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?

Comments

All. My. Friends. Like the low rider

[cpt kangarooski]

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!

Re:All. My. Friends. Like the low rider

[cpt kangarooski]

I had been thinking of something like "Non inferiora secutus" or "Aude facere" or "Videbat esse notitia bona id temporis."

"Usque comissare" and "Quis aliqui volet?" have their good points too. ;)

Eos stupra si jocum nesciunt accipere

Software Blinking Lights

[SEWilco]

Actually, what I do now is show the status of my applications. The software equivalent of blinking lights, shown as status screens on CRTs.

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.

Hmmmm

[Accipiter]

It may be cool, but the design doesn't necessarily serve a purpose. Not only that, but you're paying for it too. Don't get me wrong, that's a Bad-ass looking computer. But how much does it run? And considering the price, how much would it be without the fancy design?

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?

Re:The wacky lights....

[SEWilco]

No, that's not blinkenlights.

The mainframes which I started with had panels of blinking lights because they showed the actual bits in the hardware registers. Watching the Program Counter let you see how much it was switching between routines or programs, except when you switched from RUN to STEP and wasted a lot of real time stepping one instruction at a time.

Now perhaps that glowing panel is decorative, or perhaps it is an LCD display for Linux to display messages upon. The photo page did not seem to have a spec link.

God Damn Ergonomic Mice! Toggle Switch Good Enough

[PhilosopherKing]

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....................

Screw the box...

[Gambit Thirty-Two]

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

Re:Server cases...

[substrate]

I just bought a SuperMicro case with a 300 watt supply, forgot the model number. It looks fairly nice for a peecee box and is roomy enough that I wasn't bleeding after I put my linux-intel box together.

speling

[mattdm]

"I" before "E" and except after "C" and in codeine, therein, sheik,
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.

--

SGI

[mattdm]

SGI's designs are more than just pretty. They work really well. The O2 case, for example, makes it trivial to switch hard drives and expansion cards without opening the case.

--

Lights with a purpose

[Stargazer]

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.