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Another Wierd Linux Box
Takashi Oe writes "I just came across these pictures (one and two] of Aquarium Computer's small Linux box. Its size, 4x8x6.3 in inches, isn't that small, but it certainly looks pretty cool. " But I gotta ask, why do all these
trendy new boxes have crazy lights on 'em? Is there a purpose or is
it just wacky design?
Nonononono. You've got it all wrong. VTEC stickers and putting rice in the gas tank make your car go faster. Duh.
"I see that I have turned my eyes to a treasure no less dear than the treasure of Thingol that Beren once desired."
Well, I wouldn't get one myself, but I liked the effect that the lights had. Do they make a nice big server with a neon light on the bottom and that bounced on its shocks when it's idle? ;) (screw head crashes)
Seriously though, I've always wanted a computer with a rich cherry wood case. It'd have some victorian-esque brass hardware, and some old looking buttons and dials and such (Photoshop would probably bury the needle on both the processor load and consumed memory meters). To top it off, an engraved brass plaque with the computer's name and a Latin motto. I might go through tens of different components, but I'd keep that damn case!
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
The iPalm isn't real as expressed on that site, but 3Com is now indeed selling a clear Palm IIIe. It retails for $229, and will be sold only at "select college bookstores."
For more information, click here.
I couldn't see any image there. My browser (Netscape 4.6) had a hard time showing the frames - I had to view the source to read everything under the 'characteristic:' heading. So... what does it look like?
Bun
(Who really should have just booted up Linux).
"Anyone that has ever gotten an idea based on any of my work and done something better with it-good for you."--J.Carmack
Pix @ http://www.charisma.com.tw/list-7.htm.
My favourite in grey: http://www.charisma.com.tw/pics/7-4b.jpg
This case rocks dudette.
Eschew obfuscation!
Could you imagin the epileptic seizures that people could have w/ high rate flashing lights?!?!
I ate my tag line.
I ate my tag line.
-=Ellis (D)25=-
No, it would be too weird to spell it that way.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
Looking at the case, looks like an lcd display, if it is, I would like my setting stuff to show up on that screen!
I ate my tag line.
I ate my tag line.
-=Ellis (D)25=-
Nah, The best is having your entire computer hanging on a pegboard.
Non gratis rodentus anus
I just recently bought an IN WIN IW-Q500A, and it's a nice looking full tower case that has a 300W power supply and plenty of expanion space. It can easily be a server case, and I got mine for $100 ($75 for the case, $25 for the shipping) at Multiwave (I found this deal through KillerApp).
You're probitly not going to find a good designer case unless you're willing to spend a lot of money, but one thing you can do is to get a regular case, and paint or contect paper it. Just be careful not to block the ventialation slots or any other openings.
I'll take nixie tubes over LEDs anyday...
Nothing satisfies quite like the scent of baked dust and the warm glow of vacuum tubes.
NetBSD: the cathedral vs the bizzare.
And the iMac looks like an Isetta, not a pool toy.
See this Isetta page
I always wanted to get a classic IBM XT case and put a modern system in it, just for the sheer confusion factor. ("Wow, I've never seen an XT that gets 40FPS in Quake 3...") =^)
--
There are thousand$ of rea$on$ to make computer$ like that. It $ell$.
> But I gotta ask, why do all these trendy new boxes have crazy lights on 'em?
I wish more boxen had lights on them. I really love the lights on the HP's, giving heartbeat and I/O and stuff. If I got to design a box, it would have lights for
- Power
- Idleness
- Disk I/O (several)
- Net I/O (several)
- n kernel programmable lights
- Supervisor mode
- Any other hardware-detectable useful thing I can think of.
How do I make this?
-Lars
run Linux?
terribly sorry about this...
Dan "Windows 98 User Missing Out On the Fun" Turk
That's right, our computer is made out of 100% Pure Jism. Our male workers wack off furiously day and night to produce one CC per wank of jism. The jism is then etched using X-ray lithography to produce CPU's and memory chips. (NOTE: Jism is much more overclockable than silicon) At $3 per chip, we have the most cost effective jizztronics in the industry!
Visit our web site at http://www.jizzputers.com/ today!
SuperMicro has a series of tower cases that meet those specs... they're not bad looking, but there's really nothing special about them. They even have dual power supply options!
It's interesting to note that after the blinkenlights ceased to have a purpose, people expected them anyway.
Cray understood this. They had some supercomputers with a panel of fake leds - the leds was controlled by a toy cpu to give the right "feel".
Lights are cool, more so if they aren't fake. The cpu is way too fast for driving leds, so I connect my leds to the disk system. One for every drive, and one for every host adapter/embedded controller.
It's a backlit LCD, folks, not a searchlight. This isn't a Hoover vacuum, ya know.
The typical rack full of servers connected to a CPU switch is a real bear to check while standing in front of it--switching to each server in turn takes time. It's much nicer to have each server displaying its load and other health info, even if it only has a 4x20-char display. Then use the CPU switch to check out the one with a load of 395.7, or forget the switch (and video card in each server) and just plug into (or switch to) the appropriate serial port to find out more.
You can't have a computer without blinking lights. It just isn't right. Of course, they have to be genuine and linked up to a part of the live system though.
I seem to remember a project for the old BBC Model B computer which sat on your floppy cable and displayed track/sector numbers and data flow on some seven segment displays. Is something like this available for modern PCs? I don't know - show something like IDE/SCSI bandwidth and device utilisation or something like that.
Nick.
Think about it...an isp with a box like this-if your like any other ISP owner I've ever worked for, you don't let ANYONE back there anyway..let's take a poll as well, how many of you out there (using Linux) have the cover on your machine?
This goofy design, the crazy lights... But on the lighter side, it does grab the attention of the younger (I'm not that old, so don't start) generation. So I guess the question is-Is it sensible? I don't think it's reasonable to pay a higher price for proprietary hardware, just to make it look cool. Anyone with a black case that has tried to buy black components knows what I am talking about....
(But it's a SERVER. Who needs a pretty SERVER?)
:-)
It's not a matter of need, it's a matter of Want
:-)
With so much money being made in the computer industry today, you'd think there would be a sizable group of people who not only would desire a case like this (I DO!), but would have the cash to not think twice about paying for it.
If I get in on the Red Hat IPO, I'll get some kinda cool looking computer. (that assumes that RHAT actually goes up
-geekd
after your comment...and double checking-I think so too. I posted an earlier comment on the design-I really think the overall design is proprietary and sucks. But that really DOES look like a backlit LCD panel..so it could have some perks.
LOL! Thanks. Nice Friday morning laugh to end up a dull week.
"shop smart:shop s-mart" ash
What I really want is a box that is easy to change. My suggestion is make the case so the top edges can be unscrewed and inside is like a small hollow between two clear plastic sides. This way you could customize the box by putting in colored paper, sand, etc. I always wanted a computer case done up w/ colored sand patterns to say my name and stuff like those little bottles of sand you can buy at fairs. Another thing I'd like is if the sides had lava lamps or bubbles or something in them. Now that'd rock.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
I nominate you for best PTerry impression in a slashdot article.
Bah! 138 hours for a program. That's nothin'. Back in they day, we had to use cuneiform to write our programs. Very few of us was even afforded th' luxury of that, as we would need many a slave to write a program if we were to finish it by harvest time. And not just that, we had to use tons of clay, and do you know how hard it is to equip 10,000 slaves with clay tables and reeds to write an OLTP system. Phew, makes me wonder why we did such things, as we didn't have a computer t' run the things on.
You are right. It is not a Motorola V series phone. My mistake.
The Japanese site's stuff is computer generated, not photographs.
Matrix-Orbital, that is.
Check out the LCD Proc site, as it has lots of fun pictures and information.
I just bought one of these for my new dual Celeron box. I just finished the wood cage for the metal components last night - the hard drive comes tonight - and I full well intend to at least boot it into linux this weekend before I have to disassemble it to make the rest of the case!
I tend to make applications with status variables mapped in shared memory. Then a monitor program attaches to the shared memory in read-only mode and displays the current state. Several clients have seen such displays while I was testing and demanded that they be permanently installed next to other status consoles.
An extension is using status fields where the programs record codes for various decisions. Then a status program can display phrases such as "Pump 3 not started because Valve 5 set to Tank 2, which is empty". Those values are displayed elsewhere on the screen, but programs can point out why things are not proceeding.
Or, with the DIPC patch for Linux, you can share the shared memory between the machines in a DIPC cluster. So one machine can collect data and any others in the cluster can view it...or all can update it. Particularly useful if the data collection program must run with system privileges, as the display programs do not need special privileges.
We are weird.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
I chatted with the site's designers earlier today - they are based in Japan and the site was not actually released yet! They were aware that there are spelling errors (which should now be corrected) and the site will get an official launch sometime next week.
A little planning goes a long way...
Buddy of mine works at a place where windows were installed in a windowless server room just to give it that old IS department glass-house feel. Company guests now can see the racks full of servers, routers, blinking lights, 21" monitors (utterly wasted at mostly untouched servers) etc, all illuminated by (I'm not making this up) dozens of florescent blacklights installed in the ceiling fixtures. Talk about your unearthly glow. It looks way cooler than your average server room - like something out of a movie. I'm dumbfounded that the management of this multimillion dollar company actually spent money on this, though. I guess looks count, at least when you're trying to impress a suit.
I'd be willing to pay a premium for a cool-looking box, if the box took standard size MB and cards. I don't want to pay a premium for something that looks cool and is utter junk in a few years because nothing inside can be upgraded, which frequently seems to be the case with these nifty looking boxes.
without the lights tell me, what would those photos look like? black =8)
-orKiD
ps. i think it looks pretty neat with those lights.
I don't know anything about this trend, but it's pretty spiffy if you ask me! The handle was a really nice touch too, though.
if it doesn't have blinking lights, how can it be technology??? Bell Atlantic just installed a big-ass switch at our office, now THAT thing is technology. I watch star trek for the hot alien babes and the blinking lights, is there any other reason? C'mon people, we should be covering for eachother when it comes to superfluous blinking lights, not exposing the sham, let's get with it! Al Gore is almost certainly behind this.
--
I hope they're not planning to sell that lunchbox based on value!
Only 64 MB of RAM, non-Intel chip, no monitor, no keyboard, no mouse -- and it starts at $1500?!? You can get a Dell PIII-450, fully-loaded with 17" monitor for $1,369! What are they smoking?
P.S.: If you want to sell a product, it also helps to be able to spell what you're selling, such as an ethernet "adopter."
Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
This is the same reason I don't like the iMac. Computers should be functional, and not necessarily good looking. SGI makes a nice looking computer, and their designs work because they look sophisticated. The iMac looks like a Pool toy, and the iBook like a Toilet seat. If you're going to make a radical design to a computer, make sure the design is GOOD. (And don't spend all the money on the design. Why? Because if you take crap, sprinkle it with glitter, doll it up, and make it look pretty...in the end, you still have crap.)
Although considering these computers run a well chosen OS, that says something about the components.
(But it's a SERVER. Who needs a pretty SERVER?)
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
I think the design may serve a purpose. It's a server, right? That big light looks an awful lot like a backlit LCD status panel to me...
In my day we didn't have these fancy-shmancy keyboards. We entered everything with punch cards. And we got paper cuts and we liked it. Yah, it may have taken 138 hours to enter a program, if it had no miss punches, but we liked it. Liked it just FINE. You new kids and your punk keyboards. "Oh look at me, I can enter 110 characters per minute. I can code so fast. Laudy-Daudy Dah-dah-dah." Horse whoey! And these CRT thingies. We had to use a meter to measure the ones and zeroes of our registers cuse we were real men. All real men, except for Mike Glick who turned out to be a hoover. And we liked it just FINE. Well, all except for those dresses he wore, he was an uuuuugly women. Now Francene, there was a tall drink of water, a real fine women. Worked in the steno-pool. And we liked her just FINE. Where was I? Oh yah. You punks and your broad-band net access. Well we had nets first. Optic nets that worked just dandy, hook them up to signal lights and you can transmit a good mile on a clear night. Want fiber? We just flashed the light down a fat cast iron pipe. Fat-pipe! Get it? Get it? Blah, yah stupid kids. Now yah want computers that sit on your tables and don't gash you open when you replace a vac tube or mem stick or whatever you call those doohickies now. Real men bleed for thier systems. Now old George was 23 years my senior and he died in the mainframe. Well, we guess he did cause when those tubes het up you just hope to suffocate before you crisp. Not our fault, no siree. We new the life of a vac changer was short, we liked it just FINE. Stupid kids and their gizmos, always running without checking thier code, no respect, no respect at all, stupid memory protection makes them all soft, one memory space, real men, FINE, poor George, owed him a saw from the poker, damn mice chewing wires, where's my pills....................
USA-Democracy is 270 million YESes and NOes a day, not one every four years.
Screw the box, what kind of phone is that? I've never seen anything like that before. I first thought it was breed of startac, but they dont have screens like that one
Weird, man. If you'll please notice, most reputable news sites avoid spelling errors in HEADLINES. Other than that, great job.
"Its size, 4x8x6.3 in inches, isn't that small"... If it isn't that small, how small is it? Why did they say it was that small? Strange.
Who said it's a server?
Yeah, it's designer, and one should expect to pay for the design. I want to know if they're going this as a case-only, too?
Does anyone have any recomendations on a good looking full tower, or server case [tall, 7 5 1/4 inch, 2+ 3 1/2 inch] 300 watt power supply etc?
Stan "Myconid" Brinkerhoff
SB.
I get a poorly-animated GIF of a diver, and some underwater shots. No computer. Is it my breath or something?
Bizarre Strange Different Quirky Funky or otherwise Odd.
I don't think this is a Universal Truth about technology today. How about the Pavoni Europiccola, or the TacT Millennium (Although it DOES have LEDs, both its design and technology is still quite impressive) Morgan +8 (These are still made today, and they are VERY fun to drive) Even though there's a lot of crap around, one can still find technological excellence today. It's just like the music industry - the fact that Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys are selling huge amounts of records, doesn't neccesarily mean that there is no good music being made out there. Hmm? -K
Is not it a Motorola V-series GSM phone? -The picture is not very clear
Bummer...
:>
How many of you out there are like myself?
Given 5 minutes.. I can sleep anywhere, anytime
in any environment (ok.. ALMOST any environment)
Sun, no sun, Monitor, no monitor, Radio (LOUD), no
radio, people, no people, storms, cars, trains, parks
Hell.. anywhere... I don't even have to be comfortable.
Heh... 'Course.. I figure I suffer from serious, self inflicted
sleep deprivation... but I don't ever remember having
problems with sleeping.
And uhh... screensavers? What's that? Hehehe
Friends don't let friends buy Compaq's. (Dell/Gateway... same same) You want a good computer? Build it yourself.
On ars technica and to the right there is a column of links. Find the one called open forum and there one of the topics is case and cooling fetish. There is alot of suggestions there on cases ,style wise and whatnot. Ars technica also has many case reviews. I prefer arstechnica over slashdot cause they don't post half truths like slashdot. Slashdot has no professionalism, ie spelling errors in coverage and just too linux religious . These guys have a more level headed view of stuff. You use stuff cause it works, not because Rob Malda said it was cool.
"weird" isn't in the ispell dictionary... or is it? :-)
This is the size of something I really want. I don't want to pay a premium for a laptop and batteries etc, but I want something small and light enought to easily carry around and store away. I would think there are lots of people who want something similar. The demo looks sweet. Needs an lcd screen I guess.
I can't belive ppl are actually screaming about a mispelled word, its so lame, he's doing a hell of a job IMHO.
Do you really think that there are a lot of people looking to buy sub-par linux box for 1500 dollars. Especially a sub-par linux server box.
Commode Door 64.
:-)
About eight years ago I querried, "what use are they now?"
The only sensible answer, "A printer buffer."
These days though, it couldn't even do that!
I was thinking the same thing. However, Luddite is an elaborate joke. They haven't updated that site in sometime. Still scary though....
Do not read this
We all know how the dumbing down of comp users is at a pinnacle with NT admins, but really this is stupid. Linux admins don't need pretty lights and neon to tell if it works or not.
There's nothing wrong with cool. In fact, it's critical. I don't really want a machine boxed up in plywood and duct tape. We buy pretty cars, live in pretty houses and wear pretty clothes and eat pretty food, because the asthetics (IOW coolth) are important. And any good design should be able to incorporate excellent functionality and good looks.
Besides - everyone knows that your car goes faster if you paint a black stripe down the side!
Remind me to do something like name it Open XYZ or put blinking lights on my product. Then I will get free advertising on Slashdot.
Slashdot. Fascinated by Lights. Enthralled with Buzzwords.
It's the ultimate power light :)
I don't actually exist.
Good Design is subjective. I think the lights look cool, especially if you don't power the server room unless necessary. The design looks pretty good, I just don't like the materials.
a g-500.html h tml L
Would i buy it? no. But I *would* buy some computers designed by hardcore industrial designers just for personal pride provided they could run whataever OS I want.
I'd be willing to spend about 5% - 10% of the total computer price based on aesthetics, but I'm a computer nerd and in the minority.
Remembering design is subjective, I'd look at designs similar to:
http://www02.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/rb3/mrc/powerb
http://www02.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/rb3/mrc/ipalm.
http://design.uos.ac.kr/yangyh/ENGLISH/ENLG.htm
That is the most ugly computer i've ever seen!! Including my microwave. What possess people to make brown computers? The thing looks like my mom's brownie 8mm film projector. And you want blinking lights? Buy an external modem!!! Don't make ugly brown cases with blinking blue lights.
All I see is a blue backlit LCD screen and it's reflection on the clear plastic front panel. No blinking Leds...
forfeit, heifer, counterfeit, neigh, leisure, weigh, either, neighbor,
seize, Pleiades, vein, herein, unveil, albeit, atheism, protein,
reign, eight, beige, sleigh, Beirut, neither, rein, deify, foreign, height,
freight, heir, their, feign, deity, sleight, plebeian, deign, sovereign,
being, deoxyribonucleic, and weird.
--
Of course it has to have flashing lights. Otherwise, how would you know it was a computer? Obviously, you haven't been watching enough science fiction movies .......
--
its rather nifty looking none-the-less
That's one way to remember that the ol' I before E except after C doesn't apply with Weird. C'mon Rob...spell checkers do exist.
In the dark ages of computing, the monolithic machines had many wires and were often stuffed into dark, damp corners.
And the wisemen of the computers, known as admins, were often forced to go into these places. They would bump their head on things, accidentally disconnect wires, and have bad allergic reactions to the dust.
This made the computers angry and frustrated the admins. And so the admins prayed unto the Lord of Computing, "Lord of Computing, please aid us in our quest to maintain the great computers without causing ourselves physical bodily harm in the process."
And the Lord of Computing said, "Let there be light." And there was light. And it was good*.
-- Stargazer
* Although it didn't do much for the allergic reactions, it was a start.
The failure of technology today is that it has minimized the awe inspiring side effects. Now we need artificial side effects of glowing LEDs, neon tubes, and bogus megahertz readouts. We no longer know how to build technology that is visually impressive merely as the result of its essence. Like the fake decorative window shutters without hinges on bogus ``colonial'' American homes, our technological monuments are phony, and unable to be even minimally monumental. Thank God that Y2k will soon change the course of history, and bring about a reformation to what technology was and can be again.
I hope the lights are software controlable. With their small size and enough money these could be the COOLEST!! Beowulf wall covering.
It would be interesting to see the technical specs.
Unfortunately my budget might get me a Commodore 64 wall covering. (I miss those things)
I am sure that, like most college aged people who easily fill the shoes of the "GEEK" definition, there are others out there who have computers in their room. I would be less than impressed if my roommate had a computer that had a flood light on the front of it. I typically turn off my monitor before I go to bed because my mouse is REALLY sensitive and it has been known to kill the screen saver with just the radio at medium volume. If I had a computer in my room that the flood light on the front came on every time that the mouse polled an interrupt I would get a little annoyed- ---
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Please give your mod points to others, Im at the cap. They will appreciate it more