Archive — page 8
Posted on 28 December, 2020
Ever wished that there was a simple set of instructions for setting up a new Raspberry Pi for development? Or for messing around with code? Below is the guide you’ve been waiting for …
1. Start with a new SD card (max 32GB). I recommend using Samsung Evo Plus or Samsung Evo Select cards. (The Select is a Plus branded for Amazon).
2. Use the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s Raspberry Pi Imager software to install the latest version of Raspbian.
3. Plug in screen, keyboard, mouse and power. If you intend using a Bluetooth mouse you still need a wired mouse to get set up. (Or one that works with a dongle like the Logitech Unified Receiver). If that's the case click on the Bluetooth icon and select Add Device once the initial setup is complete.
... morePosted on 20 September, 2020
I recently came across the Eleventy static site generator and have spent the last couple of weeks working on a side-project to have a personalised browser homepage/dashboard.
It`s a bit sparse at the moment ...
The dashboard is made from a series of panels, using data available from open-source APIs. Eleventy queries each API once, at build, and uses the data to generate a static site that is refreshed daily. The site is hosted on Netlify (using GitHub integration) and refreshed daily with a Netlify hook that's triggered from a IFTTF recipe.
My intention is to build out more panels, as time allows. For now you can check out the live homepage on Netlify.
Posted on 06 September, 2020
Continuing the development of a project to provide an API to draw ‘stacked doughnut’ charts (see Parts One, Two and Three for the story so far).
It's been a few weeks since I posted an offer for this project, I've heard nothing and the project deadline is very long-gone, so posting more of my code!
Functionally Mute
At the moment our code is written to run once, on a static set of data, when the code is called. We
need to instead turn it into a function which is called with a data parameter.
We also need to think about what the final API is going to look like; from the specification, the
intention is that we can POST to the API with some data; this generates an image and returns a
link to that image. So our function should save an image and return a link.
Posted on 20 August, 2020
Because of the pandemic the UK 'dry slope' ski season has almost entirely been cancelled this year, with most slopes having closed in March and only re-opening, with heavy restrictions, in July.
Even in July, our local ski club — Bowles — was only able to train with racers in family 'bubbles', at a fairly prohibitive cost. Thankfully in August there was a loosening of restrictions and the slope was able to allow up to 15 racers to train.
Spoiler - I wrote a booking system
Of course, that kind of limitation brings another problem — there are more club members who want to train than there are places available, so there needs to be a booking system. We've used the free app/service Teamer before, but have found it to be a little confusing and (I'm told) the admin interface is complicated — which left me wondering whether I could build a bespoke booking system and host it at minimal (ideally no) cost.
... more