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What to Do With a $99 Wall Wart Linux Server
Guanine writes in with a follow-up to our discussion a few months back on the SheevaPlug: 1.2-GHz ARM-compliant processor, 512 MB DDR2, 512 MB flash, USB 2.0, gigabit ethernet, in a package the size of a wall wart, for $99. Saul Hansell's Bits Blog in the NY Times talks about a few applications for such a device, whose price point Hansell claims will drop to $40 before too long. "The first plausible use for the plug computer is to attach one of these gizmos to a USB hard drive. Voila, you've got a network server. Cloud Engines, a startup, has in fact built a $99 plug computer called Pogoplug, that will let you share the files on your hard drive, not only in your home but also anywhere on the Internet. ... [Marvell's CEO said] 'Eventually you won't see the plug. We want this device to be in your TV, your stereo system, your DVD player.'"
no
It's got USB and an SD slot. You can get wireless devices that fit in either, so I should think it'll be ok.
"The first plausible use" for the thing is better served by a OpenWRT/dd-wrt router. As a web server, you might as well be using the computer you're on, or, if you're servering outsite your LAN, you should pay for real webhosting. I DO think it might be a good starting point for my networked home thermostat or even a full home automation system. But it's probably overkill.
Whale
The actual link where to buy the wallwart was pretty deep linked from Marvells website. This is apparently the official place to buy these things: http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/p-22-sheevaplug-dev-kit.aspx
It could easily kill you if you start chaining power strips together trying to set up a beowolf cluster of these. Chained power strips is a fire hazard.
I traded all my mod points for these magic beans.
Take a look at this page.
Martin Michlmayr is a debian contributor/porter/activist/whatever with a keen interest in these sorts of devices, he published some early power use figures.
But in short, yes, I think you'd save a lot of power. Though you'd have to buy an HDD caddy and take the power consumption of that into account. We're still likely talking about a lot less than a full PC.
As for it being possible - Using samba, a linux box can appear to windows machines in much the same way a windows machine does - with exposed shared directories and shared printers. It's fairly simple, though I've not done the printer bit for some time.
booting from SDHC is not there yet but booting from SD is solid.
I've been using these for weeks now. also the dodgy flash can be overcome by running a full scan on it and marking the bad spots, I prefer running off SD though.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
My old, underpowered (Celeron 800MHz) PC draws about 60 watts. My new(ish) QNap TS-109 NAS box draws something less than 20 and is a better file server... The new eeeBox desktop also draws less than 20.
The pogoplug is pretty impressive -- I was ready to click "buy", but then after a few more minutes of research, found out that they broker all communication to your wallwart...
This is a dealbreaker for me. While I realize this is their "magic sauce" that makes it super easy to access your pogoplug, any service that forces me to route my files through them is a no-go. (partly for security reasons, but mostly for being tied to a single vendor)
on't really see the revolution here - it's a small headless server. A bit like an NSLU2 only a lot faster
Faster and a lot more ram. Also this device is being explicitly sold as a "devkit" which means you get console and JTAG access (via a USB to dual UART/FIFO chip) out of the box rather than having to hack them on.
On the downside you only get one host-side USB port while the slug had two.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
The link to buy it was right there in the summary and has a big magenta button on the first page that says "BUY NOW $99".
And I also couldn't help but notice that Marvell's page for the device has a big clickable image on it that says "VISIT PARTNER PAGE TO BUY."