Coolest Prototype Tech Of The Day

[filkertom]

a $25 HDMI->USB PC-on-a-stick. 128 MB RAM, running Ubuntu. Plug in an HDMI TV at one end and a USB keyboard (I'd use one with at least one USB port, for mouse work) at the other, and go.

Would you get one of these, and what would you use it for? At the very least, I'd never lug a computer to a con again.

Comments

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I'd love one! I would put an FTP program on it so if I needed to modify any web pages at DucKon, I could just plug it into the hotel room's TV (which are flatscreen so I assume HD) and make the changes on the fly.

...

crap, I just realized I'd need an internet connection too.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Well, how small are USB wireless hookups these days? Stick one in there.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

Great idea! But I checked google on prices for USB wireless hook ups and they can cost more than the computer.
Good news, a powered USB hub is pretty cheap.
http://www.amazon.com/GTMax-7-Port-Octopus-Power-Adapter/dp/B0043TBCDS
So the computer will look like a mess of cables everywhere connecting periferials.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

The size factor isn't new. Gumstix have been around for several years.

http://www.gumstix.com/store/catalog/index.php?cPath=27

What IS new is the price point, which I have to wonder about since I'm barely able to make my Hobbylights for that much, and there's far simpler tech in my lights.

What would I do? Combine it with a Microdisplay projector module and project computer overlay onto my glasses in real time. Adding a long wavelength camera and some code to augment the contrast, you'll have better vision than any human being who was ever born.

Wait!

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Those are small computers as well?

[sethb.livejournal.com]

How would you burn CDs then?

[mouser.livejournal.com]

You can't seem to attach it to a network, wifi or printer.

I guess you can put it on a USB hub for networking, mouse, etc.

Not really sure WHAT I could use it for - you still need a screen/keyboard/etc. Even as a techie, I can't really see a use for it.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

put it in a car and use a picoprojector to project GPS and instruments onto the glass of the windshield -- no more taking eyes off the road.

create a wearable computer with a trackpad and virtual keyboard on the left arm.

Build a small gas quadrotor and keep it in your carseat, and put it in the air to look ahead at traffic whenever you want. Using accelerometers, it returns to exactly the same place it left from to recover. (granted, I stole this from the mach 5)

build a server into a cement brick in a wall of the house for a storage spot that will remain no matter how many devices the feds take from your house.

Using NAT code, put it on a balloon with good antennas and battery to act as a router for large areas for special events.

Put it on a high altitude balloon and take photos from the edge of space. Or control other experiments at 100,000ft before the balloon bursts. Yes, been done before, but not this tiny or cheap. Plus you can use Yagi antennas and download the photos in real time.

[mdlbear]

Cool!

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

That sounds so cool, Tom. I'd go for it!! Heck, I'd sell them in Southern Fried Filk if I could!

[roman-mclaze.livejournal.com]

Spying. Obviously!

I'd use my dashing wit and effortless charm to get myself invited back to evil Dr. Dortinviper's lair. While she is pouring us drinks, I'll plug the USB-PC into her computer network. It's carefully designed set of macros will steal all of her top secret data, and replace it with a few thousand copies of the songs "404 Not Found" and "Tech Support for Dad"...and after I'm done, um, developing a rapport with my target, I'll grab back the USB drive, and deliver it to the kids at the lab. Possibly while making some innuendo-laden remark about a "successful insertion".

[wingus.livejournal.com]

This calls for a Keanu-esque "Whoa".

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I'm with you, Tom. One end in the boob tube, the other end to a USB hub with keyboard, mouse, wifi, and a stonkin' USB drive, and bob's your uncle... it would sure save lugging a lappy around the con.. might even buy a TV of my own. :)

Although the one problem I have with such a wee chip is it's no good for gaming. Not that what I run is *too* hotshot, but still, Flightgear will chew a pretty fair amount of GPU...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but this is obviously not a gaming computer. In its own way, it's (I think) an interim evolutionary stop of the iPad/iPhone/Android to something beefier and more useful.

Imagine a flexible plastic case for such a device. The flexible plastic case is unrolled as a touch screen. If it's thin enough, you could have a second piece of plastic inside. You could literally have a decently powerful computer (at least for browsing/business purposes), with full-size keyboard, in something about the size of a toothbrush travel case....

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Oh, no. Touchscreen I can see. Membrane keyboard? Let's not and say we did. I *like* my full-size, *full-stroke* keyboard. (And a keyboard is a lot lighter than a full-blown laptop... unless you're lugging a Model M... :) No, what would be fun would be a Happy Hacking keyboard, or *maybe* one of those rubber roll-up keyboards what actually has *something* in the way of key feedback, along with this little jewel and a Kensington mini-mouse... should fit in a package about the size of a travel umbrella.

If these get popular, the bigger hotels will start providing keyboards and mice as room amenities, just as they do with hair dryers and irons now. Then you lug *just* the computer... and whatever ergo gear your body says is mandatory (wrist rest for me if I'm going to be somewhere more than a couple days)...

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

All that stuff together would be larger than a laptop. If one of these would do, then you probably don't actually need a computer at all. This is an EXTREMELY low powered device. There's no current OS other than a stripped down Linux that would run on it. Even Android would be pressed for space. I think you'd be limited to running services and character mode stuff. As soon as you brought up a GUI you'd be out of luck, so no web browsing on this.

FWIW, computers in this form factor have been around for at least 5 or 6 years, though I haven't seen one with an HDMI output, but I haven't been particularly following the market either.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

As soon as you brought up GNOME or KDE, ... well, you wouldn't even get that far. But there are lightweight GUI's that will run fine in 64mb; I've done it. This has 128mb, and 700mHz; that's a ton of power compared to what I started running X on back in the day: 486 DX/2 @ 33mHz, 32mb RAM, 512MB disk. My Samsung Intercept is a 800mHz ARM11; this ain't *that* much slower. Definitely with Opera for the browser, though; Firefox is a p-i-g hawg. I *like* it, but it's a hawg.

Srsly. Linux Mint in netbook mode, or Damn Small Linux, or Puppy, or if you want to get really small, and secure, OpenBSD...

And I'm not thinking take the boob tube with, I'm thinking use the one in the hotel room, so wee roll-up keyboard, mini-mouse, two USB-key-form-factor devices, and the 'puter itself... *might* be more actual *cubes* than a netbook MAYBE, but it'll be easier to pack; a brolly-sized tube that can tuck in a corner of your suitcase rather than having to go flat.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but at many hotels anyway, it's going to cost you $10/day, because you need to be in the lobby to get free internet, and you can't take all that down there. It's also a seriously lot more hassle to haul out all this junk and wire it up than it is to pull out a netbook.

This thing has a lot of potential uses, but laptop/desktop replacement isn't one of them, IMO.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of the revamped Commodore 64s some company is making. It's like the C64s we grew up with on the outside but modern tech on the inside. Just hook it up to a monitor and you're off!

(I'm glad the line between TV and Monitor is blurring again. It makes portability easier.)

[jeffreycwells.livejournal.com]

I still have fond memories of playing (and winning, thankyaverymuch) the original Prince of Persia with my Apple //c hooked up to my parents' big cabinet TV. I was sad when TV and Monitor went their separate ways and am overjoyed to see them reuniting.

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

Since the invisible musical instrument project failed on Kickstarter (but it got close) I'd use two of them to make control sticks for a variety of motion-sensing music making stuff. Add something you could breath into for wind instruments and you could have almost every musical instrument in two small pocket-sized sticks.