2018-06-30
Mastering the Raspberry Pi Zero W
After my latest adjustments, including the use of "lock files" to make all transitions seamless, my time-lapse photography with a Raspberry Pi is basically as good as it can get, especially considering the limited resources of the Zero W and the workload i let it have. The size of the whole setup makes it possible to mount it almost everywhere, since the power requirements are manageable. The Camera Module v2 delivers enough quality for the purpose, without to degrade, even after six months of constant use, while being exposed to the Sun at the window.
My custom UPS for the "headless" Raspberry Pi has not let me down either. As of now, i built four of these uninterruptible power supplies: Two are in use, and the rest is waiting for a mission. The Zero W is now reliably providing me with RSS updates from 200+ blogs daily and making 9k+ photos for my time-lapse videos weekly. It is also checking for new content in Cantonese by the BBC for my parents, and at the same time, offering me another place to do some "high-level" programming via Apache server and Unix shell. With the Raspberry Pi great things can come in tiny packages, literally and metaphorically. Thanks to smart people like Eben Upton, the United Kingdom will be just fine after leaving the EU.
Remotely related, after i successfully deployed my "geo-blocking" mechanism at another site one month ago, i now use the same technology for this blog. Visitors from certain countries will be denied access, and all they get is a "Error 403" HTTP status code with "This site is not available in your country" as HTML response. I also extended the block to some Tor and cloud users. Essentially a noise reduction for a better signal, to be honest. Witch hunts are loud and violent.