What to Do With a $99 Wall Wart Linux Server 346
Guanine writes in with a follow-up to our discussion a few months back on the SheevaPlug: 1.2-GHz ARM-compliant processor, 512 MB DDR2, 512 MB flash, USB 2.0, gigabit ethernet, in a package the size of a wall wart, for $99. Saul Hansell's Bits Blog in the NY Times talks about a few applications for such a device, whose price point Hansell claims will drop to $40 before too long. "The first plausible use for the plug computer is to attach one of these gizmos to a USB hard drive. Voila, you've got a network server. Cloud Engines, a startup, has in fact built a $99 plug computer called Pogoplug, that will let you share the files on your hard drive, not only in your home but also anywhere on the Internet. ... [Marvell's CEO said] 'Eventually you won't see the plug. We want this device to be in your TV, your stereo system, your DVD player.'"
Re:Am I the only one... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Wireless Version (Score:5, Informative)
It's got USB and an SD slot. You can get wireless devices that fit in either, so I should think it'll be ok.
These things are largely useless (Score:5, Informative)
URL to purchase the wall wart (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wireless Version (Score:3, Informative)
It could easily kill you if you start chaining power strips together trying to set up a beowolf cluster of these. Chained power strips is a fire hazard.
Re:Could this save power? (Score:5, Informative)
Take a look at this page. [cyrius.com]
Martin Michlmayr is a debian contributor/porter/activist/whatever with a keen interest in these sorts of devices, he published some early power use figures.
But in short, yes, I think you'd save a lot of power. Though you'd have to buy an HDD caddy and take the power consumption of that into account. We're still likely talking about a lot less than a full PC.
As for it being possible - Using samba, a linux box can appear to windows machines in much the same way a windows machine does - with exposed shared directories and shared printers. It's fairly simple, though I've not done the printer bit for some time.
Re:I've got one (Score:5, Informative)
booting from SDHC is not there yet but booting from SD is solid.
I've been using these for weeks now. also the dodgy flash can be overcome by running a full scan on it and marking the bad spots, I prefer running off SD though.
Re:Could this save power? (Score:3, Informative)
pogoplug... (Score:1, Informative)
The pogoplug is pretty impressive -- I was ready to click "buy", but then after a few more minutes of research, found out that they broker all communication to your wallwart...
This is a dealbreaker for me. While I realize this is their "magic sauce" that makes it super easy to access your pogoplug, any service that forces me to route my files through them is a no-go. (partly for security reasons, but mostly for being tied to a single vendor)
Re:I've got one (Score:3, Informative)
on't really see the revolution here - it's a small headless server. A bit like an NSLU2 only a lot faster
Faster and a lot more ram. Also this device is being explicitly sold as a "devkit" which means you get console and JTAG access (via a USB to dual UART/FIFO chip) out of the box rather than having to hack them on.
On the downside you only get one host-side USB port while the slug had two.
Re:Am I the only one... (Score:3, Informative)
The link to buy it [pogoplug.com] was right there in the summary and has a big magenta button on the first page that says "BUY NOW $99".
And I also couldn't help but notice that Marvell's page for the device [marvell.com] has a big clickable image on it that says "VISIT PARTNER PAGE TO BUY."