My new rev2 Raspberry Pi has been put to use flashing time signals on an LED. The Pi picks up the time from the interweb via a USB wifi dongle. Every 15 minutes, a Python script is called by Cron to flash the LED just like the audio pips on BBC Radio 4. When I see the LED ‘pips’ I can quickly check my Russian mechanical and therefore dubiously reliable watch to see if it’s somewhere near a quarter of an hour.

But for one night only, putting to use some gaffa tape and a few odd bits of string and wire I had lying around, plus some code lifted from a secret, but strangely insecure NASA super computer, I’ve reprogrammed the Pi to check on the direction, speed and distance of Santa and from that calculate a rough ETSA (Estimated time of Santa’s Arrival) Brilliant, yes?