Computers to be driven purely off the iPod/Handheld device

magine yourself the following scenario: To start up your computer you connect an iPod (or any other large-storage mobile device) to your (x86-based) work computer, which then launches the operating system (currently Knoppix Linux) from the iPod. It uses the processor and memory of the local machine rather than the iPod’s, which is merely used as a hard-drive. Then, once work is finished, you take your iPod home and repeat that exact same procudure, plugging in the iPod to a different computer. Not only can you resume your work, but your hard-drive (which contains everything that is personalised) gives you an identical environment, i.e. you have all your recent files, browser cookies, desktop settings, etc.

That vision is now real as IBM exploit the iPod for this purpose. The device could, in principle, be a Palm LifeDrive, which makes the exception among modern PDA‘s since it exploits very high data capacity. The large-sized hard-drive and high bandwidth (USB/FireWire) make it possible to use your machine merely as a host (computation, display, and peripherals), while your data (operating system, files and applications) always remain in your pocket. From an article just published in CNET:

The virtual computer user environment setup is called SoulPad, and consumers install it from a x86-based home or office PC. SoulPad uses a USB (universal serial bus) or FireWire connection to access the network cards for connecting to the Internet, the computer’s display, the keyboard, the main processor and the memory, but not the hard disk.

Also worth mentioning is the prospect for running your favourite operating system and programs to access your data on any computer. You could even use a workstation at your local library cluster. Plug in your mobile device and use the computer as if it was yours. This considerable step can give a major boost to devices such as the iPod and the LifeDrive. Perhaps Jeff Hawkins, Palm co-founder and R&D chief, had substance in his vision of the “Life Manager”. Could this be what Palm had in mind when switching to Linux?

On a less enthusiastic note, the entire idea of protable high-volume storage is not brand new. For quite some time it has been possible to install hard-drive housing units in one computer and slide in different hard-drives that suit different users of the same computer. This essentially meant that computers came without a hard-drive; hard-drives were provided by the users. However, with a handhelds like the LifeDrive, several major advantages spring to mind:

• Size, which is a major pro
• The ability to view and edit data on the go, unlike just carrying a ‘black box’
• Internet connectivity
• Infra-red communication

Cited by: PalmAddict

icrosoft have announced that Windows 2000 users are exposed to hijacking. According to the BBC, “A vulnerability was also found in the Print Spooler service and the Plug and Play (PnP) hardware detection feature in Windows, both of which could leave systems open to attack and vulnerable to remote control.” XP Service Pack 2 is said to have simplified the process of patching up the operating system. The remainder of Windows users are advised to “sit up, listen and take action.”

ollowing rumours and an official announcement in the Google Blog, feeds are available for news items over at Google. Perhaps this takes us one step closer to full support for SERP RSS feeds (top 10 search results delivered to your feeds aggregator). Google News results can currently be delivered as RSS or Atom feeds. They are composed of items from a specific section (topic) or news returned for a given search term/s.

This move can certainly make Google Alerts for news obsolete, yet such alerts for non-news searches remain practical, albeit difficult to handle (periodical HTML-formatted E-mails).

Ben Hammersley (c/f: Keeping Track of Google, Google Results as RSS Feeds) has devised a workaround which enables you to get results as RSS feeds for standard Web searches at Google. Be warned that scraping is possibly involved, so the technique is questionable.

Yahoo have been offering news RSS feeds for quite some time. This has been very useful when tracking particular terms, so I am convinced Google will benefit from their recent decision (or implementation).

The iPod has gone up to their heads

Nominet have made some controversial decisions in the past. I discussed one such decision back in March this year (see Re: Domain extensions). For those who haven’t the patience to read the whole thread, the conversations led to the following article from the Register:

Apple has been awarded control of the domain iTunes.co.uk, even though it was registered before the Mac maker announced its online music service.

Just as I thought that the story ground to a halt, I noticed the following story on the BBC this morning.

Mr Cohen is contesting Nominet’s decision in March to take itunes.co.uk from him and hand it over to Apple.

He told the BBC News website he is planning to continue to fight for the web address.

Talk about outrageous misuse of power by large bodies and corporations…

Getting a higher level of expressiveness using a CLI

In a very recent item from Slashdot:

“According to Stephen Toulouse at Microsoft (rel="nofollow"), because of the possible virus threat that targets Monad the shell will not be included in Windows Vista. CNet is reporting that, even though Monad is not to be included on Vista, it will be included on a major server operating system for servers from Microsoft. Codenamed Longhorn server, that edition is due out by 2007.”

The inclusion of a CLI is primarily aimed at programmers, system administrators and Web hosts who require versatile remote access. I have some suspicion that Monad will introduce users to the power of the command-line¹, who will in turn realise that they can get it all under Linux without the high costs which Windows entails. In the past few days I converted about 3 people from Windows to Linux, which results in a rewarding feeling. It is not a religious war, but one of freedom. Free as in free beer. Free as in freedom.

¹ The “front line”, not MS-DOS, but bash et al. rather.

Would you believe that a base unit with a monitor can be sold for as little as $225? Although there is no mentioning of the O/S and software that is included, buyers can get it all for a mere pittance in India. There are some amazing offers in westernised countries as well. In the UK, for example, a Linux box can be as cheap as 140 pounds ($247) plus tax, albeit it does not include a monitor. From the article in the BBC:

India’s first low-cost personal computer has been launched in the Tamil Nadu state capital, Madras.

Designed by IT firm HCL Infosystems, it is priced at 9,990 rupees ($225) and includes all the basic features required for a first-time user.

There is no mentioning of which operating system is used; the acronym PC is no indicator either.

he media has become fascinated with the discovery of a new planet that orbits our Sun. It is rare for main-stream media to be fascinated by astronomy, so this news is rather major.

That planet, which is the 10^th in the solar system, is larger then Pluto that was discovered decades ago. Put in the words of the article from my favourite (syndicted) source of astronomy news:

Astronomers have discovered a new planet orbiting our Sun, which is larger than Pluto. It’s located 97 times further than the Earth from the Sun. This new, 10th planet was actually first photographed in 2003 by the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory, but it took this long to study and confirm its size and orbit. A name has been proposed to the International Astronomical Union, which is making its decision.