The Raspberry Pi is a small, affordable, and versatile computer that is great for building personal projects. Some popular projects include home automation, media centers, retro gaming consoles, and robotics. With a Raspberry Pi and some additional components, you can create a device that can control various aspects of your home, play music and movies, emulate classic game consoles, or perform tasks like navigating through a maze or opening doors. The possibilities are endless, and the Raspberry Pi is a great platform to start exploring and building your own personal projects.
Docker
Having Docker on my Raspberry Pi helped me understand the various computer architecture. I love using Docker for application deployments because it is the de facto industry standard for packaging software. Docker is an amazing tool that has increased my time writing code and less time setting up infrastructure.
PiHole
This is a must have application. The PiHole prevents ads and excessive tracking on my personal home network.
PiHole is a free, open-source software that blocks ads and internet trackers by acting as a DNS server. It intercepts device requests and blocks ad-serving domains and trackers, based on a blacklist. PiHole also offers a web interface that provides detailed statistics and allows users to manage and configure the software. It’s a powerful tool for improving online privacy and security, and it can be used on various devices.
Currently, I am running this application as a Docker container, where all external traffic is sanitized by PiHole before reaching my home network.
HomeBridge
HomeBridge is an open-source software that allows users to connect non-HomeKit-enabled smart home devices to the Apple HomeKit ecosystem. It runs on a small computer and emulates a HomeKit-enabled device, making it possible to control a wide variety of smart home devices using Siri voice commands or the Apple Home app. HomeBridge supports many plugins that can be installed and configured to add support for specific devices or services. It’s an easy-to-use and highly customizable tool for expanding the capabilities of a smart home.
The best solution to get more technology working on Apple devices.