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<p><strong>Topic:</strong> <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a><br>
<strong>Presenter:</strong> Main Speaker Pete Soper coordinating with a group of Splat Space hackers of Durham NC<br>
<strong>When:</strong> Thursday, January 10, 7pm<br>
<strong>Where:</strong> Red Hat HQ, NCSU Centennial Campus, 1801 Varsity Dr, Raleigh, NC<br>
<strong>Map:</strong> <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=red+hat+1801+Varsity+Drive,+Raleigh,+NC&hl=en&sll=35.77418,-78.6761&sspn=0.009592,0.021136&hq=red+hat+1801+Varsity+Drive,+Raleigh,+NC">Google Maps</a><br>
<strong>Slides:</strong> Not yet posted<br>
<strong>Video:</strong> Join us live via Google Hangout then YouTube video will be posted here</p>
<p> <strong>Raspberry Pi:</strong></p>
<p> Raspberry Pi is a very inexpensive, richly capable single board
computer (SBC) designed for educational settings. It features a modest
speed ARM chip, a half gigabyte of RAM, flash SD, USB, ethernet, graphic
and direct digital I/O interfaces that work together with a highly
capable port of Debian Linux as a general purpose computing system that
can as easily host your home web server or LAN engine as it can keep an
eye on your thermostat or dispense cat food while you're away.</p>
<p> <strong>Synopsis:</strong></p>
<p> In this introduction to Raspberry Pi attendees will get up close
and personal with the hardware and software combination that is setting a
new high water mark for price, performance, and useability. Multiple
RPi demos in the main and conference rooms will be in operation during
the meeting to provide the best opportunity for hands on experience.
Traditional slide presentations will cover where RPi came from, what its
capabilities are, and its charter for driving a wide range of
educational opportunities while serving as an "instant platform" for a
wide range of applications in hobby and light commercial settings. The
bulk of the meeting will offer demos that go from "close to the metal,"
low level apps encroaching on the traditional domain of the Arduino
family of SBCs to high level tools such as Clojure (Lisp implemented
with the Java virtual machine).<br>
Join a group of Splat Space hackers coordinated by the main speaker as
they and other volunteers provide a rich introduction to this
remarkable $35 device.</p>
<p> <strong>Bio:</strong></p>
<p> Main speaker Pete Soper is an underemployed software engineer
who moved to the RTP area when Data General extended its R&D from
Massachusetts in 1977. He went on to work for three from-scratch area
startups and ended up with Sun Microsystems until a little before Oracle
took them over. Pete's done mostly system software development such as
compilers, operating system kernels, virtual machines, data
communication protocol implementations, and language runtime systems. He
wrote the embedded operating system kernels and many of the device
drivers for Business Application System's and Network Product's
statistical multiplexor products, once each in TI 9900, 8086 and 68k
assembler and once in C. He did a lot of work on various Java
implementations at Sun after helping convince the engineering and
research organizations to embrace the Hotspot VM, and tried (but failed)
to get a process abstraction into java.lang via JSR-121. More recently
he's been making data loggers and other gadgets using TI MSP430, Atmel
Mega, and ARM-based SBCs. Pete started with Linux when the Slackware
distro came on 35 floppies for a blistering 35 bogomips. He's married
and has a daughter in high school.</p>
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