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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."
Sounds interesting, but how secure that kind of device can be?
an iPod is already 2/3s of that
add wireless and http and presto!
Exercise caution when modding this message up: the author acts like a jerk when his karma is excellent.
They won't let me plug my laptop in to the company network, but they're going to let me attach this to my PC wirelessly? Yeah, right.
I use a USB 2.0 enabled 30 gig portable hard drive pocketec.net (I see they now come larger as well) between multiple computers at home and office so I no longer need to carry a laptop. (And it's as small as my Palm unit) Now if I could access this through my PDA? Add a fold out/roll out keyboard? and a small display, give me WiFi and bluetooth through to my new Treo 600 and I'd dump the laptop for good!
I carry a laptop from home to work. I have a port replicator in both places and kbd, lcd,.. is basically dead weight. If you could make a PC the size of a laptop with a desktop processor (cheaper) but no screen, kbd, mouse then I would definitely be in for this. You would have to guarantee backward compatibility on the docking station so don't need to buy new ones every time I upgrade. You would have to do carefull weight/price/lifetime calculations for deciding what goes in the brick and what in the docking station (power supply, cdrom?). This would also work in these "floating" offices where every employee does not have a fixed desk assigned (very popular in Brussels right now, how about your place?). What they describe here just seems like another expensive add-on. I would look for sth which replaces my current hardware store.
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For me the keyword "server", as in data storage device, immediately triggered the thought of "backup" and then "security".
What a nightmare for a company to have a personal server for each of their employees who store all kinds of stuff on it, never even thinking about the implications. Of course that isn't really worse than everybody having a notebook computer, only that it would double the number of devices. Hm, maybe it would be better to have these boxes, if they are more secure and can be backed up easier than notebooks. Somehow I doubt this.
If a personal file server (which fits in the whole bluetooth connectivity thing in theory) were available, my digital camera would only have to be the lens and a little bit of memory until the picture had been sent to the file server and then could be erased. My mp3 player could become little more than a streaming audio reciever -- heck I wouldn't really need it seperate from my digital camera. And, since we've seen this already, why couldn't the camera, mp3 player and cellphone all be in one? Or, and maybe this is stretching this a bit, couldn't it all be integrated with my PDA? the PDA would simply be the interface for the file server. It would be as thin as an lcd screen (no processor needed because it's a dummy client) and then a jack for headphones.
The biggest snag with my scenario is that bluetooth has never worked like it should due to proprietary communications etc. If that can ever get ironed out (a la Betamax vs. VHS) then maybe we can start to see this actually happening from a device consolidation point of view.
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/home/mobile mounted directory (which requires no user intervention to mount (as long as its allowed to mount that is)) go off to work and open it from your /home/mobile mounted directory at work. Forgetting that you even carried the box with you.
Think of the big picture, its not practicle to use the internet for such a thing yet, for one upstream bandwidth is expensive and most broadband users have very little of it.
Im not arguing the usefullness of this device, i for one would throw stuff i need to take with me on a cd and be on my way, but it does have its uses and claiming the internet is a much better solution is just crazy (for now). When everyone can upload over 1mbit i would agree with you, to an extent, at that rate it might be alright for transfering a couple megs (10-15) but anymore then that and your still going to be waiting WAY to long to get anything done.
I see this device as something that after the "coolness" of having a new gadget around fades off you forget its around and then its just there, like another hard disk. You save your reports and presentations to your
In theory, but not in practice yet. My home machine is on dialup, and data on it is not available when I am not there. Servers at work are for work, not personal use, and anyway I wouldn't put personal stuff on a machine where some BOFH has the root password unless I absolutely had to.
And this would still only work if whatever machine I was trying to use also had a broadband connection. "Hey want to see the photos I scanned at nice high resolution? Let's connect to the ftp server and come back in three days when it's done."
People recognize this problem. It is why they carry laptops around with them everywhere. I see people all the time using a laptop while sitting next to a desktop or an X server. This is the easiest way to carry their data around.
What you fail to realize though is that 10 meters is a sizeable distance. Its not just the people in the cubicles nearby or your house. What if you live in an apartment building. I don't know how Bluetooth handles through floors and ceilings, but that could be a potential issue. Or what if you're on the bus? Or walking down the street?
So yes, you may have bigger problems if you can't keep people out of your house, or trust your coworkers, but what about everybody else in the world who you might use this near?
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You missed an important application: computer labs.
I know I live in the dark ages, but at my university there are several rooms on the main campus with general access terminals and jacks to plug in your laptop. Using a Bluetooth personal server, what is to say I can't access the personal servers of the 25 other students within five meters of me?
But that becomes irrelevant, since even a simple secure login or encrypted connection should clean it up. God knows you wouldn't leave your stuff on a public share without a password!