Weekly bits and pieces:

I wrote a short blog post about Kotlin’s platform types and how to go around them.

I bought a RaspberryPi 3 B+.

This is a brand new and refreshed revision of the relatively mature RaspberryPi 3 B. It feels like a significant boost when compared to my loyally serving, but already quite oldish RasPi 2 B. Alongside the 64-bit CPU and built-in WiFi (which we know from the 3rd revision), the 3 B+ adds a slew of goodies:

• A 1.4GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU (~200 MHz more than the 3 B 🚀)
• Dual-band 802.11ac wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2
• Faster Ethernet (Gigabit Ethernet over USB 2.0)
  • (According the announcement, this makes around 3x increase in wireless and wired throughput 🚀)
• Power-over-Ethernet support (with separate PoE HAT)
• Improved PXE network and USB mass-storage booting
• Improved thermal management

I have some plans what to do out of my growing RasPi fleet. One idea is to ship one over to my parents back in Bulgaria and set up a VPN. Another one is to create a mini-cluster of Pis for personal experiments. Or, I can simply start using the 3 B+ for my home automation and media, same what I’ve been using by 2 B almost 2.5 years for. Whatever I decide on, I am looking for a 3.5” display to hook onto it, for diagnostic purposes. If you have any suggestions on good displays, please, let me know in the comments.

Links and Other Resources

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ on sale now at $35 - Raspberry Pi