Anyone remember what the title of this post is referencing? No? Well, it’s from a song by Spike Jones about the racehorse “Beetle Bomb”. That was some time ago, and the Beetle Bomb is long gone from most of the popular culture memory as it were. Now there’s something new called “Beagle Bone” or maybe “Beaglebone” and it is not a racehorse, but it IS fast. The ‘Bone is a single board computer that is quite something else:
Good god, how old am I?
Here’s a photo of my very first computer (the dusty thing on the left) and a new Beaglebone Black (the little board on the right). The device on the left is called an MMD-1 or “Mini-Micro Designer 1” and is considered per Wiki to be one of the first single board computers (SBC) on the market. I bought the MMD-1 in 1976 for something like $650. It came in a bag of loose parts with 2 sheets of mimeographed instructions. The device on the right is also an SBC. It came in a little box with a business card that had a cute cartoon beagle dog. On the card was printed the website BEAGLEBOARD.ORG where you could go for more information. Cost of this SBC: $45.
It was the Altoids that got me hooked
I used to work for a company that owned Callard and Bowser (Bowser? Isn’t that a name for a dog?) and I was impressed at the idea that I might actually be able to fit a powerful SBC into a curiously strong mint can. Anyhow, the SBC next to the can is a BeagleBone Black, Rev A5C. Read this link to see the specs on this baby. Expect to see more projects via this one soon, but for now, let’s connect it to something. How about via SSH over the Ethernet?
On a MAC
Well heck, yeah! The ‘Bone’s got a standard RJ45 Ethernet port. Connect this to your wireless router and check out the ‘Bone copy of Angstrom Linux on whatever computer you have. On the Mac we are using the Terminal utility to do a little “ls -al” action.
On a PC
Download a monitor program called “PuTTY” for your Windows PC. Yes, I’m not one of those PC vs MAC clowns. I hate BOTH of ’em! Don’t know enough about the Angstrom version of Linux, but I could try out some others for free. Maybe later…
On an iPad
If you use of those “SSH” apps on an iPad it seems to work OK. Perhaps it might even be better on a Microsoft “Surface”? Now I can mess with this board anywhere in the house. What to do? Give me some time…