My birthday is coming up in a few weeks and I’ve been toying with the idea of picking up a Raspberry Pi to play with. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a piece of pure hardware that you have to mold and shape into something. I’m actually coming late to the party on this, as the Pi is already on it’s third generation, and I know many people who have been using one for many years.

I got the idea to pick one up when I was walking through a store the other day and saw kits for sale. I started thinking to myself that maybe this would be something fun to do, and that I could make something useful with it. That’s where my dilemma comes in, as I’m not 100% sure what idea I want to go with. Here’s a couple of the thoughts I had:

• Media server to serve up content that isn’t on a digital subscription platform
• Retro gaming console, maybe with some controller integration through EmulationStation
• Home automation server to start automating some of the appliance items around the house (similar to my old x10 days)

That’s where I want to ask my readers to chime in. If you were to pick up a Pi what project would you do? It doesn’t have to be one of the three above, I’m genuinely interested in any ideas that people might have. Toss me a comment or message with your thoughts, and maybe in a few weeks I’ll have something to show for it all!