I recently learned about the TonidoPlug personal cloud, thanks to the FLOSS Weekly podcast. TonidoPlug is a wall-plug PC featuring low power usage, low cost home server services based on a GHz ARM processor. It sports a set of Tonido software that enables the personal cloud branding. You can read more here.
I am all about plug-PC’s (a.k.a "plug computers") for special scenarios, but like the guys at Tonido I also think these machines can consolidate a lot of third-party services into one home-run solution for your average Joe. That is: power taken back by the people. However, I am more of a hardware guy, so when I learned that they used the SheevaPlug as their physical platform I read up on the hardware and ordered a development kit for R&D, to be tested as an extremely portable MySQL server. It arrived today!
The package is sexy gloss cardboard with magnetic flap on the one side.
The SheevaPlug in red bubble wrapping, 1 power cable, 1 power adapter for direct-to-wall power, 1 black USB cable and a CAT 5E ethernet cable.
The size of the machine in my large lumberjack hands..
And complete with the snap-in wall power adapter
Imagine a beowulf cluster of these.. You could fit it in your trousers! These things are cheap too both in terms of price (less than 900 NOK) and power usage (in terms of wattage). Go get your own plug at Tonido.com if you want the Tonido software and its personal cloud included, or get it from PlugComputer.org if you want to explore alternative operating systems and usages.
All of the SheevaPlug pictures are CC-BY so feel free to use them in your project, just link back here or to the source.