http://www.fit-pc.com/trimslice/

NVIDIA Tegra 2 @ 1 GHz (Dualcore ARM Cortex A9 CPU)
1GB DDR2-800
SDHC and MicroSDHC card slots, SATA SSD option
Gigabit Ethernet
802.11n, Bluetooth
NVIDIA ultra-low power GeForce
4x USB 2.0, line-in, line-out, 5.1 digital S/PDIF, 2x HDMI, Co-axial video-in, Ethernet, card readers
5.1 x 3.7 x 0.6 inches (WxDxH)
8-16V DC (external)
Average power draw: 3W



Alas, no price nor availability yet, probably April.

change its powersupply and cool it better ?

more seriously (although....) stick it to the back of a monitor for a barebone web-access PC ?
does it have bluetooth and wifi ? sound in/out ?
is there a case option with VESA mount and internal HD

you can change that in the preferrences.

What I like:
- Power consumption
- Full Linux, well supported distro and tools
- Well documented platform
- Active community

Issues:
- Reliability (general, USB HD power, Flash RAM... the new guru seems even worse ?)
- no self-contained, nor dust/water-proof units (would require internal HDD, or at least internal USB and Flash ports, and good port covers)
- Price can be higher than a much more powerful and versatile Atom netbook, depending on desired config
- no "desktop" form factor (with video out + internal eSATA HD, maybe VESA mount)

Suggestions:
- Much better PSU, possibly with a very short duration UPS (2-5 mins would cover 80% of my reboots)
- Desktop and Dust/Water-proof enclosures

Competition:
- Atom nettops, especially if you need video and/or a HD.
- re-purposed routers, some with ARM, some with MIPS, some with PPC. Build quality seems better.

Raid is NOT a backup. A backup is
- off line
- off site
- tested
- multiple

Raid is none of that. Raid is:
- more speed
- more capacity
- high availability
- sometimes, ability to enlarge volumes w/o reboot.

Quick check: what does raid protect you against, among the following:
A- single-disk failure
B- System destruction or theft (fire, flood, power surge...)
C- Operator error
D- Virus
E- File corruption (App error...)
F- File system corruption (OS bug...)

Answer: A)... for ABCDEF), you need a real backup...

I fail to see what's the usefulness of RAID is for your purpose:
- RAID (when well done) brings better performance (bandwidth and latency), which you don't need in that case
- RAID brings high availability, which you don't really need either
- RAID is NOT a backup (it is neither off-line nor off-site, thus vulnerable to power surges, viruses, theft, fire, operator mistakes...), which you do need more than the first 2 things.

Unless you really need 6 un-backupped TB, I'd go with a single large drive, and another one in an external box, for weekly backups, stored at work the rest of the time.

thanks for the feedback.

I don't think the Apple Airport Extreme is rootable.

It's not about the Squeezebox software, but the Logitech Squeezebox-branded hardware. I couldn't find any evidence they could be rooted, so I'm glad to learn that they, indeed, can.

If I end up with too many gizmos, I might tighten the criteria a bit. We're not there yet.

thanks

I don't know about specifics, but I had the worse issues trying to make a sound card work through a USB hub. In the end I had to plug it directly. Did someone manage to get it to work on a hub ? Which hub ?

Thanks !

what else could the "mobile hotspot" mode be ?

This is not a troll, I'm really wondering... BT instead of Wifi ?

The wifi chip is a Marvel 88w8688 (http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-guruplugdetails.aspx#block)

the tech specs say nothing specifically about Master mode (http://www.marvell.com/products/wireless/8688.pdf), but the marketing blurb (http://www.marvell.com/company/news/press_detail.html?releaseID=1237) does:

"The Marvell 88W8688 provides a Marvell mobile hotspot mode that can be used to transform any CE device with an Internet connection into a wireless hotspot; this feature is optimized for very low power consumption on battery-powered CE devices."

So the answer is probably yes. Probably ...

@unaclocker

android is a very specific version of linux, with very specific APIs, interfaces, librarys, even a different kernel...

I don't know if your answer is supposed to mean that A) because the plug supports Linux, it automatically supports Android or B) because the plug has Linux, nobody needs Android on it

But you're wrong in both cases.

Thanks. And congratz :-p

1. if I got that right, it's a 10s delay before loading the root fs, which goes first, so everyrhitng else gets delayed as a result

2. always 10s, even if root fs become available before.

vaporware