Slashdot Mirror
Cappuccino PC, Round 3
Simon (S2) writes "do you remember the cappuccino pc? There is a new release of it called Mocha.
The Mocha P4 PC size advantage makes it ideal for places where space is at a premium or for those who work in several fixed locations at once and want to be able to access the same data everywhere. Mocha P4 is a PC that is so flexible, efficient, compact and portable technically knocks down all existing desk top PCs. Choosing a big and bulky inappropriate PC has become an obsolete way of thinking. The over all technology of other mini-book PCs around is still far from our achievement today. Take advantage of the new breed PC of tomorrow and experience the next generation way of computing."
An interesting thread...but nonetheless... coughcoughcoughfreeadvertisingcough
The PC that looks like an Amstrad CPC! Not such a great deal when you look at the specs, but hey-- it's the retro computer-in-the-keyboard look. Add a three inch floppy drive and you're there.
Matthew @ Bytemark Hosting
Mocha P4 is a PC that is so flexible, efficient, compact and portable technically knocks down all existing desk top PCs. Choosing a big and bulky inappropriate PC has become an obsolete way of thinking. The over all technology of other mini-book PCs around is still far from our achievement today. Take advantage of the new breed PC of tomorrow and experience the next generation way of computing."
Why not make him buy a banner ad like everyone else? This isn't a product review or even an annoucement, it's blatant, and unsubstantiated, hype.
I think if they increased the form factor slightly so as to incoporate one agp slot, then they'd really have something. Stick in the latest Nvidia or ATI graphics card and you've got a full fledged PC. Or maybe I'm just talking about those Shuttle mini form factor PC's, though I think the Cappuccino with an AGP slot would still be smaller. Might have to stick in an extra fan though...
Eddy.WriteLinux.Com
"The over all technology of other mini-book PCs around is still far from our achievement today. Take advantage of the new breed PC of tomorrow and experience the next generation way of computing."
Dude. This is totally a press release. Couldn't somebody at least have stuck a snide comment at the end?? I come to Slashdot for... er... well, I forget, but anyway, adverts masquerading as news reports bomb.
Well, I like to a have a portable Mosix cluster with me at all times (it's much nicer to run fluid dynamics simulations at the local cafe than in the lab) and of course my primary node is my laptop. But the other 40 nodes are Cappuchinos.
-... ---
Slashdot is just cunt and pasting press releases, and posting them as stories now?
Lame.
"PC of tomorrow", indeed.
I've been looking at these for a while, and I always think "What use is this? If you want a desktop, get a desktop, if you want portability, get a laptop". But on balance I think this could be cool for a certain type of user who doesn't want a laptop, with its fragility, high cost and tiny screen (I can't stand even 15" monitors...), but does need to carry a computer around to other locations where the requisite peripherals (keyboard, mouse, monitor) will be easily available -- a telecommuter, maybe, or a college student who travels home a lot (like me!).
It's undeniably a cool bit of tech, but it's definitely for a niche market.
I was reading the FAQ and it said that this thing didn't need a monitor or keyboard to boot. This would make a great server because you could shove a lot of these things onto one rack if you wanted to.
1. Don't hype up the benefits we've already had for years with existing equipment.
The Mocha P4 PC size advantage makes it ideal for places where space is at a premium or for those who work in several fixed locations at once and want to be able to access the same data everywhere
Really? Wow, that's a really new concept. I mean, I could just use the Internet to access the same data from multiple locations.. but no, instead I can lug around a whole PC with me instead! Hang on.. wouldn't I just buy a notebook if I wanted to do that?
2. Don't blind us with meaningless adjectives.
Mocha P4 is a PC that is so flexible, efficient, compact and portable technically knocks down all existing desk top PCs.
Gee whiz. Lots of adjectives. It must be good! How does the size of a computer make it more 'efficient' anyway?
3. Don't blatantly admit you're connected to the item you're promoting.
The over all technology of other mini-book PCs around is still far from our achievement today.
Hemos deserves a big slap down for posting this when this one sentence ADMITS it's just an ad! Other computers are still far from our achievement? Hello editors, this is an ad!
4. Don't sound so cheesy that anyone still reading will just ignore your ad anyway.
Take advantage of the new breed PC of tomorrow and experience the next generation way of computing.
This sounds just as corny as the fake ads in Grand Theft Auto 3 for 'The House of Tomorrow'.
Have the technology of tomorrow.. today!
mogorific carpentry experiments
Presumably, the server is a Mocha and the P4 has melted its socket or something.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Choosing a big and bulky inappropriate PC has become an obsolete way of thinking.
Back in my day, all we had was inappropriate PCs. They'd show up for dinner in shorts, and make lewd comments about the hostess.
Seriously though, there was a time when choosing an inappropriate PC was, er, appropriate? Don't marketing people take English classes anymore?
How much does it cost to have my ad ran as a /. Story?
Get a free ipod.
I have seen reviews of these things that say that we should all throw away our full towers and buy one of these instead.
Like hell.
My A/V PC has 5 PCI devices and 4 IDE devices, my 3D workstation has 5 PCI back plates used up (various extenders from other cards) and 3 actual PCI slots in use, along with a mere 3 IDE devices (it is going to get a CDRW so make that 4 IDE devices soon now), and;
oh yah;
each one of my steel full muthafucking tower cases?
Doubles.
As
A stepladder.
BIZZOOOOOOTCH!
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
God, these "Slashvertisements" are getting pretty bad.
actually it's a punishment for trying to submit sh** like this.. tsiihii.
mandatory beowulf cluster of these included
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
This reads so much like an advertisement, it isn't even funny. Since when are product plugs - blatant ones! - news for nerds or stuff that matters?
I'm the stranger...posting to
Much more niche market, this thingy, but:
* Not everyone needs a screen. If you just want something headless, it's much smaller.
* Contractor or other multi-site based role? Well, this gives you a full PC with network in a box not much bigger than a PDA. Take this round, plug it into their keyboard, mouse and monitor and you've got a PC with little carried round. Yes, that's dependent on them being there but how many offices don't have them spare somewhere? Also, means you get a proper one of each rather than the ergonomic nightmare that is a laptop.
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
And if you act now, we'll get it to you gfor just three EASY payments of $19.95! Call while supplies last!
See the latest in innovation! Totally changes the way you work, and even think about working! Far superior to unsightly cabinets of dusty electronics, and for a price that is astounding! If you decide to keep it, we'll refund half the purchase price. This is so revolutionary that it makes the PC obsolete. Stop by, and you'll get a free onion!
Are they running their webserver on one of these? Yeesh, count me out...
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Anyone know where you can get one of these in the UK?
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I don't car eif it is a press release or not. Small PC's like this have a TON of uses I can come up with in less than 30 seconds:
MP3 Server in car
GPS navigation in car
Wearable (with proper battery pack)
Internet terminal in car for passengers
Telematic Solution (Voice navigation, MP3, Internet fed by a 3G cel phone providing all sorts of services with TTS for the driver and a LCD for passengers...ends the are we there yet questions of kids).
Stick it in your kitchen, bedroom, bathroom or hall closet.
Listen. Not everyone needs a fire breathing machine to surf the net or word process. Not everone plays quake (I'm a geek and I don't). Not everyone needs a 400 dollar video card. My neighbor has a 2-3 year old machine and is perfectly happy with it. It does everything he needs. Personally, I am ready for an upgrade myself, but not even to a top end machine. I need the processor power, but don't need a Geforce 4. I will be happy with something that just processes a hair faster then my Duron 700. I'd be happy with the 1.2 Ghz machine you threw out yesterday.
Gorkman
This looks like an updated Commodore 128. Perhaps a C-256?
The lack of fan = the lack of ventilation. Maybe I should have made that a little more clear.
Lack of ventilation = blocking the airflow by covering the holes somehow. Maybe I should have made that a little more clear. With a fan it would be more tolerant of that, but if you don't block it off, it works just fine without a fan. My mom is using hers in Guatemala City with no problems.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Why don't you have it on ThinkGeek yet? Still selling the old stale cappucino there.... Methinks the marketroids didn't plan this well, and instead are just annoying would-be-news-readers.
I write code.
Be sure to make sure your site is even up AT ALL! The site doesn't take forever, it just doesn't exist!
:-)
However, if it was taken down by the slashdot effect, it proves that more people click on story links rather than banner ads...but everyone already knew that
The interesting thing is that it was a metal case, and the CPU had thermal gel to cool the CPU through the case.
Fight Spammers!
Their site is giving an "500 Internal Error"... Perhaps they should look into the next generation Operating System and Web Server as well.
"To make a mistake is only human; to persist in a mistake is idiotic." Cicero
A couple days ago, Robin and I were playing Neverwinter Nights (yes, I broke down and rebooted, but I _still_ want the linux version). A friend called and we invited him over to play. He brought a low-end 1.1 GHz celeron machine he picked up at Fry's a couple months ago, and a fresh copy of NWN (yes, we're all very geeky... even Robin... see our website for more info about us)
Turns out he couldn't play. The on-board video was so slow you couldn't even navigate the menus. I had a machine (in need of some service) with a GeForce3 card in it, so we pulled the card and poped out his box... only to find that it lacked an AGP slot. I guess the $300 price tag for the box (it has linux pre-installed, he installed XP onto it) is a reasonable excuse, maybe.
But if you're slinging bullshit like:
Take advantage of the new breed PC of tomorrow and experience the next generation way of computing
and it can't even be upgraded with a (current) game-capable graphics card, how can anyone consider is an expereince of next generation computing.
and to add a bit of poetic justice, this shameful ad copy only got their site slashdotted, so potential customers for this lame "next generation way of computing" are getting nothing more than HTTP/1.1 Server Too Busy. Maybe they should have used a LARGER and more capable computer!
PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
Seems the manufacturer wants to advertise on Slashdot. Okay, fine, whatever. Even sneaking it in as a real submission is fine. I don't own slashdot.
But, what the hell do they mean, "next generation way of computing?" First, what does that even mean? And secondly, what have they done to back it up?
The answers: nothing, and nothing. In that order.
Seems they think the next generation of computers are merely smaller than the current generation. They don't do anything truly useful, like digitize you and put you on the game grid; they are the same as the bigger, current generation, only more restricted.
First, it uses 2.5" hard drives, which are slow and expensive, making it a bad choice for software development. Second, you can't simply use the latest video cards, rendering it useless for high-end gaming.
So, if the hard drive is too slow for development, and the video is too slow for high-end gaming, what use is it?
If it's merely small, I will use an ITX mobo and case, or a uATX if I want the latest processor.
I don't know why I just spent so much time responding to blatant advertising; I guess it's just a slow day.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
because they still won't integrate a decent video chipset.. Come on a geforce2 would do some amazing things in it and is a bargan basement video chipset now. This is the year 2002.. they can stop using the absolute cheapest video chipsets in these integrated computers.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I'd rather get this.
sweet sweet transmeta chip with log lasting battery (I'd get the 10 hour battery).
-no broken link
Then, Taco reposts a story about a 'universal remote control' that timothy posted on Saturday (it's still listed on the front page of slashdot over on the right).
Then, Taco posts this very obvious press release/advertisement about a small form-factor PC and slashdots the poor manufacturer's web site. I guess that's what you get for advertising on slashdot when you run IIS.
Does this have anything to do with OSDN's recent decision to close FreeCode? I guess I would be a little jittery if my parent company closed down one of its subsidiaries. Of course, that wouldn't qualify as "News for nerds. Stuff that matters" as much as the CappucinoPC press release, so that won't be posted today.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi
Perhaps you only meant to imply that WorldNetDaily was an example of a site that was properly coded to be scalable (insomuch as is possible with IIS/VBScript) -- this is what I assume, anyway. But you wouldn't be able to tell any of that just by going to the site..........
Now for the naysayers complaining about journalistic integrity. Once again Slashdot is not a newspaper, it's a blog. CmdrTaco, Hemos, and the gang are not journalists, they're geeks. Yeah, the article is pretty much hyping something - I think the Cappucino line is pretty cool, just like the Shuttle line of mini-PCs. Is this an "ad" in disguise? Opinions are like assholes...that's why /. has a comments section. Sheesh.
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I haven't seen this page, looks like it's slashdotted for the next few hours, but i wanted a cheap small firewall box. I like the form factor of the old Qubes, but they're not cheap. Whats a good box to go for? I saw the cappuccino and it was pricey even without the second network card. I don't care about video at all, if I can get a serial console and even delete the video if it would save me a few bucks. As a firewall it doesn't have to be a burner CPU, and get a decent hard drive and I'm set. Is there a standard small form factor that i can get? Something like a cheap celeron, a hard drive, and two network cards, and I think that would be what I needed.
How about a new category named Free Advertising?
Thanks for the clarification.
I'm the stranger...posting to
Having said that, if you used the Mocha with some sort of NAS device like a NetApp then you might have something. IMO, the RLX stuff is still a better solution, though. At least with those you can mirror the boot drive.
Of course, I'm just pulling all this outta the air, so take as many grains of salt as needed.
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
have reported case-cracking due to the lack of fan, eh?
This is much more Steve jobs than a fan. Steve has his various obsessions. I was reading that when the NeXT Cube came out, he wanted an absolute perfect cube. Sounds normal, until you realize that this is actually a bitch to manufacture. Normally you have an imperceptably wider mouth of the mold to make removal easier. Maybe a couple thousandths here or there. But no, Steve wanted perfect sides, baking extraction difficult. Cost a bunch more, he lots some cases because of scratches, but Steve got what he wanted. I remember hearing something similar with the G4 cube, but not exactly, cause i think he learned his lesson on the Black Cube NeXTs.
But so are all the articles about the shuttle mini pc, apple imac/g4/OSX/emac, Linux distro releases, Intel, Amd, etc..
Almost every other news item!
You want "News for Nerds" to be exclusively about the RIAA, MPAA, and case mods?
Hell no.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
I'm scared. I just laughed my ass off at a sentence with 'Bukkake' in it.
And how totally appropriate it is, too.
My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
In the end, I had to take the case off the Cappuccino, remove the proprietary heatsink/ducted fun, jury-rig an old Athlon heatsink and fan to the processor and splice the power cable into the motherboard. I also removed the metal casing around the hard drive, which was retaining heat. Now, with this massive heatsink bulging out of the top, my Cappuccino will run for about a week before it locks up. Still not terribly reliable.
If this new Mocha (which is actually the 5th-gen, not the 3rd) has a better cooling system, it'll be well worth the money. Otherwise, it's a total waste. Unfortunately the page is Slashdotted and there's no Google cache, so I can't get any details.
ThinkGeek has been selling the "Cappuccino TX-3" mini-PC from this same company for a while now. How much do you want to bet that they're making a commission on all sales that come in today at the Cappuccino PC Web site?
"* Not everyone needs a screen. If you just want something headless, it's much smaller."
:)
I use my Xbox connected to my stereo as a jukebox. No TV. I have memorised the button sequence to get to the song list I want and start playing it.
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
That's not the page. That's the TX3. The new one mentioned in the article is the Mocha. The TX3 is old news. There's no Google cache of the Mocha page.
The "Oooh shiny!" phenomenon (aka ADD) strikes again...
Most of those people probably believed the microsoft documentation when it said that IIS would handle db connection pooling for them.
It doesn't.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I mean, what exactly is involved in selecting stories for inclusion on the site, because it doesn't seem to involve much editing! No checking to see if articles are repeated. No checking to see if a submission accurtaley refelcts the original story. No checking to see if a submission advocates illegal activities. No checking to see if a submission is just blatant advertising. I'm sure many professional editors would be mortified to see their job title being used in this way. Come on guys, shape up a bit! You have a great site here. A few screwups are ok, but you do need to keep to some standards!
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
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