[conspire] cabal

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bruce Coston (jane_ikari at yahoo.com):

> I plan on bringing cinnamon bread . 

Sehr gut.  I haven't decided yet, personally.  (I did make some
from-scratch tortilla chips, yesterday.  Very yummy.)

Since we had demand for new-ish versions of CentOS recently, I've just
burned to DVDs CentOS 5.8 and 6.2 for both i386 and x86_64.


Have a look at this really sensational tiny settop Linux box from CompuLab,
the fit-PC3:  http://www.fit-pc.com/web/purchase/order-direct-fit-pc3/
Could be my next server.

It has dual eSATA, an AMD G-T44R 64-bit CPU, AMI Radeon HD 6250 (HDMI or
DisplayPort), takes up to 8GB RAM on two DDR3 SO-DIMMs, room inside for
one 2.5" disk, two MiniPCIE sockets.  Power draw's about 10-20W
depending on load and extras.  Fanless.

I haven't gotten through researching chipsets for compatibility with
good open-source Linux drivers -- SATA and ethernet being for my
purposes what matter.  However, they claim it runs Linux Mint.
Depending on what RAM and mass-storage you put in it, the unit runs
somewhere in the vicinity of $400.  I'm imagining one of those with 8GB
RAM and a pair of 128 GB SSDs for mass storage.  Total silence, and
next to no power draw.  Either one SSD inside and one out, or both in
external eSATA-connected boxes.