So, I got a Raspberry Pi for Christmas.  I have had some fun and games with it, not least when I broke the mount for the SD card whilst custom making a case.  Stupid error.  I’d cut a slot and left the card in whilst slipping the Pi in to the case.  I must have levered it somehow.  It was fixed by cutting a piece of plastic or two from a yoghurt pot lid and screwing the Raspberry Pi firmly down against some plastic casing from a house wiring box.  I had cut the plastic using my new dremel. 

The box had contained some buttons.

I am running OpenElec at the moment which is a fast booting xmbc implementation.  Without much effort I have it working as music player, BBC iPlayer, Spotify player (Spotimc)  and TV Catchup (I had to read the installation instructions for this one since the zip is a repository, not the add-on).

It even works with my Samsung TV remote using libCEC though this needed activating on the TV (which took me some time to work out).

Running BBC iPlayer in HD

The little box is powered by the TV and when I have a WiFi adapter for it will sit behind the TV and quietly work its magic.  I am very impressed by the little guy.  My wife suggests that cardboard and wood are not ideal case materials, and I agree, but it is different, and all I had lying around.

The next project is to (maybe) get another and make it do the same but with a squeezeserver on top so I can free up my Dell Zino, which I don’t really take full advantage of where it is.  I might sell it on if I can do that.