RE: Re: Forget the webbrick

["Ian" <ian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Buckley [mailto:db@xxxxxxx]
>
> You guys crack me up.

Back under your bridge David - this may not be a new product, but now it's
a
UK supplier at a well friendly price point. It's also, as it happens, a
fellow UKHA'er that's running it.

There has been plenty of discussion about ethernet enabled hardware
appearing over the last couple of years - I know that the xPL guys
discussed
this as one of the key developments needed-  and always the price point of
thirty quid or so has been mentioned as the real "wow" point -
it's where it
becomes conceivable to have a clutch of these things working in concert
rather than just one.

> Second off, theres no useful software.

Tbh, the software is part of it, but there has been precious little in the
way of low cost ethernet enabled kit available at this sort of price point.
After the initial "wow" of things like the siteplayer, there has
been little
in the way of new development, and development kits have been silly
expensive - let's see what can be done here, rather than slamming the door
shut.

> Fourth, its unlikely to ever be as good as a webbrick, though it could
> be made good enough to be useful.

Considering they use the same processor and eeprom, and have *very* similar
port loadouts, I don't see the major difference in ability - either one has
stunning potential. I wasn't tempted to buy the webbrick just to see what
it
could be made to do... I have ordered one of the SBCs.

> But it isnt an alternative to a WebBrick.  Unless someone writes
> decent code for it.  Its always about software.

If that was true, we would be using mini-itx boxes booting linux from CF,
or
small windows boxes where the software is powerful and mature.

Software is at least 50% of the thing, but it's not the only thing that
matters.

Ian.