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USB To Go Wireless
Troy Samuel writes "The WiMedia Alliance is planning to make the technology known as 'ultrawideband,' or UWB, work among a wide variety of consumer electronics devices. Various organizations, including the Bluetooth SIG, have chosen the WiMedia Alliance's version of UWB technology as the foundation for a next-generation short-range networking technology." From the article: "UWB technology can deliver data rates at up to 480 megabits per second at around 3 meters, with speeds dropping off as the range grows to a limit of about 10 meters. Real-world speeds will probably be a little slower, but this is as fast as the wired version of USB 2.0 and much faster than current Wi-Fi networks are capable of transmitting data. 'This stuff is plumbing,' Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates, said of the newer-generation wireless technology. 'It's important that it be there, it's going to be handy for getting rid of cables hanging around your desk.'"
maybe my notebook will finally be mobile again.
for a minute there, i lost myself...
I'm curious - how much bandwidth is required to make a wireless monitor? Let's say its running at 1600x1200 with 24bit color. Anyone have any ideas?
-dave
http://millionnumbers.com/ - own the number of your dreams
As far as I knew this technology was already in use - for example wireless USB webcams. However I can't think of many real life applications that would use the bandwidth this technology provides other than video. Any suggestions?
Video Game cheats, hints a
- Data security...
- wirelss interference from another computer
- wireless interference from other electronics and wireless devices
I am all for wireless devices that make sense. I sitll however use a wired keyboard and mouse on my desktop computer. On my laptop I use a bluetooth mouse to avoud the hassles of dealing with plugging and unplugging the mouse from the laptop.on the same frequency as all my other "wireless" devices. I've already got a joystick I can't use in proximity to my phone, my wireless A/V catches interference from my bluetooth mouse and the phone, and my wireless mouse craps out if the microwave's on at the other end of the house. Will this add to my troubles?
Magic doesn't work in my presence. My power of disbelief is too strong.
Is USB relly a good fit for this? USB is based around a strictly controlled hierarchy of devices with a single master at the top of the tree. Wireless applications are more in need of symmetric peer-to-peer interfaces like that provided by Firewire.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
I can see SOME uses of this, but there are a large number of people out there that would rather have a mouse connected with a cable than have to deal with batteries. And as the number of devices you want to connect grows, this effect will only become more pronounced. My verdict: useful, but not revolutionary.
For that matter, one of the benefits of USB is that power is delivered along with the data--how often do you change the batteries on your thumb-drive, or plug in your 2.5" external hard drive? So, directly compared to USB I still need the same number of cables, unless they're delivering power wirelessly too? Hmm...
----- Connection reset by beer
It would be nice if the only cables on my desk were power cables.
I'll be excited about this when battery technology improves such that you don't have to spend assloads of money for the convenience of not having to buy AA batteries every week.
What about power? One of the most notable benefits of a wired connection is that you can not only transfer information but power the device as well. I don't know about you, but I hate wireless mice/keyboards for the very reason that it's just too inconvenient to keep replacing batteries.
No, wait! It's back up with an annoying alert that it's connected again!
Wait, no, it dropped again.
I love this game.
Does this mean that all I would need to do to spy on someone's pen drive is get within 10 meters and peek over UWB?
I assume there would be some encryption and passwords, but it's yet another security question to discuss.
What I like about USB is the possibility to have the devices powered. This is handy for portable HD's for a laptop for example. I doubt that wireless USB will be able to power external devices. Having used wireless mice and keyboards in the past, I got rid of all them because the battery power always fails in a critical moment (Murphys law). An other issue with wireless keyboards and mice is data security. Will these wireless USB devices have encrypted data streams?
Combine this technology operating in a very low-power mode with something like this thing I read about earlier on /., and do we get smart DVD drives that can detect if they're authorized to play a given disc securely and over air? I mean, you could stick an RFID on each DVD and then a reader somewhere in the drive, but is this a more off-the-shelf type of combination?
Or am I full of crap?
Now I'll finally be able to recharge my digital camera wirelessly while transferring my pictures.
I can tell you from my past experiences, I would *love* to have a wireless USB device for setting up printers. Not saying that wireless networking isn't fine for the more expensive printers, nor am I saying a good print server isn't a viable option. I just have had one too many times where the printer(s) I have setup could have benfited from a wireless USB dongle & some kind of Wireless USB to four port hub to ease installation options.
.02, had to say it, been thinking it for years...
Just my
What is this nonsense? It seems as if everything is trying to move to wireless... the only question is, WHY? Obviously, desktop systems don't tend to move much, so there's not really a valid reason to. For laptops, who really carries a bunch of peripherals around (aside from a mouse)? is it really that much trouble to plug in a USB hub when you sit down at your desk?
...And don't even get me started on wireless networking.
Some of the wireless stuff is neat, but most of it is becoming ridculous. I don't need wireless speakers or a wireless printer. It's a nice novelty, but not worth the headache that wireless devices tend to cause.
One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces.
Most of the wires on my desk do double duty as data & power (key board, mouse, PDA, iPod) so what's the point of getting rid of all the cables just to replace them with charging stations?
- Peace
Free as in "the Truth shall set you..."
Half the reason I like USB (and I think this is true for many others) is that it is also a power source. Without wireless power, won't we be plagued with forever-dying batteries or continuing ratnests of power cables? Or did I miss somethign?
Skiffy is Spiffy, but Ort is tort.
So we have some plumbing to go along with the tubes that make up the internet?
What's the data rate of a kitchen sink?
Mod others as you would have them mod you.
I know, that is not what you meant, but many of the solutions imply a "server" for your "client" screen, so there are some current examples.
But it doesn't work for "fast" stuff like video or games.
The big quesion, as someone else pointed out - how long is your "wireless" monitor going to run on batteries?
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
I'm 3ft from a USB port and dont need to plug in a wire? how much can I pay for that? Any mobile device that close to a USB port may as well plug in to get the best bandwidth, security, and recharge its battery.... now, mobile to mobile xmission would be its best feature, I'd say
Major issues here would be interference, privacy, and lockdown.
Having numerous objects in the same small area (such as a "wireless" computer) would throw many waves in the same small area, possibly causing inteference, especially in a data center or cube farm.
Privacy is imsply that, i could sit outside and scan for a signal.
Lockdown is knowing exactly which device is attached to which, and nothing beats a cable during troubleshooting a complex problem.
Overall, wireless is *very* nice, and is obviously the wave of the future. Let's just handle mass usage issues from the beginnign.
Have you read my journal today?
480 megabits per second? Why do we have to keep inventing new terms. It is much easier to just say 480,000,000 baud. (Or am I totally clueless on this?)
I don't understand the "my desk must be wire free" mentality. Wireless networking is nice because it's like a lamp: you can move around and use it equally; new people can walk into the room and use it without extra technology, etc. But I don't see the point of wireless mice, hard drives, etc. With a range of 3-10m, in order to move your computer very far, you have to carry the same number of objects whether or not they have wires. Normal human orientation is toward the computer/monitor, so the cords leading from user input devices all lead away from the user.
If it's for aesthetic reasons, I suggest finding a way to make wires look niftier. It's probably cheaper than adding wireless chips.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Nifty idea, but it'd probably be more useful to just invest in an all-in-one cable that has several connectors for everything. One wire going from the desk down to the floor, and branching on each end to the various things. In fact, Duc[kt] Tape can probably do this with ease.
Reference Wikipedia
Note: Baud should not be confused with data rate in "bits per second" (or bytes per second, etc.). Each symbol transmitted can carry one or more bits (for example, 8 bits in 256-QAM modulation) of information. When each symbol is binary it carries just one bit, so baud and bit rate are equal. This is a cheap, simple encoding. However, it's common to make better use of channel bandwidth by encoding multiple bits per symbol.
I like my wires. Hell, I have wires that aren't connected to anything strung about. And there is a method to my madness. At any moment, I expect an elite platoon of ninjas to converge on my position to ransack my colllection of porn, carefully concealed as scanned page of the holy bible, and neutralize me before I can say "what the smeg!" I need them to craft my own murder orchesta of Indiana Jones brand whoop ass. What have your RF signals done for you lately?
To a noob, root is like a gay bar...and he's wearing assless chaps
I've never seen the point in the recent uptake in wireless technology. I have a wireless network, but it's just so I don't have to run network cords around my apartment. I hate my wireless network - it's unreliable and slow, despite being all alone on its channel and usually running at 54 Mbps. However, despite my own issues with it, I understand the point of wireless networking. It's great for public access or situations like my apartment where running cables cleanly is difficult. I can also see the point of a bluetooth mouse for a laptop, or a bluetooth keyboard for your PDA. It makes things faster and more portable, and gives you more freedom.
However, I draw the limit there. My keyboard, mouse, monitor, printer, external storage, and occasional other things are all wired. I don't have to keep track of batteries, and I don't get poor performance near the end of my battery life. It's all sitting on my desk not moving anyway, and there are only a few cords present on my desk - the rest are hidden behind the desk. I also like the tactile effort cords provide. When I plug my graphing calculator into my computer, when I stick a USB thumb drive in, when I connect my camera, when I plug in my headphones, or when I hook up a USB card reader, there's tactile feedback. I know I have just achieved something. I also don't find it terribly inconvenient to stick my flash drive into a front USB port.
There's more than just reliability and feedback, though. When I unplug my flash drive or external hard drive, I know that the devices are powered down and safe from snooping eyes, and not experiencing wear and tear. I also know that when I sit down at the computer lab with my flash drive in my pocket, the guy next to me isn't stealing my files. I understand that the connection between the computer and device will probably be encrypted automatically, so that's fine. But what about the connection process? If I have to go through a lengthly process to associate the device before I can use it (bluetooth), then I'm not really any better off than I was with wired USB. If I don't have to go through that process, what's stopping the guy next to me from doing it? And in the same computer lab, with USB my mouse isn't going to suddenly decide to associate itself with the computer across the way. Now, we could password protect the flash drive. However, and perhaps I'm alone on this, I'd rather not have a password on my mouse. And what if I replace 'mouse' with 'keyboard?' You can't password protect a keyboard.
Computers need to explode more often.
FTFA: "Certified Wireless USB setups are still going to involve a lot of cables"
;)
Actually, in the first iteration, it's going to involve twice as many cables as wired USB.
I agree that not everything should be wireless for all the reasons posted already. But I must add my vote in favor of ease of use items like wireless keyboard and mouse. Yes you do have to give them power somehow, sometime but its not inconvenient at all and unlike an early post its rarely "gone dead at a bad time" and then its because of my neglect in changing batteries I knew were dead for days and hadn't changed. I like to avoid carpal tunnel issues by typing with my keyboard flat in my lap on my couch. With a wired keyboard this would be all but impossible or at the least involve alot of cable to tangle in. Just my bit.
A new technology is fine and nice, but can this fix the Bluetooth mess (different vendors' devices don't talk to each other, no standard API, etc.)? I have an application I want to write that requires wireless communication between a PC and a handset, but the ineffectiveness of Bluetooth devices keeps holding me back. If UWB fixes the problems, I'll use it. If not, wake me up when it does.
Another way to waste power by pouring it into the air.
Another reason to leave all our electronics on, all the time.
Another reason why it's too inconvenient to do anything about gross over consumption and it's effect on our environment.
Clear, Dark Skies
Copper pennies aren't made anymore, because, you guessed it, the amount of copper required to make a penny is worth more than 1c, so if they made copper pennies you'd be theoretically better off melting them down and selling the raw material...
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
but... if i've got one of these devices in my backpack and i walk past a whole heap of computers, lets say in an office for example... is it going to try and install it automatically?
"Windows has recognised your UWB vibrator and is installing it now......"
And info to the board goes wireless instead of its output
- JFig http://jfig.net - http://del.icio.us/jfig/
With stuff like Bluetooth capability, I'm waiting for battery powered routers and stuff. Less interference and smaller LAN range i.e. more secure [physically].
This isn't plumbing, and it isn't a threat to WiFi. At 10 meters as the maximum distance, and 3 meters the desired distance, you'd have to have an AP every few feet just to get proper roaming and coverage. It would fit in better as a replacement for Bluetooth and "personal" devices, such as cell phone connectivity to laptops, wireless mice, headsets, etc. Of course I haven't RTFA, but with a summary that lists the distances indicated anyone can pretty much tell this isn't a WiFi replacement.
The way I see it there is a trend to go wireless even when wires are the better/simpler option. Now lets brake this problem down into its parts.
What wires provide:
A. Power from an outside source.
B. Information to/from an outside source.
The major problem with wires is that they create clutter and can get caught on things if moved around a lot. Otherwise they are a time tested and relativly cheep way of providing A & B to devices. Now clutter can also be dealt with by simple organization for devices that don't move around a lot. Ethernet cables can be run through walls, power cables can be tied together and tucked out of the way etc.
A further problem to consider is that the more "wireless" applications you have around the more volume of trafic is being carried about in the aether. So it is essential to take a moment and think of what is best done wirelessly and what is best to go ahead and wire.
My data can be stolen with much greater speed and convenience.
Looking for something to do? http://www.grinion.com
All you have to do is bond several channels together and there's your wireless monitor.
Wifi has, what, 11 channels? How many does wireless USB have?
Since the range on this is relatively tiny, you can probbably aggregate, say, 5 or 6 WUB channels into a single 2+Gbit channel to talk to your monitor. Sure, you'll be barred from putting more than 1 or 2 in close proximity, and yet... For the price of 5-6 transmitter chips at each end and a bit more core logic, a manufacturer can probbably piece this together today and it probbably won't cost too much either, at least once some competition throws in.
-
802.11b is _hard_. You need a platform to drive it. And what if you want to use encryption, how do you interface that into the device easily? So it needs an embedded OS with a web server.
Good job, genius. You saved -100$ of hardware for a $5 CCD.
UWB is a simple radio protocol that to the device looks like a USB UART (which means integrators could basically plug'n'play in their designs). Like bluetooth, you'll be able to get a chip with the majority of the implementation on it, minus an power/antenna stage.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
What happens if I use several of these devices with the same comptuer? Will they each get their own channel, or will they, together, max out at this transfer speed, instead of individually? If they do get their own, how many channels are there? These are things you wouldnt have to consider with the current USB setup, but which may be significant here.
UWB Mass Storage Device + Windows Autoplay == Mass Wireless Pwnage.
What do you want to bet?
Does that mean these devices will flood the spectrum???
I don't want to get rid of my cables if it means everything interfeers with everything else. Sounds like wireless hell. However it's the first I'm hearing of this technology so I'd be very happy to be corrected.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
So whomever first observed that the benefit of USB was that you could power the damn things too was spot on. Take the NeXT cube, sure it was wired but it was ONLY ONE wire. So this has some of the same feel. I read this as a response to the completely messed up world that is Bluetooth (and Zigbee) because nobody can create a wireless standard that you and I can program without joining some $100,000 up front consortium and with $50,000 per annum bulk patent licensing rights. The first wireless proposal that is both "open" in the sense that its well docuemented and "free" in the sense that you can claim compliance without having your arse sued off because you implemented to the SPEC, will take all other wireless standards out. --DrC
The power brick is wireless, the speaker isn't.
Wireless USB is a terrible idea unless it comes with specs for power over wireless usb. ;)
Changing batteries isnt very fun. The power has to be transmitted wirelessly for it to take off.
Hmmm..
Cables:
- Require no additional power
- Difficult to intercept communication
- Finite distance
- Clutter
UWB/ Wireless in General:
- Requiers power for transmitter/ receiver resulting in reduced battery life or increased power consumption
- Interception/ eavesdropping much easier
- Tempest Emissions/ Interceptions?
- Finite distance
- Much more susceptible to interference
I'm sure there's more but I'll stick with copper, thank you.
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http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q
pick one....
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Is not to replace USB devices, per se, (it will certainly do that, too, but we already have wireless devices) but to be used in short-range wireless networking applications. I know I would love to have USB 2.0 transfer speeds between my laptop and desktop without using a patch cable, and I'm sure a lot of other people would too. It would also be useful for flash memory. Imagine never having to remove your thumb drive from your pocket, but still retaining those transfer speeds. Really, this seems like a matter of convenience to me, but perhaps there will be further applications that will expand the spectrum of useability.
Wireless USB is a 128-carrier, OFDM system that instantaneously occupies 528MHz of spectrum. Each carrier is separated by about 4MHz, and in general uses simple modulation schemes to keep the complexity of the FFT processing to a minimum. While the theoretical speed is advertised at 480Mbps, practical demonstrations to date in real world environments, especially with more than one radio link running simultaneously in the same physical space, show more like 30-50Mbps. However, there's few real-world applications that truly use a significant portion of USB2.0's available bandwidth, so no one (except the external disk drive manufacturers) seem to be too worried about the bottleneck. WUSB was born from the FCC's ruling back in 2002 to open up 7.5GHz of spectrum, from 3.1 to 10.6GHz, to license-free, ultra-low-power, ultra wideband transmissions. The salient definition of UWB to the FCC was instantaneous occupancy of at least 500MHz of contiguous spectrum, thus the 128 carriers and 528MHz bandwidth. Otherwise, WUSB could be called an "802.11a on steroids", since it uses the same modulation scheme but with many more carriers. WUSB's promoters divided that spectrum up into 528MHz "channels", (see Figure 2 at http://www.deviceforge.com/articles/AT8171287040.h tml) and have a scheme whereby the link between two radios hops between channels in a psuedo-random fashion. Current technology radios use only the bottom three channels (3.1 - 4.8GHz) as current inexpensive CMOS technology doesn't perform well enough at higher frequencies.
A significant challenge for UWB systems under the FCC ruling is the maximum power output. The FCC specifies a level of -41.3dBm per MHz, or about 0.007 mW per MHz. So, for a 528MHz wide signal, the maximum output power is still less than 10% of your basic Bluetooth headset, thus the extremely short range. And the regulatory climate in the rest of the world is not good and getting worse for WUSB, with the regulatory authorities outside the US only willing to allow use on the frequencies above about 6 or 7GHz, making the propagation issues even worse. Challenges from multipath and absorption by materials in the path create a system that may practically have only a meter or two maximum range.
Right now, even though there are a number of companies that claim to have working, shipping, useful silicon, the real story is that it's a long way off from commercial utility, the price is very high, as is the power consumption. This is not a $5 chipset, nor should it be used in battery-starved devices.
The Bluetooth SIG adopted the use of a form of the WiMedia WUSB radio for its upcoming Bluetooth 3.0 release, originally scheduled for the beginning of 2007, but now slipped out to (at least) October 2007, with real products not expected until 2009. The mandate from the BT SIG is that only UWB radios that operate in the >6GHz spectrum will be allowed, and the industry is years off from being able to meet that requirement.
802.11n is much closer to reality, its data rates are already comparable to the practical instances of WUSB, and it is not constrained by the exceedingly severe regulatory power limitations. It has a strong ability to trump anything that WUSB could eventually roll out, and crafted for very low power operation, be just as power efficient as WUSB.
Until they figure out a way to transfer power through wireless technology too, I say this is all a waste of time. A cable is a lot less annoying than having to buy new/recharge batteries all of the time.
cute kitties!
This sig kills fascists.
Excellent, so now all my usb powered devices no longer need usb wires, they can be wireless except for the new wires required to power them.
Or has something happened in the exrucatingly slow world of battery developement that I don't know about?
This signature intentionally left blank
It could also be handy in getting rid of all those pesky cables (sata, ide, scsi, CD/DVD sound, etc...) inside the box. It would make for a nice clean looking PC.
How many technologies do they think they are going to cram into the 2.4GHz range? It's ridiculus. Bluetooth, 802.11, ZigBee, Microwave ovens, cordless phones, game controllers, and now USB? Why can't the FCC open up more frequencies to the public instead of selling them of to the cellphone corporations?
I don't want my video signal to be broadcasted... at most if EVER upto 3ft, is all I want my Video signal to ever reach.
As it is, I've been able to tap into(errr capture) the wireless signal used by a company I work with, that monitors the employee breakroom, front door, lobby, and conference room. By far, at least these locations are considered public access (except the break room), but its my opinion that a computer screen should never be wireless.
Its the paranoid in me that says, someone may capture my video signal and see everything I do.
Am I wrong to think this. At least add one or two levels of intrustion/capture prevention, and we are set. Even if its false sense of security, at least make it to the point someone HAS to be doing something illegal. We've been over this subject with wireless access points.
"Don't Forget to Salt the Fries"
now my mouse and keyboard will just be attached to an AC supply instead of USB or PS2. Or my desk will just be cluttered with a bunch of rechargers.
Great so now I replace the USB cable on my keyboard/mouse/joystick/etc. with a power cable.. Either that or get batteries for everything and be have to change them constantly. Brilliant!
What I'd really like to see is some sort of open intermediate language that the "drivers" could be written in. What I imagine is you switch on your device (or plug it in if it's wired), the computer sees it and "pairs up", they do a little handshake, then the device sends it's "driver" to the computer, the computer loads it and then it magically works... no more scavaging the internet for drivers. The reason I see it as an intermediate language is so that it could work with any type of machine (PC, Mac, nix box, etc). Now, I'm not an electrical engineer (or anything related), but is there any real reason this couldn't work? Seems like it'd be a boon to manufacturers to be able to code the drivers once and have the device be compatible with virtually any platform.
Jeremy Logan's Website.
Keyboard
1
Mouse
2
Phone
4
Network
4
Power
10
So where's my wireless power!? Though I'm not sure if I want the level of radiation necessary to power all these devices wirelessly in my study.
Back to the topic. UWB is old news, but I was recently reading some old news about it's use in localised RADAR applications. I'd like a "digital compas" that tells me, my wife and kids where each other are when we're at the shopping centre etc.
Me lost me cookie at the disco.
This is old news but cool technology. Devices that use the technology were demonstrated at IDF San Francisco in March 06.
This is what gay Iranian boys will have to settle for. No gigs upon gigs of video for them. So sad.
nt
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
It's useful for self powered devices such cellphones, pda, cams ...
My 100Hz TV doesn't have 100FPS. It has 24 or 25 (PAL/NTSC). The extra Hz just make the image much more stable and comfortable to look at.
I could remove a ton of wiring if WUSB was supported by all my electronics.
...
...
Sure, I'd still need power cables for a lot of this stuff, but I could put my consoles beside my couch and limit the wires cutting across my room. I could play movies/tv shows on my tv from my PC without tossing them on my xbox first
I think wifi should have been put into audio recievers already so we could have sound setups where you don't need to hook up all your crap to it - just set your device to transmit mode and there you go. God that could be a mess in an apt building though
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Tesla coil power system for computers?
with the continued proliferation of all the different wireless technologies, does anyone else out there wonder about the health implications such technologies pose?
personally, i don't use a bluetooth head set for my cell phone, because i don't want that energy constantly near my head! and in general, as the devices become more powerful, i assume that the energy intensity increases.
we've all heard of the correlation between power lines and cancer clusters from a few years back, and the brief attention the media paid to the potential of cell phone dangers, but has anyone seen any more recent studies about all of these radio signals and the harmful physical potential they pose?
i'm all in favor of technology, but not at the expense of basic health. i'd hate to have my system all tricked out w/ the latest super-wireless protocalls only to find out that in ten years i'll be developing toumors on my hands!
But that's only the beginning of why pennies ought to be eliminated.
Oh, how I long for the day that a penny could buy something meaningful...
Rather than focusing on waging war against the poor humble penny, why not focus your attention on the federal policies that have made it nearly worthless? I'm talking about perpetual deficits and the federal reserve printing 'dollars' like there's no tomorrow.
If we had a rational monetary system in the U.S., there couldn't have been a housing bubble, nor a tech bubble... Take a look at this graph of the (m3) money supply - there is an inflection point is right around 1/1995, when the federal reserve started 'printing' money. The tech bubble followed soon thereafter. After that bubble popped, all that money started flowing into housing. Now a lot of people are getting screwed because they can't afford their two investment houses and the condo in the mountains, and can't sell because they're now upside down. Sure, it's their own fault for overextending themselves, but it's mainly the bank's fault for lending them the money to make it possible.
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
www.teslabox.com
Not unless you want cancer. I worked at a store once where someone insisted there was a power adaptor that charged through bluetooth...
Go hug a tree, hippie!
I leave my LCD HDTV on 24x7, hooked into my always-on Mac Mini (HTPC) and external HDD... just displaying news feeds of BoingBoing with the RSS screensaver when not otherwise engaged.
I leave about 10 802.11g devices on 24x7 interconnected with WDS, providing network services for a variety of devices including MP3 DAAP shares, a networked color laserjet printer, a networked color duplex scanner, bittorrent, mail server, web server, jabber server, I2P proxy, squid proxy, tangle proxy, DNS cache, etc. etc.
"Here I'm allowed, everything all of the time..."