Cool, cheap computers… they’re EVERYWHERE!!!
So… the Linksys NSLU-2 (which I have a few of) is a pretty cool thing… great for dull things you don’t want to burn a whole lot of electricity on… like in-home DNS and DHCP…
Then there’s the Eee-PC… Also mighty bitchin’ I have 2 and use them quite a bit.
Then… there’s the Ace Aspire ONE (of which I have 3)… great little low-power desktops (and laptops)
But THIS!!! Golly! The BeagleBoard is a single-board computer with a 600 MHz CPU, video out, sound, USB, Ethernet… the list goes on… for… are you sitting down?… $149.
Oh, and the best part?! Open Source. That’s right… you can download the design drawings, buy the components and make your own BeagleBoard (but probably not for $149).
What could a machine like this do?! Well, it could be a RobotRadio server (with the attachment of a simple USB disk)… or a webserver… or.. it could make an awesome PC for the car… FrogPad next to the shifter and an LCD in the dash… awwwwww yeah!… make your own Chumby…. An Internet Radio BoomBox… Simple PCs for the kiddies… or the kithcen… you could run a home theatre off it (with all the fancy DSP stuff and the HDMI output)… why… the possibilities are virtually endless…
Tempting… very tempting….