Put your server in the closet, add a wireless mouse and keyboard, mount behind and connect to that 42″ screen on your wall, and you’ve got the coolest PC on the block you can’t see. It’s the Jack PC thin-client computer that uses powerline Ethernet and consumes a trivial 5 watts. The high-end model with dual DVI is in the $650-700 range.
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The ultimate gadget for people who are too lazy to drill a hole in the wall and run some wire.
A very elegant solution to our our classroom problem.
Tell me again why a home user would want this? $650 – $700 for somthing with 128MB of memory, no hard drive & running Windows CE.Net.
Wasn’t the originaly concept of “Thin Clients” suppose to be cheap computing?
I can think of money better spent.
A Thin Client requires a powerful server. For personal home use this would have little value for the money. Maybe if you have a large family and want to give each child a thin client while you run the “big” computer give the child aN OLD PENTIUM OR SOMETHING? UBUNTU THIN CLIENTS ARE EASY TO SETUP. Did I mention f**k Windows CE.Net and microbloat?
It need a power plug on the front too so you can plug in a vacuum cleaner without your computer taking up the whole socket.
Hi Uncle Dave:
I am new to this website, registered and left a comment because one of the topics interested me, but unfortunately two versions of the comment appeared because I thought I had to register to do so and hit “submit” again with a second posting.
I’m in a pickle (Kosher bill spear, at that), because I can find no private manner in which to get support help on this site, but all I want to know is if there is a way to delete (or have deleted for me) the first, incomplete post I left? Does this site even have an internal mesage system–I couldn’t find one, if there is.
Alright, don’t laugh, but my actual surname is “Moran,” and I saw that photo with the sign that misspells “morons” as “Morans.” While I don’t consider myself a “moron,” I do consider myself a “Moran,” which in the Masai tribe of Africa means to have reached a state of manhood–kind of a Masai bar mitzvah/circumcision combined, attained at about the age of puberty.
If a Masai boy doesn’t cry or scream too loudly at his circumcision ceremony that is held at about the age of 14, he is said to have reached “moranhood.” I was circumcised as an infant, and am sure I cried and screamed, but have no recollection of the event–must have blocked it out, repressed memory, that sort of thing.
Anyway, please tell me how, if at all, I may remove a posting from this site? And if there is a way to do so, I may even remove these five paragraphs which I have just posted here.
Thank you,
jimmo
Except for being waaaaay overpriced, this is really interesting technology.
Put one of these jacks in the kitchen, one in the garage, maybe one in the guestroom. Add a cheap monitor and $30 worth of keyboard/mouse and you are all set.
Interesting concept…. too bad it will go nowhere with the home user at that price…. $150 would be great!
Interesting concept, but it’s still a thin client. It would be fine for email and web browsing, but forget about doing any multimedia or gaming on it.
I can buy a Dell Optiplex 745 cheaper that ($700) I don’t have to buy an server to make it work. Price needs to be around $150 to $200 to even think about it.
Now from a IT Management over the long haul this has some pluses. You don’t have to goto the end user for hardware repair of file corruption. I read a while back NORAD was using something like this. Instead of have up to five PC’s at their desk. One for each secure or unsecure network they had to access they went to BLADE PC’s where are all secure in the server/IT Room. It also cleaned up their desk.
How is this 5 watts? The graphics card would need more than this.
Jimmo, this is Hotel Dvorak. Once you post it can never leave.
You guys are missing the point. This is not aimed at Joe Sixclick user. This is aimed at Mom, who wants a monitor in the kitchen to read recipes, but who has no space for anything else. Your options: One of those psuedo-laptops with the cpu built into the video screen (pricey) or this jack plus a video screen (pricey). I don’t know if this jack wins the pricey sweepstakes, but it’s a contender.
I can tell you this for certain: There are a lot of aesthetically inclined people whose eyes would open REAL wide if told they could offer a PC in each room by just plugging in a monitor to a “jack”.
I’m not one of those people, at least not at this price. But if these jacks were $50 or $100 (and if the company can hang on, they’ll probably get there) (and if the company doesn’t succeed they’ll also get there :-)) then I’m interested.
#12
Actually, you miss the point since this is not just a jack you can plug your monitor/Keyboard/Mouse into. It’s not for mom. You need all the back end stuff for this to work. Server, POE switch (unless you want a brink next to it), Software, ETCs. This is great for remote administration since now the only thing at the user’s desk is a Monitor,Keyboard/Mouse all the other hardware is in the IT Department. So the end user only has to worry about the monitor being on.
I wonder if there is enough of a market for ultra small laptops, with no monitor. These would then way about 3 pounds, and then you can plug into a monitor and maybe even a power supply and keyboard at your hotel.
To MikeN #14
ECS I believe used to make a laptop with no monitor
They also have the i-buddie : A laptop Without a battery, designed for people that don’t want the weight and go from one powered location such as work to a powered location such as the desk at home
AC
Nope, I didn’t miss the point. I didn’t say this is a system that Mom will be able to set up. No way. This is a system that someone with a clue will set up FOR MOM. But many/most Moms are computer illiterate anyway, so that’s nothing new. From Mom’s perspective, you plug the monitor in the wall. That’s all that counts when you’re trying to sell it to someone who’s looking to upgrade their home.
It’s kind of like the computer based lighting/security systems. There’s a lot going on under the hood, but to Mom, it looks like a control panel in the wall and a remote.
Gumstix WaySmall computers are much better, and cheaper too.
Some laptops don’t need the built in display, you can just plug a monitor in the back. Some still have a PS-2 port, and almost all these days have USB ports. It doesn’t need the battery or much “brains” if it’s used as a thin client, so an old laptop bought cheap will do.
Heck, the easiest way out might be to turn the monitor over in the laptop lid so it’s upside down, and mount the old laptop to the bottom of the kitchen cabinet. Fold the display up when not in use.
On tiny PCs: I’d prefer a laptop, with everything in one package except the power supply. Mine has a 15″ wide LCD display, but small laptops exist. ANd then there’s Apple pizza box system, which would be portable if you could carry it to somewhere with a keyboard, mouse, Ethernet/WiFi and display.
When they do this with a wireless home server. And you walk around the house with Star Trek TNG like PADs. Then they’ll really have something. Of course the series was a fantasy (well duh). They never showed text being entered without a keyboard of some kind.