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Keeping with the theme of recent Sheevaplug related articles, here’s a post about a new, interesting piece of software called Tonido. Tonido advertises itself as a “personal cloud,” allowing you to share all of your personal files to anywhere. It’s a software platform that you install on your own home server. Once you’ve installed the platform, you can run a plethora of applications, and they have an SDK, in hopes that others pick up and write their own apps for it as well. It’s cross-platform. You can install it on Linux, OS X, or Windows. Or if you want, you can even buy their own plug PC, the TonidoPlug. Read on to hear a bit about installation on my Sheevaplug and my first impressions of the software. Read the rest of this entry »

Just a quick note to anyone who will be in Las Vegas for CES (wish I could be there!) in a couple weeks. There will be a Plug Computing Pavilion, likely to showcase all of the great things that people are doing with Plug PCs like the Sheevaplug, Tonidoplug, and Pogoplug. I really think that a Plug PC has the capability to take over the home server market. Two cool things that are happening…

1. Marvell is going to be showing, in one way or another, a 2ghz plug! Right now the Sheevaplug runs at 1.2ghz. I’m fine with them leaving the RAM at 512MB, but it would be GREAT if they could bump the storage up to 1GB of internal flash.
2. They’re running a competition right now to see who has the best idea for a killer “plug app.” I have a couple great ideas, and I’ll be sending one in!

If anyone is going to be at the Plug Computing Pavilion and would volunteer to send me pics to post, i would be MOST grateful! Leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail if you’ll be there.

If you have read some of my recent posts about setting up a Thin Client or Sheevaplug to act as home server, capable of distributing music across the house with Squeezebox Server, acting as a NAS, or running cool apps like Tonido (here are my first impressions!), then perhaps you have wondered about the best way to get your personal music collection on that server. Or once it is on the server, what happens if you want to add more? How do you keep music on the server in sync with your laptop? I hope this article will give you a great solution to that answer! I’m very happy with how it has been working for me. All you need is RSYNC, SSH, and CRON! Read the rest of this entry »

Before I dig into the guide, it’s best to briefly explain what the Sheevaplug is. As computers have gotten faster and faster and cheaper and cheaper over the years, the focus has shifted from being “the fastest” to being “good enough.” Take a look at the Intel Atom chip. It has flooded the market, and it seems like airports are now more filled with netbooks than they are with traditional laptops. The atom is fast enough for most people, and it uses very little power, enabling the devices to be much smaller and use way less battery. This low power technology translates extremely well into the home server or electronic appliance world. More and more of the devices in our household are becoming connected, and we need low power chips to help connect that world. What if you could have a server so small that it was only slightly bigger than a traditional wall wart plug? Marvell had this idea, and they came up with the concept of Plug Computing. Plug Computing means taking a a barebones PC with a low powered Marvell ARM CPU and sticking it inside of a “plug” and then letting companies / users explore the possibilities. There have been a few pre-packaged offerings like TonidoPlug (or you can set up Tonido on your Sheevaplug!), PogoPlug, and a few others. The Sheevaplug is a development unit that people can buy, and it’s great fun to play around with! I’ve been able to turn it into a NAS, a music server, and a few other things, all at the same time! Read on to find out how to get this thing set up for the first time. Read the rest of this entry »

Call me a sucker. If people are going to sell “Prada” but have the logo actually say “Praba” up close, that’s fine. I really get pissed when I buy something that I am told is genuine by a reputable seller on eBay, only to have a total piece of crap show up. My MacBook Pro battery only lasts for about 30 minutes, and OS X is telling me to replace it. Apple charges way too much for their batteries so I didn’t want to buy from them. Fastmac makes a battery that I have heard decent things about, and it sells for $80. But I found the GENUINE battery on eBay for only $60 so I went with that one. I wish I would have gone with the Fastmac. First off, it’s a knockoff. Take a look at the fonts in the picture above. The fake is on the right. You can really tell in the word “Mercury” that it’s not an original Apple battery. On top of that, it doesn’t even fit right! Take a look at the pic below.

Notice how the battery doesn’t even fit right in the slot! What a waste of $60… At least say the product is “similar to a real apple battery” or “pretty much sorta will fit in your laptop.” Marketing it as GENUINE really is a screw. I actually paid more for this battery over similar batteries on eBay that were not claiming to be authentic. In my case, the seller was plugplayers. Avoid at all costs.

A few weeks ago I was flying in United First from SFO to ORD, and I ordered the steak salad for dinner. I was pretty disappointed when my salad  only had three tiny pieces of steak in it. Read the rest of this entry »

Today Google announced Public DNS. The aim is to speed up your connection speeds and security. Lifehacker reported on it earlier today. The idea is to replace the DNS server your router uses (typically provided by default from your ISP) with a “Google Public DNS.” I decided to put their speed tests to work. Read on to see my results. Read the rest of this entry »