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Thin Client PC Fits in Wall Socket
ukhackster writes "Last year, there was a lot of excitement about a cut-down PC that fitted into a wall socket. Next month, the Jack PC will go on sale in the UK for just £209 ($390)." From the article: "At a low price and using low power, MacLellan believes the device is 'one of the biggest developments in PCs that we have seen' and is one of the 'ever-growing range of thin clients, which are rapidly replacing PCs as a more effective desktop computing solution for modern businesses'. The Jack PC runs Windows CE, is designed to connect to 'any terminal server-based environment' and has Citrix ICA and Microsoft RDP clients built in. It runs Internet Explorer 6.0 to connect to Web-driven applications, and runs an 'up to 500MHz' AMD RISC processor, which the company says is equivalent to a 1.2GHz x86. It can come with up to 64MB of flash memory and 128MB RAM."
No, it fits into a standard electrical wallbox - it doesn't plug into a power socket.
It can run on PoE (Power over Ethernet) or on a 5V DC adaptor.
Though it would be nice if you could have a unit in a double-wallbox form that had a PSU you could directly wire to the mains.
"...is it a "plug and play" into a pre-installed wall jack?" From the vendor's Web site (http://www.jadeintegration.com/jackpc.php), "Please note you MUST use the custom mounting boxes - the units will NOT fit into standard 1G pattresses." As to who might use these, I work in a public school and am the only IT for four buildings, 1000 students and teachers, 250 PCs/laptops, and four (soon to be eight) servers. We are looking into thin client devices to cut down on the number of trips I have to make to school buildings in order to repair PCs. One of the concerns we've had is the physical damage the clients will sustain from young children accidentally knocking them off the table. A walljack thin client would alleviate that concern, while reducing (physical) maintenance, centralizing system maintenance, and improving my support times. BTW, one of the points of thin clients is that you do not need to move them around. If someone moves into an office, they can just use the thin client that is already there - no need to swap PCs. Some of your other disadvantages are solved on the server end. Need more powerful processing? Upgrade the server. Don't like IE? Install Firefox on the server and give users access to it. Granted, no one is going to use these for AutoCAD or Quark, but for general office programs the video memory and resolution are sufficient. All of which is a long way to answer the question, "Who would use these?" Someone who needs to adminster lots of computers that are only used for general office applications, that's who.
No. If you can save 1 sqft of space for each person in say a call centre, which allows you to squeeze in a few extra people, this is well worth every cent.
At £20+ per sqft of space per month in your office lease, £200 to save 1 sqft is a pretty good deal.
Rod Taylor