They aren't quite there yet, as this article points out, but a tiny stick computer could be a lot of fun.
And I think I have an answer for his issue with the power cord: Get your favorite wireless keyboard/trackpad, build the stick computer into the frame of the keyboard, and then you have ONE wire for your entire system... just the power cord running from the wall to the keyboard.
This is almost interest enough for me to try out on my own, just for shits and giggles...
It's been a while since I've been to my HS, but it looked like they were using similar systems which drew a lot of computing power from a main hub. Looks like my primitive notions were off-base. Can't seem to find anything that meets the description (or at least, my description). Didn't know they were independently functional. It reminds me of the chromebooks' crutches (of a different variety, of course), though it sounds much more versatile, undoubtedly more-so in time. Hehe. This is getting awesome to watch, computing power accelerating enough to see commercially verifiable implants in the next couple decades.
"Dumb terminals" used to be popular, but economy-of-scale caught up, so commodity software, hardware, and networking became cheaper and easier. Around the early 2000's, I think. It's the same reason people say, correctly, "Your car has a computer, your microwave has a computer, everything has a computer now." Your microwave doesn't need a Turing complete von Neumann machine; it just happens that per unit, a trillion tiny processors are each cheaper than a hundred million microwave-logic-devices.it looked like they were using similar systems which drew a lot of computing power from a main hub
Didn't know they were independently functional.
They aren't expensive. Dunno. Got a friend who runs his weather station on one. Considering mine takes a Mac Mini (which took a shit on me) I've been leaning that way. My problem is that if I'm going to sit down in front of it and act like it's a computer, it better respond in kind and atom processors are invariably disappointing for real computery stuff. I mean, you're basically buying a tablet without a screen. There are reasons to do that, just not as many as you'd initially think. The "rat's nest" canard is bullshit, by the way. Most of 'em run off USB, and if your monitor doesn't have USB accessory power buy another 'cuz they cost nothing, too.
Brf. This gets so complex, so fast. When do I admit to myself that 99.3% of everything I ever do on a computer happens in a web browser, and I just buy a goddamn Chromebook and admit it, and stop pretending to be some sort of high-end computer whiz? I think I accidentally opened PhotoShop, like, 5 months ago. And then had to wait three minutes while it loaded so I could quit it again, open the file in Preview, and do the copy, crop, color correction, and save, in less time than it took PhotoShop to open? When do I just connect a NAS to my wifi and just put stick computers in the kitchen, in the media room, in the shop, etc, and admit I don't need "a" computer, I need different ones for different purposes? (Because how fucking annoying is it to get a text message that interrupts the podcast I am listening to, and pads down the sound of the podcast so I can clearly hear the ring of the fucking text tone?!?) And now we are back at 1994, and I'm working for JavaSoft, and the whole world is moving to "dumb terminals" that are re-named "set-top boxes" that just display whatever was "computed" out there on the network somewhere by some big computer run by some company? Oh wait. That's now called Cloud Computing. Damnit. Everything old is new again.
Now. I mean, those are cheap. What will blow your mind is if you look them up on Amazon they're actually cheaper. It's like Chromebooks are in some quantum superpositive state where their value can be no lower than what they're being sold for. So buy one off Amazon, use it for a week, hate it and unload it on CL and consider it a $20 education (for you, if it sells for less; for them, if it sells for more). I'm an asshole. I like having an email client and a calendar client and when I fuck with photos fer real, I use real software but I don't do that on the thing in my lap. Most of what I do I could do in the browser no problem but I don't much care for Google's choices about a lot of stuff so I still have an operating system. But if I had to choose between buying a new Macbook or buying a new Chromebook, I'd buy a new Chromebook and a PS4 and a 40" TV. The only reason I'd run a stick PC is if I actually needed something that ran Windows. Example, the weather station thingy. Frankly, for Plex I'm leaning heavily towards replacing the Mac Mini with an Nvidia Shield. I'd almost be willing to use it instead of iTunes - not because Plex has gotten that good at music but because iTunes has gotten that bad. And really, I'm a full convert to the world of Chromecasts. They're exactly the thin client you need. Particularly if you've already stepped out of the Reality Distortion Field. A Shield and three Chromecasts with an external HD would be all your media centrally located available full time anywhere you have internet access and playable on every device in your house for $400, and that's spotting you $100 for the HD.When do I admit to myself that 99.3% of everything I ever do on a computer happens in a web browser, and I just buy a goddamn Chromebook and admit it, and stop pretending to be some sort of high-end computer whiz?
I just got a little chubby...A Shield and three Chromecasts with an external HD would be all your media centrally located available full time anywhere you have internet access and playable on every device in your house for $400, and that's spotting you $100 for the HD.