are a policy maker outside of England and want to talk about how we could collaborate to advance computing education in your country, please get in touch. We’d love to help.

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Wireframe issue 1 is out now!

Wireframe is our new twice-monthly magazine that lifts the lid on video games. In Wireframe, we look at how games are made, who makes them, and how you can make games of your own. And today, we’re releasing our very first issue!

Wireframe: the new magazine that lifts the lid on video games

Wireframe is our new twice-monthly #magazine that lifts the lid on video games. In #Wireframe, we look at how #games are made, who makes them, and how you can make games of your own.

The inaugural issue

In issue 1, Far Cry 4 director Alex Hutchinson talks to us about going indie. We look back at the British games industry’s turbulent early years; we explore how curves and probabilities shape the games we play; and we get hands-on with Nomada Studio’s forthcoming ethereal platformer, Gris.

Plus:

• Jessica Price on the state of game criticism
• Portal squeezed onto the Commodore 64
• Treasure — the iconic game studio at 25
• Gone Home’s Kate Craig on indie game design workarounds
• And much, much more…

About Wireframe magazine

Cutting through the hype, Wireframe takes a more indie-focused, left-field angle than traditional games magazines. As well as news, reviews, and previews, we bring you in-depth features that uncover the stories behind your favourite games.

And on top of all that, we also help you create your own games! Our dedicated Toolbox section is packed with detailed tutorials and tips to guide you in your own game development projects.

Raspberry Pi is all about making computing and digital making accessible to everyone, and in Wireframe, we show you how programming, art, music, and design come together to make the video games you love to play — and how you can use these elements to build games yourself.

Free digital edition

We want everyone to enjoy Wireframe and learn more about creating video games, so from today, you’ll also be able to download a digital copy of issue 1 of Wireframe for free. Get all the features, guides, and lively opinion pieces of our paper-and-ink edition as a handy PDF from our website.

Wireframe in the wild

You can find the print edition of Wireframe issue 1 in select UK newsagents and supermarkets from today, priced at just £3. Subscribers also save money on the cover price, with an introductory offer of twelve issues for just £12.

For more information, and to find out how to order Wireframe from outside the UK, visit wfmag.cc.

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L’édition 2018 de CPC Hardware Hors-Série “Montage” est disponible !

Alors que la plupart des médias sérieux s’apprêtent à publier leurs catalogues guides d’achat de Noël, nous avons décidé de remettre au gout du jour notre HS “Montage”. Son objectif ? Vous guider pas à pas dans l’assemblage de votre nouvelle machine de joueur. Bien que tous les revendeurs en ligne proposent désormais un service de montage facturé environ 50 euros, il reste de bonnes raisons de monter soi-même sa config. D’abord, vous aurez la possibilité d’acheter les composants chez différents revendeurs afin d’obtenir exactement ceux désirés, et au meilleur prix. Ensuite, monter son PC permet d’en apprendre beaucoup sur son fonctionnement. Vous pourrez ensuite le mettre à jour bien plus facilement, ou le dépanner en cas de problème. Enfin, et ce n’est pas rien : vous aurez la satisfaction de l’avoir fait vous-même…

Cette édition “2018” commence par un guide d’achat des différents composants, du CPU à l’alimentation. Contrairement à celui que vous trouvez habituellement dans Canard PC Hardware, celui-ci ne recommande pas de produits en particulier. Il vous guidera par contre de manière plus approfondie sur les choix à faire (ou pas) en fonction de vos usages. Ces indications resteront pertinentes lorsque de nouveaux composants seront disponibles au cours de l’année prochaine. Nous abordons également les périphériques de jeux (clavier, souris, micro-casque, etc.) et les portables destinés eux aussi à jouer.

La partie “montage” comporte en préambule quelques informations importantes comme la quincaillerie indispensable avant de se lancer, par exemple. Les différentes étapes du montage sont ensuite abondamment illustrées et commentées à chaque manipulation. Nous avons revu la maquette afin d’augmenter la taille des photos pour une meilleure lisibilité dans le feu de l’action. Évidemment, ce hors-série comporte désormais toutes les nouvelles plateformes sorties en 2017 : l’AM4 des processeurs Ryzen d’AMD, mais aussi le TR4/SP3 des Threadripper et le LGA2066 des Core i7/i9 d’Intel. L’occasion d’aborder également leurs systèmes de fixation pour dissipateur. Le guide comporte 8 grandes étapes, du branchement de la RAM sur la carte mère jusqu’au rangement des câbles. Nous avons également intégré une FAQ des erreurs les plus fréquentes ainsi que les étapes d’installation de Windows 10. De quoi obtenir une machine complètement fonctionnelle.

À la fin de ce numéro, nous vous proposons également un guide sur l’upgrade des consoles PlayStation 4 et Xbox One via l’ajout d’un SSD (et la migration des données). Nous avons également mesuré le gain de performances afin que vous puissiez savoir à quoi vous attendre. Enfin, en guise de bonus, Ackboo vous offre son avis “up-to-date” sur la dernière version du PC Shadow de Blade. What else ?

 

Lire un Blu-ray Ultra HD sur PC « plus facilement »

Dans Canard PC Hardware 34, nous vous expliquions les difficultés liées à la lecture de Blu-ray Ultra HD sur PC, entre le bon processeur, le bon GPU, le bon lecteur et – évidemment – le logiciel de lecture. Mais depuis quelques jours, il devient possible de ripper une partie des disques du marché, bien évidemment uniquement dans le cadre du droit à la copie privée.

En résumé, les clés AACS nécessaires au décodage d’une partie des films disponibles sur le marché (72 clés, pour 58 films) peuvent se trouver sur le net (pas besoin de demander « où ? », la réponse se trouve facilement sans nous). Et avec MakeMKV (un logiciel gratuit) et le bon lecteur, il devient donc possible d’effectuer une copie sans protections des films.

Le choix du lecteur

Le point intéressant vient justement des lecteurs compatibles. Actuellement, vous trouverez en fait trois types de lecteurs de Blu-ray pour PC. Les modèles classiques, qui lisent uniquement les Blu-ray standards et intègrent la prise en charge de l’AACS “1” (le DRM des Blu-ray et des HD DVD). Les modèles certifiés Blu-ray Ultra HD, qui lisent les nouveaux disques en plus des Blu-ray standards et qui intègrent la protection AACS 2. Ils sont nécessaires pour lire un Blu-ray Ultra HD avec PowerDVD (notamment). Et enfin les lecteurs « Ultra HD friendly ». Ces derniers lisent les Blu-ray standards et les Blu-ray Ultra HD, mais ne gèrent pas l’AACS 2. Ils peuvent donc lire la structure des disques (voir le contenu) mais pas lire le contenu des disques qui est chiffré (même avec PowerDVD). Mais ces rares lecteurs, a priori inutiles, peuvent donc servir à ripper un Blu-ray Ultra HD avec MakeMKV si vous disposez de la clé du disque. Si l’exercice vous tente, vous en trouverez facilement quatre en France : le LG BH16NS55 (~80 €), le LG WH16NS40 (~100 €), l’Asus BW-16D1HT (~75 €) et le LG BE16NU50 (externe, plus cher, ~160 €). Il s’agit d’une liste théorique, nous n’avons testé qu’avec le LG BH16NS55.

Actuellement, vous ne trouverez sur le Net que quelques clés liées à des disques précis. Avec une clé de ce type et en supposant que le disque n’a pas banni le certificat AACS de votre lecteur, il devient donc possible de déchiffrer totalement le contenu. Les clés “maîtres”, qui permettent de décoder tous les disques d’une génération précise, ne sont évidemment pas dans la nature. Lors de nos tests, nous avons uniquement réussi à passer par MakeMKV, VLC (via la bibliothèque libaacs) ne semble pas encore prendre en compte les Blu-ray Ultra HD. Le résultat du rip, par défaut, est un fichier MKV qui contient la vidéo stockée à l’origine sur le disque : il n’y a pas de recompression ou de modification du contenu. Le fichier en sortie peut donc être (très) volumineux : lors de nos tests, nous avons obtenu un fichier de ~45 Go (Seul sur Mars) et un autre de ~75 Go (Un jour dans la vie de Billy Lynn, seul Blu-ray Ultra HD encodé à 60 images/s). Les Blu-ray Ultra HD utilisent généralement le codec HEVC avec un débit élevé (jusqu’à 100 mégabits/s), une définition élevée (2160p) et la prise en charge du HDR, des couleurs sur 10 bits, etc. La lecture ne devrait pas poser de soucis avec une machine moderne : tous les GPU récents décodent le HEVC matériellement et dans le pire des cas, un bon CPU avec quatre coeurs doit pouvoir faire le job.

Reste que la sortie de ces clés montre tout de même l’absurdité des protections contre la copie : une personne voulant lire un de ses propres films sur un PC aura tout intérêt à utiliser cette méthode illégale plutôt que d’essayer de le faire légalement en utilisant les outils disponibles, tant sur le côté financier que sur le côté technique, les contraintes étant beaucoup moins fortes. À noter, enfin, qu’il ne s’agit pas de la première brèche dans les Blu-ray Ultra HD, mais de la première qui permet de le faire facilement et gratuitement. Auparavant, quelques films se sont retrouvés sur le net sans protections et un programme permettant de déchiffrer les disques existe, mais il est vendu assez cher (~200 €).

Canard PC Hardware 35 est disponible !

Nous n’en doutons pas : vous ruer au kiosque le plus proche (ou sur notre boutique) constitue la première de vos bonnes résolutions 2018. Et probablement la seule que vous effectuerez réellement, alors foncez ! Car en votre for intérieur, vous savez déjà que vous ne tiendrez pas votre régime plus de trois jours ou que Jordan, le patron de la salle de sport d’en face, oubliera très vite qui vous êtes. Heureusement, il vous restera le nouveau Canard PC Hardware 35 pour combler vos longues soirées d’hiver. Nous l’avons voulu roboratif à souhait. Prenez par exemple notre dossier de couv’ : le BIOS et l’UEFI. Du lourd. Pour la plupart des gens, ces deux termes correspondent simplement au menu d’options disponible au boot de la machine. Il ne s’agit pourtant que de la face émergée de l’iceberg. Le BIOS – ou sa contrepartie moderne UEFI – contrôle toutes les étapes du démarrage d’un PC, et certaines de ses fonctions restent accessibles bien après que le système d’exploitation a pris le relais. Nous avons voulu démystifier ce composant logiciel fondamental, en décrivant en détail le cheminement qui débute à l’instant où vous pressez le bouton Power. Nous en profiterons également pour aborder toutes les composantes annexes d’un BIOS/UEFI moderne comme les microcodes, l’AGESA (chez AMD), le FSP (chez Intel), l’infâme Management Engine, etc. Bien sûr, nous vous proposons aussi un guide des principales options obscures cachées dans les tréfonds des menus. Qu’on se le dise : tout utilisateur devrait impérativement rendre une petite visite à son UEFI lors de l’installation d’un PC. Le bougre cache parfois de noirs secrets…

Tout aussi ludique, nous vous avons concocté un comparatif des consoles “rétro” qui pullulent depuis le lancement de la NES Mini en 2016. On trouve désormais quasiment tous les modèles 8 et 16 bits en version “remasterisée”. Un véritable appeau à nostalgiques… qui tourne parfois à l’attrape-gogos. Dans la première partie, nous décrivons les différentes techniques mises en œuvre par les fabricants pour faire revivre les anciennes consoles : émulation, console-on-a-chip, recréations modernes, etc. Nous testons ensuite plusieurs modèles (NES, Megadrive, Super NES, Atari…) avant de nous intéresser aux consoles portables en chinoisium dédiées à l’émulation. Enfin, il sera évidemment temps d’aborder la solution “Raspberry Pi”… et ses écueils. De quoi bien dépenser les étrennes de Mamy Germaine, obtenues de dure lutte après un repas de 18 heures pour 12 000 kcals ingurgitées.

Dans ce nouvel opus, nous abordons également d’autres sujets passionnants comme le fonctionnement des passes Navigo (de la bonne vieille carte que les Franciliens connaissent bien jusqu’à sa future évolution “smartphone”), ou encore celui de la nouvelle Xbox One X, affublée de nombreux superlatifs par Microsoft. Nous vous avons également préparé un historique des moyens de stockage et de leurs évolutions à travers les âges, ainsi qu’un guide sur l’acquisition des formats vidéo analogiques et numériques. Vous trouverez également dans Canard PC Hardware 35 un test en exclusivité mondiale des tout nouveaux processeurs de Cyrix. Quel est le digne successeur du 6×86 ? Que vaut le MediaGX ? Tant de puissance dans une seule puce… de quoi faire trembler Intel pour l’an 2000 !

Notez qu’en matière de tremblement d’effroi, nous nous sommes aussi intéressés aux innombrables grigris censés chasser les mauvaises ondes : slip en fil d’argent, cône mystérieux à déphasage, câble USB de mise à la terre, peintures conductrices, pastille en shungite, et bien d’autres. Étant nous-même conscients de ces problématiques, nous vous offrons un patch anti-ondes à découper sur la couverture. Son efficacité a été testée en laboratoire et de nombreux scientifiques de renommée mondiale le recommandent. Cet onéreux cadeau entraînera probablement la faillite à court terme de notre société, mais la santé de nos lecteurs n’a pas de prix !

Je suis bien conscient d’avoir dépassé depuis longtemps la limite du TL;DR, mais il me reste encore à vous parler des tests : sur le gril dans ce numéro, les Core de 6^e génération 3.0 connus sous le nom de code Coffee Lake, la GeForce GTX 1070 Ti de Nvidia, le Compute Card d’Intel, mais aussi des alimentations d’Antec ou de Seasonic, du boîtier et d’autres bizarreries comme un convertisseur SCSI/SD ou un boîtier eGPU. Au détour d’une page, vous y trouverez aussi des nouvelles de Linky et même un exemple de publirédactionnel pour vous aider à le détecter plus efficacement chez nos confrères. Le journalisme total, voilà notre sacerdoce.

– O –

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Canard PC Hardware recrute des pigistes

Dans le cadre de son plan annuel de conquête du monde, Canard PC Hardware cherche un ou plusieurs pigistes afin de poursuivre sa croissance exponentielle. Sous l’aimable direction du détracteur en chef, vous serez chargé de rédiger des articles de fond, des tests, dossiers et comparatifs pour le magazine et/ou ses hors-séries. Vous pourrez également être amené à participer à des expériences amusantes (après avoir signé une décharge devant huissier). La périodicité dépendra de nos besoins ainsi que de vos disponibilités. Vous serez rémunéré à la pige selon un barème défini en fonction de la complexité des sujets et de votre expérience.

Votre profil :

• Vous possédez un très bon niveau de français. Vous êtes capable d’écrire un long texte structuré et cohérent sans lourdeurs ni fautes trop nombreuses. Une première expérience dans l’écriture, amateur ou non, est exigée.
• Vous suivez régulièrement et depuis longtemps l’actualité des nouvelles technologies
• Vous êtes pointu dans un domaine lié à l’informatique ou aux nouvelles technologies (photo, électronique, domotique, e-sport, etc.) et vous seriez capable de l’expliquer à votre grand-mère.
• Vous êtes autonome, capable de travailler seul une fois les consignes définies.
• Vous savez faire preuve d’une ponctualité irréprochable : l’imprimeur n’attend pas.
• Vous êtes capable de refuser un voyage de presse dans les Caraïbes ou un stage de pilotage dans une Porsche si l’intérêt éditorial ne le justifie pas.

Vous vous reconnaissez dans cette description ? Discutons ! Pour candidater, envoyez-nous un CV et une lettre de motivation à recrutement/-@-/canardpc.com avec le tag “[Pigiste CPCHW]”, ainsi qu’un exemple d’article en lien avec l’IT. Nous vous recontacterons d’ici la fin du mois.

CPC Hardware n°36 débarque en kiosque

Canard PC Hardware fête son neuvième anniversaire ! Pour commémorer dignement l’événement, nous vous avons concocté un sommaire de choix afin de rendre ce numéro vraiment collector.  Au menu tout d’abord, les nouveaux Ryzen de la série 2000. Nous avons passé au crible les modèles Raven Ridge (Ryzen 3 2200G et Ryzen 5 2400G), qui se distinguent par la présence d’une puce graphique Vega intégrée, et aussi les déclinaisons Pinnacle Ridge basées sur l’architecture Zen+. Celles-ci devraient être annoncées d’ici la fin du mois d’avril par AMD, avec quatre CPU prévus initialement. Les Ryzen 7 2700(X) et les Ryzen 5 2600(X) se distinguent par l’exploitation du nouveau process 12 nm de GlobalFoundries et par des modifications de l’architecture Zen initiale. Nous y avons trouvé des améliorations notables sur certains points … mais aussi une désagréable surprise que nous vous laissons le soin de découvrir !

Autre sujet de ce 36^e numéro : le fameux compteur Linky dont nous suivons de près les péripéties. En étudiant son plan de financement, on constate que près de deux milliards d’euros (soit plus d’un tiers de l’enveloppe globale) sont attendus grâce à la lutte contre la fraude. Il intègre pour cela un imposant relai de puissance qui permet à l’exploitant de couper le courant à distance, pour éviter qu’un “utilisateur” peu scrupuleux ne bénéficie indument d’électricité gratuite. Problème : nous avons pu facilement “pirater” ce dispositif et rétablir le courant d’un compteur Linky désactivé. Même si d’autres mécanismes de protection existent, il s’agit tout de même d’une vulnérabilité surprenante. Nous abordons également une autre problématique à laquelle Enedis va devoir faire face : la mise à jour imminente de la norme IEC 61000-2-2, finalement bien moins protectrice qu’espéré par le distributeur. Enfin, nous analysons le rapport critique de la Cours des comptes sur le programme Linky et nous vous donnons notre avis sur la question.

Nous vous proposons également deux dossiers de fond : le premier aborde les technologies du futur. Nous causerons processeurs quantiques, mémoires de demain (DDR5, GDDR6, etc.), stockage, bus d’interface de nouvelle génération, affichage 128K HDR 4D et super méga Wi-Fi 12G (entre autres). Le second dossier concerne la préservation – et la récupération – des données sur le long terme. Outre une première partie sur les meilleurs moyens de ressusciter de vieux médias (disquettes, ZIP, disques optiques oubliés, cassettes audios, etc.), nous avons pu visiter les collections de la Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) et voir les moyens utilisés pour archiver et préserver le patrimoine numérique. Un reportage étonnant réalisé par Dandu.

Ce nouvel opus contient également des tests en pagaille de hardware diver et varié ainsi qu’un comparatif d’alimentation de 35 à 100€. Croyez-le ou non, mais on trouve désormais des modèles décents à moins de 50€, et des blocs qui frôlent la perfection à tout point de vue pour 100€. Nous en dressons la liste. Nous vous proposons aussi une liste des cartes graphiques les plus insolites, un historique des grands procès qui ont façonnés l’histoire de la High-Tech, un test exclusif des 486 DX2/DX4 et du Pentium dans une optique vidéoludique, et bien d’autres choses passionnantes !

– O –

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CPC Hardware HS N°10 – Spécial Photo – est sorti !

Voilà plusieurs années que nous envisagions un hors-série dédié à la photo, sans pouvoir concrétiser ce projet. Pourquoi ? C’est assez simple : nous souhaitions aborder le sujet globalement, et surtout différemment de ce qu’on trouve sur Internet ou dans les kiosques. Pour faire une belle photo, l’essentiel réside dans le regard du photographe, beaucoup plus que dans le matériel. On peut faire d’innombrables clichés sans intérêt avec le dernier Reflex à 5.000 € … ou un chef d’œuvre percutant avec un smartphone. Il nous fallait donc un auteur capable, certes, d’expliquer les bases techniques sans rentrer dans le concours de quéquette, mais aussi doté d’un sens artistique suffisamment affuté pour donner des conseils pratiques à ceux qui s’intéressent – ou souhaitent s’intéresser – à la photo. Une compétence qui manquait à la rédaction… Mais réjouissez-vous : nous avons enfin trouvé cette perle rare.

Dans ce hors-série, notre ami Benoit reviendra d’abord sur l’histoire de la photo avant de s’intéresser plus particulièrement à la photo numérique puis au fonctionnement d’un capteur d’image. Il vous proposera ensuite un court guide d’achat (compact, reflex, hybrides, occasion, etc.) ainsi que les clés pratiques pour bien démarrer et des conseils concrets pour réussir les principaux types de photos (paysage, portrait, photo de rue, panorama, …), et surtout, sans bullshit élitiste : non, vous ne devez pas ABSOLUMENT utiliser le mode Manuel de votre appareil. Vous trouverez également dans ces pages une rubrique dédiée à la vidéo (ainsi qu’aux drones) et même à l’argentique.

Enfin, un bon tiers de ce hors-série est dédié à la culture photo au sens large : il sera autant question d’art, de l’héritage de la peinture dans la composition d’un cliché et de chambre à soufflet … que de smartphone, de selfies et de réseau sociaux. Le tout agrémenté de rencontres avec ceux qui font la photographie aujourd’hui. Et comme le dit Benoit : “ Si vous en ressortez avec l’envie de prendre votre appareil, quel qu’il soit, et d’aller photographier ce qui se passe dehors, de créer quelque chose, plutôt que de vous remater l’intégrale de Game of Thrones, alors on aura gagné notre pari.”

– O –

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Canard PC Hardware 37 est sorti !

Habituellement, lorsqu’on rédige le numéro d’été de Canard PC Hardware, on pense soleil, transat et Mojito. Pour ce numéro, l’état d’esprit fut nettement plus sombre : Lord Casque Noir, Jérôme Darnaudet, cofondateur de Canard PC, est mort le mois dernier. Nous avons décidé de lui rendre hommage en lui dédiant ce numéro. Casque était un grand amateur de Hardware et, si ce magazine a vu le jour (et existe encore) aujourd’hui, c’est grâce à lui. Vous trouverez donc un hommage des Doc’ (Kant, Caféine, TB) qui l’ont côtoyé successivement depuis 20 ans ainsi que – fin de la parenthèse larmoyante – une biographie délirante remplie de photos et de dessins stupides. Surpuissant !

Côté matos, nous avons profité des 50 ans d’Intel et des 40 ans du 8086 pour vous préparer un gros dossier sur l’épopée des microprocesseurs. Vous n’y trouverez pas de longues litanies de spécifications techniques, mais plutôt une balade historique dans les coulisses des fabricants de CPU. Nous parlerons de l’émergence de l’électronique puis des circuits intégrés avant d’embrayer sur les premiers microprocesseurs (Intel 4004, 8008, 8080, Zilog Z80, MOS 6502, etc.) puis sur les grandes évolutions des architectures du 8086 jusqu’à aujourd’hui. L’ensemble est farci d’anecdotes sur les petites combines – des coups de génie aux plus gros fiascos – qui ont façonné l’informatique moderne.

Nous vous avons aussi préparé un dossier sur les multiples gadgets d’espionnage qui rencontrent (étrangement !) un grand succès sur Amazon et sur les sites chinois types Aliexpress ou Banggood. Ne comptez pas les utiliser pour épier vos salariés, votre femme de ménage, vos clients Airbnb ou même vos enfants : dans (presque) tous les cas, c’est parfaitement illégal. Nous avons tout de même testé les différents types de mouchards (des caméras cachées aux trackers GPS en passant par les keyloggers) pour savoir à quoi nous avions affaire. Certains peuvent présenter un intérêt pratique dans quelques cas particuliers. Bien sûr, nous publions également une analyse juridique de Grand Maitre B qui vous dissuadera – nous en sommes sûrs ! – de céder à la tentation.

Ce numéro 37 contient aussi plusieurs comparatifs. D’abord : les kits Wi-Fi, destinés à couvrir une grande surface ou à offrir des fonctions plus évoluées que les box, et qui ont le vent en poupe depuis l’arrivée du Google Wi-Fi. Dans un autre domaine, nous avons aussi testé une douzaine d’appareils permettant de mesurer la consommation électrique (wattmètres autonomes, prises connectées, etc.). De quoi faire la chasse au gaspillage énergétique ! Nous vous parlerons aussi de Kaby Lake-G (CPU Intel et GPU AMD dans une même puce), de l’U2F (Universal 2nd Factor) destiné à remplacer les mots de passe, et de tout un tas d’autres choses de l’Oculus Go au Roland MT-32 en passant par les nouvelles 3Dfx Voodoo de 2018 (si si). Bref, l’idéal pour glandouiller sur la plage ou dans d’autres lieux d’aisance…

– O –

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Canard PC Hardware 38 est sorti !

Ce numéro de Canard PC Hardware a été fini dans la douleur, et pour vous ! Doc Teraboule a en effet passé son week-end (et le début de son lundi) à décortiquer les dernières cartes graphiques de chez Nvidia, les GeForce RTX 2080 et 2080 Ti. Vous trouverez donc une bonne dizaine de pages qui vous montreront ce que Turing, la nouvelle architecture, a dans le ventre.

Nous vous avons aussi préparé d’autres dossiers sur des sujets d’actualités, comme les assistants vocaux. Connaissez-vous Siri, Alexa ou Google ? En tout cas, eux vous connaissent très bien, même s’ils ressemblent parfois au Schtroumpf bêta. Comme Noël approche, nous vous avons aussi concocté un dossier sur les ordinateurs portables, pour bien choisir et de pas tomber dans les (nombreux) pièges du marketing pour vous vendre une machine qui ne vous conviendra pas. Faut-il se tourner vers un PC portable de joueurs ? Les appareils à moins de 300 € valent-ils le coup ? Nous répondrons à toutes vos questions dans le dossier. Comme nous savons que vous appréciez le matériel, le magazine contient aussi un gros comparatif sur un sujet rarement traité : les contrôleurs et les chipsets des cartes mères. Si vous vous êtes toujours demandé quel contrôleur offre les meilleures performances en USB 3.1 Gen. 2, ce dossier est pour vous ! Plus largement, nous avons comparé des dizaines de cartes mères et testé la majorité des contrôleurs du marché pour comparer les performances sur l’USB, le SATA, l’Ethernet et l’audio. Maintenant, vous saurez enfin quelle carte mère choisir ! Pour les amateurs de processeurs AMD, nous nous sommes aussi procuré les nouveaux Ryzen “Threadripper”, avec leurs 32 coeurs.

Dans les autres pages du magazine, vous trouverez un dossier sur les évolutions des disques durs (spoiler : ils visent surtout les data center) et plusieurs tests : une souris verticale, des SSD externes et internes – nous vous proposons même un test du Crucial BX500 – ou un eGPU. Nous abordons aussi le passé des casques de réalité virtuelle, car les écrans n’affichaient pas vraiment de la HD il y a quelques années et ressemblaient plus à un accessoire de torture qu’à un périphérique de jeux. Vous trouverez aussi un dossier sur les claviers et les souris les plus étonnants ainsi qu’un comparatif qui vous permettra de faire un choix entre le ZIP 100 et le LS 120 pour remplacer les disquettes. Enfin, nos rubriques habituelles restent bien évidemment présentes : vous pourrez profiter des achats idiots de Doc TB sur les plateformes de crowdfunding.

– O –

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Quand Amazon vend ouvertement une contrefaçon de carte Sandisk

Nous avons déjà parlé plusieurs fois des problèmes de contrefaçon dans le magazine, mais récemment, Amazon a proposé plusieurs fois en promotion une carte mémoire « COOLIFE » d’une capacité de 32 Go à 12 €. La particularité de la carte ? Le visuel utilisé montre une carte mémoire Sandisk.

La carte n’est évidemment pas vendue par Amazon et elle est toujours en vente à cette adresse (en parallèle d’une caméra de surveillance, ne cherchez pas le rapport) pour 15 €. Plus amusant, une carte Sandisk vendue par Amazon, plus rapide, vaut 11 € actuellement.

Étant donné la marque et le prix, il ne s’agit manifestement pas d’une carte Sandisk. Une fois la carte reçue (rapidement), le packaging ne laisse aucun doute : un simple morceau de carton tout à fait générique avec un texte bateau et basique. La carte, elle, reprend bien le design d’une carte Sandisk, sans erreurs flagrantes ni défauts visibles.

Quelques tests

Le côté amusant de cette contrefaçon, c’est quelle offre des performances acceptables. En fait, sur certains points, elle va même plus vite que ce que promet Sandisk, avec ~70 Mo/s en lecture et 17 Mo/s en écriture, quand Sandisk se limite à 48 Mo/s au mieux (et moins en écriture). La carte passe parfaitement les tests d’intégrité, ce qui indique que la carte a la bonne capacité.

Je vais quand même être clair : c’est une mauvaise idée d’acheter une contrefaçon flagrante comme celle-ci, surtout quand on voit le prix d’une vraie carte Sandisk. Mais elle a au moins l’avantage de ne pas amener de grosses mauvaises surprises au déballage. Après, je ne garantis que cette carte en chinoisium tiendra dans le temps, ne cassera pas en deux ou ne perdra pas les données après quelques jours : il arrive que des cartes de ce type posent des soucis.

Maintenant, la question à 1000 € : personne chez Amazon ne vérifie que les Chinois ne vendent pas des contrefaçons flagrantes sans se cacher ?

I feel the earth move under my feet (in Michigan)

The University of Michigan is home to the largest stadium in the USA (the second-largest in the world!). So what better place to test for spectator-induced seismic activity than The Big House?

The Michigan Shake

University of Michigan geology professor Ben van der Pluijm decided to make waves by measuring the seismic activity produced during games at the university’s 107601 person-capacity stadium. Because earthquakes are (thankfully) very rare in the Midwest, and therefore very rarely experienced by van der Pluijm’s introductory geology class, he hoped this approach would make the movement of the Earth more accessible to his students.

“The bottom line was, I wanted something to show people that the Earth just shakes from all kinds of interactions,” explained van der Pluijm in his interview with The Michigan Daily. “All kinds of activity makes the Earth shake.”

To measure the seismic activity, van der Pluijm used a Raspberry Pi, placing it on a flat concrete surface within the stadium.

Van der Pluijm installed a small machine called a Raspberry Pi computer in the stadium. He said his only requirements were that it needed to be able to plug into the internet and set up on a concrete floor. “Then it sits there and does its thing,” he said. “In fact, it probably does its thing right now.”

He then sent freshman student Sahil Tolia to some games to record the moments of spectator movement and celebration, so that these could be compared with the seismic activity that the Pi registers.

We’re not sure whether Professor van der Pluijm plans on releasing his findings to the outside world, or whether he’ll keep them a close secret with his introductory students, but we hope for the former!

Build your own Raspberry Pi seismic activity reader

We’re not sure what other technology van der Pluijm uses in conjunction with the Raspberry Pi, but it’s fairly easy to create your own seismic activity reader using our board. You can purchase the Raspberry Shake, an add-on board for the Pi that has vertical and horizontal geophones, MEMs accelerometers, and omnidirectional differential pressure transducers. Or you can fashion something at home, for example by taking hints from this project by Carlo Cristini, which uses household items to register movement.

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Three-factor authentication is the new two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication continues to provide our online selves with more security for our email and online banking. Meanwhile, in the physical world, protecting our valuables is now all about three-factor authentication.

Not sure what I mean? Here’s a video from Switched On Network that demonstrates how to use a Raspberry Pi to build a three-factor door lock comprised of an RFID keyring, 6-digit passcode, and one-time access code sent to your mobile phone.

Note that this is a fairly long video, so feel free to skip it for now and read my rather snazzy tl;dr. You can come back to the video later, with a cup of tea and 20 minutes to spare. It’ll be worth it, I promise.

Build a Raspberry Pi Smart Door Lock Security System with Three Factor Authentication!

https://amzn.to/2A98EaZ (UK) / https://amzn.to/2LDlxyc (US) – Get a free audiobook with a 30-day trial of Audible from Amazon! Build the ultimate door lock system, effectively turning your office or bedroom into a high-security vault!

The tl;dr of three-factor door locks by Alex Bate

To build Switched On Network’s three-factor door lock, you need to source a Raspberry Pi 3, a USB RFID reader and fob, a touchscreen, a electronic door strike, and a relay switch. You also need a few other extras, such as a power supply and a glue gun.

Once you’ve installed the appropriate drivers (if necessary) for your screen, and rotated the display by 90 degrees, you can skip ahead a few steps by installing the Python script from Switched On Network’s GitHub repo! Cheers!

Then for the physical build: you need to attach the door strike, leads, and whatnot to the Pi — and all that together to the door and door frame. Again, I won’t go into the details, since that’s where the video excels.

The end result is a superior door lock that requires you to remember both your keys and your phone in order to open it. And while we’d never suggest using this tech to secure your house from the outside, it’s a perfect setup for inside doors to offices or basement lairs.

Now go watch the video!

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The National Centre for Computing Education: your questions answered

Last week was a very exciting week for us, with the announcement of the National Centre for Computing Education: funded programmes for computing teachers and students for the next four years, to really support the growth and profile of our subject. For me and many others involved in this field over the last decade, it’s an amazing opportunity to have this level of financial support for Computing — something we could previously only dream of. Everybody at Raspberry Pi is very excited about being involved in this important work!

Some background

A new Computing curriculum was introduced in England in September 2014, and it comprises three strands: computer science, information technology, and digital literacy. The latter two have been taught in schools for many years, but the computer science strand had not been taught in schools to the pre-16 age group since the 1980s.

Two Royal Society reports have been widely influential. Firstly, the Shut Down or Restart report (2012) instigated the curriculum change. To support teachers implementing the new curriculum, the CAS Network of Excellence received a modest amount of funding from 2013–2018; the network has had a great impact on the field already, but clearly more government input was needed. The second report, After the Reboot (2017), evaluated current computing education in schools in the UK. It highlighted the challenges faced by teachers who felt unprepared to deliver the Computing curriculum, and recommended that significant government funding be provided to support teachers — and this has now happened! The new programme gives us the opportunity to reach all computing teachers, and to make massive improvements to computing education around the country.

What is the National Centre?

The National Centre, together with specific support for GCSE and A-Level Computer Science, is a government-funded programme of training and support for computing education. It will lead to a great education in the subject for every child from the beginning of primary school to the end of secondary school, enabling them to develop the valuable skills they need, whether or not they choose computing-related careers.

Since last week’s announcement, I’ve received lots of questions from teachers and others about exactly what will be happening and who will be doing the work, and I’ve gathered together answers to many of these questions here. Read on to learn more about our plans.

Key Stages 1–3 and non-GCSE Key Stage 4

If you are a primary teacher or a secondary teacher at Key Stage 3 or non-GCSE KS4, delivering Computing, either as a classroom teacher or as a specialist, you will be able to access professional learning opportunities (CPD) and resources in your region. Initially these will be available via partners working with us, and from September 2019, you will be able to access them via 40 Computing Hubs.

You will be able to register for a certificate and work towards it through a range of activities, working with colleagues and in your region. There will also be a range of online courses to support you at your own pace. Some of these are available now, and many more are to be launched over the next two years.

GCSE Computer Science

If you teach GCSE Computer Science, or you’d like to, there is a unique programme just for you. Bursaries will be available to enable you to take a series of face-to-face and online courses that best suit your needs: these will range from courses aimed at the completely new-to-GCSE teacher to advanced courses for more experienced teachers who are aiming to stretch and challenge students and to hone their subject knowledge.

The online courses will be free for everyone, forever. There will be a diagnostic test to help you plan your journey, and a final assessment to measure your success. You’ll be able to sign up for this programme from January.

A Level Computer Science

If you teach A Level Computer Science, or would like to, you will have access to comprehensive resources for students and teachers. There will also be a range of face-to-face events for both students and teachers. These will be starting shortly, so watch out for more news!

It will take a few months for the Computing Hubs and CPD provision to be available at scale, but in the meantime, there is much within our existing networks that computing teachers can engage with right now: CAS hubs and other events, Code Clubs in schools, STEM Learning training, and our online courses are some examples.

Building our team

We also announced last week that we are looking for new team members to implement our part of the work.

Developing resources, courses, and publications

Our role involves developing a comprehensive set of resources, lesson plans, and schemes of work from Key Stages 1–4, drawing on the best of existing materials plus some new ones. We will also develop all the online courses. We need content writers to help us with both of these areas. We are working on producing newsletters, case studies, and other publications about evidence-based practice, and this will also be part of the new team’s work. At the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we will be leading on the A Level Computer Science programme content, so we have opportunities for people with the skills and experience to focus on this area.

Many of these roles are available if you want to work remotely, but more senior jobs will involve regular days in Cambridge. We also have fixed-term, part-time work available. You can find all our current job openings on this page.

Finally, as a team, we want to visit lots of schools to see what you need and listen to your thoughts, so that we can get our work right for you. If you’d like to support us in that, please get in touch by emailing sue@raspberrypi.org.

Hubs, face-to-face training, and certification

STEM Learning, one of our two consortium partners, will be commissioning the 40 Hubs, and they will also be responsible for face-to-face training. The Hubs will become centres of excellence for computing, where teachers can find regional support. Existing CAS (Computing At School) communities will be linked to the 40 Hubs, and CAS Hubs will also play a really important part in the new structure. Our other partner, BCS, will be supporting certification, building on the work they have already done with the BCS Certificate in Computer Science Teaching.

You will be able to access everything you need on the website of the National Centre for Computing Education, where you’ll soon be able to learn where to find your Computing Hub or local CAS communities and discover what is happening in your region.

Across the consortium we have teams of people who are deeply committed to computing, to Computing At School (CAS), and to teaching; most of us have recent teaching experience ourselves. Our first priority is to work with teachers collegially to meet your needs and make life easier for you. So follow the National Centre on Twitter, talk to us, and give us your feedback!

Outside England?

This post has been all about teachers in England, but our free online resources will be available to anyone, anywhere in the world. If you want to talk to us about the needs in your country, do get in touch.

The post The National Centre for Computing Education: your questions answered appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

New product: Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ on sale now at $25

TL;DR: you can now get the 1.4GHz clock speed, 5GHz wireless networking and improved thermals of Raspberry Pi 3B+ in a smaller form factor, and at the smaller price of $25. Meet the Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+.

New Product Alert: Raspberry Pi 3A+

You can now get the 1.4GHz clock speed, 5GHz wireless networking and improved thermals of Raspberry Pi 3B+ in a smaller form factor, and at the smaller price of $25. Meet the Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+.

Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+

Long-time readers will recall that back in 2014 the original Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+ was followed closely by a cut-down Model A+. By halving the RAM to 256MB, and removing the USB hub and Ethernet controller, we were able to hit a lower price point, and squeeze the product down to the size of a HAT.

Although we didn’t make A+ form-factor versions of Raspberry Pi 2 or 3, it has been one of our most frequently requested “missing” products. Now, with Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ shipping in volume, we’re able to fill that gap by releasing Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+.

Phenomenal cosmic powers! Itty-bitty living space

Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ incorporates most of the neat enhancements we made to its big brother, and features:

• A 1.4GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU
• 512MB LPDDR2 SDRAM
• Dual-band 802.11ac wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2/BLE
• Improved USB mass-storage booting
• Improved thermal management

Like its big brother, the entire board is certified as a radio module under FCC rules, which in turn will significantly reduce the cost of conformance testing Raspberry Pi–based products.

In some ways this is rather a poignant product for us. Back in March, we explained that the 3+ platform is the final iteration of the “classic” Raspberry Pi: whatever we do next will of necessity be less of an evolution, because it will need new core silicon, on a new process node, with new memory technology. So 3A+ is about closing things out in style, answering one of our most frequent customer requests, and clearing the decks so we can start to think seriously about what comes next.

Just in case

Our official cases for Raspberry Pi 3B and 3B+ and Raspberry Pi Zero have been very popular, so of course we wanted to offer a case for this new device.

Unfortunately it’s not quite ready yet, but as you can see it’s rather pretty: we’re expecting it to be available from the start of December, just in time to serve as a stocking filler for the geek in your life.

The post New product: Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ on sale now at $25 appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

CPC Hardware HS N°11 – Spécial Jeux – est sorti !

Chez Canard PC Hardware, nous travaillons à côté d’une rédaction de personnes qui aiment jouer, nos amis de Canard PC. Et comme nous sommes dans le même open space, dans le fameux smart building, une franche camaraderie règne. De temps en temps, nous venons demander quels jeux il faut tester pour montrer l’intérêt d’une carte graphique hors de prix. Et eux, parfois, viennent pour de l’aide parce qu’ils ont branché un câble jack dans le mauvais sens ou pour récupérer un écran de ministre sur l’ancien bureau de Doc TB. Tout ça pour dire que le sujet de notre nouveau hors-série, qui vient d’arriver dans les kiosques, a un rapport avec Canard PC : il parle de jeux vidéo.

Canard PC Hardware oblige, nous n’allons pas vous proposer une liste des meilleurs jeux du moment, mais bien une liste des meilleurs composants pour les joueurs du moment. Vous trouverez une bonne trentaine de pages de guides d’achat, avec les meilleurs processeurs, GPU, écrans et autres accessoires (souris, micro, manettes, etc.). Nous en avons aussi profité pour tester les GeForce RTX 2080 et 2080 Ti et les derniers CPU Intel de sixième septième huitième neuvième génération.

Ce hors-série vous proposera un récapitulatif pour comprendre les dernières API à la mode (DXR ? Vulkan ? Glide ?), un guide pour bien configurer les options dans les jeux ainsi qu’un panorama des offres de streaming, que ce soit pour jouer dans le cloud ou en local sans déplacer le PC. Nous avons aussi préparé un dossier sur une grande question : peut-on jouer avec une carte graphique à moins de 100 € ? Pour ceux qui n’aiment pas les PC sous Windows, nous passons aussi en revue les différentes consoles modernes et rétro du moment et nous avons même consacré quelques lignes aux personnes qui aiment se faire du mal et veulent jouer sur Mac ou sous Linux.

Au passage, il s’agit du premier numéro sans le fameux Doc TB. Notre héros des temps modernes, qui a bravé les gaz et les explosions d’alimentation pour vous proposer des tests pendant près de 10 ans a en effet décidé de quitter Canard PC Hardware pour voler vers de nouvelles aventures. Mais personne ne l’oubliera à la rédaction, soyez-en certains.

– O –

Rejoignez la discussion sur le forum

 

Raspberry $25 Pi 3 Model A+ Released – Complete specs and pricing

The Raspberry Pi is a small single-board computer (SBC) developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It supposes to promote the teaching of computer science, programming for kids and in developing countries. The new Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ comes with 1.4GHz clock speed, 5GHz wireless networking and improved thermals of Raspberry Pi 3B+ in a smaller form factor. It costs $25.

The post Raspberry $25 Pi 3 Model A+ Released – Complete specs and pricing appeared first on nixCraft.

A new Raspbian update: multimedia, Python and more

Today we’re releasing a new update for Raspbian, including a multimedia player, updated Thonny, and more. Here’s Simon with everything you need to know.

Updating Raspbian on your Raspberry Pi || Raspberry Pi Foundation

How to update to the latest version of Raspbian on your Raspberry Pi.

VLC Media Player

When I first joined Raspberry Pi, back in the dim and distant past (in reality 2014, but it does seem a long time ago now…), and I started looking at Raspbian, I made a list of the additional features and applications that I thought it needed to be a “complete” modern desktop operating system. Over the years, we’ve managed to tick off most of the items on that list, but one glaring omission has been nagging at me all this time: a decent media player. Windows has Windows Media Player; MacOS has QuickTime Player and iTunes; but we’ve had a big hole where something similar ought to be for Raspbian. It’s been a common request on the forums, and while we’ve had bits and pieces that do some of the job, like the command line OMXPlayer application, we really wanted a nice GUI-based media player.

VLC is one of those programs that “just works” for media playback; it is cross-platform, it has a nice interface, and it plays back pretty much anything you throw at it. It was the player I really wanted to use in Raspbian — but it was unable to access VideoCore’s video decoding hardware, and the software video codecs in VLC were too slow to be anything more than irritating when running on Raspberry Pi, so it really wasn’t worth shipping it. Until now.

After a lot of work (by people far cleverer than me), we are now able to announce that Raspbian includes a fully hardware-accelerated version of VLC. It plays most audio file formats; it uses software codecs for many video formats, and it uses VideoCore’s video engine to accelerate playback of H.264, MPEG-2 and VC-1 video. (Note that you will need to buy additional codec licences for MPEG and VC-1; if you’ve already bought a licence to enable hardware acceleration in OMXPlayer and Kodi, this licence will also enable these codecs for VLC.)

This is still a work in progress — we’ve got most of the major bugs out, but there will most likely be the odd glitch, and you’ll probably find that Pi Zero and Pi 1 will still struggle with some content. But once you’ve updated your Pi, you should find that double-clicking on a video file will open it in VLC and play it back with decent quality.

Thonny 3

A couple of years ago, as part of the list of additional features mentioned above, we looked for a nicer Python development environment than IDLE, and we found Thonny — a really elegant combination of a user-friendly IDE with features that are also useful to expert developers. It’s been our standard IDE shipped with Raspbian ever since, and Aivar Annamaa, the developer, has been very responsive to our feedback and requests for new features.

He’s recently released version 3 of Thonny, and this is now the version in Raspbian. Version 3 offers a lot of useful new debugging features, such as breakpoints and an Assistant feature that analyses your code to find bugs that Python’s syntax checker misses. There is a lot more information about Thonny 3 on Aivar’s website — it’s well worth a read.

We’ve also made one user interface change this time. We’ve always offered the choice between running Thonny in its regular mode, and a cut-down “simple” mode for beginners, which removes the menus and gives a fixed screen layout. Up until now, switching between the two has happened via different entries in the main Raspberry Pi menu, but that was a bit clumsy. In the new version, simple mode is the default, and you can switch Thonny into regular mode by clicking the link in the top right-hand corner of the window; if you want to switch back to simple mode, select it on the General tab of the Thonny options dialogue, which is available in the Tools menu. (Thonny will always start in the last mode you selected.)

Desktop configuration

One of the other changes we’ve made this time is one that hopefully most people won’t notice!

The configuration of the Raspberry Pi desktop has always been a bit of a mess. Due to the fact that the underlying LXDE desktop environment is made up of a bunch of different programs all running together, trying to set up something like the system font or the highlight colour involves making changes to several configuration files at once. This is why pretty much the first thing I did was to write the Appearance Settings application to try to make this easier than digging around in multiple config files.

Linux desktop applications are supposed to have a global configuration file (usually in the directory /etc/xdg/) that takes effect unless overridden by a local configuration file (in the hidden .config subdirectory of the user’s home directory). Unfortunately, not all the desktop components adhered to this specification. As a result, getting the Appearance Settings application to work involved quite a bit of kludging things about under the hood, and one of these kludges was to always keep a local copy of each of the configuration files and to ignore the global versions.

This worked, but it had the undesirable side effect that any time we wanted to update the appearance of the desktop, we had to delete all the local configuration files so they could be replaced by the new ones, and this meant that any changes the user had made to the configuration were lost. This was quite annoying for many people, so with this release, we’ve tried to stop doing that!

Most of the desktop components have now been modified so that they correctly read the global configuration files, and for future releases, we are going to try to just modify the global versions of these files and not touch the local ones. If we update the configuration, you will see a message informing you that this has happened, but your local files will be left unchanged. To make sure you get the latest configuration, launch Appearance Settings and choose one of the buttons on the “Defaults” tab; doing this will set your desktop to our currently recommended defaults. But if you want to stick with what you’ve already got, just don’t do that! You can even try the new defaults out: press one of the defaults buttons, and if you don’t like the results, just hit Cancel, and your previous configuration will be restored.

One final point on this: in order to get this all to work properly in future, we have had to delete a few local files on this occasion. These are files that most people will never have modified anyway, so this will hopefully not present any problems. But just in case, they have been backed up in the oldconffiles subdirectory of the user’s home directory.

Multiple images

When I first started working on Raspbian, the desktop image file was just under 1GB in size. This has gradually crept up over the years, and now it’s around 1.75GB. While downloading a file of this size isn’t a significant problem for someone with fibre broadband, many people are on slower connections where such large downloads can take hours.

In order to try and address this, for all future releases we will now release two separate images. The default Raspbian release is now a minimal install — it gives you the desktop, the Chromium browser, the VLC media player, Python, and some accessory programs. Running alongside this is the “Raspbian Full” image, which also includes all our recommended programs: LibreOffice, Scratch, SonicPi, Thonny, Mathematica, and various others.

The Recommended Software program that we launched in the last release can be used to install or uninstall any of the additional programs that are in the full image; if you download the minimal image and check all the options in Recommended Software, you will end up with the full image, and vice versa.

Hopefully, this means that downloading Raspbian will be easier for people on slower connections, and that you can easily add just the programs you want. The full image is provided for everyone who wants to get everything in one go, or who won’t have access to the internet to download additional programs once their Pi is up and running.

We’ll also continue to produce the existing Raspbian Lite image for people who only want a command-line version with no desktop.

Update Raspbian

Both the new images are available to download from the usual place on our site.

To update an existing image, open a terminal window and use the usual commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

To install the new VLC media player from a terminal, enter:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install vlc

As ever, all feedback is welcome, so please leave a comment below!

The post A new Raspbian update: multimedia, Python and more appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Literature dispenser

There are many things I do not know about Argentina. Until today, one of them was this: if you’re in an Argentinian bank, you may not use electronic devices. That includes phones and e-readers like the Kindle (and I can’t be the only person here who is pretty much surgically attached to their Kindle).

Enter the literature dispenser.

Roni Bandini, an Argentinian author, found himself twiddling his thumbs in a Buenos Aires bank queue, and thought that perhaps the 50 other people he could see in the same situation might benefit from a little distraction. How about a machine, owned by the bank, that could furnish you with one of a curated selection of short stories at the touch of a button? The short stories bit was easy: he writes them for a living.

Expendedor de literatura en tickets (invento argentino)

Expendedor de literatura en tickets desarrollado por @ronibandini Versión 2 Elementos utilizados para su fabricación: Raspberry Pi Thermal Printer LCD Display 16×2 Custom 3d Printed Case Más información en https://medium.com/@Bandini

He chose a Raspberry Pi because there are so many libraries for thermal printers and LCD displays available (and because it’s tiny, and you can fit a heck of a lot of short stories on an SD card these days).

Roni says:

This project was “trial and error” in many aspects. I had troubles with power source amperage due to thermal printer requirements, conflicts with previous software running in the Raspberry – since the same one was used for other projects – and I had to write some routines to avoid words being split due to ticket width. Since the machine could be working for 12 hours in a row, I have added a small 5v cooling fan in the back.

He built a wooden prototype, and was helped out by Z-lab, a small, local 3d print design studio, with permanent casing (which is rather lovely).

The UI’s very simple: press the green button, be rewarded with a short story, printed to order on a till strip. We’d love to see businesses use these in real life (and we’re thinking one of these would be a lovely addition to the Pi Towers lobby, to help soothe anxious interview candidates). Thanks Roni – I’m off to try to find some of your work in translation, and we’re all agreed that we’re very grateful for internet banking.

The post Literature dispenser appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

From inspiration to innovation: Hands-On Coding blocks

Marcos Navas is a Union City Technology Facilitator with Union City school district in New Jersey and an active member of the maker, STEM, and coding communities. He was part of the first cohort of Raspberry Pi Certified Educators in the United States. Recently, he completed a fellowship with IDEO’s Teachers Guild and launched Hands-on Coding, a company that makes physical coding blocks for learners. Hands-On Coding blocks allow students to physically build computer programs and act out their code in the real world. They turn the human into a computer and teach children not only how to solve problems, but also how to express themselves.

In this blog post, Marcos shares how his experience at Picademy helped him successfully combine his skills as a teacher with an entrepreneurial drive.

At Picademy North America

The day before my flight to San Jose Airport to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, I was busy in my garage makerspace. It’s strange when and how inspiration strikes, but it did — at 1am while I was preparing for Picademy. While looking at the Raspberry Pi and all the coding languages, I began thinking, “Wouldn’t it be cool if I could hold the code in my hands and manipulate it?” So I began tinkering with the 3D printer and created a repeat block — and that’s how the story of Hands-On Coding begins.

The following day, I was part of the first cohort of Raspberry Pi Certified Educators (RCEs) in America. I walked into a room full of innovative and creative teachers from all over the country. Over the next two days, we were introduced to the world of Raspberry Pi and the coding basics we needed to create our first project. It was here that I understood the power of coding and how it is the language of the future. I truly believed then — and now! — how impactful coding could be if integrated into schools.

With so many talented people in attendance, I decided to share my 3D-printed coding blocks. After receiving many “oohs” and “aahs” from my peers along with several order requests, I realized that my idea could turn into something much bigger!

FAIL: First Attempt In Learning

One of the major takeaways from Picademy was Carrie Anne Philbin’s intro slide titled “FAIL: First Attempt In Learning.” But, for me, the word ‘fail’ turned into ‘fear’: being new to coding and the Raspberry Pi was daunting. Through persistence, though, I embraced growth, and worked my way out of those fears; I began to gain more confidence, which led to new ideas and experiences. And I learned that changing my perspective on failure was the key to embracing it. Some time after Picademy, this same message was repeated to me by Reshma Suajani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, who saw my coding blocks and said: “Don’t let the fear of failure get in your way.” So I let failure drive me instead.

Hands-On Coding blocks

After Picademy, I met with Sam Patterson, another amazing RCE, at his local makerspace. During our conversation, I handed him one of my first coding block prototypes and asked for his thoughts. His words got me thinking about kinesthetic coding and the physical movements of acting out code to build understanding.

Two years later, in July 2018, after developing partnerships, distribution channels, and a fantastic shipping department (me), we delivered our first Hands-On Coding blocks! Hands-On Coding now consists of me and my partners Laura Fleming and Joann Presby, and our goal is to revolutionize coding by making it a more physical and tangible educational idea open to various types of learners. We hope to teach the fundamentals of computational thinking and computer science through the use of blocks and the absence of any technological device; you don’t need to learn coding in front of a screen. Our endgame is to help humanity learn to design solutions to problems in our world.

After Picademy

My experience at Picademy was just the start of my journey. I not only gained an understanding of the importance of coding in education and the versatility of the Raspberry Pi computer, but also grew out my shell and gained the confidence I needed to put ideas into actions. I became a TED Innovative Educator and an IDEO Teachers Guild Fellow, I launched Hands-on Coding, and I created numerous relationships and ambassadorships with an array of edtech companies. I understood that just because I am an educator or teacher that doesn’t mean I can’t follow my own dreams and aspirations and be a teacherpreneur! I do not have any secrets or magic to this process. Rather, a dream, action, and hard work can lead you to many worlds of possibilities.

Picademy and online training

Keep up to date with Picademy, including the release of 2019 dates, by following the #Picademy hashtag on Twitter. You’ll also find more information on our Picademy page.

Our free online training courses offer another way to learn about introducing coding into the classroom, and much more. And you can discover more stories and support from educators like Marcos in Hello World, the computing and digital making magazine for educators, which is available for free.

The post From inspiration to innovation: Hands-On Coding blocks appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

UK Scouts! New resources to support the Digital Maker badge

Six months ago, we announced our partnership with the Scout Association in the UK: we launched the new Digital Maker Staged Activity Badge, releasing new badge requirements, along with resources for stages 1 and 2, to help tens of thousands of young people learn how to create with technology.

Fun fact: when we launched the badge, it became the very first one to feature the new Scouts logo.

More resources!

Since then, we’ve been developing resources for more stages of the badge, and we’ve just released activities to support more of stage 2 and stage 3.

The Scouts on Twitter

We’ve teamed up with our friends at @Raspberry_Pi to give you even more resources to get stuck into! Here’s, Scout Ambassador, @astro_timpeake telling you why it’s so important that young people improve their digital technology skills. Read more here: https://t.co/4vwOwBDpv4 https://t.co/kKY4BVB0a2

Because the Digital Maker badge is a staged activity badge, any section of the Scouts movement can tackle it. And since an activity that interests and engages a Beaver is likely to be quite different to one that engages an Explorer Scout, we’ve increased the variety of activities we’re providing.

More tech!

The first set of activity resources we released either needed no technology or laptops only, as the leaders we spoke to told us it shouldn’t be too difficult to get hold of some laptops for a session. For the new resources, we’ve increased the variety of tech that we recommend using. Some of the activities use the micro:bit, since it’s a low-cost, easy-to-use bit of tech. For leaders unfamiliar with the micro:bit, we’ve put together this guide on using the device.

More activities!

With all our activity resources, we show how digital making fits into the scouting movement and into many typical activities you’d do with your troop. For example, you can program the micro:bit to be the musical accompaniment to your next campfire. Or, you can create your own custom map to show points on a recent hike that you did together — anything from where someone fell over, to where you saw the most amazing view.

More support!

Next year, we’re going to release even more material to support Scouts tackling the Digital Maker badge. We’ll carry on producing videos like this lovely one:

Computers in the real world

Uploaded by Raspberry Pi on 2018-09-28.

We’re also going to be trialling some leader training days to build your digital making confidence. In the meantime, if you have any questions, you can always email scouts@raspberrypi.org.

The post UK Scouts! New resources to support the Digital Maker badge appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

How to add bash auto completion in RHEL 8 (Red Hat Linux)

I set up a new RHEL 8 VM from cloud images, but my auto-completion of bash shell commands are not working. How do I enable autocomplete feature in RHEL 8 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8)? How do I write simple bash completion code in RHEL 8?

The post How to add bash auto completion in RHEL 8 (Red Hat Linux) appeared first on nixCraft.

How to configure a static IP address on RHEL 8

I am a new sysadmin and RHEL 8 user. My system is configured to use DHCP. How can I switch from DHCP to a static IP address on RHEL 8 system? How do I setup a static TCP/IP address on my Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 server using command line option?

The post How to configure a static IP address on RHEL 8 appeared first on nixCraft.

How to install and activate Cockpit web console on RHEL 8

How do I install and enable Cockpit that makes GNU/Linux and RHEL 8 for web management purpose? How do I see and manage my RHEL 8 based server in a web browser and perform system tasks with a mouse?

The post How to install and activate Cockpit web console on RHEL 8 appeared first on nixCraft.

Wireframe 2: The Blackout Club, Battlefield V anxiety, and more

Momentum firmly established, we’re back with our brilliant second issue of Wireframe — the magazine that lifts the lid on video games.

And yes, we are continuing to write ‘video games’ as two words.

Blacking out

In our sophomore edition, you’ll discover all manner of great features, guides, reviews, and everything else you could wish for. In an exclusive interview, BioShock 2 director Jordan Thomas talks about The Blackout Club, his new co-operative horror game – which also features on our fantastic front cover! With inspiration coming from the likes of Stranger Things, you just know The Blackout Club is going to be something special.

We also hear from Battlefield V’s Creative Director Lars Gustavsson in a candid discussion about his own personal excitement — and apprehension — surrounding the launch of DICE’s latest in its nearly 20-year-old series.

And a lot more

Is that all? Of course not. Thomas Was Alone and Subsurface Circular creator Mike Bithell shares his personal perspective on the ever-changing shape of video games.

Issue 2 also takes an extended look at an RPG’s journey from tabletop to screen: it’s not easy to bring the likes of Cyberpunk 2020 to the world of video games, and CD Projekt Red, Chris Avellone, and others tell us just why that is.

We’re just spoiling you now, but there’s plenty more besides, such as:

• The maths behind matchmaking and video game economics
• The changing face of Mega Man, an enduring 8-bit icon
• An indie game’s path from Japanese restaurant to Nintendo eShop
• The simple yet effective AI behind Galaxian’s angry aliens

All of this is joined by news, previews, and reviews of everything gaming has to offer.

Buy Wireframe issue 2

Physical copies of Wireframe are available now in WHSmith, Tesco, and all good independent UK newsagents. Of course, we don’t like to limit your choices, so you’re able to buy direct from us, with worldwide delivery available.

There’s also the option to download issue 2 a free PDF if you’d like a handy digital version.

Subscription options!

Fancy putting your feet up and letting Wireframe come directly to you? In that case, you should take a look at our subscription options: pick up a sample six issues for a bargain price, subscribe for a full year, or get the digital edition directly to your smart device via our Android and iOS apps. To find out how to save up to 49% on Wireframe’s print edition, head to wfmag.cc/subscribe.

See you again in two weeks!

A wild HackSpace magazine appeared

HackSpace magazine issue 13 is also out today, and it’s pretty sweet. Check it out here!

The post Wireframe 2: The Blackout Club, Battlefield V anxiety, and more appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Has someone cured the common cold with a Raspberry Pi?

No. They haven’t. What’s taking you all so long?

Alex has a cold

I felt it coming on last night. That heavy-headedness. The slight tickle in my throat. Blurry vision, sudden chills, a desperate need for snuggles. Colds can go from zero to a hundred within minutes, and then, no matter how much you hydrate, how early a night you get, or how much medication you take, you know you’re going to wake up feeling rough.

As I have done today.

So I turned to the internet

And I typed this…

And nothing came up. Nothing at all. I mean, I know you’re all busy living your best lives and all that, but c’mon, team — I was counting on at least one of you to have fixed this by now!

Somebody do something!

You’ve let me down, but I am going to give you all another chance to make amends.

In the comments below, or in reply to the social media posts on Facebook and Twitter about the publication of this blog post, I’d like you to invent a Raspberry Pi project that will aid me in getting over my cold.

It may be a robot that hands me a tissue, or one that rocks me to sleep. It could be an algorithm for predicting when I’ll next get sick based on certain factors such as climate, schedule, or my poor, vitamin-deprived diet.

It could even be a drone that will deliver my mother to my house whenever I need attention and a hug.

Whatever your invention, however wild and unlikely it seems, I want to hear about it. And the best ones will receive some stickers or something — whatever cool Raspberry Pi thingers I’ll find in my desk when I return to Pi Towers on Monday. #SuchPrepared #MuchProfessional #wow

And no, you don’t have to actually make the thing. Just tell me what it would do and, if you like, include pictures!

And while you’re all doing that…

I’m going to make another cup of tea and curl up on the sofa with She-Ra on Netflix. Ta!

The post Has someone cured the common cold with a Raspberry Pi? appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

How to setup a UFW firewall on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server

How do I setup a firewall with UFW (uncomplicated firewall) on an Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS server to restrict traffic on my personal Ubuntu web-server that hosts my cat's blog? How do I set up a firewall with UFW on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS?

The post How to setup a UFW firewall on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server appeared first on nixCraft.

How to upgrade Ubuntu 16.04 to 18.04 LTS using terminal

I am using Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS on Lionde. How do I upgrade Ubuntu 16.04 to 18.04 LTS using terminal bash shell over ssh based session?

The post How to upgrade Ubuntu 16.04 to 18.04 LTS using terminal appeared first on nixCraft.

How to install and configure memcached on Ubuntu Linux 18.04

I would like to reduce the load on my MariaDB/MySQL/PostgreSQL server using memcached. How do I install and configure memcached server on Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS?

The post How to install and configure memcached on Ubuntu Linux 18.04 appeared first on nixCraft.

Support Raspberry Pi on #GivingTuesday

Today is #GivingTuesday, a global movement to kick off the charitable giving season.

More than just a computer

When you buy a Raspberry Pi, you’re not only getting a fantastic little computer, but you’re also helping with our charitable educational mission to put the power of computing and digital making into the hands of people all over the world.

The kindness of others

We’re also supported in other ways by very generous people and organizations who believe in what we do. They donate funds, staff time, products, and services to help us achieve our mission. We use all of these resources to give thousands of young people the opportunity to be empowered by technology.

Good news, Americans!

At the end of last year, Uncle Sam granted us nonprofit status, which means we can accept tax-deductible donations from those of you who are in the United States! To celebrate the first-ever #GivingTuesday with US nonprofit status, we’re kicking off a crowdfunding campaign for Coolest Projects USA on the GlobalGiving platform. Your contribution will go towards our annual Coolest Projects event where we celebrate young people who create things with technology. And if you contribute between now and the end of the year, we’ll be eligible for bonus funds offered by GlobalGiving. Our goal is to raise $10,000 for Coolest Projects USA, and we need help from all of you!

Showcasing creativity at Coolest Projects North America

Coolest Projects is a world-leading showcase that enables and inspires the next generation of digital creators and innovators to present the projects that they created at their local CoderDojo, Code Club and Raspberry Jam. This year we brought Coolest Projects to the Discovery Cube Orange County for a spectacular regional event in California.

Those of you in the States can also support us by doing your holiday shopping with Amazon Smile or the 3,000 online stores on Giving Assistant. We’ll get a small contribution for your purchases, and that’ll go toward all the programs that support educators and youth in the United States.

Donate to the Raspberry Pi Foundation

If you would like to make a donation towards our work from anywhere in the world, you can do so via JustGiving or PayPal. Your support for the Raspberry Pi Foundation helps us to train educators face-to-face and online, to provide free educational content for everyone everywhere, to support over 10,000 free coding clubs around the world, to celebrate young creators at high-profile events, and much much more.

Beyond #GivingTuesday

There are plenty of ways to help us achieve our mission all over the world:

• Share the Coolest Projects USA GlobalGiving page with your network
• Try one of our free resources — there are plenty for beginners and beyond
• Join our volunteer translator community to help us bring our resources to new learners
• Join the forums and provide answer to Raspberry Pi users’ burning questions
• Volunteer at your local Code Club or Dojo
• Support the CoderDojo Foundation’s GlobalGiving campaign
• Subscribe to The MagPi, HackSpace, or Wireframe magazines
• Share your passion for Raspberry Pi computers with others: show off something you made, or just show how it works
• Share this #GivingTuesday blog post with your network and say why you support the Raspberry Pi Foundation

No matter what you do, the most important thing we want you to know is how grateful we are to have you in the Raspberry Pi community — we deeply appreciate all of your support.

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How to update OpenSUSE Linux software and kernel using CLI

I am a new OpenSUSE Linux server user. How do I upgrade and update OpenSUSE Linux software and kernel from the CLI? How do I use the command line tool to upgrade your system to the latest version of openSUSE software and kernel?

The post How to update OpenSUSE Linux software and kernel using CLI appeared first on nixCraft.

Raspberry Pi vs a Raspberry Pi–powered escape room

A few Mondays ago, the Raspberry Pi North America team visited a very special, Raspberry Pi–powered Escape Room in San Francisco. Run by Palace Games, the Edison Escape Room is an immersive experience full of lights, sensors, and plenty of surprises. This is the team’s story of how they entered, explored, and ultimately escaped this room.

At World Maker Faire this year, our very own social media star Alex Bate met Jordan Bunker, one of the Production Artists at Palace Games. Emails were sent, dates arranges, and boom, the Raspberry Pi North America team had to face the Edison Escape Room!

Escape rooms

In case you’re not familiar, an escape room is a physical adventure game in which players solve a series of puzzles and riddles using clues, logic, and strategy to complete the game’s objectives. Many escape room designers use physical computing to control the many sensors and triggers involved in the player experience.

The team vs Edison

Upon entering the Edison Escape Room, my team and I quickly realized that we were within a complex system built like a giant computer! So even though it was our first-ever time in an escape room, that would not be a disadvantage for us.

Our goal was to accomplish a variety of tasks, including solving many puzzles, looking for hidden clues when anything could be a clue, completing circuits, moving with the floor, and getting a bit of a workout.

The true test, however, was how well we communicated and worked with each other — which we did an awesome job at: at times we split up the work to effectively figure out the many different puzzles and clues; there was a lot “try it this way”, “maybe it means this”, and “what if it’s supposed to go that way” being yelled across the room. Everyone had their Edison thinking hat on that day, and we were so ecstatic when we completed the last challenge and finally escaped!

The inner workings

After escaping the room, we got the chance to explore behind the scenes. We found a local network of many Raspberry Pis that are coordinated by a central Raspberry Pi server. The Python Banyan framework is the connective tissue between the Raspberry Pis and their attached components.

The framework facilitates the communication between the Pis and the central server via Ethernet. The Raspberry Pis are used to read various types of sensors and to drive actuators that control lights, open doors, or play back media. And Raspberry Pis also drive the control panels that employees use to enter settings and keep tabs on the game.

“Raspberry Pi keeps us going. It’s the heart and soul of our rooms.”  – Elizabeth Sonder, Design Engineer & Production Manager

We highly recommend heading over to Palace Games and exploring one of their many escape rooms. It’s a great team-building exercise and definitely allows you to learn a lot about the people you work with. Thank you to the Palace Games team for hosting us, and we hope to return and escape one of their rooms again soon!

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Multiple vulnerabilities in FreeBSD NFS server code

FreeBSD is a free and open source operating system. The NFS (Network File System) is a server and client application that turn FreeBSD into a file sharing server. Users can upload or update files on a remote NFS server. NFS is standard on NAS (network attached storage) devices or sharing data for web servers. A new bug found in NFS server code which could allow a remote attacker to crash the NFS server, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) attack. Another possibility is to execute arbitrary code on the server.

The post Multiple vulnerabilities in FreeBSD NFS server code appeared first on nixCraft.

MagPi 76: our updated Raspberry Pi Superguide!

Hi folks, Rob from The MagPi here! The holiday season will soon be upon us, and that means a lot of Raspberry Pis will be given as gifts. For all these new Pi users, we thought it was time to update our beginners’ guide for 2019 in issue 76 of The MagPi, out now!

And yes, this includes the brand-new 3A+.

Is it a bird? A plane? No, it’s Superguide!

In this Superguide, we’ll take you through the initial setup of the Pi, we’ll help you familiarise yourself with it, and we’ll even show you a couple of fun Pi projects to get started with! Whether you’re a complete newbie to Raspberry Pi or you want need a little refresher, our guide has got you covered.

3A+ subscription offer!

Speaking of the Raspberry Pi 3A+, we have a full feature on the fresh addition to the Raspberry Pi family, including all the juicy benchmarks, stats, and info you’d ever want to know. There’s even an interview with Eben Upton and Roger Thornton about its development!

In fact, we love the 3A+ so much that we’re offering a brand-new, limited-time subscription offer: sign up for a twelve-month print subscription of The MagPi now, and you’ll get a Raspberry Pi 3A+ completely free!

Hurry though, this offer only runs as long as stocks last.

Heads, Pac-Man, and Christmas lights

Of course, there also are amazing projects, guides, and reviews in this issue. This includes As We Are, a mesmerising art project that displays people’s faces on a 14-foot tall screen shaped like a head. We also show you how to start making Pac-Man in our monthly Pygame tutorial, and our smart lights guide has a bit of a festive flair to it.

Get The MagPi 76

You can get The MagPi 76 from WHSmith, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Asda. If you live in the US, head over to your local Barnes & Noble or Micro Center in the next few days for a print copy. You can also get the issue online: check it out on our store, or digitally via our Android or iOS apps. And don’t forget, there’s always the free PDF.

Rolling subscription offer!

Want to support the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the magazine? As well as the subscription mentioned above, you can now take out a monthly £5 subscription to the magazine, effectively creating a rolling pre‑order system that saves you money on each issue.

That’s it for now! I’ll see you next time around Christmas.

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Philip Colligan wants your books (for our library)

You may have heard the news that the Raspberry Pi Foundation recently took up residence in a new location. And unlike previous offices, the new building offers up more room for members of the team to work and learn, including the yet-to-be-named library.

(I’ll have thought of name by the end of this blog post.)

The Raspberry Pi Foundation library

At the moment, the library is home to copies of books written by members of the team, issues of The MagPi, Wireframe, and HackSpace magazine, Project Books, Essentials Guides, and various other related publications.

However, on a recent visit in the Foundation office from Raspberry Pi Trading, I was accosted by Foundation CEO Philip Colligan and asked if I could put out the following request to our community.

We’d like your books

Philip would like to ask you whether you have any old books about coding, such as the classic Usborne series, or aged user manuals or games listings that you don’t need anymore and could donate to our library!

This call also goes out to anyone who has written a book about coding and would like to see their work on our shelves.

Immortality for all

I asked Philip what people can expect in return for donating a book, and he said the following:

So be sure to include your return address so we can send you some stickers as a thank you for your donation.

Send your books

If you have a book you’d like to donate, please send it to the address below. And if we receive double-ups of any publications, we promise to put them to good use by passing them on to local libraries or coding clubs so that others can experience the iconic books of our childhoods.

The Philip Colligan Library of Solitude and Reflection
Raspberry Pi Foundation
37 Hills Road
Cambridge
CB2 1NT
United Kingdom

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How To Install MariaDB on RHEL 8

I am a new MariaDB and RHEL 8 user. How do I install MariaDB on RHEL 8 server using the yum command?

The post How To Install MariaDB on RHEL 8 appeared first on nixCraft.

How To Set Up SSH Keys on RHEL 8

I am a new RHEL 8 server sysadmin. How do I configure SSH public key-based authentication for RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 8 server?

The post How To Set Up SSH Keys on RHEL 8 appeared first on nixCraft.

Define ssh key per host using ansible_ssh_private_key_file

I set up SSH keys on a Linux or Unix as per my project needs and cloud hosting providers. I also new to Ansible IT automation and DevOps tool. My management node has keys for Linode, AWS/EC2 and Google cloud. How do I set up and tell Ansible to use different ssh keys? How do I configure SSH credentials per cloud hosting service provider?

The post Define ssh key per host using ansible_ssh_private_key_file appeared first on nixCraft.

How to install and setup PostgreSQL on RHEL 8

How do I install PostgreSQL relational database management on RHEL 8 using the command line? How do I install and setup PostgreSQL on RHEL 8 server using application streams?

The post How to install and setup PostgreSQL on RHEL 8 appeared first on nixCraft.