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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."
I travel a /lot/ -- and I have a need to have my data accessable from anywhere in the world whenever I want it. I have servers in 3 countries connected together for most things, but for very large files (or sets of files) this is really impractical and can get very expensive. So I carry two 120GB USB drives with me wherever I go. These drives are pretty bulky, but they do allow me to do what this "personal server" is promoting - access my data from any workstation.
I don't really need a webserver with me, since that is better placed on a server that I don't unplug. This feature is pretty useless for me. Nor is bluetooth really practical to me, since USB is much wider supported than bluetooth on the machines I might sit at.
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.
Sure the idea has merits. If they ever can the installed base of the ground. Say that every PC in world is enabled in this way. Then yes I could take this light device with me and while waiting at the airport work at a supplied terminal. While in the aircraft use the PC in the seat to work. Then while at the client use their PC's to hold my presentation.
Slight snag. This is not likely to happen. Most companies don't even like their own employees to attach hardware to the network let alone complete strangers. Let alone a black box device. We all heard the horror storie about people installing modded consoles in the walls to comprimise security at big offices. This make it even easier.
It sounds to me like kermit. To those of you who do not know what kermit is it was a mobile phone that only worked in hotsports. So it worked for a few years while everyone used payphones or carphones until cellphones became cheap. Just as now everyone will use something like a USB pendrive/iPod style/external HD device or pda/laptop. The first are cheap and light and will usually work. The second are expensive heavy but at least can work on their own.
Perhaps this will work for big companies in highly specialized situations. I just can't think of any where existing tech like the ones I mentioned wouldn't do just as well.
Can anyone else perhaps point out what I missed?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Does it do anything an ordinary laptop and my servers at home + dyndns don't do perfectly well already?
Presto! Expensive multitool that now does half of everything you want and only does it half as good as it could.
All-in-one solutions aren't exactly a great idea. For a portable music player, most people want it to be as inexpensive, small and lightweight as possible, but to still have the features they want in a music player. I'm afraid wireless file/web serving is not on that list for the majority of users.
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
sig hup Cox; sig hup Microsoft; wake up Intel. Cox and other ISPs need to stand up to Microsoft and media interests or die. Don't give me bull about dynDNS, I want to live upright. I don't need a windoze computer to pop up a silly icon and comprimise all my personal and company data. The good folks at Intel need to realize that people already do this and contribute to projects like Open Zaurus that make it easier, rather than to Microsoft because Microsoft will work to prevent, pervert and control the whole effort. If your data is not on a free platform, someone else owns it.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
What everyone needs is not a personal server which would turn any computer into their own personal computer but, instead, what every a little device which would turn any display into their own personal terminal (make that X terminal). Remove the storage component from this device and add wireless connectivity to it instead, and then you'd have something that the world needs because it would essentially eliminate the need for the personal computer. And this device could be small enough to be built into clothing or worn as jewelry.
Looks to me like the idea is basically ubiquitous access to your data.
I'll grant them that it _is_ innovative to create a device like this which abstracts the access method to the portable data behind open protocols such as tcpip, but I still get the feeling they're going about it in a lopsided manner.
You move, but this doesn't mean the data must move with you to be accessible. This is one of the ideas with X, your data is plonked on a machine somewhere far off, and you conect to it and presto, you and your data are one.
I feel effort and time invested in ubiquitous connectivity will do far more to address the need to access one's data than working on solutions like this.
Kudos still, the idea is interesting.
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
Well, if Intel puts a linux inside this device, we already know whom SCO is going to sue next.
Well, think big:
With this device your mp3 player and camera dont need more than a little ram anymore, so you can integrate the mp3 player into the earphones.
Your digital camera can now be included in you cell phone, which has bluetooth already, and sends it pictures to the server.
Considering the fact that the server has a processor, your pda can be a dumb client, so you could just integrate a hud in your glasses and a wireless keyboard for input.
I think it is quite useful to concentrage storage space and processing power in one place.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
The article is focusing on its use as a portable hard disk even though it really is a portable wireless server.
A USB keychain drive seems to fill this role better. If all I want is portability of my files I dont really need the CPU, the web server, etc..
Let me get this straight. I'm supposed to carry around this little box with all my data on it so that when I get somewhere that has a keyboard and screen and knows how to talk to this box, I can log in and access my data. What's wrong with this picture? Why do I need to carry around this box? Why do I want to carry around data? That's what the Internet is for.
Remember Java-enabled jewelry with onboard crypto? The RSA "fob" ID device? Dallas Semiconductor buttons? Same functional capabilities, less to carry. All you really need is an ID device.
Ubiquitous computing looks more like "hurry up and find something that wastes compute power before we have to have another layoff". They need some better ideas over there.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
Or, they could just add a button to turn the wireless on or off. Then all you need to do is make sure there are no 1337 hackers within ~30 feet of where you're actually using it.
Huh? The iPod is a consumer device that, while needing a computer to load songs onto it, is completely standalone and fulfills a nearly universal niche.
This stupid thing is just a USB hard drive without the cables. Yeah, I know, it does more than that, but the basic function of it is to allow you move data from computer to computer. I'm guessing that the market of people who need a device to move gigs of data from computer to computer is just a teensy bit smaller than the market of people who like to listen to music. In my life (and I work as a sysadmin at HP, so I know more than my share of nerds), I know maybe two people who would get real use out of this, and maybe one more who would buy it for the gee-whiz factor but have no real use for it. I know at least a dozen people with iPods or other hard-drive-based MP3 players.
And you complaining about this will do what exactly?
/. get a bit more professional in how they do things.
Pretty sure it was a left-handed suggestion that the fine editors at
You know - check for dupes, check links, check spelling...
Since it has been rated up, it seems that a lot of readers agree - even though this is obvious flamebait, OT, etc.
Intel's 'Personal Server': The Handheld Killer? (Sunday, 4-May-2003)
How to Download YouTube Videos
Just keep a bootable system on your iPod, plug in, restart host, boot from iPod, you have your whole system.
John