Small Portable Brick Computer Without Display

Have been seeking a small personal or embedded computer. The market is getting close but is still not there.

Want "laptop" or "palmtop" with power to run full modern Linux/Windows, but no screen nor keyboard nor mouse. All entry I/O attached via USB.

- Ethernet (up to Gigabit speeds)
- USB 2.0+ (4 port)
- HDMI
- eSATA or microSD (maybe)
- 6hr+ battery. No fan.
- Form factor of small brick like book/tablet. Under one kg.
- Power over Ethernet (PoE) 802.3af, or power from a USB outlet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_over_Ethernet

No integrated display. One gets to choose the display. Most importantly one gets to choose to not to carry a display. Use with HMD or projector (mini LED projector) or display (like hotel LED/LCD TV, or desktop monitor).

No Wifi or other RF like 4G. RF is easy to attach via USB. The same attachment ease applies to external DVD/CD and other media and I/O. HDMI and eSATA can provide high bandwidth I/O.

Battery is for riding out glitches and outages, for portability, and for peaking when USB and PoE charging are insufficient in their continuous rating.

Distributed Systems, Small is Beautiful

Have been thinking about distributed "systems" lately... and how small components for such systems can be better, or how they are better. There are many systems in which resources can be distributed. This entry is about setting the stage for a series of entries on distributed ways of doing things, ways where small can be beautiful.

Here is a taste of the sort of systems meant:

• Computation or control.


• Storage.


• Housing or shelter.


• Workplace, office or shop.


• Transportation.


• Energy.

The question/issue might be about temporality of resources - permanent or transient, owned or leased/borrowed. Or maybe it is a question of scale and how big each element should be in the hierarchy.

Venus Brightness, Lunar Eclipse on Solstice

Early Saturday morning at about 6:00am December 18, 2010, happened to be out and see Venus very bright and high in the eastern sky. Had never seen Venus so unusually bright, especially here in Boston with all the light pollution.

Many things seemed to be "just so" for this.

• It was a cloud free and cold morning.
• Winter seeing tends to be better than summer - espcially near the ocean or other large bodies of water which generate humidity.

Venus is near greatest brilliancy the first week of December 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspects_of_Venus

Saturday morning probably had a greater number of city lights out around Boston.

Venus is very far above the eastern horizon (Its height in sky and phase are closely related.) in darker regions of the sky. And this is enhanced due to the earth's axis being maximally tilted due to closeness to winter solstice (first day of winter, longest day of year).

Maybe more significant, early morning December 21, 2010 was a total lunar eclipse on the winter solstice, which only happens every 372 years, and thus last happened in 1638... Galileo's time.