Rastrack: where in the world are Raspberry PIs?

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Stefano

rastrack raspberry pi

Meet Rastrack: a Google Maps-based service where you can register for free and tell where you’re taking care of your Raspberry PI – geolocating it, and when it was shipped to you.

Check the numbers, check how many people around you are using RPIs!

Posted in Electronics, Raspberry Pi, Report, Research | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Learning curve, taking risks and entrepreneurship

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Stefano

This graphic really rocks!

learning fast

How much do we really learn by taking risks?

[Via Founders and Founders]

Posted in Business, Business Model, Business Plan, Case Study, Entrepreneurship, Infographic, Startup | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Foursquare meets business users with ‘Foursquare for Business’ App

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Stefano

foursquare businessNews from the check-in king: Foursquare For Business, an iOS app designed to let business owners manage specials and view analytics.

Foursquare for Business, introduced on Tuesday, promises to let businesses attract customers by posting “beautiful photo updates, view recent check-ins to their establishment, share Foursquare updates on Facebook and Twitter, drive traffic to their store and learn more about their customers.”

Posted in Advertising, App world, Apple, Brand, Business, Business Intelligence, Case Study, Facebook, FourSquare, Geotagging, Social Media, Social network, Social survey, Social value | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Raspberry Pi FM transmitter: one short wire and a radio let you broadcast WAV files (Vine footage included)

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Stefano

raspberry Pi FM transmitterAnother Raspberry Pi project: how to turn RPi into an FM transmitter?

Imperial College Robotics Society released this Python code that streams a simple (44.1 KHz, mono, 16 bit) audio WAV file into FM.

How to prepare this recipe:

  • download the code: you’ll find either a Python module and an executable file
  • you’ll need a wire that’s at least 20 cm, less than a foot,
  • connect the wire to GPIO4 (check the right pin on this page or look at the image below)
  • turn on a radio tuned in at 100.00 Mhz in FM
  • issue this command: sudo ./pifm sound.wav 100.0
  • listen to the music (maybe check the radio tuning…)

With a 20 cm wire, transmission signal will be weak if the radio is not in the nearby, let’s say one meter radius.
Check with other frequencies too: just change the figure in the command line (e.g.: sudo ./pifm sound.wav 95.5 for 95.5 MHz) but don’t expect it to be too accurate!

GPIO pinout:

Raspberry PI Pinout

Note: when connecting the wire do it very carefully: check the right pin, check that the wire doesn’t short-contact any other GPIO pin, and do it with the RPi switched off!

I posted a sample on Vine about this:

Posted in Computer, Creativity, Digital life, E-learning, Educational, Electronics, Geekery, Hacking, Hardware, Ideas, Maker, Raspberry Pi, Twitter, Vine | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Facebook introduces Cards: Gifts will never be so socially the same

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Stefano

facebook cards giftsAs reported by Venturebeat, Facebook is introducing Cards, a sort of prepaid credit card for sending gifts – social gifts, actually.

Cards are like regular, plastic gift cards, except that they work at a wide range of retailers.
(For the initial rollout, the partners Facebook is naming are Jamba Juice, Olive Garden, Sephora, and Target. Company reps were tight-lipped on what partners may or may not be signing up for Cards in the near future.)

And when you’ve used up the value of the gift card, don’t throw out the plastic; the next time anyone sends you a Facebook Card, that gift’s value will be added automatically to your existing gift card. You can check the balance at any time from any Facebook app or site, and the network will send you a mobile notification when your balance is running low.

It’s like Facebook is getting into the land of prepaid credit cards via Gifts.

This is a sort of deja-vù, since Cards and Gifts were already introduced by FB previously, but never like this: this credit-card-alike is likely to bring significant buzz to Facebook economy.

[Via VentureBeat]

Posted in Brand, Business, Business Model, Digital life, Digital media, Economy, Facebook, Facebook Advertising, Facebook App, Facebook Pages, Financial, Shopping, social habits, Social initiatives, Social Life, Social marketing, Social Media, Social network, Social news, Social value, Tech industry, User experience, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

1 Million Raspberry PIs sold! What did Eben Upton really thought at the beginning?

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Stefano

I love Raspberry PI, that’s a fact!

It’s the perfect computer to learn, play, build and have fun.

As reported by TechCrunch:

To celebrate the company released this cute info graphic, informing us that, if stacked end to end, a million Pis would be higher than 111 Empire State Buildings.

We detailed the unique manufacturing challenges associate with the Pi with 4,000 Raspberry Pis leaving a U.K. factory every day – or one every 7.5 seconds.

Raspberry Pi have ended up as the brains for a mini arcade cabinet and a DIY GSM base station. It also runs RISC OS and, more important, is a great way for kids to learn how to use computers without spending a fortune on hardware.

raspberry pi 1 million sold

ZDNet instead reports that:

“We honestly did think we would sell about 1,000, maybe 10,000 in our wildest dreams. We thought we would make a small number and give them out to people who might want to come and read computer science at Cambridge,”

What happened then?

The 10,000 boards sold out within hours of going on sale in February last year, with an incredible 100,000 boards ordered on that first day.

Today Raspberry Pi are being used and hacked all around the world with several Linux distros and flavors as well as RISC-OS, just like its Archimedes ancestors the RPI is ARM-based.

[Via TechCrunch and ZDNet]

Posted in DIY, Electronics, Programming, Raspberry Pi | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Kim Dotcom new venture, Mega, opens: welcome to a new cloud storage service

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Stefano

mega cloud storageInternet Millionaire Kim Dotcom has just opened Mega.co.nz, a new cloud storage service which gives (for free) 50 GB of cloud space.

(read his story for more details!)

I just managed to apply and get a brand new account; according to Kim Dotcom Twitter account, almost 250,000 registrations in the very first hour attempted to crush his servers!

mega cloud storage

Mega advises you to use Google Chrome due to some Javascript settings and file transfer features.

mega cloud storage

Looking for more cloud space?
Several pay-per-store are available, check these plans:

mega cloud storage

Right now, I’m playing with the file manager and, besides some slowness, it works fine, it’s simple…

What’s next? More details upcoming…

Posted in Business, Business Model, Cloud, Cloud computing, Marketing, Media, Online storage | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Facebook introduces Graph Search: natural language search within the social network giant

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Stefano

Mark Zuckerberg introduces Graph Search.

Looks like natural language searching will be soon available to all Facebook users!

Graph Search Facebook

Check for more details on Graph Search here on Facebook Newsroom.

During the live coverage provided by Mashable, an example search was: “My friends who like Star wars and Harry Potter”

You can apply for the Graph Search Beta Program by clicking here.

Posted in Business, Business Model, Data mining, Data storage, Facebook, Facebook Advertising, Facebook App, Search engine, Social Life, Social Media, Social network, Social news | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

LinkedIn marks 200 million members milestone

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Stefano

linkedin 200 million members 2013As reported by SearchEngineWatch, LinkedIn has just reached the 200 million members milestone, almost one-fifth of Facebook users and as much as Twitter.

How does a professional and job-oriented social network stack up against the current economic downturn and unemployment crisis?

Difficult to say, maybe, there’s an answer in these figures.

This is how members spread across countries:

Trailing the U.S. and its 74 million LinkedIn members are India with 18 million accounts, the UK and Brazil, each with 11 million users, and Canada with 7 million members. LinkedIn reports it is seeing the fastest growth in Turkey, Colombia, and Indonesia.

linkedin 200 million members

[Via SearchEngineWatch]

Posted in Business, Business Model, Data mining, Digital life, Digital media, Economy, Entrepreneurship, Facebook, Hiring, Job search, Job seeking, Linkedin, Social Media, Social network | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Forget perfect computing accuracy: welcome Wrongulator!

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Stefano

Are you done with perfect calculation, computing?

Does your math look boring?

Grab a Wrongulator!

A pocket calculator that will bring new life and fun into everyday calculus – and wrong results too!

(Not recommended for economists)

Posted in Fun, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment