Jim, IBM used to make something called a netstation. They sold the division to Neoware. These are the devices that you see at Ikea and Rona. I used to have hundreds of them deployed in the call centre. The 8363-Exx are all Ethernet 8363-Txx are token ring. They have a CF slot in them and they have a Cyrix 300mhz processor I think. I'm not sure if that's enough horsepower, but it's a dedicated machine so it might be.
They are great because they've got onboard video and sound, and no moving parts. They're convection cooled. I think you can get an old one on Ebay for under $50. In terms of new supply, Rona and Ikea must be getting them somewhere. These things shipped as network booting boxes running NetBSD. You can load just about any version of Linux (and even versions of windows) on the flash card. Your adventures with Soekris have inspired me. I picked one up a few weeks ago and I'm going to play around and see what I can get going. If you want to take a look, you're welcome to borrow mine since I owe you that power supply anyway. Dave On 4/7/06, Jim Van Meggelen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I am looking to provision a small pc for use as a web console (for FOP, > let's say). An Apple mini-MAC would be aboout the right size, but really > too > expensive. A mini-ITX board might do, but there are so many of them now > and > the VIA boards seem to have a reputation for poor quality. > > Features needed: > - silent (solid state components or ultra quiet fans/drives) > - ability to handle a CF card as a boot drive (if an adaptor card is > needed > that's OK) > - small footprint, and preferably styled conservatively > - possibility to add full softphone capability later (although this would > be > something to do for the second version, console 1.0 should be a basic PC > to > start - adding speech paths will vastly increase the development effort). > - anything else I have missed? > - unit has to be new (i.e. no used Dells from a liquidator), and have a > reasonably reliable supply chain > > Also, what OS to run? The console will only need to run a browser app, and > perhaps an email client. A nice lightweight Linux might do, but is there > such a thing as lightweight X? (that looks good and runs Firefox). > > If we can put our heads together and think this one through it'd benefit > any > of us who do enterprise work, because sooner or later you can be sure > you're > going to be asked to provision a pc to be dedicated as a console, and a > huge, noisy PC is not going to be popular. > > It'd be cool to wiki the results as well, since this would benefit the > community at large. > > Jim > > -- > Jim Van Meggelen > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/2177 > > "A child is the ultimate startup, and I have three. > This makes me rich." > Guy Kawasaki > -- > > -- > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.3.5/303 - Release Date: 06/04/2006 > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -- David Donovan Consultant Fulcrum Solutions
