How to run a program on boot up?

How about /etc/rc.local?

This will be executed last in the startup sequence.

You can use crontab for this.
Use crontab -e to edit user's crontab (A list of start-up scripts that users have added).
Add following line at the end:

@reboot <command>

Examples:

• @reboot my_script.sh
• @reboot python my_script.py arg1 arg2

Finally use contab -l to make sure your script was added to the list.