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Everyone Needs a Personal Server
An anonymous reader writes "Intel Labs is prototyping a potentially revolutionary new 'personal server'. The tiny device -- smaller than a PDA -- comprises a hard disk, BlueTooth, a Web-DAV enabled HTTP daemon, and other technologies enabling the user to access and modify their files from any enabled PC within their "Personal Area Network." In theory, this would allow the worker to access their own data -- essentially to have their own PC -- at any suitable workstation as long as the personal server were nearby. This article at LinuxDevices.com provides background on the personal server concept, explains how the device will enable a truly mobile experience, discusses the basic technologies involved, and provides an architectural block diagram of the prototype, which is based on an XScale Processor running at 400MHz running an embedded Linux OS."
Yep, they thought the same thing on May 4th.
And michael posted that story, as well.
Yet another dupe from Team Slashdot.
And these tits actually want the readers to pay...
Knunov
Why do users with IDs under 100,000 or over 700,000 usually have the most worthwhile comments?
Looks like an also ran to DaveNetworks design here: http://www.davenw.com/main.html
Turkeyphant
AFAIK Bluetooth struggles with security issues, so that could cause problems.
But apart from that, this appears to be just a really small version of a regular computer, meaning the security would be just as good as any other Linux/Wireless system. It's just smaller.
What I really need is are smaller portable harddrives with bigger capacities (200GB to start would be nice) that are network-aware. Just plug in an ethernet cable and mount it.
The Snap Appliance Server 1100 is pretty close. It's a little large, but not too bad. It's something that's much more useful to me than this "personal server". But the cost is outrageous. About 800USD for a 120GB networked drive? Considering I can get a 160GB USB drive in Japan for under 200USD now, the extra 600USD does not justify the cost of adding ethernet.
I guess I'll just have to wait, someone's bound to come out with something. For now I'm just thinking of picking up one of those brick-PCs and mounting my drives to that (especially as I need more) and just connecting that to the network wherever I am.
Details, details..... my vision for a device like this is that it is an accessory for all display devices... be they PC, Console Game device, PDA, Laptop, Cellphone. Of course what needs to happen is for a standard to evolve through a standards body for authenticating hardware, attached storage. Bluetooth has a method... it may work... though at the moment it is adhoc and p2p, with absolutely no auth server involvement, ie: no central auth database.
Just reiterating some of your points in a different manner.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
If Apple added wireless & http to the next iPod and marketed it as a must have because of the free, built in iServe software, it would be massive! On launch, ensure it works with Macs and Windows then watch them fly off the shelves!
Gotta admit being a little disappointed by this.
For those of you who didn't RTFA: This is essentially a little hard drive which rides around in your backpack (note: I don't carry a backpack all the time; do you?) and can connect, wirelessly, to any machine you access which recognizes wireless devices. Basically, as far as I can tell, this has the same net effect as having a home directory on an NFS server someplace and using it to save your settings as you move from machine to machine.
Again: Bo-ring.
When I saw "personal server, no IO", I was hoping this would be a manifestation of the keystone portion of my idea for a personal wireless network Your devices would all notice one another, and the width of functionality of any given device would be dependant on what you were carrying. If you we out taking pictures with your digicam and were carrying a server, the images would be transfered to the (presumably very expansive) drive in the server. If you had your cell phone, the images would be sent off to your home computer, as well.
Repeat en masse. PDAs display and do I/O, headphones play music and the real work is taken care of automagically behind the scenes in some secure fashion. You'd effectively allow the elimination of multi-use devices which don't do any job very well by allowing your devices to play their strong points, and you could customize your loadout just in what you grab in the morning when you're loading your pockets.
Anyhow, this ain't it, and that's disappointing -- somebody must have hit my verbosity flag today, and I'm sincerely sorry for the pain that I've caused you all...
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
Look, Bluetooth has about a 10 meter (10 yard) radius if you can't keep intruders out of your house or the cubes right next to you, you have more important worries than your PAN server security
Me, I want a PAN server asap. Great idea.
Have you looked at the Cappuccino PC's? They don't all have "desktop" processors, but are closer to what you're looking for than most laptops.
http://www.cappuccinopc.com/espressopc.asp
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
Intel has it all wrong - and Berkley has it right.
http://oceanstore.cs.berkeley.edu/
Check out OceanStore software for building a fully reliable network where users can access their files from any connected machine. It's also fully redundant too.
The biggest flaw of the personal server is that your data is subject to physical desctruction at anytime. The server can give you portability, but it can't give you reliability.
As high speed connections become ubiquitous across the globe, OceanStore will be the real way of storing your information, encrypted, and replicated across many nodes in the global network - it would be possible to have access to your "personal files" from anywhere in the world. Not only that - you will never have to worry about backing up again.
Sony's had a wireless file server PGX1 out in Japan for several months now. It's not really pocket size but doesn't take much space or add much weight in a bag at only 390g. It stores 20GB and supports CIFS, NFS and FTP connections over 802.11b. It's also dockable with a wired ethernet connection when direct access is desired. Configuration is via LCD display or web browser.
See the FSV-PGX1 at Sony's Portable File Server page for details (in Japanese of course).