[Beowulf] Clusters and Distro Lifespans

[Jim Lux]

At 05:06 PM 7/21/2006, Robert G. Brown wrote:
>On Fri, 21 Jul 2006, Jim Lux wrote:
>
>>That's sort of the model, though.. Except with the disk drive built in. 
>>There ARE small network attached storage devices available, intended for 
>>the home server market, but last time I looked (about a year ago), they 
>>all seemed to require loading a special application on your PC or MAC for 
>>access, probably so they could implement some sort of future Digital 
>>Rights Management.  The market is so competitive, I can't imagine that 
>>they'd make money with the hardware alone, so I assume their  idea would 
>>be to get decent penetration, and then sell the capability to, for 
>>instance, store (legally) downloaded music and/or video in connection 
>>with a third party content provider.  They all had quasi whizbang media 
>>player type software that ran in connection with their thing (store your 
>>MP3s on our server and play them on your PC!).
>
>Righty-ho, but if you get two little paperback USB drives and work for a
>minute or two with duct tape, you can accomplish "built in".  Or if you
>prefer you could put a swatch of velcro on the sides of the slug and
>bottom of the drive -- that would make it a bit simpler to remove them.

Duct tape.. now you're talking!.. baling wire might not be bad too.

Actually, you'd also need a little battery pack/wall wart to feed 5V to the 
slug (which I assume comes with it) and that would feed power to the USB2 
disk drive..

Hmmm.. a weekend project lurks... it's 105 degrees here, so a nice indoor 
project has real appeal.

Jim