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Tiny Boxen
swg101 writes "These people (openbrick.org) have developed a small computer designed for open source and free software. I quote: "This great little Linux box can be used as a firewall, micro-server, PABX, thin client, multimedia, almost anything imaginable. It contains a fanless 300 Mhz x86 compatible Geode processor and 128 MB SDRAM. Software can be installed on a Compact Flash or on an optional Hard Disk." Sounds like a nice solution for many applications."
Boxen still isn't a word.
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
For firewall use, I would like to see dual NICs.
They would make great IDS nodes.
$300 bucks is a pretty good deal for a computer that small with that amount of proc power.
-M
This "boxen" issue has come up before on ./ and I'm surprised the argument continues. ;-)
1) Since the oh-so-consistent English language uses the term "oxen" as the plural of "ox", it sounds reasonable (and amusing) to use "boxen" for "box".
2) Any hacker or geek with some sense of computing history knows that clusters of the late, great VAX systems from Digital Equipment Corp. (pre-Compaq) were known as VAXen.
3) The English language has no ultimate authority comparable to the Royal Academy of the Language in Spain, or its equivalent in France. So making up words in English is quite easy, and legitimacy comes to them with wide usage. No need for the latest official dictionary to be published.
What would make this any better than the cool looking mini computers from shuttle? This thing is $489 and I just saw that Fry's has the Shuttle P4 computer for about $300. The OpenBrick machine has a PCMCIA and CF slot but unless you are a laptop user you most likely aren't wanting PCMCIA anyway and CF card readers that plug into USB are fairly cheap.
Uhhh... no.
The solution is to not use hardware that has integrated DRM.
I'm not sure why you are disagreeing. This doesn't have DRM, nor is it likely to ever have it if the existing design doesn't need to change to accomodate increasing performance demands.
To expand my idea: most hardware has become a commodity. There really is very little reason to fund "innovation" in it when that innovation is directed towards how to prevent us from doing certain things. I'd rather have the innovation directed towards providing me *cheaper* scalable interchangable parts that implement the existing hardware feature sets. Freeze the hardware and just buy more of it if you need more performance.
Buy a Mac or buy a workstation if you don't want DRM. You can get a 64 bit DEC Alpha really cheap now.
Yuck. Where's the fun in that? If you want those platforms, have at it. You haven't given me a single reason not to think that clustering small commodity items is not a good way, nor an interesting way, to solve computing problems.
You present an interesting but insubstantial point.
The rest of the world hates the idea of DRM - by and large, it's an American idea, and as much as you'd like to think otherwise, American media isn't worth sacrificing freedom for - the few good things that escape do so because they slip under the radar. I could easily (and largely have, already) abandoned American media. I suspect the rest of the world could do so as well. Perhaps the US would see its position as an informational power change.
Just a thought.
--Dan
(1) We do not have tech support.
(2) If you have a problem, see (1).