[conspire] Re: conspire Digest, Vol 18, Issue 9

[Ross Bernheim]

On Tuesday, November 9, 2004, at 06:15 PM, 
conspire-request at linuxmafia.com wrote:

> Just a note of interest, I found RedHat installed on something 
> different
> today, a photocopier!!  How, you ask?  The print controller is a mini 
> PC
> using a proprietary board with a Socket 370 processor.  Turns out it's 
> a
> Celeron 556Mhz with 256MB PC133 RAM and a 40GB HDD.  It boots in to 
> RedHat
> and then in to a basic X session.  I couldn't get to the console as 
> it's all
> rather locked down.  I found it interesting that the interface to the 
> copier
> allowed the copier to change the network settings, reboot it, and more.

It is amazing how much power they are putting inside some of the office
machines these days. We got a Konika-Minolta Magicolor 3300 color laser
printer at work. There was a problem with an option not being installed
that was supposed to be there. I called them and they sent out a 
replacement
ROM chip. Pulling out the controller card was interesting as there was a
Power PC processor and a lot of memory and even a hard disk interface.
I am not sure what OS they use as I didn't have a chance to get into it
further. But the unit has about the power of many desktop machines.

> Makes you wonder what else you could do with it!  With the spare PCI 
> slot,
> add a sound card, recompile the kernel to add sound support, add a 
> 120GB HDD
> and have it as an MP3 juke box as well!!   I can see an adventurous 
> student
> at a Uni or School using the space to store files! :-)  Oh the fun that
> could be had!

Folding at home, seti, etc.

Ross