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NIC is still around and you can still buy a NIC for a school.
How much have you donated this year?

CDROMs cost less money and have none of the hassle of operateing a multihomed drive. If access time is an issue make sure your machine has enough ram to hold your contents.

For CDROM based linux distros look at Ellison's network computers - there are instructions on the net how to hack and build custom versions of their CDROM. Sentry Firewall is a good example of a CDROM based linux distro.

Besides, the read-only connection is probally only as read only as the drive's firmware wants it to be. This doesn't "solve" the security problem, it only moves the negotiation/attack from the computer to the hardrive's firmware.

A CDrom on the otherhand can't be changed - no amount of firmware tinkering is going to make the nessesary hardware "appear from nowhere" to make a CD drive act like a CDR(W)

My mother's running Linux via the NIC padded cell system.

It works reasonably well; the hardware is trailing edge, but you don't need blazing chips to run a web browser...

At the local college here, we have 8 Citrix ICA servers (nice, dual proc 1ghz xeon, tons ram) running NT4.0 terminal server. Its a nice fit for the students/fac, and the NT shop that is ran here (we're working on changing it). We were buying a few of these WYSE winterms to deploy across campus to allow access, but at over $800 a pop those things get expensive in a hurry.

So, in order to save money and provide loads more functionality, we bought a thinknic and i went about the process of hacking the hell out if it. there are tons of websites (hack-a-nic.com, and yahoo's groups are just 2) that describe the in's and out's of this $199 piece of hardware.

all in all, they are pretty easy to hack. the standard OS is based of debian i believe, and runs 2.2.x (i forget). anyway, the window manager is blackbox and you can change the menus a bit to add right-click desktop functionality and turn off the always-on netscape session. I have ours with a custom background, and updated version of citrix, mozilla instead of netscape, and links to a telnet client and ssh. i also have one that i am testing that uses a PAM module to authenticate off of the NT domain so the user can open and run a couple of native apps like abiword and gnumeric and save their work to their NT network drive.

We now have about 25 of these things scattered across campus, and they work great. you could also use them to connect to a linux terminal server instead of windows. Next up for us is providing full X-terminal functionality to a couple of linux servers to provide remote application support. these are really nifty boxes.

However, if you are talking about think clients to a Linux or UNIX server, that makes a lot of sense. You pay nothing extra on either the client or the server, it's trivial to set up and administer, and it works really well.

If you really want client access to Windows, at least consider getting the NIC; for $200, you get a devices that does Citrix ICA, X11, ssh, VNC, web browsing, and telnet out of the box. The reviews claim that they are easy to set up and upgrade (just pop in a new CD), and with that, you only need to worry about the server side for Windows.

I've installed some (ok, one) thin-client network with linux thin clients ( thinknic.com ) running Win4Lin on the server. Works good.
---

But, when really geeky people look at computers, they know how much it will cost to build their own bleeding edge box, why spend over $400 on something (not including a monitor) for a StrongArm DESKTOP when a Athlon 1.8GHz can be built?

I'm not bashing it, I think it's cool hardware. I really do. But they really have to consider what other things in that price point are, and that's dominated by x86. Just look at how cheap a ThinkNIC is, and that's going to have as much geek/hacker/toy/xterminal/whatever appeal.

The NIC, which AC told me about, is currently the best box of this kind to my knowledge. I would prefer, however, if it had no CD/modem/flashdisk and was cheaper without any stuff I don't need. I would love to see a box which is able to act as an X terminal, booting from network, without any moving parts, for something like $100. If the NIC cos ts $200 with all of the features, it would be possible to build a stripped version for $100.

I generally nead exactly TCSX-1, but four times cheaper... If only there was a TCSX-1 priced as optimally as the NIC, it would cost below $100... Oh, well... I'll try to find out where and for how much I can buy parts which they use. If anyone has any experience with buying and using such integrated board, similar to this board (I don't know what exactly it is, they only say in the spec what it has, not what model it is), please let me know. Thanks.

Another related topics,
What are the cheapest stand-alone:

• x86 processors (50+ MHz)
• mainboards
• ethernet adapters (100 Mb/s)
• VGAs (1+ MB)
• sound cards

It's very hard to find a low-end PC parts today, they don't sell processors with clock rates not measured in GHz in computer stores, you know...

After a quick Google search, I see there are lots of different single board PCs. I'll try to read about them and post the most interesting suff. If you know any of these boards, especially if you have used one of them with Linux Terminal Server or something similar (generally the most important is if you can run Linux on them without any problems) then please post it here. Btw, are there any cases available for them?

The NIC, which AC told me about, is currently the best box of this kind to my knowledge. I would prefer, however, if it had no CD/modem/flashdisk and was cheaper without any stuff I don't need. I would love to see a box which is able to act as an X terminal, booting from network, without any moving parts, for something like $100. If the NIC cos ts $200 with all of the features, it would be possible to build a stripped version for $100.

I generally nead exactly TCSX-1, but four times cheaper... If only there was a TCSX-1 priced as optimally as the NIC, it would cost below $100... Oh, well... I'll try to find out where and for how much I can buy parts which they use. If anyone has any experience with buying and using such integrated board, similar to this board (I don't know what exactly it is, they only say in the spec what it has, not what model it is), please let me know. Thanks.

Another related topics,
What are the cheapest stand-alone:

• x86 processors (50+ MHz)
• mainboards
• ethernet adapters (100 Mb/s)
• VGAs (1+ MB)
• sound cards

It's very hard to find a low-end PC parts today, they don't sell processors with clock rates not measured in GHz in computer stores, you know...

After a quick Google search, I see there are lots of different single board PCs. I'll try to read about them and post the most interesting suff. If you know any of these boards, especially if you have used one of them with Linux Terminal Server or something similar (generally the most important is if you can run Linux on them without any problems) then please post it here. Btw, are there any cases available for them?

The NIC, which AC told me about, is currently the best box of this kind to my knowledge. I would prefer, however, if it had no CD/modem/flashdisk and was cheaper without any stuff I don't need. I would love to see a box which is able to act as an X terminal, booting from network, without any moving parts, for something like $100. If the NIC cos ts $200 with all of the features, it would be possible to build a stripped version for $100.

I generally nead exactly TCSX-1, but four times cheaper... If only there was a TCSX-1 priced as optimally as the NIC, it would cost below $100... Oh, well... I'll try to find out where and for how much I can buy parts which they use. If anyone has any experience with buying and using such integrated board, similar to this board (I don't know what exactly it is, they only say in the spec what it has, not what model it is), please let me know. Thanks.

Another related topics,
What are the cheapest stand-alone:

• x86 processors (50+ MHz)
• mainboards
• ethernet adapters (100 Mb/s)
• VGAs (1+ MB)
• sound cards

It's very hard to find a low-end PC parts today, they don't sell processors with clock rates not measured in GHz in computer stores, you know...

After a quick Google search, I see there are lots of different single board PCs. I'll try to read about them and post the most interesting suff. If you know any of these boards, especially if you have used one of them with Linux Terminal Server or something similar (generally the most important is if you can run Linux on them without any problems) then please post it here. Btw, are there any cases available for them?

The computers will probably come with the OS preinstalled, so theres no need to set anything up. And assuming every computer is identical, there will be no weird problems specific to one setup. The New Internet Computer runs Linux (from a CD). The web page claims "The NIC's total cost of ownership is over 40% less than a PC's". Something like that would probably be appropriate in this case. It might be good to add a word processor and floppy drive, but other than that, most people are probably going to use the machines for e-mail and web browsing.

If by affordable, you mean priced inline with Windows-only Citrix-based terminals, like the Wyse WinTerms which start around $300, the options are slim. The best thing I came up with during my search would've been to take a New Internet Computer ($199) and hack up the boot CD with some custom software.

The downside to the NIC, of course is twofold. First, it will involve custom, non vendor-supported work on your part; secondly the NIC relies on a CD drive for the OS.

I looked, briefly, into assembling small, custom units, using 16 or 32MB IDE flash cards, and found that to compete with off the shelf units on price, you'd have to move to a much larger size and the appearance of a hacked up unit. To compete with them on size, and you'd have to go to single board computers with custom casings, and lose any sense of price parity.

I could suggest the possibility of getting Xterms, and then running a Citrix client from the Linux system, but that's too ugly. Not to mention that Xterms are quite a bit pricier than the winterms.

Looking at the winterms, adding xterm functionality to a box that alread has RDP, ICA, telnet and internet explorer would be a relatively simple task and, even if offered as an upgraded model, would probably help the marketing effort, I get the feeling that their licencing agreement for Windows RDP (or the WinCE the unit's based on) probably prohibits them from integrating it with a X11 based client.

Of course a winterm could connect to a unix server, if you want to run Solaris or AIX instead of Linux, you're free to get a citrix server for those systems at the same low-low price of the Windows servers. It's either that or hope somebody can reverse-engineer RDP and get a server working on Linux.

1. It's a buffer overflow in affecting the 9i Application Server--specifically, a PL/SQL Apache module--and not the database. Still a Bad Thing, but not the same thing.
   
2. The crack regarding "still waiting for [your] Network Computer" is pretty dopey. Ellison's NIC Company has been shipping them going on two years now.

Well, you didn't have to wait for it since last year, when the NIC computer came out, one of Larry's brainchilds.

Well, you didn't have to wait for it since last year, when the NIC computer came out, one of Larry's brainchilds.

Take a look at the NIC. It's a relatively inexpensive 'internet appliance' that runs Linux off the CD-ROM.

http://www.thinknic.com/about/cdimages.html

You mean the one that runs on Linux?

While not specifically databases on Linux, another of his companies is "ThinkNic", manufacturer of $200 Linux-based internet terminal for home users.

...bad implementation. I personally like the NIC because you aren't bound to a specific ISP and the box sells by itself. However the thing is still $199 sans monitor. For the whole appliance thing to take off I think there has to be two things: boxes priced at $150 or lower, and 802.11 (a,b or g - I don't care) compatibility so the thing can be moved. Then I'll use one in the kitchen and maybe the garage or basement just for reference (recipes in the kitchen, instructions for a project, etc.). Screw a sound card - I don't want it to play MP3s, I don't care about streaming videoI love the fact that the NIC has VGA out so you can do whatever - buy a monitor, use an old one, whatever. Like I said: good idea, bad implementation.

However, the ThinkNIC is knocking on the door of perfection. It's small enough, flexible enough, powerful enough, and last but not least, cheap enough at $199 to fit in almost anyone's plans.

I put one in my parents' kitchen. With it my mother can view web pages, view and hear realmedia clips, streamed mp3s, chat online through irc ,and java chat, use AIM instant messaging and exchange email with kids, grandkids and friends*. It prints remotely to her main system's HP printer, surfs through a shared DSL link to her usual ISP instead of dialup connection thanks its onboard 100/10 bast-t nic.And that since the ThinkNIC is based on X11 any application on her main pc --even win32 apps accessed through win4lin-- can be easily accessed now from the NIC. Exactly like owning another powerful PC and having the same applications on it, only without the cost and maintenance headache. This makes the Nic one half of the only ASP/ web-services provider I'll ever be interested in: mine!

It presents virtually no maintenance worries since there is no writeable fs on a harddrive and minimal security worries, as there is no means to login to it remotely and no space for cracking tools to be stored in case someone was able to break in through some other means. Short of physically replacing the cdrom it runs from, there is no possibility of changing the root passwd or adding rootkit accounts.

I'm buying another for myself since its also an instant netbooting Xerminal box with a tiny shelf footprint.(I have used PCs converted to Xterminals but they are as large as the server they boot from -not what I want in my den) The Nic cdrom includes an appropriate NFS-root kernel image and modules to install on a linux terminal server, making this conversion almost a no-brainer.

Most of the web appliances have insisted that you pay for their own branded ISP. NIC does not and makes integrating the ThinkNIC into your existing LAN as easy as signing up for their ISP.

Most web appliances have required extensive hacking in order to use in any way other than the manufacturer planned. NIC does not require hardware modifications to be retasked. Just change the software on the Cdrom. The Nic software is good old Linux, pared down but still completely transparent to the enduser, and still modular and fully customizable. Adding a harddrive to convert the Nic from NC to PC in case you just have to for some reason, is easy enough too --there are several sites out there describing this-- but of course that voids the manufacturer's warranty.

Most of the better web appliance products have used somewhat unusual parts like giant flash devices. This can make for a nice, physically small system, but it's also directly responsible for the insanely high pricetags those products carry. It also leads the makers to insist on the customer subscribing to their ISP service/partners. The NIC has some flash ram for storing settings and configs and such, but the design sticks to using commodity bin parts and so its cost is kept down to the area where it compares to the price of a used PC. It is not as small as it could be if it was based on StrongARM or PPC cpu and the storeage was all flash instead of mainly cdrom based, but it 's definitely small enough to fit on a kitchen counter. It's noticeably smaller than a "BookPC" system for example and all "desktops" are massive compared to it. In fact my mother has a few cookbooks on the same counter top that are larger than her "computer". No one actually sees the ThinkNIC as it hides behind a 13" tft screen.
(*) I easily burned a replacement cdrom for my parent's NIC that substituted Netscape Communicator for the standalone Navigator the ThinkNIC comes with, so certain email options would be possible for us.

Some people are in the habit of saying that internet appliances are a useless solution in search of a nonexistent problem that the PC has already solved. This is a deeply ignorant and unimaginative view. Many internet appliances are fatally flawed products. The ThinkNIC, however, shows that the appliance idea is not just desireable but technically and econmically workable in brilliant fashion.

The extreme performance and low cost of the X18-architecture systems would make them excellent affordable general-purpose computers -- but I am concerned about the technology being relegated to a niche like the previous FORTH processors ... Do you think it would it be a worthy goal to target the full functionality offered by Larry Ellison's "N|C" ("New Internet Computer") ? (X Terminal, Winframe terminal, SSH client, Web Browser, Java, Javascript, etc.)

This sounds a lot like the Progeny system's NOW system, already done :-)

question for ya, though. I posted (below as an AC) about using NICs as thin clients. Do NICs have the ability to a) netboot and b) run a MOSIX kernel on the cyrix 266?

If so, then a NIC solution woudl be SOOOO sweet. Basically, just netboot a debian kernel on it, and suddenly you have as much processing power as you possibly need in an organization!

For a company of, say, 20 people, you could have 2 nice servers ($2000 each), 20 NIC solutions (with nice monitors/keybopard/mice ends up being about $600 erach, or total of $12,000), and various other printers, switches, etc. for, say, $3000. So, for $19,000 you have a FULL, really fast and scalabe solution with almost no downtime (between interchangeable NICs and redundant servers).

Oh! think of the processing power you could get!!

mark_lybarger said:
"these are perfect for a general internet appliance. it's something you should find in the libraries or mall kiosk, but most people want to do more with their home computer than just suft the net. granted, it's the most frequent thing we do with 'um, but we still want to do more."

I should mention that I now tell most everyone that come to me with a MS Windows question that I no longer will answer them for free. I'll will freely assist them leaving the MS Windows world for a better place (I use an iMac/OS X and Linux at home) like Macintosh, Linux, Be or QNX, but resolving Billy OS problems will cost them $35 per hour (IMHO still a gift). Hence the reason for liking the thinknic.

As for the workplace, "thin is in". This is a place where most users don't need a GeForce video card or SB Live audio. Thin clients make my life so much easier. When you spell out the savings like no MS licenses, $500 per seat with a LCD screen and no HDs that need replacing or rebuilding it's a lock. Unless, of course, the person I'm pitching the idea to has been brainwashed by MS (with is all too common).

So yes, for most everyone a "thin" machine is not the way to go as their home "solo" PC. As a second or third (and so one) PC it's worth a look.

pherris

mark_lybarger said:
"these are perfect for a general internet appliance. it's something you should find in the libraries or mall kiosk, but most people want to do more with their home computer than just suft the net. granted, it's the most frequent thing we do with 'um, but we still want to do more."

I should mention that I now tell most everyone that come to me with a MS Windows question that I no longer will answer them for free. I'll will freely assist them leaving the MS Windows world for a better place (I use an iMac/OS X and Linux at home) like Macintosh, Linux, Be or QNX, but resolving Billy OS problems will cost them $35 per hour (IMHO still a gift). Hence the reason for liking the thinknic.

As for the workplace, "thin is in". This is a place where most users don't need a GeForce video card or SB Live audio. Thin clients make my life so much easier. When you spell out the savings like no MS licenses, $500 per seat with a LCD screen and no HDs that need replacing or rebuilding it's a lock. Unless, of course, the person I'm pitching the idea to has been brainwashed by MS (with is all too common).

So yes, for most everyone a "thin" machine is not the way to go as their home "solo" PC. As a second or third (and so one) PC it's worth a look.

pherris

Dyolf Knip said:
"Usually more expensive, too. Check out IBM's thinclient lines. $500 and up, not even including the monitor."

Here's the specs:
- VIA Cyrix MII PR266 processor
- 64MB RAM (single DIMM and upgradable)
- 4MB Flash Memory Disk
- 24X CD-ROM Drive
- 56K Modem
- 10/100 bT Ethernet
- 2 USB Ports
- Keyboard & Mouse
- Speakers
- Linux and X boot CD with Realplayer G2, Netscape, Citrix and an IRC client.

/. had a discussion on this box a while ago.

BTW, Dyolf is right, except for the thinknic, thin clients [that I've seen] are $500+. Too rich for my blood.

pherris

My first reaction was "Why don't we just send books?" Then I read it again. They want to educate illiterate people with video and animations.

Note also that there was a quote saying any of the modern consoles would be good, it's just that the others cost more than the PSX2. (Is $225 really a good estimate for how much it costs to make a PSX2? I had heard that the $300 price was under Sony's cost of goods, but maybe they have cut costs by now.)

Even the dirt-poor need information. They need to know how to set up the latrines so they don't contaminate the water supply. They need to know basic public health so they won't give themselves food poisoning all the time. And it might be cool if they could learn how to read; that's one more thing you actually could do on a PSX2.

In a perfect world, you would make a special Africa Computer. It would be mil-spec rugged, have the graphics capability for video and animations, etc. etc. In reality, you would spend a lot developing this, and the game consoles are probably good enough and very inexpensive.

Note that not everyone is illiterate. They will probably also want simple cheap web terminals like the NIC.

steveha

I think that .NET is an interesting idea. But I'm confused why people consider this a revolutionary idea - ok, so MS has all your apps on the central server. I think I must have missed something, because most of the primary software (OS, basic functions, etc) are run locally.

Whereas with some of the more interesting projects - that have come to light lately - we are making *significant* headway into the 'NC' idea that was oh-so-trendy about four and a half years ago. The idea of HD-less boxes has become available to the masses. The Linux Terminal Server Project has managed to compile an extensive resource for creating NC's that are feasible for businesses (and significantly more efficient to administer than either a set of Linux boxes or Windows boxes.) K12LTSP is also on the way for schools.

Will either of those projects reach wide-adoption? Not bloody likely. But maybe I'm missing some grand-paradigm of ASP's that can't be fulfilled by a well-designed client/server relationship. I don't think I would ever invest in .NET when the blatantly obvious alternatives exists - especially when I can get away for $350 per client box.

As we are talking about diskless machines, I would only need to burn a CD for each machine. As for the falling of computer prices, the only thing I've heard that can compare in price to a computer is thinknic at $199.99 and that's not easily available to me (I'm not in the US).

• 250 GPH Submersible water pump $34 - I think you can get away with a smaller unit, but this runs fairly quiet, especially when put in a cabinet.
• Maze2 Waterblock $42 - This, in my opinion, is the best waterblock out there, and the price ain't bad.
• Transmission oil cooler $44 - dangerden also sells these, since in my exp. carparts.com may take months to deliver.
• Assorted hardware and tubing <$20 - Some 3/8" ID tubing, some hose clamps, and an adapter convert the 1/2" pump to 3/8".
• Some time $priceless - Anyone got some of this for sale? I can use some!

Slap it all together and you're in business. I've removed two of the fans from the case, and put one of them on the radiator but I never turn it on. The one in the power supply runs at low speed until the PSU gets really hot (which it never does now since all the heat is piped out of the case). The hard drives (2x 40GB 7,200RPM IBM 60GXPs) still make some noise, but I put the case on, and put the box in the cabinet in my desk, and I can't even tell if it is running. The ThinkNIC named littlelarry with the fan removed from its heatsink now makes more noise.

I have been involved in the hacking of the Acer NT-150 set-top box for quite a few months now (check out the link above). The box is quite low power (AMD 586/133), and will just barely play MP3s, once a hard drive is connected.

One thing that popped up in our discussions about how we could play MP3s, and still have power to do other things (or at least play MP3s at a higher quality) was the concept of using the NT-150 as a client, and streaming the MP3s off a server, over the network interface, then piping the resulting audio to the sound card.

None of us have done this yet, but we did manage to find a few GPL'd bits of code that supposedly do it (links are on the site). Basically, you have a back room server doing all the decoding, and the client merely handles the redirect to the audio device, which uses very little processing power. I would imagine that a similar method could be used for other streams as well (though it would probably require a much better CPU than what is in the NT-150).

You might also look into this company...

They make a machine that has OK specs, and can probably do what you need it to do, is pretty cheap, and looks to be PC standard based. Not sure if the low price ($199) will get you a machine with normal video out, or only VGA, and I don't know whether you have to have the internet service they provide or not to get the deal - but might be worth looking into.

One other thing - a few months back /. had an article about homebrewing a 1U web server - it used an AMD 586/133 as well, but I am sure something else could be used - I doubt you will be able to get away with using no fan on the CPU, unless you use a custom xtra large heat sink - most CPUs don't run that cool, and for what you will be doing (and considering how much will be on board and handled by the CPU in some manner - video mostly, but sound and ether to a minor extent as well), a fan will almost surely be needed. It won't be that loud, though - so don't worry too much about it (aside from electrical noise isolation, of course)...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Why is it always "this vs. that"? Who cares if somone makes a better *nix for the desktop. Linux sucks as a home pc (not as a home workstation used by us technically minded folks) unless used in instances like the ThinkNIC machine. MacOS has had some tough times, but this could be a great *nix based OS that typical home users could enjoy. Linux on the server, OS X for the home, where does windows fit in? :)

http://www.thinknic.com/

About $350 (with monitor or $200 without) and runs Netscape and Java. Attach a network drive (like xdrive or idrive) and you've got what you're looking for don't you? Mid grade components, mid grade system, very cheap. Linux 2.2, NS 4.7.

However, makers of $1000 PCs are still willing to pay it. I doubt this will change within six months.

steveha

Buy each of them a NIC.

Pros:
- inexpensive
- runs Linux
- idiot-proof (mostly)
- hackable (if desired)

Cons:
- no local storage

This is why NIC makes sense. I've got a web terminal dialing up to my ISP even if the manufacturer goes under.

You are right on the money (no pun intended). Linux is a great server, and for most users (unless it's one of us slashdotters) linux is not a good alternative on the desktop. The only case where I disagree is with employees that do all of their work through your company intranet (web based, of course).

For example, you have 100 customer server rep's, and all of the account managing software, call tracking, incident response systems are web-based. Then you just need a 100 ThinkNic's which run Linux and are very tight. You really don't need anything but a browser.

Other than the above, I personally think that win2k makes a great workstation.

If that Think NIC cheap linux box had 4 ethernet ports instead of 1 (think "Hub" or "Switch"), I would definitely have bought one of those instead of the $169 cable modem firewalls.

This would discourage serious posters from using Anonymous Coward instead of their own.

Back on topic somewhat, the pricing and configuration of these "set top" boxes are quite similar to the Think NIC ones. There seems to be a "price point" around $325-$350.

By the way, a monitorless NIC is priced at $199, and while it includes no hard drive, it does have a CD-ROM, which certainly provides more space than a maybe-64MB flash card...

Actually I have noticed minor mouse movements even when I'm not moving the mouse on both my P3 and my NiC ( www.thinknic.com ). strange

It's very simple folks. If you want an internet appliance with Ethernet, go to http://www.thinknic.com. $200, all the browsing you want, and 10/100 for those with real connections. We support Real, mp3, ogg vorbis, flash, .doc, and mucho other web content.

They're here. See the NIC. We just ordered a second unit. My kids like it better than their somewhat slower PCs and you just can't beat the price.

The New Internet Computer seems to have what you're looking for.

Pick up a flat panel LCD at an online auction and you'll get more than an appliance, you'll get half a PC!

This is not something likely to make it into SUSE or Redhat, and I do not think that is the point - I believe the point is to make AOL available for Linux on an appliance, like the ones AOL is developing with Gateway or Larry's NIC. In a short amount of time we may have many more appliances running Linux than we do servers.

• Add in a 10BaseT NIC, or, better still, a 100BaseT NIC;
• Add another 64MB of RAM.

Those factors would likely make such a unit pretty useful as a "cheap terminal," rather like the $200 Think NIC units.

Unfortunately, I suspect the cost and effort would outweigh the cost of a Think NIC, meaning that while the concept is still a "cool hack," it's not a terribly practical one...

What resolutions does the video support? The NIC displays at 800 x 600 resolution with 65,536 million colors.

Jeff

Perhaps I'm wrong, but wasn't the reason the first run of those successful that they were around $100? Anyway, hopefully they will go on sale; I wouldn't mind picking one up for the kitchen....mmmm recipes online...

get a oracle network computer or a neo OEN ..

Public availability starts on 15 June, according to this.