Note to self, review these Raspberry Pi introductory videos...

Get started with RaspberryPi.org (link) or with Raspberry Pi on e14's website (link).
Most recently used "NOOBS Offline and network install".


So starting with the SD card inserted and mounted... in MY CASE ONLY, from an xterm using the df -h command, the device name (and therefore the 'raw device name') is disk1 (or rdisk1 for its raw equivalent), i.e.

$ df -h

Filesystem      Size   Used  Avail Capacity  iused  ifree %iused  Mounted on

/dev/disk0s2   112Gi  108Gi  3.6Gi    97% 28456655 955713   97%   /

devfs          184Ki  184Ki    0Bi   100%      636      0  100%   /dev

map -hosts       0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%        0      0  100%   /net

map auto_home    0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%        0      0  100%   /home

map -fstab       0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%        0      0  100%   /Network/Servers

/dev/disk1s1   3.7Gi  832Ki  3.7Gi     1%        0      0  100%   /Volumes/XBMC

Next, unmount it using 'sudo diskutil unmount /dev/disk1s1' (my case only). The icon will also disappear from the desktop confirming this step was successful.

$ sudo diskutil unmount /dev/disk1s1

The last step is to wri the image file to the raw SD card device as identified above, replacing disk1s1 with rdisk1:

$ sudo dd bs=1m if=./raspbmc-2013-12-23.img of=/dev/rdisk1

After anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes the disk image write finishes. The xterm looked like this:

1300+0 records in

1300+0 records out

1363148800 bytes transferred in 243.253827 secs (5603812 bytes/sec)

And there's a shiny new disk labelled 'Untitled' on the desktop. At first impression it looks like your 4G or 8G sized disk has tragically shrunk to 60 or 70 MB. The reason is that the SD disk now has a Linux swap partition and a Linux filesystem partition occupying the available space. The good news is that most of the slack space can be recovered the first time you load this SD card on the Raspberry Pi via one of the Pi configurator (raspi-config) options to reallocate the space from the linux partition to the FAT32 partition.

Adding mods to minecraft 1.7.2?

So we want Biomes O' Plenty? (link) But need to install Forge first (link)

Minecraft Server: Bukkit dev install notes

Bukkit is a full update/replacement for your minecraft server.
A straightforward installation, just copy the jar into your server folder.
Take care to backup your world folder in case of loss.

The Bukkit version of the Minecraft server can load plugins just like the original Minecraft server. Just copy plugin files to the plugin folder.

Examples:

worldedit http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/worldedit/
dminigames http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/dminigames/
prophunt http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/tomskiesprophunt/
easy warp http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/easy-warp/
player heads http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/player-heads/
micro blocks http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/microblocks/

commands of interest from the client side:

//hcyl redstainedglass 20 30
/time set 1
//set stonebrick
/clear
/tp selftoplayername
/tp otherplayername toselfname
/me message
/name
/gamemode 1 (sets own gamemode to 1=creative)
/gamemode 0 (sets own gamemode to 0=survival)
/setwarp
/kill
/socialspy
/tell
//walls stonebrick
//set 0
//set wood
//magicpartyarmourhao:pf
/help
/name
/nick
//wand
/op playername
/deop playername
/kick
/ban
/p1
//x-ray

Following the recipe for a pacman game in Scratch

The off-line editor can be accessed from http://scratch.mit.edu/scratch2download/
The link to the recipe is http://scratched.media.mit.edu/sites/default/files/PacMan%20Lesson.pdf

I'll keep notes here on how we did.

1. Started by creating sprites named: 

PacMan (I used the Orange sprite)

Vertical  (re-tasked the Wand)

Horizontal (rotated a copy of Vertical)

PointPill (a Baseball)

Ghost_1 (borrow the Tera space character)

PowerUp (a Tennis Ball)

GameOver (a new Sprite using the text tool)

web site, domain name and web hosting

Domain name:
So I need a domain name? What name suffix should I choose?
Where should I register?
How much does it cost? Is it a once off cost or do I have to pay an annual renewal (rent)?
Once I have registered the domain name how do I link it with a web server?
How long does it take for the NS (name server) registration to change over if I switch host?
What if I change web hosting provider?
Notes: 
ICANN is the global authority, a roll-up registry, for internet domains (ICANN link). The purchase and renewal of domains is usually handled via reselling entities like Godaddy (commercial) and IEDR (a national authority). 

Web hosting provider:
What web hosting providers should I select (assuming I'm not going to do it myself)?
What services should I expect the host to provide (CMS choices, support, uptime, bandwidth etc).
Does the Hosting provider have the CMS I want?
Expandible?
Cost?

CMS for site:
Should I have a local copy of the system ? e.g. CMS + Apache + PHP + MySQL + ?
What themes and Plugins can I use?

Comments on Godaddy
So, the accounts that ever grow for a Godaddy website…
Because you need an email address to register the domain name with ICANN (via Godaddy)
This is also the email address linked with Godaddy billing information.

A new separate login associated with Godaddy, allows us to get into Godaddy and used to manage the cpanel. The cpanel allows the domain owner to install applications like Wordpress on the domain resource area.

An admin login associated with the Wordpress application installed and managed via Godaddy cpanel.
You can access it via the websiteurl/wp-admin/

Within the Wordpress installation you can have the following roles: administrator, contributor, author, editor, and subscriber. Usually, create a login id and invitation to recipient via their email address.

More Minecraft on Raspberry Pi with Kano

The Kano computer in a box project on Kickstarter is both an accessory pack for your Raspberry Pi and it seems a visual interface to programming your Minecraft Pi.
See http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alexklein/kano-a-computer-anyone-can-make
and kano.me

Designing a dinosaur exoskeleton