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  • From the Tips Box: Kindle as Raspberry Pi Screen, iPod Control Boxes, and Easy Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Once a week we round up some of the great reader tips that come our way and share them with everyone. Today we’re looking at using the Kindle as a screen for the Raspberry Pi, custom iPod control modules, and an easy way to play the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. How to Get Pro Features in Windows Home Versions with Third Party Tools HTG Explains: Is ReadyBoost Worth Using? HTG Explains: What The Windows Event Viewer Is and How You Can Use It

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  • Raspberry Pi Micro Arcade Machine Packs Gaming into a Tiny Case

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    While it might be more practical to build a full-size MAME cabinet for your retro gaming enjoyment, this tiny and fully functional build is a great example of the fun you can have tinkering with electronics. Read on to see a video of it in action. Courtesy of tinker and electronics hobbyist Sprite over at SpriteMods, the build is clever in so many ways. The heart of the device is a Raspberry Pi board, it includes a tiny video marque that displays the logo of whatever game you’re playing, and the micro-scaled joystick and buttons are fully functional. Hit up the link below for his detailed build guide including his custom built cellphone-battery based charging system. Raspberry Pi Micro Arcade Machine [via Hack A Day] How To Use USB Drives With the Nexus 7 and Other Android Devices Why Does 64-Bit Windows Need a Separate “Program Files (x86)” Folder? Why Your Android Phone Isn’t Getting Operating System Updates and What You Can Do About It

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  • Trulia Adds Commute Time Calculator to Their Neighborhood Heat Maps

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Trulia–a popular real estate site well known for their neighborhood heat maps covering crime, school locations, and property values–now shows commute times in heat map form; see instantly how far away your potential new place is from where you want to work. Accessing the commute heatmap is just like any of Trulia’s other top-down views. Search for your city, hit up the map, and select which heatmap overlay you want to view. Trulia [via Flowing Data] How to Make Your Laptop Choose a Wired Connection Instead of Wireless HTG Explains: What Is Two-Factor Authentication and Should I Be Using It? HTG Explains: What Is Windows RT and What Does It Mean To Me?

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  • DIY Coffee Table Arcade Hides Retro Gaming Inside

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Last week we showed you a nifty man-cave arcade-in-coffee-table build that was a bit, shall we say, exposed. If you’re looking for a sleek build that conceals its arcade-heart until it’s game time, this clean and concealed build is for you. Courtesy of IKEAHacker reader Sam Wang, the beauty of this build is that other than the rectangle of black glass in the center of the table–which could just as well be a design accent–there is no indication that the coffee table is a gaming machine when not in use. Slide out the drawers and boot it up, however, and you’re in business–full MAME arcade emulation at your finger tips. Hit up the link below to check out his full photo build guide. My DIY Arcade Machine Coffee Table [via IKEAHacker] How To Switch Webmail Providers Without Losing All Your Email How To Force Windows Applications to Use a Specific CPU HTG Explains: Is UPnP a Security Risk?

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  • PandoraBar Packs Pandora Radio Client into a Compact Case

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    This stylish and compact build makes it easy to enjoy streaming radio without the bulk and overhead of running your entire computer to do so. Check out the video to see the compact streaming radio box in action. Courtesy of tinker blog Engscope, we find this clean Pandora-client-in-box build. Currently the project blog has a cursory overview of the project with the demo video but promises future updates detailing the software and hardware components of the build. If you can’t wait that long, make sure to check out some of the previous Wi-Fi radio builds we’ve shared: DIY Wi-Fi Radio Brings Wireless Tunes Anywhere in Your House and Wi-Fi Speakers Stream Music Anywhere. Pandobar [via Hacked Gadgets] How To Create a Customized Windows 7 Installation Disc With Integrated Updates How to Get Pro Features in Windows Home Versions with Third Party Tools HTG Explains: Is ReadyBoost Worth Using?

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  • Square Reader Modified to Record Off Old Reel-to-Reel Tape [Video]

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    The Square Reader is a tiny magnetic credit card reader that has taken the mobile payment industry by storm. This clever hack dumps the credit card reading in favor of snagging the audio from old music reels. Evan Long was curious about whether the through-the-headphones interface of the Square Reader could be used to read audio data off old magnetic recordings. With a very small modification (he had to bend a metal tab inside the reader to allow the audio tape to slide through more easily) he was able to listen to and record audio off old reels. Watch the video above to see it in action or hit up the link below to read more about his project. iPod Meets Reel [via Make] HTG Explains: What Is Windows RT and What Does It Mean To Me? HTG Explains: How Windows 8′s Secure Boot Feature Works & What It Means for Linux Hack Your Kindle for Easy Font Customization

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  • 50 Years of LEDs: An Interview with Inventor Nick Holonyak [Video]

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    The man who powered on the first LED half a century ago is still around to talk about it; read on to watch an interview with LED inventor Nick Holonyak. The most fascinating thing about Holonyak’s journey to the invention of the LED was that he started off trying to build a laser and ended up inventing a super efficient light source: Holonyak got his PhD in 1954. In 1957, after a year at Bell Labs and a two year stint in the Army, he joined GE’s research lab in Syracuse, New York. GE was already exploring semiconductor applications and building the forerunners of modern diodes called thyristors and rectifiers. At a GE lab in Schenectady, the scientist Robert Hall was trying to build the first diode laser. Hall, Holonyak and others noticed that semiconductors emit radiation, including visible light, when electricity flows through them. Holonyak and Hall were trying to “turn them on,” and channel, focus and multiply the light. Hall was the first to succeed. He built the world’s first semiconductor laser. Without it, there would be no CD and DVD players today. “Nobody knew how to turn the semiconductor into the laser,” Holonyak says. “We arrived at the answer before anyone else.” But Hall’s laser emitted only invisible, infrared light. Holonyak spent more time in his lab, testing, cutting and polishing his hand-made semiconducting alloys. In the fall of 1962, he got first light. “People thought that alloys were rough and turgid and lumpy,” he says. “We knew damn well what happened and that we had a very powerful way of converting electrical current directly into light. We had the ultimate lamp.” How To Get a Better Wireless Signal and Reduce Wireless Network Interference How To Troubleshoot Internet Connection Problems 7 Ways To Free Up Hard Disk Space On Windows

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  • Ask the Readers: What’s the First Thing You Do After Installing a New OS?

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    You’ve just booted up your new OS for the first time after a fresh install. What’s the first thing you do? Install specific apps? Tweak settings? Bask in the new-computer-smell of an uncluttered OS? Once a week we put a question before the How-To Geek readership to give you all a chance to share your knowledge and tips with your fellow readers. This week we want to hear about your tips and tricks for whipping a new OS installation into shape. Whether you’ve just installed Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux, we’re curious what kind of computer-warming rituals you visit upon your new OS. Sound off in the comments below and then check back in on Friday for the What Your Said roundup.  How to Enable Google Chrome’s Secret Gold IconHow to Create an Easy Pixel Art Avatar in Photoshop or GIMPInternet Explorer 9 Released: Here’s What You Need To Know

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  • Xoom Giveaway Courtesy of the Complete Android Guide [Giveaway]

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    If you’re an Android fan and looking to score an Android 3.0 tablet, you can enter to win a Xoom tablet courtesy of the Complete Android Guide. What do you need to do? Per their official rules: Contribute content to the site. To do so: Sign up (via the Register link in the top-right corner). Email android ‘at’ completeguides ‘dot’ net and request contributor access to this site. Write a killer tutorial, reference or chapter for the book.  Buy the book, in paperback or ebook form.  The deadline is March 31, the winner will be drawn in in April. Note: The link to the officials rules appears defunct, we’ll update shortly when the URL is fixed. Xoom Drawing @ Complete Android Guide [Complete Guides] How To Make a Youtube Video Into an Animated GIFHTG Explains: What Are Character Encodings and How Do They Differ?How To Make Disposable Sleeves for Your In-Ear Monitors

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  • Raspberry Pi Powered Coffee Table Serves Up Arcade Classics

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    If your living room is boring for want of a plethora of arcade hits, this DIY project parks a Raspberry Pi powered arcade machine in a coffee table for at-your-finger-tips retro gaming. Courtesy of tinker Graham Gelding, this build combines a 24-inch monitor, arcade buttons, a Raspberry Pi board, and a wooden coffee table to great effect. The end result is a table-top style arcade that also doubles, courtesy of a wireless keyboard and mouse, as a web browsing and email station. Hit up the link below for more information. Coffee Table Pi [via Hack A Day] HTG Explains: Why It’s Good That Your Computer’s RAM Is Full 10 Awesome Improvements For Desktop Users in Windows 8 How To Play DVDs on Windows 8

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  • Undocumented Gmail Search Operator Ferrets Out Large Email Attachments

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    If you’re looking for a way to quickly find large email attachments in your Gmail account, this undocumented search operator makes it simple to zero in on the hulking attachments hiding out in your inbox. To use the search operator simply plug in “size:” and some value to narrow your search to only emails that size or larger. In the screenshot above we searched for “size:20000000″ to search for files roughly 20MB or larger (if you want to be extremely precise, a true 20MB search would be “size:20971520″). If you’re looking to clean up your Gmail account this is a nearly zero-effort way to find the biggest space hogs–in our case, we found an email packed with massive PDF files from a 5 year old project that we were more than happy to purge. Finding Large Attachments in Google Mail/Gmail [via gHacks] 6 Ways Windows 8 Is More Secure Than Windows 7 HTG Explains: Why It’s Good That Your Computer’s RAM Is Full 10 Awesome Improvements For Desktop Users in Windows 8

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  • The Three Laws of Robotics; As Told by Asimov Himself

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Many Sci-Fi fans and certainly most Isaac Asimov fans are familiar with the Three Laws of Robotics–but how many of us have heard the man himself explain them? In this archival clip a young Isaac Asimov explains the Three Laws of Robotics–the organizing principle behind his robot-based short stories and novels. [via Neatorama] 6 Start Menu Replacements for Windows 8 What Is the Purpose of the “Do Not Cover This Hole” Hole on Hard Drives? How To Log Into The Desktop, Add a Start Menu, and Disable Hot Corners in Windows 8

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  • Evernote for Android Updates with New Features and Updated Widget

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Android: Evernote for Android now features enhanced sharing, tighter Skitch integration, and a brand new homescreen widget. With this update you can now share entire notebooks directly from your Android phone, edit and annotate images with Skitch, and use the Evernote widget regardless of where you have Evernote installed–the previous version of Evernote’s widget would only function if Evernote was installed on the main memory instead of the SD card. You can read more about the new release here or hit up the link below to grab a copy from the Android Market. Evernote [Android Market] How to Make the Kindle Fire Silk Browser *Actually* Fast! Amazon’s New Kindle Fire Tablet: the How-To Geek Review HTG Explains: How Hackers Take Over Web Sites with SQL Injection / DDoS

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  • Fiction to Reality Timeline Charts Introduction of Sci-Fi Concepts to Real Life

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Videophones, voice-controlled computers, heads-up displays, and other technological innovations made their first appearances in Sci-Fi. This dual timeline charts the first appearance in Sci-Fi against the date of commercial success for the product in the real world. Hit up the link below for the full resolution image. The Fiction to Reality Timeline [via Cool Inforgraphics] How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 3 How to Sync Your Media Across Your Entire House with XBMC How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 2

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  • Zelda Adventure is an Epic Legend of Zelda Minecraft Game

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    What do you get when you combine a passion for The Legend of Zelda and Minecraft? A playable Zelda epic built entirely within Minecraft. Minecraft enthusiast Gary520 has invested some serious time into an amazing rendition of the Legend of Zelda universe done entirely in Minecraft. Zelda Adventure combines elements from across the Legend of Zelda games including characters, weapons, quests, and more. Watch the trailer above to see it in action. Currently the game is not in public release but you can grab a beta release with the first five dungeons on the Minecraft forums here (the Minecraft site seems to be down for maintenance, if anyone has a mirror to the file throw a link in the comments section). Zelda Adventure Trailer [YouTube via Wired] What is a Histogram, and How Can I Use it to Improve My Photos?How To Easily Access Your Home Network From Anywhere With DDNSHow To Recover After Your Email Password Is Compromised

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  • VirtualBox 4.0 Rocks Extensions and a Simplified GUI

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    If you’re a fan of VirtualBox you’ll definitely want to grab the new 4.0 update; it comes packed with an extension manager, a fresh and user-friendly GUI, live virtual machine previews, and more. Check out our screenshot tour for a closer look. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Use the Avira Rescue CD to Clean Your Infected PC The Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials Is Your Desktop Printer More Expensive Than Printing Services? 20 OS X Keyboard Shortcuts You Might Not Know HTG Explains: Which Linux File System Should You Choose? HTG Explains: Why Does Photo Paper Improve Print Quality? Sunset in a Tropical Paradise Wallpaper Natural Wood Grain Icons for Your Desktop and App Launcher Docks My Blackberry Is Not Working! The Apple Too?! [Funny Video] Hidden Tracks Your Stolen Mac; Free Until End of January Why the Other Checkout Line Always Moves Faster World of Warcraft Theme for Windows 7

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  • Uploading.to Uploads Files to Multiple File Hosts Simultaneously

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    If you’re looking to quickly share a file across a variety of file hosting services, Uploading.to makes it a cinch to share up to 10 files across 14 hosts. The upload process is simple. Visit Uploading.to, select your files, check the hosts you want to share the file across (by default all 14 are checked), add a description to the collection, and hit the Upload button. Uploading.to will upload your file to the various hosts; during the process you’ll see which hosts are confirmed and which have failed. We had 2 failures among the 14 hosts which still left the file mirrored across a sizable 12 host spread–not bad at all. When you’re ready to share the file hit the Copy Link button at the bottom of the screen and share it with your friends. They’ll be directed to Uploading.to and will be able to select from any of the hosts the file was successfully mirrored across. Uploading.to is a free service and requires no registration. Uploading.to [via Addictive Tips] HTG Explains: Do You Really Need to Defrag Your PC? Use Amazon’s Barcode Scanner to Easily Buy Anything from Your Phone How To Migrate Windows 7 to a Solid State Drive

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  • Obsolete Computer Parts as Art [DIY]

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    If you’re like most geeks, you’ve got a box of aging computer equipment you just haven’t got around to hauling to your city’s haz-mat drop off site. This simple tutorial turns cast off circuit boards into wall art. While the author of the tutorial opted to use motherboards, you could easily use smaller frames/mats and use old expansion boards too. The process involves inexpensive IKEA frames with mats, popping the I/O ports off the boards to make them thinner, and drilling small mount holes in the backer board to mount the boards in place. Hit up the link below for more details. Motherboard Art [via IKEAHackers] How to Use an Xbox 360 Controller On Your Windows PC Download the Official How-To Geek Trivia App for Windows 8 How to Banish Duplicate Photos with VisiPic

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  • Understanding Photography and Color Temperature

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Most digital cameras have the ability to set the “color temperature” based on the condition, but what exactly does that mean? This simple cheat sheet highlights the differences between various lighting situations and what settings you should use. Courtesy of Digital Camera World, the above chart shows where on the scale various color temperatures fall, how the automatic white balance works, and which presets you should use if available. What Is Color Temperature? [via Unpluggd] HTG Explains: Why Linux Doesn’t Need Defragmenting How to Convert News Feeds to Ebooks with Calibre How To Customize Your Wallpaper with Google Image Searches, RSS Feeds, and More

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  • Unity Is The Swiss Army Knife of Game Console Mods

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    This expansive console modification blends over a dozen game systems into one unified console with a shared power source and controller. There are console mods and then there are builds like this. This impressive work in progress combines the hardware boards of multiple game systems into a single unified system that shares a single power source, video output, and controller. The attention to detail and outright gaming obsession and geekiness is definitely creeping to the top of the charts with this one. Hit up the link below to check out a detailed post about the build and see additional videos and photos. Bacteria’s Project Unity [via Hack A Day] HTG Explains: Why You Only Have to Wipe a Disk Once to Erase It HTG Explains: Learn How Websites Are Tracking You Online Here’s How to Download Windows 8 Release Preview Right Now

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  • The History of April Fools Day [Video]

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    When exactly did April 1st become a day of pranks and merriment? While it’s difficult to pin down the exact year, this informative video provides a solid historical overview of April Fools Day. [via Neatorama] How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 1 What’s the Difference Between Sleep and Hibernate in Windows? Screenshot Tour: XBMC 11 Eden Rocks Improved iOS Support, AirPlay, and Even a Custom XBMC OS

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  • How DNS Works [Video]

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Want an easy and visual way to explain DNS to a curious friend or cubemate? This clean and simple short video does a great job highlighting exactly what goes on during a typical DNS request. Last month we explained what DNS is and showed you why you might want to use alternate DNS servers; this short video serves as an excellent visual companion for our article. How DNS Works [YouTube] 8 Deadly Commands You Should Never Run on Linux 14 Special Google Searches That Show Instant Answers How To Create a Customized Windows 7 Installation Disc With Integrated Updates

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  • Douglas Adams Describes the Invention of the Ebook [Video]

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    In 1993, Douglas Adams–of The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy fame–lent his creative talent and voice to explaining the invention of the Ebook. The audio segment was produced almost 20 years ago by Adams to both promote his own work in digital format and the work of early ebook publisher Voyager Expanded Books. You may notice Adams refers to their product as a PowerBook, a name they kept until they heard Apple would be releasing a laptop with the same name (from then on the product was simply referred to as Expanded Books). The thoroughly modern video accompanying Adams concise and entertaining description of book history is an animation courtesy of U.K. designer Gavin Edwards, which he submitted to a contest hosted by The Literary Platform intended to match a clever animation with Adam’s monologue. [via Neatorama] HTG Explains: Why Linux Doesn’t Need Defragmenting How to Convert News Feeds to Ebooks with Calibre How To Customize Your Wallpaper with Google Image Searches, RSS Feeds, and More

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  • What You Said: Do You Use the Command Line?

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Earlier this week we asked you to sound off with your love (or lack there of) for the command line. You sounded off in force and now we’re back with a comment roundup. It turns out you all pretty much love the command line with that love ranging from not even liking Graphic User Interfaces (GUIs) to using the command line to get serious work done but having a long standing affair with your OS’s GUI. Many of you lamented the poor command line implementation in Windows—especially after you’d had experience with other operation systems. Mike writes: Of course. Some things are easier that was. Like ping and ipconfig. With a strong Unix background I still write and use batch files. It would be nice is the command line included more nice things like grep, sleep, touch. Maybe, someday, Windows will mature into a full OS. What is a Histogram, and How Can I Use it to Improve My Photos?How To Easily Access Your Home Network From Anywhere With DDNSHow To Recover After Your Email Password Is Compromised

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  • How to Run Low-Cost Minecraft on a Raspberry Pi for Block Building on the Cheap

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    We’ve shown you how to run your own blocktastic personal Minecraft server on a Windows/OSX box, but what if you crave something lighter weight, more energy efficient, and always ready for your friends? Read on as we turn a tiny Raspberry Pi machine into a low-cost Minecraft server you can leave on 24/7 for around a penny a day. Why Do I Want to Do This? There’s two aspects to this tutorial, running your own Minecraft server and specifically running that Minecraft server on a Raspberry Pi. Why would you want to run your own Minecraft server? It’s a really great way to extend and build upon the Minecraft play experience. You can leave the server running when you’re not playing so friends and family can join and continue building your world. You can mess around with game variables and introduce mods in a way that isn’t possible when you’re playing the stand-alone game. It also gives you the kind of control over your multiplayer experience that using public servers doesn’t, without incurring the cost of hosting a private server on a remote host. While running a Minecraft server on its own is appealing enough to a dedicated Minecraft fan, running it on the Raspberry Pi is even more appealing. The tiny little Pi uses so little resources that you can leave your Minecraft server running 24/7 for a couple bucks a year. Aside from the initial cost outlay of the Pi, an SD card, and a little bit of time setting it up, you’ll have an always-on Minecraft server at a monthly cost of around one gumball. What Do I Need? For this tutorial you’ll need a mix of hardware and software tools; aside from the actual Raspberry Pi and SD card, everything is free. 1 Raspberry Pi (preferably a 512MB model) 1 4GB+ SD card This tutorial assumes that you have already familiarized yourself with the Raspberry Pi and have installed a copy of the Debian-derivative Raspbian on the device. If you have not got your Pi up and running yet, don’t worry! Check out our guide, The HTG Guide to Getting Started with Raspberry Pi, to get up to speed. Optimizing Raspbian for the Minecraft Server Unlike other builds we’ve shared where you can layer multiple projects over one another (e.g. the Pi is more than powerful enough to serve as a weather/email indicator and a Google Cloud Print server at the same time) running a Minecraft server is a pretty intense operation for the little Pi and we’d strongly recommend dedicating the entire Pi to the process. Minecraft seems like a simple game, with all its blocky-ness and what not, but it’s actually a pretty complex game beneath the simple skin and required a lot of processing power. As such, we’re going to tweak the configuration file and other settings to optimize Rasbian for the job. The first thing you’ll need to do is dig into the Raspi-Config application to make a few minor changes. If you’re installing Raspbian fresh, wait for the last step (which is the Raspi-Config), if you already installed it, head to the terminal and type in “sudo raspi-config” to launch it again. One of the first and most important things we need to attend to is cranking up the overclock setting. We need all the power we can get to make our Minecraft experience enjoyable. In Raspi-Config, select option number 7 “Overclock”. Be prepared for some stern warnings about overclocking, but rest easy knowing that overclocking is directly supported by the Raspberry Pi foundation and has been included in the configuration options since late 2012. Once you’re in the actual selection screen, select “Turbo 1000MhHz”. Again, you’ll be warned that the degree of overclocking you’ve selected carries risks (specifically, potential corruption of the SD card, but no risk of actual hardware damage). Click OK and wait for the device to reset. Next, make sure you’re set to boot to the command prompt, not the desktop. Select number 3 “Enable Boot to Desktop/Scratch”  and make sure “Console Text console” is selected. Back at the Raspi-Config menu, select number 8 “Advanced Options’. There are two critical changes we need to make in here and one option change. First, the critical changes. Select A3 “Memory Split”: Change the amount of memory available to the GPU to 16MB (down from the default 64MB). Our Minecraft server is going to ruin in a GUI-less environment; there’s no reason to allocate any more than the bare minimum to the GPU. After selecting the GPU memory, you’ll be returned to the main menu. Select “Advanced Options” again and then select A4 “SSH”. Within the sub-menu, enable SSH. There is very little reason to keep this Pi connected to a monitor and keyboard, by enabling SSH we can remotely access the machine from anywhere on the network. Finally (and optionally) return again to the “Advanced Options” menu and select A2 “Hostname”. Here you can change your hostname from “raspberrypi” to a more fitting Minecraft name. We opted for the highly creative hostname “minecraft”, but feel free to spice it up a bit with whatever you feel like: creepertown, minecraft4life, or miner-box are all great minecraft server names. That’s it for the Raspbian configuration tab down to the bottom of the main screen and select “Finish” to reboot. After rebooting you can now SSH into your terminal, or continue working from the keyboard hooked up to your Pi (we strongly recommend switching over to SSH as it allows you to easily cut and paste the commands). If you’ve never used SSH before, check out how to use PuTTY with your Pi here. Installing Java on the Pi The Minecraft server runs on Java, so the first thing we need to do on our freshly configured Pi is install it. Log into your Pi via SSH and then, at the command prompt, enter the following command to make a directory for the installation: sudo mkdir /java/ Now we need to download the newest version of Java. At the time of this publication the newest release is the OCT 2013 update and the link/filename we use will reflect that. Please check for a more current version of the Linux ARMv6/7 Java release on the Java download page and update the link/filename accordingly when following our instructions. At the command prompt, enter the following command: sudo wget --no-check-certificate http://www.java.net/download/jdk8/archive/b111/binaries/jdk-8-ea-b111-linux-arm-vfp-hflt-09_oct_2013.tar.gz Once the download has finished successfully, enter the following command: sudo tar zxvf jdk-8-ea-b111-linux-arm-vfp-hflt-09_oct_2013.tar.gz -C /opt/ Fun fact: the /opt/ directory name scheme is a remnant of early Unix design wherein the /opt/ directory was for “optional” software installed after the main operating system; it was the /Program Files/ of the Unix world. After the file has finished extracting, enter: sudo /opt/jdk1.8.0/bin/java -version This command will return the version number of your new Java installation like so: java version "1.8.0-ea" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0-ea-b111) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 25.0-b53, mixed mode) If you don’t see the above printout (or a variation thereof if you’re using a newer version of Java), try to extract the archive again. If you do see the readout, enter the following command to tidy up after yourself: sudo rm jdk-8-ea-b111-linux-arm-vfp-hflt-09_oct_2013.tar.gz At this point Java is installed and we’re ready to move onto installing our Minecraft server! Installing and Configuring the Minecraft Server Now that we have a foundation for our Minecraft server, it’s time to install the part that matter. We’ll be using SpigotMC a lightweight and stable Minecraft server build that works wonderfully on the Pi. First, grab a copy of the the code with the following command: sudo wget http://ci.md-5.net/job/Spigot/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/Spigot-Server/target/spigot.jar This link should remain stable over time, as it points directly to the most current stable release of Spigot, but if you have any issues you can always reference the SpigotMC download page here. After the download finishes successfully, enter the following command: sudo /opt/jdk1.8.0/bin/java -Xms256M -Xmx496M -jar /home/pi/spigot.jar nogui Note: if you’re running the command on a 256MB Pi change the 256 and 496 in the above command to 128 and 256, respectively. Your server will launch and a flurry of on-screen activity will follow. Be prepared to wait around 3-6 minutes or so for the process of setting up the server and generating the map to finish. Future startups will take much less time, around 20-30 seconds. Note: If at any point during the configuration or play process things get really weird (e.g. your new Minecraft server freaks out and starts spawning you in the Nether and killing you instantly), use the “stop” command at the command prompt to gracefully shutdown the server and let you restart and troubleshoot it. After the process has finished, head over to the computer you normally play Minecraft on, fire it up, and click on Multiplayer. You should see your server: If your world doesn’t popup immediately during the network scan, hit the Add button and manually enter the address of your Pi. Once you connect to the server, you’ll see the status change in the server status window: According to the server, we’re in game. According to the actual Minecraft app, we’re also in game but it’s the middle of the night in survival mode: Boo! Spawning in the dead of night, weaponless and without shelter is no way to start things. No worries though, we need to do some more configuration; no time to sit around and get shot at by skeletons. Besides, if you try and play it without some configuration tweaks first, you’ll likely find it quite unstable. We’re just here to confirm the server is up, running, and accepting incoming connections. Once we’ve confirmed the server is running and connectable (albeit not very playable yet), it’s time to shut down the server. Via the server console, enter the command “stop” to shut everything down. When you’re returned to the command prompt, enter the following command: sudo nano server.properties When the configuration file opens up, make the following changes (or just cut and paste our config file minus the first two lines with the name and date stamp): #Minecraft server properties #Thu Oct 17 22:53:51 UTC 2013 generator-settings= #Default is true, toggle to false allow-nether=false level-name=world enable-query=false allow-flight=false server-port=25565 level-type=DEFAULT enable-rcon=false force-gamemode=false level-seed= server-ip= max-build-height=256 spawn-npcs=true white-list=false spawn-animals=true texture-pack= snooper-enabled=true hardcore=false online-mode=true pvp=true difficulty=1 player-idle-timeout=0 gamemode=0 #Default 20; you only need to lower this if you're running #a public server and worried about loads. max-players=20 spawn-monsters=true #Default is 10, 3-5 ideal for Pi view-distance=5 generate-structures=true spawn-protection=16 motd=A Minecraft Server In the server status window, seen through your SSH connection to the pi, enter the following command to give yourself operator status on your Minecraft server (so that you can use more powerful commands in game, without always returning to the server status window). op [your minecraft nickname] At this point things are looking better but we still have a little tweaking to do before the server is really enjoyable. To that end, let’s install some plugins. The first plugin, and the one you should install above all others, is NoSpawnChunks. To install the plugin, first visit the NoSpawnChunks webpage and grab the download link for the most current version. As of this writing the current release is v0.3. Back at the command prompt (the command prompt of your Pi, not the server console–if your server is still active shut it down) enter the following commands: cd /home/pi/plugins sudo wget http://dev.bukkit.org/media/files/586/974/NoSpawnChunks.jar Next, visit the ClearLag plugin page, and grab the latest link (as of this tutorial, it’s v2.6.0). Enter the following at the command prompt: sudo wget http://dev.bukkit.org/media/files/743/213/Clearlag.jar Because the files aren’t compressed in a .ZIP or similar container, that’s all there is to it: the plugins are parked in the plugin directory. (Remember this for future plugin downloads, the file needs to be whateverplugin.jar, so if it’s compressed you need to uncompress it in the plugin directory.) Resart the server: sudo /opt/jdk1.8.0/bin/java -Xms256M -Xmx496M -jar /home/pi/spigot.jar nogui Be prepared for a slightly longer startup time (closer to the 3-6 minutes and much longer than the 30 seconds you just experienced) as the plugins affect the world map and need a minute to massage everything. After the spawn process finishes, type the following at the server console: plugins This lists all the plugins currently active on the server. You should see something like this: If the plugins aren’t loaded, you may need to stop and restart the server. After confirming your plugins are loaded, go ahead and join the game. You should notice significantly snappier play. In addition, you’ll get occasional messages from the plugins indicating they are active, as seen below: At this point Java is installed, the server is installed, and we’ve tweaked our settings for for the Pi.  It’s time to start building with friends!     

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