[TriLUG] Jan 10 Meeting: Raspberry Pi

[Jeremy Davis]

*Topic:* Raspberry Pi <http://www.raspberrypi.org>
*Presenter:* Main Speaker Pete Soper coordinating with a group of Splat
Space hackers of Durham NC
*When:* Thursday, January 10, 7pm
*Where:* Red Hat HQ, NCSU Centennial Campus, 1801 Varsity Dr, Raleigh, NC
*Map:* Google Maps<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>
*Slides:* Not yet posted
*Video:* Join us live via Google Hangout then YouTube video will be posted
here

*Raspberry Pi:*

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.

*Synopsis:*

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).
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.

*Bio:*

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.