Pretty Bill - Building networks and servers using BeagleBone: set up and configure a local area network and file server by building your own home-based multimedia server

Bill Pretty began his career in electronics in the early 80s with a small telecom start-up company that would eventually become a large multinational. He left this company to pursue a career in commercial aviation in northern Canada. Next, he joined the Ontario Center for Microelectronics, a provincially funded research and development center. Bill left this for a career in the military as a civilian contractor at what was then called Defense Research Establishment Ottawa. Thus began a career that was to span the next 25 years and continues until today.

Over the years, Bill acquired extensive knowledge in the field of technical security and started his own company in 2010. This company is called William Pretty Security Inc. and provides support in the form of research and development to various law enforcement and private security agencies.

Bill has published and presented a number of white papers on the subject of technical security. For a number of years, he was also a guest presenter at the Western Canada Technical Conference, a law enforcement-only conference held every year in western Canada. A selection of these papers is available for download from his website.

There are a number of people that I would like to thank, as without their support, this book would never have been completed. I would also like to thank my good friends at Packt Publishing for having patience and trust in me once again. Thanks to my partner in life, Donna, who never stopped believing in me.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my good friend and fellow code warrior Glenn "the flying Dutchman."

Glenn Vander Veer has been an embedded firmware developer for various microprocessors and microcontrollers for the past 20 years. He has been tinkering with electronics and all types of computers for over 30 years now. His interests lie in computer security, audio and video development, and tinkering with various operating systems. This is Glenn's first book, but definitely not his last.

I would like to thank Bill for bringing me in on this project.

Raymond Boswel is a software engineer who specializes in full-stack web development using Java, Linux, and various supporting technologies. He has a special fondness for writing code and enjoys learning new paradigms and languages. Raymond has also been a reviewer on BeagleBone for Secret Agents and BeagleBone Home Automation .

I would like to thank all the wonderful people that I have been blessed to have in my life, for all the laughter, tears, and everything in between.

Naoya Hashimoto began his career as an infrastructure engineer, and he has experience in working with a data center, management service providers, and housing/hosting service providers. Recently, he has been working on multiple roles, such as service planning using open source software or third-party solutions, system integration on public clouds (mainly AWS), and system migrations from on-premises networks into public clouds. He has been a technical reviewer on Mastering AWS Development , Building Networks and Servers Using BeagleBone , PostgreSQL Cookbook , Icinga Network Monitoring , and Building a Home Security System with BeagleBone , all by Packt Publishing.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to join the review process of the book and to the author and coordinator for their contribution to this book. A huge thanks to one of my mentors, Mr. Abe at Info Circus, Inc., because I developed my career with his guidance in the first company where I worked and met him.

Jaime Soriano Pastor was born in Teruel, a small city in Spain. He has always been passionate about technology and sciences. While studying computer science at a university in his hometown, he had his first encounter with Linux and free software, which deeply shaped his career. Later on, he moved to Zaragoza to continue his studies. There, he worked for a couple of companies on different and interesting projects, from operative systems in embedded devices to the cloud, giving him a wide view on several fields of software development as well as some opportunities to travel around Europe. Currently, he lives in Madrid, and automation, configuration management, and continuous integration form a part of his daily work at a well-known technology company.

Justin Smith has a degree in computer science from Tennessee Technological University and is currently a systems and solutions integrator for an industrial IT firm in Nashville, Tennessee. He develops core software to interface with third-party hardware and software and has been introducing the software as modules into LabVIEW of late. Primarily a Java developer, Justin has been using open source tools to allow the code to be run from within LabVIEW.

Growing up around computers in the 80s, Justin has always known that he wanted to pursue a career in computing. Working as an intern in college and spending over a year in Central Mexico for his company, he realized all of the good that can be done by helping improve industrial processes (safety, quality, and efficiency). This made him decide that he wanted to continue working in industrial IT and automation, as he also feels that manufacturing and industry have yet to see the same technological revolutions as other business sectors through advances in companies such as Facebook and Google.

Justin has been working for Summit Management Systems, Inc of Nashville, Tennessee, for nearly 10 years. Summit Management Systems offers custom integration and process solutions worldwide for the industrial and manufacturing sector as well as several standalone software packages that aid in data acquisition from industrial devices and software to manufacture workflow management systems.