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Adorable Little Linux Boxes 138

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i-wanna-be-a-cray-when-i-grow-up dept.
An anonymous reader wrote in to tell us about an article describing the CerfCube. 192Mhz StrongArm, 32MB RAM, 16MB flash, ethernet, CompactFlash, 3 serial ports and a USB port. Not impressed? Well how about that it's only a 3 inch cube? The box runs Linux and Apache. We did a previous story about it, but this is much more informative about the internals.
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Adorable Little Linux Boxes More

Adorable Little Linux Boxes

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  • Microdrive! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The Compact Flash 2 ports accept the IBM Microdrive. 1GB versions of which are already available.

  • Cerfcube mailing list (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Join it! CerfCube@yahoogroups.com They had the cubes on sale for $299 about a month ago. I picked one up then. I think its great.

  • Re:Heat? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Like this guy [trygve.com] did?
  • Yes, I agree with you it's easy - BUT go ask a company why they use Linux anyway...

    It's the licensing issue. If I was selling embedded stuff - I would rather have grabbed Linux then CE - because I can sell much more, and I don't need the licensing or paying Microsoft for each copy. That way I can charge less the customer and probably get a good stand point to sell my products..

    I'm sure that someone will make a version of Linux as easy (or easier?) to use then CE - all the players here are commercial players, and one of those will probably make it.

  • The IBM Microdrive [ibm.com] is a CF form factor hard drive with sizes from 350MB to 1GB. Maybe that's what you found in your pocket?

    Or maybe it was a USB hard drive [everythingusb.com]?

    Or maybe, since it has onboard ethernet, you could just have it nfs mount its root directory [linuxdoc.org]?

  • I went to the RSA 2001 Conference up in San Francisco, and the Embedded Systems Conference was just across the street, so I dropped by with my digital camera. I managed to take several pictures of these boxes in various form factors. You may (or may not) be interested.

    David E. Weekly [weekly.org]

  • "Is that a Linux Box in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"
    ...
    "Oh. It's a Linux Box."
  • Yeah, but then you'd have to come up with your own dot.com logo--ie. MEANINGLESSWORD surrounded by some planetary-looking rings.


    --
  • You probably don't want to cuddle up to an 802.11b device - 2.4 GHz is the same frequency used for microwave ovens, though 802.11b uses much lower power of course.
  • "...rootdisk is uncompressed from flash into RAM and mounted as /."

    I had to read that sentence three times to not parse it as 'mounted as slashdot', 8^)
    --

  • ~200 StrongARM, flash, and memory. Sounds close to the iPaq handheld, and the empeg-car. And the Netwinder I suppose as well. ArmLinux is definitly growing in it's uses.

  • The reason it was probaby dropped was because someone figured out that the Cobalt Cube resembles the NeXT box. The NeXT box coming before the Cobalt Cube and Apple having bought out NeXT probably put a crimp in their lawsuit...

  • Alas, another poster mentioned that apple purchased NeXT, the original unveiler of the cube shaped computer... But it should be made clear that (I think, and no, my opinion doesn't really matter) Apple never chased anyone away from building all in one computers, they just went after the likes of eMachines, which made a computer called the eOne, which was indeed all in one, but also featured the use of transparent plastics in the same hues that apple was using, in the same exact spots on the case. ANd to top it off, they were advertising in Macintosh mail - order catalogs without a mention that they ran windows, and were hence incompatible with everything else featured in said catalogs.

    No, they didn't copyright a simple shape, they copyrighted (or whatever form of protection they used), the shape plus the colorings, etc... There are plenty of ofther form factors for all-in-one computers to follow (go find one of those Mac history sites, and you can see probably 6 or 8 other form factors apple has devised over the years). Nor did they copyright an all in one computer. And as far as i can tell, they've not copyrighted cube shaped computer either. The case may change when someone ships a 7" silver cube which sits atop a 1" clear plexiglass pedistle, but until then...
  • Yeah well and I bet he didn't bother to read the bloddy manual either did he? One of the reason's the part is so small is they left the bufffers between the board and the CF slot so that means you cannot, CANNOT, hotswap the CF cards. You have to power the whole thing down, plug in the card, and power it all back up again. This is not a "consumer device" it is a reference and development system.
  • I bet it's on the bottom, 'cause of the little legs on it. Makes sense to put some vents on the underside if you're going to make it stand up like that.

    --Xantho

  • Embedded controllers (Score:3)

    by Chris_Pugrud ( 16615 ) on Friday June 29, 2001 @10:30AM (#119635)

    You're not going to see this in any Slurpee or other embedded type machine. The more complex and interesting machines of this type all use PLC's (Programmable Logic Controllers). Small base model PLC's can be had for $50-$100. You program them in "Ladder Logic", which is amazingly friendly for machine language. They are actually really cool.

    For embedded controls like this you don't need fast or powerful. You need rock solid reliability, a lot of tolerance for abuse, and a very simplistic programming language that makes it difficult or impossible to do something stupid. Of course if you want something with more pizzazz, like a graphical screen and touch control, I can see this little Linux device fitting right in.

    Chris

  • What I really want is an in between system, smaller than a microATX desktop, but not so small as the box in this /. article. Something on the order of size of an old Sun 411 case or a "lunchbox" case at the largest, would be about right. I would be looking for 2 versions, one with and one without harddrive. The harddrive can be a smaller laptop (2.5 inch) type. I also want this to be i386 based, but it doesn't need to be the fastest processor, so the slower and smaller i386 embedded processors will probably do the job.

    What I found when I went searching for this a few months ago was several companies making various SBCs, but no one making a complete system based on it. I don't want to get into the hardware building business over this. One problem was that these components were not designed to fit right into a small box with others. In most cases they were not all integrated (e.g. no ethernet ports ... I need 2 since these will be firewalls) and depended on add on slots they had, which if used made for setups that would never fit in a decent box.

    The configuration should be simple enough. Based on an embedded chipset and CPU, such as a 200 MHz embedded 486 class CPU, with one or two DIMM slots for RAM, one or two IDE interfaces, one or two serial ports, minimalist VGA video and keyboard (if not console over serial) and maybe even a mouse port. I do need dual ethernet and it needs to be integrated, so whoever builds this is clearly going to have to think "firewall market".

    I bet I'll get several people suggesting that I check out this company or that company. I've gotten those many times before and these companies turn out to make SBCs, but none are configured right, and none come fully built in a box with power supply. So if you are temped to make such a suggestion, it probably already has been made. If you do know that they do make this box, then it hasn't been made because I have seen no such company, yet.

    If you are interested in starting a businesses building hardware and doing something with SBCs, you might consider this firewall market. But do remember that the higher end "firewall" will also be a web proxy and mail (SMTP+POP3) server as well, and maybe even more than that. It's more of the next evolution of a smaller system box.

  • I already do this with microATX machines. But they are 2 to 3 times more volume (mostly wasted air) than they need to be. This is why I am looking for the next step smaller. Sun used to make the Sparc IPC, IPX, and LX machines about the right size. But I need dual ethernet, IDE, and prefer an Intel CPU (but it doesn't need to be hyper fast ... one of the embedded x86 CPUs would be fine ... 200-300 Mhz is plenty of speed). Since it will be a firewall, fancy video is not needed and serial console would be acceptable (but one serial port for backup dialout modem would be useful, too). To keep the internal geometry in control, it all needs to be integrated on one board without requiring the use of any PCI slot cards to achieve the basic requirements.

  • Um, what on earth would I want this for if I can't plug any drives into it?

    Oh, right. I forgot about that 60Gb flash card I had in my pocket.

    Give me a break,

    -S

    Scott Ruttencutter
  • I think your sig was supposed to say,
    The words of the prophets were written by the slashdot trolls.

    Still rythmically ok, but more true to the spirit of the original lyrics I think.

    --
    Poliglut [poliglut.com]

  • Re:It's not really a cube... (Score:4)

    by Rinikusu ( 28164 ) on Friday June 29, 2001 @09:17AM (#119640)
    take a look again. They offer a Reference Board, a Developer's station thingie, AND the cube.

    And yes, the reference board is for integrating into *other* devices.. Nice nifty setup.. I can think of half a dozen projects right now..

  • Sure -- pick up a Power Mac G5 Sphere [theapplecollection.com] when you get a chance.
  • speaking of making X terminals (the other day), imagine putting that wee board in the foot of a monitor... if there's a kickass video modulator, of course. :p..
  • Daniel from Intrinsyc:

    We do run X windows on the board. It was a lot of "fun". I would like the fantastic people on the Xfree86 project, expecially Keith Packard, and Jim Getty for writing the "Tiny X" server. It is just like normal X Windows(same extensions), but lacks the unimportant features that an embedded device does not need, like laodable modules, or configuration files for different hardware layouts.

    All in all, the libraries are ~2mb and the X server is ~700k. Then add all the extras, for another ~1mb.

    So, for around 3-5mb, you can run X off the cerfpod.

    By taking a position of superiority you show how nearsighted you are. Thus Spake ADRA

  • Re:Not impressed at all (Score:3)

    by ADRA ( 37398 ) on Friday June 29, 2001 @12:16PM (#119644)
    Daniel from Intrinsyc:

    You can actually hot swap the CF cards on the fly. The static issue is becuase the PCB is exposed, so there is a chance for the individual to touch some component and have it burn out.

    The static grounding makes it safe to touch the electronics inside. You don't have to tiptoe around the thing with the fear of frying it.

    My words, are my own, thanks.

    By taking a position of superiority you show how nearsighted you are. Thus Spake ADRA
  • Man in Lab Coat: I just got this great new idea. We're going to take commodity hardware, we're going to make it really small, we're going to put it in a nice looking package, and we're going to install Linux and Apache on it since everyone knows that Linux = SUCCESS!

    Man in Suit: Who will buy this?

    Man in Lab Coat: We'll get front page coverage on Slashdot, and countless Linux geeks and wannabe Linux geeks (because it's cool to be a Linux geek and it allows you to make fun of people who use other operating systems that, although they work fine for their purposes, are clearly inferior and evil and STUPID!) will load our page, admire our design, perhaps post a comment or two, and continue about their daily work.

    Man in Suit: Who will buy this, again?

    Man in Lab Coat: I'm not really sure, as most people who have a need for lower end hardware like this already have old 486's or first-gen Pentiums on their desktop and probably didn't pay much more than $50-$100 for them, but DAMN is this COOL... and besides, we'll get on Slashdot!
  • There is a slash site for the CerfCube here [intrinsyc.com]

  • When you look at the CerfPod [intrinsyc.com].

  • Impressive, i need to hook up my dad with one of these. He uses a P166 and gets a lot done surprisingly, I wonder how much more with a few more megahertz will help. Not enough ram though to satisfy my needs. Also, what happends when we cluster this stuff. I see a market for a new search engine...
  • How about a simple Router/VPN server. No disk I/O required.

    ~Sean
  • With all the empty space in the cube, you could easily add the guts of a lighter to it..

  • Re:Unbiased reporting would say CE too... (Score:3)

    by Phork ( 74706 ) on Friday June 29, 2001 @09:32AM (#119651) Homepage
    This is not a reasonably unbiased forum, this is slashdot.

  • I'm looking for a cheap and simple "appliance"-grade storage scheme. An ethernet jack, fixed IP address or DHCP, some Samba and FTP, and a drive bay. Nothing more. No shells, no boot sequence, no integrated USB jacks.

    It would seem like this CerfCube and a matching DiskCube device would make a great little pair for simple stuff... of course you wouldn't want to host 10Khits/hour on it, but it could probably run a few fetch-and-store daily operations.

  • Responding to self...

    Poking around a little, I found this:

    Snap Server [snapserver.com] supporting AppleShare, NetWare Bindery, SMB, NT Domain Controller, and remote administration.

    Also, less interesting, basically a plain headless PC box with drive bays. Axis Storage Server [axis.com], from the same guys who make the self-contained network-attached web camera.

  • My friend at work bought one of them because he thought it looked cool and nifty... He plugged in a 64mb Flash card he had and it fried the flash card and the cube.... I would stay away from these hunks of junk personally...

  • The article mentions that the device is shipped with a anti-static bag and wrist strap because it's sensitive to ESD damage.

    If that's the case, then what good is this in most embedded applications? I think embedded system and I think of a controller for a sorting belt on a warehouse floor or some sort of remote collection device. You need a semi-hardened system for that sort of situation.

    Still, it's cute, and I really like the fact that it includes a 10Mbit NIC.

    -carl

  • Ehh, compare to iPaq? (Score:4)

    by magi ( 91730 ) on Friday June 29, 2001 @09:44AM (#119656) Homepage Journal
    What's so amazing about the cubes, except that they look cute?

    The iPaq 36xx handheld models have about 206MHz StrongARM processor, with 16-64MB Flash and RAM. They have USB, they have everything. The price vary between $300-$600. ...and the size is about 5x3x0.6 inches, which is much less volume than the cube has.

    But, of course, the iPaqs come with LoseCE preinstalled, although Linux works too [handhelds.org]. I don't know if Apache has yet been ported, but it might have.

    While they are not cute cubes, they fit much better in your pocket.

    What I'd like to see is server farms based on tiny ipaq-sized low-power processor cards. Just stuff one 4U box full of those and whheeee....

  • ... you will be assimilated ... resistance is futile! The only problem is that the external power supply is bigger than the computer itself.
  • nothing more
  • while we're on the subject of beowulf clusters, what would happen if you linked up a bunch of furbies into a cluster?
  • embeded devices. It's not designed for end users, but for OEMs to incorperate into thier own creations. The OEM attaches things to the hardware, adds a chip or 2, updates the OS, and sticks it inside thier "Talking plush Tux Doll" to sell on Think Geek. I also believe this is sort of a demo to get the OEMs interested in the product.
    =\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\ =\=\=\=\=\
  • But it's a 3" cube. That means you could easilly stuff five of them in the space of two 1.5" full-width racks.

    Er, make that 10 -- five in the front and five in the back. at that rate, you could end up with almost a quarter of your space taken up with hubs and switches for connectivity.
    --

  • "Despite the plentiful extra space inside the cube, the unit is powered by a rather large external wall-mount power supply." (Quote from this page [linuxdevices.com], in the middle above the larger image.)

    So much for a 2.2 x 2.4 inch CerfBoard [linuxdevices.com] in a 3x3x3 inch box! Anybody know how big the power supply is? They imply it's huge by not mentioning anything about it's size other than what I quoted above.

  • So we've got the processor, the input device (twiddler), the net connection (any of a variety of wireless modems), the power suppy (LiIon is cool...), but where the hell can I find a good display? The Sony Glasstron kicks ass, but the $400 version only hooks up to a TV out. The VGA version is more like $2000!

    If only there were an easy way to hook a Linux equipped PS2 to a battery supply...

    The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.

  • NFS-mounted root? Hmm...I'm envisioning the sexiest X-terminal in the world...a three-inch aluminum cube with an SGI 1600SW [sgi.com]. :^) As Apple has shown the world, it isn't the technology inside your boxen that counts, it's how much the outside makes people drool.
  • CerfCube for Linux
    Specifications
    CerfBoard-SA 1110 CPU Board

    Processor - Intel® StrongARM(TM) 1110 microprocessor @ 133/206 MHz
    Memory - 16 MB FLASH (3.3V or 5V); 32 MB SDRAM (100 MHz)
    Flash Programming - TAG support through CPU, download through Ethernet
    Data Connectivity - 10BaseT Ethernet RJ45 port; USB Type B port, 1 RS232 serial port (2 line) from 10-pin row header
    CompactFlash+ header - supports Type I and II cards, including IBM microdrive, CompactFlash memory cards, barcode readers, and wireless modems
    I/O- 16 digital lines (all lines have programmable interrupt capability, and the first four have buffered LED indicators)
    Size - 2.24" x 2.73" (57mm x 69mm)
    Power - 5VDC regulated, 400mA (with no CompactFlash device; peak of 800 - 900 mA (for example, with IBM microdrive)
    Software Support Environment

    Intrinsyc Standard Linux distribution (Kernel 2.4)
    Apache Webserver
    Sendmail
    Blackdown Java
    Perl
    SSH
    DHCP
    Each CerfCube Kit Contains

    CerfCube
    Cables
    Power Supply
    Documentation
    Other Kits Available

    Linux OEM Developers' Kits (ODKs)

    CerfPod for Linux ODK - Intel StrongARM(TM) 1110-based PDA reference design with 5.7" LCD and touchscreen
    Windows CE ODKs

    CerfCube - Windows CE
    CerfPod ODK - Windows CE
    Intrinsyc Software Development Toolkits

    Compatible with Intrinsyc Software Development Toolkits, including deviceCOM for Linux and deviceOPC for Linux
    NOTE: ALL SPECIFICATIONS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.

  • product website (Score:4)

    by mr_gerbik ( 122036 ) on Friday June 29, 2001 @08:50AM (#119666)
    Only $379... not too shabby!

    http://www.intrinsyc.com/products/referenceplatfor ms/cerfcube.html [intrinsyc.com]
  • it has built in ethernet. give it an NFS server and watch it go. not to mention USB, which while it isn't fast it's fast enough for a giant drive full of MP3s, etc, which this box can use its processor power on to serve up, etc.
  • A company called Rabbit Semiconducter [rabbitsemiconductor.com] sells cute single board computers, too (non-Linux, but shop & compare)--they have a TCP/IP development kit [rabbitsemiconductor.com] with ethernet, serial, a royalty free C compiler, and sample code (including webserver!) for $199. A bare "core" board with ether & serial (RCM 2110) [rabbitsemiconductor.com]can be had for $59. It's only a 22Mhz Z80-derived 8-bit processor, so even a Beowolf Cluster of these would be hard to get a MIP from.

    I'm a-fixin' to buy me a couple to control some analog video switch gear. I love Linux, but I'm a cheap bastard, too.

    *f*

  • Cobalt already tried to sue Apple for using a cube. It seemed to have gotten dropped when Sun acquired Cobalt.
  • I can see one of these in a kitchen under the sink somewhere. You could have dinner cooking and waiting for you with the poke of a web page, or maybe coffee ordered from your laptop in bed. This is the ultimate PLC.
  • What, you mean like at http://www.trygve.com/furbeowulf.html [trygve.com]

    -Paul
  • Where'd be the fun in that? I for one enjoy seeing lots of ignorant comments about using embedded systems for beowulf clusters, for mass storage, etc, etc. why should people have to be bothered with facts when ignorance is much more easily adopted? No doubt there will be lots of people who say "WinCE sucks! linux rules!", and those people are ignorant. those people have also likely never worked in an embedded environment before, and somehow feel that by owning a PDA they somehow have a clue regarding embedded applications. If slashdot were indeed unbiased, the majority of your ignorant slashdot users would start flaming slashdot for saying that there's something else out there that does a better job than linux in some areas. slashdot is only unbiased as long as it suits the purpose.
  • Linux is certainly better than wince for a lot of things.. in incredibly tiny spaces or dealing with systems w/o an MMU, it is not. Given the fact I can have a functional wince install in less space than I can get a useless 2.4 image to, is rather annoying. neutrino is kind of cute, but QNX has done a lot of stupid things with it as well *cough* qnx rtp *end cough*. I can't think of too many proprietary commercial RTOS'es that are even worth a damn.. VxWorks, pSOS, and LynxOS being examples of systems better left dead..
  • PDF HERE [intrinsyc.com]
    Looks good. Could be a fun box to fart around with, but for $400, man, that is a lot of beer money!

  • it can do everything my real linux system can do - namely X and Xapps. That day, money will be no object....

    but this is still damn cool. Port Etherial to it, have it dump its results to a networked computer...you have your own personal spypet! Of course, the government probably has had them for years...:c)

    Insert witty comment here

  • This thing'll run X???? How, on a 16meg flash card...

    Insert witty comment here

  • Schweeet! I'm already wanting to order one.... truly the first cube computer I'd ever buy!
  • I wonder how hard it would be to install a notebook HD right into that cube. The Linux Devices article says that the cube is mostly hollow.

    Does the thing have capabilities for adding an EIDE controller to it? If you can, it would mean one of these Bitty Boxes could be used as a full-fledged server.

    The possibilities are indeed interesting.


    ----
    http://www.msgeek.org/html/

  • Actually, at the same place, you can find this:

    http://www.directron.com/ms6215.html

    (not putting a hotlink here so the goat sex traumatized won't have to worry about following it, just copy and paste into a new window)

    This has built-in just about everything, but for a teeny web server or NAT box it would work. Actually my plans for this puppy are more ambitious...drop a DVD-ROM into it, shove a huge HD into it, a better sound card and a Hollywood decoder card...voila, instant TIVO box/Super-DVD player.

    It's MicroStar...it's made to better standards than those evil PC Chips "Book PC" boxen.

    The box is $239. It includes a mobo with built in video, (no shared RAM...4MB VRAM on the mobo) NIC and audio. The audio prolly sucks so I'll use an Ensoniq card I have lying around. It'll take a Celery or a PIII. I suggest Celery due to heat issues. It also takes standard components: standard CD-ROM, standard floppy, no "slim" or "low profile" nonsense.

    No, I don't work for Directron.


    ----
    http://www.msgeek.org/html/

  • Like these Cerfcubes are running the website. Maybe it'll be over the /. effect in a few hours.
  • Sure you do.

    Let me guess, its a red '88 Monte Carlo in desperate need of some new springs and a reindeer hood ornament complete with light up nose?

  • Funny yes. True Yes.

    Coming here for Microsoft's side of any story is like going to a Baptist Minister for Satan's outlook.
  • Satan's outlook

    I swear that was a coincidence.
  • "Honey, have you seen the computer?"
    "Yeah, I think I saw the cat playing with it again."

  • They could make them snap together like Legos and _build_ a supercomputer in the shape of the eiffel tower.

    .
  • Why would anyone care what OS the Slurpee dispenser is running?

    No one would, but that's the point. Use linux and no one would notice or care. Install a Windows based OS and there would be stickers all over the damn thing. Not to mention the crashes.

    you're officially worse than Microsoft.

    How is he "officially" worse than Microsoft. Has he been endorsed by a standards body. Is he ANSI Worse or W3C Worse?


    ;)
  • How about buying two of them and setting up an Oracle 9i clustered pair for a high availability OLTP application. You could probably get funding.

    ..snort..snort..

    Damn, this is some good shit.

  • Re:furbies (Score:3)

    by Ian Wolf ( 171633 ) on Friday June 29, 2001 @09:58AM (#119688) Homepage
    Distributed Annoyance.

  • I wonder what kind of heat dissipation this thing has. I can imagine some enterprising fellow crowding a whole rack with them only to have the ambient heat become suffocating. Or is it simply not a factor?
  • It's not very applicable as a rack server. Although the 3" is small compared to a typical desktop unit, there are thinner 1.5" rack servers that would make more sense,

    But it's a 3" cube. That means you could easilly stuff five of them in the space of two 1.5" full-width racks.

    Still not very practical, but you just know it's only a matter of time before some smart-ass does it, for the 15 minutes of fame when he publishes the web photo, if nothing else.

  • As a person who uses Linux quite systematically, I don't give a damn whether my computer has inside it an i386, a PPC, an UltraSPARC or an ARM. Much was done to ensure that Linux was platform independent, and as far as I can judge it is.

    The PC hardware is burdened by hundreds of legacy solutions, for example the memory model, the peripherial interfaces and the BIOS. A newly designed board will do much better.

    So what I would personally like to see is a cheap non-i386 board which has IDE (or at least SCSI) connectors, video out, USB, Ethernet, and possibly an audio system. I do not think it'll require a form factor exceeding that of a set-top box. To sum up, it's like a SUN workstation, just cheaper. I hope that someday I'll be able to see such a system upon my desk.

  • You kinda mentioned why this product is still in some ways better: the size really is incredible. Then there is also the power consumption, which I guess is much smaller with StrongARM than x86. (Although Celerons need less than Durons, for example.)

  • It's not very applicable as a rack server. Although the 3" is small compared to a typical desktop unit, there are thinner 1.5" rack servers that would make more sense, and be much easier to cable manage.

    These cubes might be more at home sitting on the kitchen cabinet for surfing while cooking, or something along that line. They are styled to look more like a typical home appliance than anything else.

    -premier

  • Linux is good, but if you honestly think it ought to be the OS of every computer from the largest supercomputer to the tiniest embedded system, you're officially worse than Microsoft.

    Why would anyone care what OS the Slurpee dispenser is running?
  • Please post references. Did he do something stupid to it and is now blaming the company?
  • I dunno, I mean, I'll admit that I looked at the website, but it always seems to me like the sites that get /.ed the most are product announcements. I'm starting to get worried that people reading /. are only doing so for all the cool products they can buy. You're all just slowly becomming soldiers of the corporate republic. And maybe you'd rather FREE BEER than FREE SPEECH too.

    Call me a flamer if you will, and I'm not necessarily blaming anyone for wanting to check out a cool device, but its upsetting to see the important issues overlooked because people are jerking off to the new Ikea Catalog.
  • Wow. You've commented on a lot of articles recently. I mean, I was looking at your info and you comment A LOT. But it always seems to be about games...
  • I wholeheartedly agree
  • Well, I don't think that the issue that I brought up was submissions, because I don't see anything wrong with submitting stories of this kind, but yesterday I submitted an Ask Slashdot about what people thought about mp3.com hosting a large group of big name artists and whether that would negatively affect the users ability and motivation to find independant artists.
  • Because if the maker of the Slurpee machine didn't have to pay a license fee for the operating system, it means Slurpee's can be that much cheaper. (No, $0.00003 per slurpee isn't going to matter, but the savings would be more noticable in other consumer electronics.)
  • All I'd need is an LM309K and I could poke one of these under the dash of my truck and then I could play Nethack [nethack.org] when stuck in traffic jams! (c=

    --
    All your .sig are belong to us!

  • Re:Neaty Keeno! (Score:4)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Friday June 29, 2001 @09:08AM (#119705) Homepage Journal
    That, too! (c=

    You run in to a gravel hauler.-more-
    40 other vehicles plow into you.-more
    You have died.

    --
    All your .sig are belong to us!

  • Re:Neaty Keeno! (Score:4)

    by Darth RadaR ( 221648 ) on Friday June 29, 2001 @09:32AM (#119706) Journal
    Get a 2 of them, cover in fur, paint some little dots on them, and you'll be the 1st on your block to have fuzzy dice webservers hanging off your rear-view mirror. :)
  • Granted, it's not quite as technologically impressive as the ill-fated G4 Cube (though still quite nifty in that regard,) but this is one (aesthetically) beautifully designed little computer. If more and more good-looking boxen like this one keep appearing, it may just help make Linux seem that much more accessible to the masses, regardles of the fact that the CerfCube nothing a home user would ever really use. (Who cares? It's so cute!)

    That, and how many of us own a computer that could be mistaken for a Post-It Note holder?

  • They have a contest to win one of these cool little things plus some star wars robot: http://www.intrinsyc.com/contests/contest.asp [intrinsyc.com]

    "Pussy: You spend 9 months trying to get out of it, and the rest of your life trying to get back in..."

  • Re:It's not really a cube... (Score:4)

    by grammar fascist ( 239789 ) on Friday June 29, 2001 @10:08AM (#119712) Homepage
    I just want it in a toaster. Everybody's been telling me that one day I'll have an Internet-enabled toaster, and I want one.

  • TINI (Score:2)

    by Aztech ( 240868 )
    The Cube [intrinsyc.com] is a cute little box, however I can't help thinking $379 is a tad on the expensive side, true, it does have a 206mhz ARM chip and a nice case. Seems like an iPaq with ethernet.

    However, iButton [ibutton.com] produce a java-based embedded computer called TINI [ibutton.com] that sells for $50, including Ethernet, RS232, 1-wire & can buses. A new version is due later this year which has a 10x speed increase, it also integrates all the functions of the device into a single chip, excluding flash.
  • Yeah... check this post [slashdot.org]. (legit link).

  • Build Your Own? (Score:4)

    by Aztech ( 240868 ) on Friday June 29, 2001 @10:04AM (#119715)
    You could built a 'similar' system from standard off the shelf PC parts which would be cheaper and faster, grab a MicroATX case [directron.com] for $25, uATX m'board [gigabyte.com.tw] for $110, a Celeron $60 (?), Hard Drive (~$100), and some RAM which is ridiculously cheap right now $30 (one benefit on an economy balancing on the edge). It adds up to about $300 if you need to buy everything, but any self-respecting techie has a box they can salvage components from.

    The board has audio, video, Ethernet integrated, granted integrated components are often lacking, but this wont affect anything if you use it as a small server or NAT/Firewall box.

    This is obviously different to the actual Cube, that being a true embedded system.

    There's smaller FlexATX and NLX kit about too. The parts and thermal solutions are scarce though.
  • Well, it's hard to miss... the FIRST line of the product description at LinuxDevices.com states that the product ships with Linux OR Windows CE.

    The article that you link to doesn't mention CE at all... although I'm definately not a CE fan, it has it's uses, and should have been mentioned in any reasonably non-biased forum.

    Pity... as much as we accuse Microsoft of being eletist and anti-competive, things like this don't make the Open Source / Linux movement look any better.

    MadCow.

  • I'm sure Apple will be thrilled about this. I'll bet the lawyers had a draft warning written before the First Post.

  • Stick It Up a Tux (Score:4)

    by rohar ( 253766 ) <bob.rohatensky@sasktel.net> on Friday June 29, 2001 @08:52AM (#119722) Homepage Journal
    If someone started marketing a teddy bear sized Tux doll, with one of these stuffed inside...
    We could all curl up to a linux box at naptime.


    It's easy to write songs, you just sit down and write them.
  • Why would anyone care what OS the Slurpee dispenser is running?

    You or I may not care, but 7-11 sure does. Embedded devices are not usually known for their interfaces. They work hard at small jobs for their whole lives (like my elves (elfs if you're anal)).

    Note that the board also supports WinCE. I'd wager that CE was the first OS ported to the device, the ease of setting up a CE system compared to setting up a Linux system is amazing.

    Dancin Santa
  • It's a board. This is where Linux can really have the chance to shine. Beyond the obvious possibilities of setting up a beowulf cluster of these things to handle server requests, it looks like they designed the thing to fit into OEM devices. You could have this in your car, airport ticketing booths, interactive kiosks, or even Slurpee dispensers.

    If this catches on, this is where Linux will see huge (but perhaps invisible) growth.

    Dancin Santa
  • It would be perfect for embedded apps once you put the thing in a $5 plastic box from radio crack. It's incredibly simple to harden an SBC. Just put it in the case and run cables.

    Though, perhaps this is the nefarious side of my brain speaking, this seems like it would be the perfect packet sniffer for a large network. Would you notice a three inch cube hidden in a server rack? Probably not unless you go looking for it.

  • It seems as if they're running their website from one of these boxes. Maybe they should get a faster machine =P
    Reb
  • A cerfCube made for Smurfs!
  • Have you seen the Linux script kids @ MIT? This is the way to go:

    CerfCube(TM): Part Computer, Part Hackisack, All Linux

  • The neat thing (Score:5)

    by 4n0nym0u53 C0w4rd ( 463592 ) on Friday June 29, 2001 @08:50AM (#119755) Homepage
    Not only could you have a beowulf cluster of these things, but you could accidentally misplace it as well...

    --

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