What is Raspberry Pi ?

Some of you might have seen in the news this week that Raspberry Pi have released a new board: B+.  This is the third iteration of this single board computer in the two and a half years that they have been around.  Before I talk about their wonderful new product, first a quick history of where the Raspberry Pi came from.

Origins

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a registered educational charity which is based in the UK.  The idea behind it all started back in 2006.  In the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory, Eben Upton, Rob Mullins, Jack Lang and Alan Mycroft raised the concern of the lack of Computer Science students and the fact that the few who were applying had very little experience in things such as web design.  This might not sound too bad, but taking into consideration that the numbers of potential students applying to read Computer Science were dropping year on year paints a desolate future for programmers.  In my opinion, this is probably because kids these days have access to so many entertainment platforms such as games consoles, they no longer get bored and feel the need to entertain themselves through creative means.  In addition, computers have become easier to use so you no longer need to have a basic understanding in order to use them: you just turn them on and everything’s there for you already.  So these clever guys decided to put their heads together to address this problem.

Raspberry Pi Prototype. Photographer: Paul Downey, Source: Wikipedia

After a couple of years of tinkering around, the Raspberry Pi started to become a reality.  The aim of it was to allow people of all ages (children included) to be able to easily learn how to program.  Come 2008, mobile devices were becoming more prominent, thanks probably in part to the release of the iPhone in 2007.  Where mobile devices were more common place and the technologies used in them were coming on in leaps and bounds, the processors themselves became more affordable and powerful.  This was fantastic for the team behind the Raspberry Pi because it enabled them to source processers which would support multimedia, a necessary feature when getting kids interested.  In time, Eben, Rob, Jack and Alan teamed up with Pete Lomas (MD of hardware design and manufacture company Norcott Technologies) and David Braben (co-author of the seminal BBC Micro game Elite) to form the Raspberry Pi Foundation.  The idea that started all those years ago was starting to become a reality!

Initially, the Raspberry Pi Foundation expected to sell about 1,000 units which would be for the new undergraduates at Cambridge University.  However, three weeks before the launch, initial demand was for more than 200,000 units.  Although this sounds great, it actually posed a lot of problems as the Raspberry Pi Foundation had to dramatically scale up their operations.  This lead to them creating a partnership with element 14/Premier Farnell and RS Electronics.  This initial interest didn’t wane after launch and in the time since it first went on sale and now, they have sold over 3,000,000 units (that’s three million for anyone who can’t be bothered to count the noughts)!  Quite a dramatic increase from their initial 1,000 they thought they’d be producing.

Raspberry Pi Model A. Photographer: SparkFun Electronics, Source: Wikipedia

What Actually Is A Raspberry Pi?

So now you know where the Raspberry Pi came from, I’m sure you’re keen to know exactly what it is.  Well, to quote the Raspberry Pi website, it is a “low cost, credit-card sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV, and uses a standard keyboard and mouse”.  The Raspberry Pi itself has General-purpose input/output (GIPO) pins, USB ports, and SD card slot.  It is aimed at people of all ages and facilitates the learning of programming languages such as Scratch and Python.  However, you can do other things other than programming: you can do everything that you could do from a standard desktop, from surfing the net, to writing a blog, to playing games, just to name a couple of uses.  All of this for less than £25!

There are a multitude of other uses for the Raspberry Pi as well.  The ethos of the Raspberry Pi Foundation encourages people, especially children to use it for digital maker projects.  These can range from photo booths, to motion detecting cat sensors which tweet a picture of the cat, to breaking a skydiving record, and everything in between!

Raspberry Pi B+

The Raspberry Pi B+ has built on its predecessor and is backwards compatible (although the B model is still available to buy so that manufacturers who use it currently do not have to change their designs).  The number of GPIO pins has increased from 26 to 40 which allows the addition of more sensors, connectors and expansion boards.  The first 26-pins on the B+ board are identical to the B board to facilitate backwards compatibility.  Like the B model, the Broadcom BCM2835 Chipset has remained, as has the 512MB of RAM and the Ethernet port.  However, the SD card slot has been replaced with a micro-SD slot which is positioned underneath the board.  Another addition to the board is a four-pole connector which compliments the existing HDMI connector allowing AV connections.  Furthermore, the number of USB ports have been doubled from two to four which allows you to attach more USB peripherals such as a 2.5” hard drive.  That’s not the only improvements that have been made however, the clever guys at Raspberry Pi have not only made all of these improvements but have also managed to reduce the power usage from 750MA down to 600mA.

Raspberry Pi B+

Conclusion

Raspberry Pi seems to have been the catalyst for a revolution in computer programming.  It has brought together people from all ages and all walks of life together in their love of this tiny computer.  I think that part of the success is down to the low price: it has allowed it to be rapidly take up as it is so affordable.  It’s lovely to see the next generation putting down their games consoles and actually creating things again.  A wonderful community has sprung up around the Raspberry Pi who will welcome anyone into the fold.  Not only are there multiple forums and blogs online about it, but there are also things like the Raspberry Jam.  This are events which are family centred, allowing the whole family to get into programming.  It has also made hacking more main stream.  I know that when I used to think of hackers, I always envisioned a geeky guy sat in his bedroom by himself.  Now anyone can get into it and share their work with others, just head over to the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s blog to get a glimpse into what some people have been up to.  So what are you waiting for?  Go and get your very own Raspberry Pi and join in the fun!

 Source: Wikipedia

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International Youth Day 2014

International Youth Day will be taking place on 12 August 2014. It will bring youth issues to the attention of the international community and celebrate the potential of youth as partners in today’s global society. This year, the theme will be,

 “Youth and Mental Health” under the slogan ‘Mental Health Matters’.

12 August was designated as International Youth Day by the UN General Assembly in 1999. It is an annual celebration of the role of young women and men as essential partners in change, as well as an opportunity to raise awareness of the challenges and hardships facing the world’s youth.

Thematic discussions and information campaigns will take place on 12 August 2014 across the world, to encourage both Member States and the general public to understand the needs of young people, to implement policies to help them overcome the challenges they face, and to help young people into the decision-making process.

Youth is a period of dramatic change, and the journey from childhood to adulthood can be complex, raising a host of mental health issues.

The theme of this International Youth Day is “Youth and Mental Health,” under the motto Mental Health Matters.

"The mental health of young women and men is important for the health of society as a whole."    

IrinaBokova
UNESCODirector-General
International Youth Day 2014

This is an opportunity to raise awareness about the difficulties facing young women and men, including from stigma and discrimination, and to support them so that they can fully achieve their aspirations. 

Guided by an Operational Strategy on Youth (2014-2021), UNESCO focusses on the needs of marginalized young women and men to promote their full integration into society. We work to support school health programmes, as well as informal and non-formal learning, and by mobilizing the power of information and communication technologies. At the wider level, we are committed to promoting inclusive integrated policies on youth, in which all youth voices are meaningfully consulted and engaged. In all this, we seek to provide opportunities for young people to develop the skills and competences necessary to transition to adulthood and to make the most of all opportunities offered by societies that are increasingly diverse and undergoing transformation. 

This requires seeing young women and men not as objects of policy but as agents of change. It calls for action to promote intergenerational understanding and partnership, to strengthen solidarity and to ensure the full integration of all young women and men in society and the economy. In crafting new policies, we need to draw upon lessons learnt and listen to the needs of young people so as to help them overcome the challenges they face. 

The mental health of young women and men is important for the health of society as a whole. They are a wellspring of ideas for innovation and leaders for positive change. We need to support them in every way in order to build with them inclusive, just -- and healthy -- societies.

Source [UNESCO]

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Data Security When Charging Mobile Devices

A lot of people have a smart phone which they use for work.  The vast majority of these people will have access to their work emails on said phone.  And some of these emails will have sensitive corporate information on them.  Just think of that big deal that you’re on the cusp of winning which has to be kept very hush hush.  Imagine if you gave that information to a hacker….

This is a problem which most people don’t even realize exists.  As long as you don’t lose your smart phone or tablet, surely the information is safe?  Unfortunately it isn’t.  The term “juice-jacking” has been coined in recent years and it means the hacking of a mobile device while it is being charged.

There are several ways in which data can be taken unbeknownst to the user.  More often than not it will happen when there is an interaction between the users’ mobile device and another system.  There are various ways in which this can happen.  One such example of this is through the routine backup to the cloud which a fair amount of mobile devices do automatically.  Most people will also charge their mobile devices through their laptop/desktop which creates a local system interaction.  Another example of interaction is through tethering where one mobile device will provide network access to another.  If the company who has issued the mobile devices is able to control all of these factors, the risk is usually fairly small.

However, more often than not, at least one of these components will be external.  For example, if you charge your work mobile on your personal laptop, charging your personal phone on your work laptop, setting up an automatic backup without the company’s consent and regular monitoring or even just trying to charge your device through an untrusted charger.  Not only does any of the above allow company data to be stored in unsecure locations outside of the company but it can also facilitate the spread of malware between devices.  Ideally what the company would want to do is to ensure that security controls on the works mobile device restrict it from syncing with other devices.  This will prevent it from accidentally syncing with a personal computer.  Likewise, it is also possible to restrict what devices can sync with work computers.  To prevent remote, cloud backup, the company is able to either to block those services or simply by setting up the mobile devices in the first place so that they don’t use them.

If you’re travelling and are stuck in an airport with nowhere to charge your mobile device, think twice before accepting that friendly guys offer to let you charge it in their laptop.  Malware programs can take less than a minute to run and who knows what information they’re siphoning off your mobile device in the mean time!  So keep your device safe so juice-jacking doesn’t happen to you.  Malware and viruses can also come from other sources that said.  Most people have probably heard of Heartbleed and how many passwords were stolen.  Although that was to do with the programming, you probably thought you could trust most of those sites to protect your data.  How can you be absolutely sure that the website you love with those amusing cat GIFs on it hasn’t slipped a virus onto your laptop?  And how do you know this wasn’t then transferred to your work mobile when you were using your laptop to charge it?

Essentially the main problems come from individuals plugging in their work or personal mobile devices to the wrong things.  This is why many companies ban using computers (at home or at work) to charge mobile devices to prevent juice-jacking from occuring.  However, this then creates the problem of plug sockets.  There are never enough plug sockets to plug everything into at once.  So what to do!?  Well thankfully, there are solutions to this lack of plug sockets. 

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