BeagleBone Black, Up & Running

BeagleBone Black, like the Raspberry Pi, is a small, inexpensive computer that runs Linux. It’s smaller than a deck of cards and you can buy one for about forty-five dollars ($45.00). The device is made by CircuitCo in Richardson, TX, USA.

It Just Works

BeagleBone Black runs Linux right out of the box. Steps required:

• Plug in the micro-HDMI cable for the monitor. See the “Gotchas” section about micro-HDMI below.
• Plug in the keyboard & mouse via the USB port. You might need a USB hub because the board only has one USB port.
• Add power via the mini-USB port or the 5v power connection.

After a few minutes of boot time, we have a fully-functioning Linux computer with a GUI, Firefox browser, and other tools.

Upgrading Ruby With RVM

Ruby Version Manager (RVM) is one of my favorite tools in the Ruby ecosystem. Reason: RVM lets me experiment with Ruby and Rails at will. I don’t know about you, but my best experiments are full of risk so they eventually blow things up. When that happens, I can always recover the broken areas without wasting time on a full system restore.

Some devs choose to use another tool, RBenv, that serves a purpose similar to RVM. I began working with RVM before the other tools existed, and since it has always worked well for me, I have no reason to switch.

Ruby 2.0.0-p195

The latest patch of Ruby 2.0.0, p195, was released two days ago. Time to take it for a spin. RVM lets devs upgrade Ruby and manage gemsets seamlessly. Here’s how the process went.

RubyMotion Sketchnotes

Alexis Finch (@agentfin) captured Sketchnotes for a RubyMotion presentation that I gave for Groupon’s Geekfest.

Sketchnotes are typography and drawing and notes all mixed together.

The Man Who Sold Hot Dogs

Note: This timeless story pre-dates the web, and it has appeared at WisdomGroup.com. Author unknown.

There was a man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs. He was hard of hearing, so he had no radio. He had trouble with his eyes, so he read no newspaper. But he sold good hot dogs. He put signs up on the highway telling how good they were. He stood on the side of the road and cried “Buy a hot dog, mister?” And people bought. He increased his meat and bun orders. He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade.

One day, his son came home from college to help him out.

Ack 2.0: Written in Perl, Useful With Ruby

Ack is an open source command line tool that lets developers search large trees of source code very quickly. If you are looking for a method definition in a haystack of files, Ack will find that needle for you. Many devs regard Ack as a replacement for grep.

The Elmhurst ChicagoRuby meetings are always a source of unexpected learning. Today ChicagoRuby welcomed Andy Lester, creator of Ack. Andy released Ack 2.0 two days ago. He shared some of the latest features in an impromptu demo.