How to Run a Headless Parallella

Why Headless?

Running a computer “headless” means running it with no display, no keyboard, no mouse. The only directly attached cables are power and a network connection.

Why would you run a computer headless? Headless configurations are typically used in a data center with hundreds of servers and limited space. Since a well-running server rarely needs direct interaction, you can save space (and money) by skipping the monitor/mouse/keyboard installation, and only connecting these devices when needed.

Wrestling With IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) is receiving a ton of attention in the press. What does IoT mean for software developers? How can someone with a web development background begin exploring IoT? And why would a web developer care?

Order From My Table

If you own a restaurant that offers WiFi, it can be frustrating to have “customers” camp out at a table all day using the WiFi and buying little. As an owner, you can get mad. Or you can come up with a way to capitalize on the opportunity.

Panera found a way to profit from the opportunity.

Orange Pi Setup for Mac OS X

Raspberry Pi was the original low-cost single board computer. Competing products followed, including Beaglebone Black, Parallella, and recently, Orange Pi.

The official Orange Pi instructions assume that the user is working on a Windows-based machine. This blog post shows how to prepare an SD-card image using Mac OS X. As with all instruction sets on this blog, the sudo disclaimer applies.

Parallella in 5 Minutes at RubyConf 2015

Thank You Organizers!

First things first: Thank you to the RubyConf organizers for inviting me to the lightning talk stage this year. Slides and video appear below: