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Don't get your logic.

Just restrict your UI to using fewer inputs with a layer of abstraction - e.g. a numeric keypad (or even just arrow keys and two other keys). Keys can be remapped. There are even reasonable analogues to mouse input available - there's stuff which detects the position of the eyes etc, you can cater for those without buying or building those.

You just have to clear on what your objective is- if you want a computer you can wear, just strap on your cellphone or nokia ngage.

If you want something really different and innovative, then the software is where you do it, and you can do most of it way before you get the hardware. The hardware will get there and become cheap[1], they don't really need your help and I doubt you can make much of a difference in that field.

But if you want "the appearance" more than the function, sure go ahead and work hard at sticking a camera viewfinder to your head just so you can check email and run emacs while walking around.

[1] By the time he's out of college the hardware will be more affordable and ready, probably made in China or Taiwan. See the Espresso PC from Saint Song for instance, just a few more steps and you'd have a wearable.

However, they might rip off his software too by that time ;).

Or maybe they'll give him a job.. Yeah right ;).

http://www.saintsong.com.tw also makes quite small PCs, but they lack the screen and keyboard... but fully customizible!!

I want something simple and small, that I can maybe put a four-port ethernet card into.

Boxer PC dual Ethernet, 11cm x 16.5cm x 22cm.

Hi,

I'm a grad student at Georgia Tech. I've been wearing an Espresso in a vest every day, all day for about a year and a half. The Espresso is a smaller version of the Cappuccino.

I went to a lot of trouble to rig it up so that it would work as a wearable, since the fastest off the shelf wearables at the time (266MHz, IIRC) weren't beefy enough to do continuous voice recognition. The Espresso's Pentium III 800MHz is barely adequate for what I want to do, but I'm mostly happy with the system. It runs both Linux and NetBSD (my OS of choice) just fine. I use the USB ports for networking (Ethernet, Ricochet, Wavelan). To power it I just plugged a couple 7.2V Sony InfoLithium camcorder batteries (in series) directly in to the DC input.

In general, the Espresso is a nice little machine; it's put up with a lot of abuse over the last 18 months and I'm going to miss it.

Now that the 800MHz Crusoe is out, I'm switching to a CharmIT as soon as I can. The amount of work it takes to maintain the Espresso has been costly. The designers at SaintSong probably didn't expect that anyone would be wearing an Espresso on a daily basis. I have to constantly deal with things breaking. That's not where I want to spend my time or money, so I see a CharmIT as cheap.

The CharmIT will also be a lot lighter than the Espresso. My Espresso runs for less than three hours per pound of lithium ion batteries. Since I want my wearable to be active during all waking hours, but I don't want to carry four pounds of batteries just for the Espresso, I have to swap batteries when I get to my office and plug in to a wall outlet if I'll be sitting down for a while. (For those of you who were wondering, battery life is one of the main reasons previous wearables ran at such slow clock rates. The CharmIT can get up to 800MHz only because the Crusoe is very efficient.)

Ben Wong

Disclaimer: The professor I work with at Georgia Tech (Thad Starner) is one of the founders of Charmed, so I'm probably biased.

Actually, these boxes run without fans, so they are near-silent. I visited Digital-Logic at the Internet Expo in Zurich, and they look quite cute. And according to the guys there, those Saintsong Cappuccino's sound like helicopters compared to these!

And for once, a mini-PC comes not from South-East Asia, but from Switzerland (developed and produced there!) Yay!

Anyway, I want one.

Rather than a pilot, try either the Panasonic Toughbook 07 or one of the machines from Saint Song. These provide modern (Pentium) processors, decent HD space, etc: as much as most notebooks and many light desktops. The problem is power: most machines require a fair amount of power (54W draw for the Cappaccino Gx1), which means a *lot* of batteries.

Clever translation of the logo into ASCII, if you ask me. Too bad they didn't italicize it. Pentium !!!

Dong. Dong Dong Dee-Dong.

--

OK, this isn't news. This machine (Cappuchino), and it's little brother the Espresso, have been mentioned half a dozen times going back to last April.

They're made by Saintsong in Taiwan, and the easiest place to get them in the states is iBuyPower.

ObLinux: iBuyPower builds these to order, and you can get them without an OS, including a $75 credit for the Windows Tax.

Even though this is old news, they' are very cool. I have a dozen Celeron 533 Espressos that I use to run slideshow presentations at trade shows, and it's incredibly cool to be able to a) carry 12 machines in a briefcase, and b) literally duct tape them to the wall behind the monitor. (we usually use flat-panels)

-Zandr

For those who had the odd feeling it looked like the Espresso... here's why... it is.
Or, at least, it's a machine built inside the same clone-kit.
Here's the SaintSong Espresso again.

Check the CD-ROM dock, the holes in the case, etc.
So I'm guessing this is like the PC-Book machine you see around and anyone can buy em, slap in a processor, HDD and RAM, load em up and slap their moniker on em.
The Cappuchino is still cooler. ;)
TheBitch

For those who had the odd feeling it looked like the Espresso... here's why... it is.
Or, at least, it's a machine built inside the same clone-kit.
Here's the SaintSong Espresso again.

Check the CD-ROM dock, the holes in the case, etc.
So I'm guessing this is like the PC-Book machine you see around and anyone can buy em, slap in a processor, HDD and RAM, load em up and slap their moniker on em.
The Cappuchino is still cooler. ;)
TheBitch

The problem is it is more expensive than, and significantly less powerful than, but only slightly smaller than the SaintSong Expresso. The Expresso has also been around for at least a couple of months. I've seen both products, and the Expresso is much more of a polished product, as it comes in a nice walkman-ish package whereas the 486SX based box mentioned in this article is basically a bare board.

http://www.saintsong.com.tw

Yes, I've seen one running Linux no less. Its a nice little box. You can find the manufacturer's page at:

http://www.saintsong.com.tw

Looks like the prices have come down a little since the one I've seen was purchased as well.

If you like small and cheap, you might like the EspressoPC from Saint Song. Ars Technica did a review on it, and they seemed to really like it. Just think, a middle of the road machine twice the size of a Game Boy. Even better than a hacked I-Opener.

Slashdot featured the Espresso PC a couple of weeks ago. What'd I'd like to see is a StrongARM-based PDA with the external ports that the Espresso PC has: VGA out, S-Video out, PS/2 mouse and keyboard in, and DC power in. The Espresso PC falls shy of greatness because of its power-hungry Intel processor, so it doesn't even try to run on a battery. What would be cool would be a Pocket PC that you can carry around and use but which you can also plug into a full-size keyboard and monitor. It would be nice to see a 6 or 12 GB hard drive on a PDA as well, but I guess you simply can't spin those platters without killing your batteries. A reasonable compromise might be having a large-capacity hard drive inside the case but only using it when external power was supplied. This gives the paranoid user the extra advantage of never having to let his data leave his person to get black-bagged. :) Oh well, I guess they'll come up with my dream portable on of these days, when you can run a 10,000 RPM hard drive for 3 months on a watch battery. :)

Since the site uses frames, the previous posters, didn't get it quite right.

A brochure is available here as well (large graphic).

Since the site uses frames, the previous posters, didn't get it quite right.

A brochure is available here as well (large graphic).

I'd not buy it just because on their home they claim:
"Recommanded Browser IE 4.0 or higher"

They ought not to be serious...

Anyway, this is a damn cool tool, and it run Linux too!

But still. Granted, you can get 10mb USB ethernet adaptors, but is it *really* so jam-packed they couldn't squeeze one in?

And just why is it that none of the laptop makers never slap a decent video chip in their designs? I'm guessing size, power consumption, heat dissipation, some combination of those three.

Ah well, for now, my VAIO's got Mandrake, and a small partition for Win98; works great for Diablo, should work just as great for Diablo II, don't need the 3D for those, at least :)

(Oh, and here's a link straight to the product page for the terminally lazy, save yourself a click)
--

According to the Product information on the Manufacturer's Website Linux is already an option as the operating system. It is just iBuyPower who do not seem to be offereing all the options (There is also a DVD).

Does it run Linux? FreeBSD? InsertYourReligionHere?

To find out, I started here: the manufacturer's website

What I expected was to spend a few minutes digging around, finding what chipsets it used for various components, comparing with the hardware compatibility lists for my particular sect of Penguin Worship

What I did not expect to find was, in big bold purple letters, "Run Windows 2000/98/NT, Linux".

Not once, but twice. (Although not so big and purple the second time.)

It's also got an S-Video port, which purports to support both NTSC and PAL, and comes with an adapter for composite video output.

And 3D sound.

And 4mb of video memory, support 1280x1024x16.7M and 1600x1200x256.

Yikes. This thing is damn near perfect, considering it's not a Transmeta processor.

Hell, it's more powerful than my server. In fact, I ran an ISP once on far less box than this, serving thousands of customers.

http://www.saintsong.com.t w/it/english/prod/espresso.htm

the site also has links to their .pdf files

The correct link for the site you posted is Here. Previewing and checking these is a really good idea.

According to the company that makes it, http://www.saintsong.com.tw/it/en glish/ithome.htm, there is an option for a DVD drive.