So thanks to Martijn for showing me that one can ssh into the Nokia N900, I figured out one way to do so:
1) make sure that extras is enabled: http://wiki.maemo.org/Extras
2) get root on the maemo : http://wiki.maemo.org/Root_access
3) make sure you know the root password. (default is rootme however you can change the password using passwd)
4) make sure that the sshd is running:
ps | grep sshd
5) get your ip address once you connect via wi-fi to a network
via terminal : /sbin/ifconfig -a
via app : http://maemo.org/downloads/product/Maemo5/personal-ip-address/
6) on another machine with the ssh program of your choice :
OS X Terminal : <username>@<ip address>
ie ssh root@<ip address of the phone>
There’s several things that I have to still figure out how to do at some point when I have more time.
1) figure out how to create another account on the maemo device so I’m not using root in order to ssh
2) figure out how to setup the sshd on the maemo so that I’m using a public key
3) figure out how to sshd into the device using a cable rather than wifi
The 3 things to figure out is mostly for security reasons.