I got some Raspberry Pi for Christmas.

I enjoy getting socks and selection boxes for Christmas, really I do. But my favourite present by far this year was the Raspberry Pi. A credit card-sized computer and the brainchild of the Raspberry Pi Foundation (http://www.raspberrypi.org/about), the charity produces cheap, accessible computers for programmers and education.

I deliberated long and hard about what I would use the Pi for, but it has finally been configured as a web server with the purpose of checking all of our clients’ websites every 5 minutes and alerting us if they are offline for any reason.

The Raspberry pi has no moving parts, uses an SD card (the kind that goes in a digital camera) as storage, and is powered by a USB cable (similar to many phone chargers). With such a low energy footprint, it is possible to keep the server monitor running 24/7, so it is an ideal backup to alert us to any issues with our client’s web hosting.

I also built my own bespoke Lego case for it, and I’m not ashamed in the slightest.

Photo Credit: GijsbertPeijs on Flickr