This is the last article in a four-part series on the current state of 3D printing. In the first part, I gave an overall introduction to differences in 3D printing since I wrote my original articles on 3D printing three years ago. The second piece focused on advances in 3D printing hardware, and the third column covered 3D printing software.

When the folks who make the Raspberry Pi made good on their plan to release a multi-core version of the tiny computer with 1GB of RAM earlier this year, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to put the single-board Linux box to work—real work—in our company's network operations center.

Like many LJ readers these days, I've been leading a bit of a techno-nomadic lifestyle as of the past few years—jumping from network to network, access point to access point, as I bounce around the real world while maintaining my connection to the Internet and other networks I use on a daily basis.

A Tasty Slice of Awesome I love the flavor of raspberries, but quite honestly, the seeds gross me out.

The Raspberry Pi has been very popular among hobbyists and educators ever since its launch in 2011. The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card-sized single-board computer with a Broadcom BCM 2835 SoC, 256MB to 512MB of RAM, USB ports, GPIO pins, Ethernet, HDMI out, camera header and an SD card slot.

A new mini-computer is on the way, and it looks like it may be the Raspberry Pi killer we've all been waiting for (sorry Pi). C.H.I.P. is its name, and it looks set to wipe the floor with its established competitor on several counts: 1. It's completely open source. I don't just mean the software, either.

Years ago, I worked for an automotive IT provider, and occasionally we went out to the plants to search for rogue Wireless Access Points (WAPs). A rogue WAP is one that the company hasn't approved to be there. So if someone were to go and buy a wireless router, and plug it in to the network, that would be a rogue WAP.

In June 2013, we had the unfortunate luck of a basement flood, caused by a tripped electrical breaker connected to our sump pump. There are so many things that can go wrong with a sump pump. You always are on guard for power outages, blown breakers, sump pump failures, clogged pipes and all manner of issues that can arise, which ultimately can end with a flooded basement.

I don't game as much as I used to. Although I've certainly spent countless hours of my life in front of a Nintendo, SNES, or after that, playing a first-person shooter on my computer (Linux only, thank you), these days, my free time tends to go toward one of the many nongaming hobbies I've accumulated.

In my last article, I talked about how even though an individual Raspberry Pi is not that redundant, two Pis are. I described how to set up two Raspberry Pis as a fault-tolerant file server using the GlusterFS clustered filesystem.

Although many people are excited about the hardware-hacking possibilities with the Raspberry Pi, one of the things that interests me most is the fact that it is essentially a small low-power Linux server I can use to replace other Linux servers I already have around the house.

If, like me, you've jumped onto the Plex bandwagon with both feet, you've probably discovered how difficult it is to make a standalone Plex player. Sure, you can install an entire OS, then auto-start the Plex program in full screen, but it's not as simple as installing the XBMC distro, or even OpenELEC. If you own a Raspberry Pi, that has all changed.

It was inevitable. Back when the Raspberry Pi was announced, I knew I eventually would use one to power a beer fridge.

I remember my first colocated server rather fondly. It was a 1U Supermicro that had been decommissioned from my employer after a few years' service. Although it was too old and slow for my company, the 800MHz CPU, 1GB RAM and 36GB SCSI storage was perfect for my needs back in 2005. A friend was kind enough to allow me to colocate the server at his facility for free.

Ever since the announcement of the Raspberry Pi, sites all across the Internet have offered lots of interesting and challenging uses for this exciting device. Although all of those ideas are great, the most obvious and perhaps least glamorous use for the Raspberry Pi (RPi) is creating your perfect home server.

Since this month was our Raspberry Pi issue, I did some research on "what folks do with their Raspberry Pi". I sent queries out via Twitter, Facebook, the Linux Journal Web site and even the #linuxjournal IRC room. When it comes to doing extra-geeky projects with the RPi, every person I spoke with mentioned buying parts from Adafruit.

A Pint-Size Powerhouse with a Tasty-Sounding Name It's hard not to love the Raspberry Pi.

It may not come as a surprise to anyone who regularly reads my column that I tried to be first in line to order the Raspberry Pi. I mean, what's not to like in a $35, 700MHz, 256MB of RAM computer with HDMI out that runs Linux? In the end, I didn't make the first batch of 10,000, but I wasn't too far behind either.

I have to give Kyle Rankin all the credit for my Raspberry Pi collection. I never really felt geeky enough to do anything with an Arduino, and for some reason I mentally lumped the RPi into the same world. Boy was I short-sighted! Thankfully Kyle showed me the light, and I managed to snag some of the new 512MB model B units.

Everybody loves the Raspberry Pi, and there are so many things it can do, filling an issue with Raspberry Pi goodness should be a piece of cake! To do that, however, we need your help.