How to use TransferWise to receive your Amazon Affiliate earnings through direct deposit

As I had mentioned in easy and effective ways for programmers’ websites to earn money, I use Amazon Affiliate program to earn some commission fees for keeping this website running.

Given that, I am able to earn some cash to pay for some online courses and latest gadgets to enrich myself.

However, receiving your Amazon Affiliate earnings can be costly if your bank account is not eligible for direct deposit.

If you are looking for a fast and affordable way to receive your Amazon Affiliate earnings through direct deposit, this post will show you how to use TransferWise to receive your Amazon Affiliate earnings.

How to capture images in the dark with the Raspberry Pi Infrared Camera Module from Seeed Studio

When I wanted to keep tabs on my corridor, I built a Raspberry Pi Zero W surveillance camera with MotionEye and Raspbian Lite.

After a while, I make my Raspberry Pi Zero W see an ultra-wide view by using one of the Fish Eye lens from a Camera Lens kits that I received as a gift.

Since then, I am able to have a wide angle view of my corridor as long as I have a browser with an Internet connection.

However, the same setup will not work for checking on my plants in the kitchen. If I am to snap some pictures after my LED growth lights are switched off, I will definitely get pitch black images.

So what kind of camera should my plant surveillance setup use? In order to capture images in the dark, I should look for a camera without the Infrared Filter – a NoIR Camera.

With this in mind, I head over to Seeed Studio and got myself the Raspberry Pi Infrared Camera Module.

Since Seeed Studio had provided me with a voucher for this purchase, I am able to minimize the cost of producing this article.

Thank you Seeed Studio!

Given that, let’s see how we can capture images in the dark with the Raspberry Pi Infrared Camera Module.

How to use Python 3 virtual environments to run Python 3 applications on your Raspberry Pi

Whenever I am working on a Python 3 project, I will always use a Python 3 virtual environment for running that project. Therefore, I tend to do the same when it comes to building Python 3 applications to run on a Raspberry Pi.

If you are looking to build Python 3 applications to run on your Pi, then you may find this article useful for you.

How to host a static website on your Raspberry Pi with Nginx running on Raspbian Buster Lite

After you had understood HTML, CSS and JavaScript from The Web Developer Bootcamp, you can start to host a static website on an actual web server.

If you had been the kind of fan who buy newly-launched Raspberry Pis, then you may find some lying around the house collecting dust.

In this situation, why not use one of your Raspberry Pi to host something that you had just learnt?

Given that, let’s look at how you can host a static website on your Raspberry Pi with Nginx running on Raspbian Buster Lite.

Understanding the default Nginx virtual host (or server) configuration

After you had installed Nginx, one of the first thing to do is to check whether it is running ok.

One way to do so is to use your browser to send a HTTP request to test it.

If you had installed Nginx on your local machine, then you may enter http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 into the location bar of your browser.

When you had setup Nginx on a separate machine on your home network, you may also enter http://<ip_address_of_the_machine> in the location bar of your browser. For example, in how to host a WordPress website on a Raspberry Pi with Raspbian Buster Lite and Nginx, I had entered http://192.168.1.114 as the location to test out the Nginx server running on my Raspberry Pi.

So be it http://localhost, http://127.0.0.1, http://<ip_address_of_the_machine>, you will always see this page on your browser screen:

In case you are wondering why your Nginx behaves this way, this post will explain what the default Nginx Virtual Host configuration does to Nginx.

Why buy the Raspberry Pi Zero W?

When you have seen the Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB ram, you may wonder why should we even be bothered with the earlier versions.

If you have been following Seeed Studio, you may have heard that they had included Raspberry Pi Zero W in their product catalogue.

I welcome this move from Seeed Studio with open arms.

Since I live in Singapore, I will be able to shave hefty shipping costs getting the Pi Zero W from Seeed Studio instead of vendors from the west. If you are staying in countries that are nearer to Guangzhou, then the real cost of your Pi Zero W will be much closer to the 10 USD price tag.

But why buy the Raspberry Pi Zero W?

In case you are thinking of whether to trade 10-ish bucks for one, here are some reasons why you should have a look at the Raspberry Pi Zero W for your next Raspberry Pi project.

How to host a WordPress website on a Raspberry Pi with Raspbian Buster Lite and Nginx

If you are thinking of starting a blog about computer technology, then you can consider hosting a WordPress website on your Raspberry Pi.

Since Raspberry Pi is a capable machine that does not take up too much space and power, it is a good as a web server.

In addition, if you have an Internet subscription that does not block port 80 and 443, hosting a WordPress at home can be cost effective.

Given these points, let’s look at how we can host a WordPress website on a Raspberry Pi with Raspbian Buster and Nginx.

How to create a Carousel in WordPress with Slide Anything

When you have been adding content to your website for some time, you may notice two things:

1. There are many pages that are never visited in months or even years.
2. The home page will always have page views.

Given these points, the home page is one place where you have the chance to promote pages that are rarely seen organically.

If your website is realised by polyglot stack, then you will find the Slide Anything plugin useful for creating a Carousel for your WordPress instance.

Given that, this post shows how you can create a Carousel in WordPress with Slide Anything.

Installing Certbot on Raspbian Buster for obtaining Let’s Encrypt’s browser-trusted certificates for your Raspberry Pi server applications

When you build Raspberry Pi server projects with Raspbian Buster, browser-trusted certificates can be needed.

Since the inception of Let’s Encrypt, many webmasters had been able to deploy web applications that encrypt communication channels with browser-trusted certificates.

Most importantly, Let’s Encrypt provide all the magic for free.

Let’s Encrypt certificates are automatically issued by software participating in the ACME protocol. Therefore, we will need to run such a software on a Raspberry Pi web server for serving HTTPS with browser-trusted certificates.

Given that, let’s see how we can install Certbot on Raspbian Buster.