Tiny little computers – the size of a power adapter – they are relatively new on the scene and slowly gaining more press. The NYTimes posted a very good article about them -

What would you do with a $40 Linux computer the size of a three-prong plug adapter?Marvell Technology Group is counting on an army of computer engineers and hackers to answer that question. It has created a “plug computer.” It’s a tiny plastic box that you plug into an electric outlet. There’s no display. But there is an Ethernet jack to connect to a home network and a U.S.B. socket for attaching a hard drive, camera or other device. Inside is a 1.2 gigahertz Marvell chip, called an application processor, running a version of the Linux operating system.

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The Pogoplug .

The first plausible use for the plug computer is to attach one of these gizmos to a U.S.B. hard drive. Voila, you’ve got a network server. CloudEngines, a start-up, has in fact built a $99 plug computer called Pogoplug, that will let you share the files on your hard drive, not only in your home but also anywhere on the Internet.

So what do we care, here at File Transfer Planet? Well first off – reread that second quoted paragraph . Imagine that, a file server the size of your mouse, completely out of site and sucking in almost no power. And it can even go wireless, if you plug in a 802.11 USB adapter in the USB jack!

Also check out this NYTimes areticle on the Pogoplug.

The comments on both articles have some fantastic ideas, as well as actual implementations that peopled have whipped up. Cool stuff .