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A Linux Machine For Your Collar
MadSaxon writes "gumstix.org has a brief but titillating description of a very small Linux machine based on the PXA255: 20 x 80 mm, '64MB SDRAM, 4MB Flash, MMC/SD/SDIO slot, and power management. It takes 3.6V - 5.0V power, and has been drawing under 200 mA.' It weighs less than 12g sans battery, and 'can fit in a collar undetected.' Is collar-top computing the Next Big Thing?"
You've got token ring around the collar!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Red Neck Hat?
Je t'aime Stéphanie
I'm sure there's a "Slacksware" joke in here somewhere, but I'm not quite awake enough to make it. :)
These sigs are more interesting tha
Ok.. why? I mean is there something about being in a collar that being in a pocket or a belt buckle can't do?
Dyolf Knip
I see management giving all their employee's one of these. Well, right after the little shock module is released for it.
... *ZAP*
"Slashdoting again?!"
So many possibilties:
Link to these lie-detector glasses for better detection.
Card counting in Vegas.
Covert recording of conversations (low bitrate MP3?)
The chicks. Well.. maybe not the chicks..
:)
Anyhow, this is moot. I can't recall the last time I wore a shirt with a collar..
Trolling is a art,
But, I guess that goes against the post. My other thought is the social stigma associated with these things. I still get people telling me in an embarassed tone of voice that they can't remember my number any more without their cell phone handy. I see these things being huge in the area of 'intelligence augmentation' and 'external memories', if only people could accept that learning things rote is no longer something we actually have to do any more.
Ok great the computer fits under my collar, but does it have a jack to plug right into my brain? Or must I wear those uber-geeky display glasses with a one handed keyboard to use it, which would seem to defeat the purpose of yet another ultra small computer. It seems we need to work on the interface for wearables more than anything.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
How is this letarded? It seems quiet clever to me... Oh, wait, you meant the other rhyme...
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
I still have some (pretty straight-forward) bugs to be ironed out but a few other friends are now diving into these.
Best to iron these out without the device still in the shirt collar. Medium starch.
[Something witty and intelligent should have appeared here.]
{Traicovn}
I want this one in silver for my girlfriend
I believe you are referring to Mrs. R. Hand?
Yes we are all quite familiar with her, I don't think she cares for jewelry.
... i dunno that i'd be all 'collar' about it.
... especially if i can put an 802.11g-friendly antennae thread somewhere.
..."
.mp3s' of the concert i just attended, i'd attend more concerts.
i'd definitely wear one of these in my leather jacket, though.
seems like it would be a good fit for 'seams', and i can think of a million uses for linux-enabled clothes, really
combine it with todays 'bendy LCD' materials, and we could, finally, be rid of the package-gadget dilemna forever. (clothes become computing devices.)
"hi, i'm home, its me, this is my pgp key, turn on the lights and wake up the studio
"constant-slashdot feed, on my collar lcd..."
"location-based websites" - now, here is an idea whose time has come: an internet based entirely on -physical- proximity.
who knows, maybe devices like this could save the music industry. if my clothes walked away with legit
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
20 x 80 mm = 0.004 x 0.016 rods
Put this in a watch and I will buy one.
I've been looking for a geeky watch. The IBM Linux watch doesn't look like it is ever going to come out.
Add a tiny color touch screen, some buttons and a tiny speaker/mic.
The SD slot has lots of possibilities (I mean other than "wrist pr0n").
Belt? Even worse in many ways. In a working enviroment things tend to snag. And if you are crawling around after wires this is not nice.
So yeah the collar would be an intresting spot. A safe place on the body. How often do you bump your hips into something and how often your throath?
Of course the original reference was humorous intended but I just dislike it when people automatically snub an idea just because they refuse to think for a second about a new possibilty.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
A:The size of your pockets!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
"yes, we searched his entire apartment and couldn't find anything but a wireless router...but we know he's sharing mp3s somehow. Kept thumbing his collar....weird kid."
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
"Slave you've been bad. Do you know what happens to bad boys?!"
"No Mistress, but wait let me google it..."
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle...
Is collar-top computing the Next Big Thing?
Why not? For many, it'd be the only processing power above the neck.
Man, if I link this to a voice recognition program for numbers and math terms, add a display in your sleeve or like a HUD inside your glasses, and I could have a voice activated calculator, and totally impress chicks and others when doing complex equations right infront of them: "Hey M, what's the total liability for the period 1972 through 1989 if we owed $6,998,973.20 calculated at a compounded interest of 6%?" "It's THREE! Wait, oh shit, DragonSpeak failed."
[Please sign here]
Could be Perl necklace in this context though
No, it isn't.
What other places did they stuff it before they decided the collar was the best?
Umm, these are linux zealots. It wouldnt fit up their asses next to the iPod and Zaurus.
Realize also that these are knobs who own nothing but collared shirts. On the beach in a collared T shirt. Socks with sandals. They're that cool.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
"gumstix.org has a brief but titillating description"
Main Entry: titillate
Function: verb Inflected Form(s): -lated; -lating
1 : to excite pleasurably : arouse by stimulation
what the???
Actually, depending on your collar, if you run Windows on it, you can be in double bondage!
I don't know, but it works for me.
I think people should start working on smaller, more convenient interfaces rather than smaller computers, because we have some pretty ridiculously small computers out already.
a Beowulf cluster of th+++NO CARRIER
it's not going to stop until you wise up, no it's not going to stop. so just give up.
Clearly this thing shouldn't run linux, but instead some form of MacOS, just because there's no way I can reliably click one of two buttons with my adam's apple, but I could probably manage it with just the one.
-S
I hope the keyboard plug is PS/2 - - not USB! Ouch!
It's only funny until someone gets hurt. Then, it's hilarious.
What self-respecting Linux geek wears a shirt with a collar?
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Do you also believe in pensions, on the job training, company cars, company parking spaces, martini lunches, and lower paid CEOs vs employees as well ? (using the 1980's 40:1 ration instead of the 1999 500:1 ratio). Do the mailroom employees wear suits ?
Not to go totally OT, but it's just so rare to find someone who believes that programmers (who don't meet clients) wearing a suit can increase "production" Actually, working from home increases production more... ever try that ?
Oh, and I'll take two of those PDA shirts since I tend to break those things !!! - Thanks.
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin
Hmm, combine that computer with this flexible display technology (running a flashy screensaver) and put anyone else's loud tie to shame.
Or just use the tie as your monitor, although it'd have to curl up so you could read it more easily. Now what nerd do we know that wears a curling up necktie...
-- Alastair
You are wrong. While Internet descended from US Arpanet network, WWW itself is an European invention. Invented at CERN laboratory, Switzerland. ---
SHE does throw dice.
I'm surprised that this advancement is reduced to a joke. I've been waiting for a small form factor os capable platform for some time. The closest I've seen are the 5 1/4 SBCs. My goal is to use these devices for autonomous control of radio controlled aircraft. Personal UAV :) Given the lower power requirements and very low weight, this platform can be combined with an OOPIC sensor interface and gimbal sensors + GPS to do the job. Now if I can get it for less than $100. Combine 20 and have your own battle of Britian :)
I don't know about you, but my company's payroll department is staffed exclusively by ninjas. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've gone to get my paycheck and gotten a throat punch.
They broke my pta (personal throat assistant) right when I got there, and I had to buy something else.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
According to the intel site, these CPUs are fabricated using a 180nm process.. This can only get more interesting once they start migrating to 130nm or 90nm, reducing power needs even further..
What's the heat dissipation on something like this? Can it be safely encased in a waterproof housing without worrying about ventilation (or by using the housing as a radiator)?
Verry kewl....
You're exactly right, that is the way things are headed. But stop to think about the local computing power that may be required. Things like sophisticated video compression algorithms, speech recognition, and in the future perhaps an intelligent agent which sifts through data and presents useful items (think advanced version of dashboard). All of these things will need power close to the cpu. After that, Sun had it right, "The Network is the Computer". Especially for storage of data, etc. But there will always be a baseline requirement for local computing power.
Also, another idea to consider. By offloading processing power... ie, the "dumb terminal" approach, you take away the power to customize your experience. You effectively end up with an advertising receiver. You'll be powerless to access the types of information that you're interested in, and the device becomes more like a television, only capable of doing what it's preprogrammed to. Most people will not go to the effort to set up their own web services to connect to.
Distributed processing power is the future. But with lots of power spread out over millions of portable devices all interconnected, it becomes more of a social appliance that a number crunching system.
(I drift off topic...)
Personally what I'm most interested in are assistive agents. I think in the future you may be considered handicapped to NOT have one of these things someone on your person allowing you to tap into the global network, maybe even subconciously. Think instant google searches based on something you're thinking about, augmenting your memory automatically. Some really cool stuff, just hope the economy keeps together so I see it happen in my lifetime.
OMG that's smaller than my Nokia 3590 "ATT GoPhone" by a factor of six! With the QVGA Fexible display, all we need now is power, display control, WiFi, and battery!!!
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
Seems like they either prepared their site for the /. effect or they initially were out to sell this stuff but reconsidered.
Take a look at the google cache here and here
where you can find out more about prices and specifications.
Collars, you say? Wait 'til they have Linux-powered codpieces. Just be specific when you ask someone about his uptime.
Combine this device (with a few upgrades) with Wearable displays + This Jacket (maybe an upgrade or two + a computer that speaks sign language + Pervasive wireless broadband and I am starting to get to my "comfort level" for internet access. No longer will I have to wait during my whole commute of 5 minutes to check for the next Slashdot story. No more shaking internet withdrawl on the bus!!
If a Woman can be kept off a plane for a heated jacket with wires protruding, how are geeks going to explain to airport security why their shirts are beeping?
----- LoboSoft specializes in Digital Language Lab
THis little guy is going to revolutionize the voyeur porn industry.. .....more and more and more
- Just think of the shoe-cam
-
Is collar-top computing the Next Big Thing?
:-)
Hmm...given that this device is based on Linux and us Linux folks hate to wear collars, I give them poor odds of finding a market!
one-handed input device
aremac
I've seen ones that look just like sunglasses, but can't find a pic now.