Amahi ‘Plug Edition’ Released – Brings Amahi Home Server to Plug Computers

The Future of the $99 Server and Birth of Reverse Virtualization

Plug Wiki

Plug Computer gets Amahi server and a developer camp all its own

Cheap Linux wall warts small on size, big on possibilities

The TonidoPlug has a built in bit torrent client that works well. And an audio player that can handle iTunes files (non-DRM) as well as MP3. The file sharing works fine, but it is less intuitive than the PogoPlug. The ability to set up a quick share with a link I can email to someone else only works if the other person is set up as a user on your TonidoPlug. Files can be shared on PogoPlug without the user needing an account, or logging in.

The price of the PogoPlug’s ease of file sharing is that it relies on pogoplug.com providing a proxy service to direct users to your PogoPlug. Tonido provides a similiar service, without the benefits, but it is not necessary. I have used DynDNS to redirect traffic to my TonidoPlug. The Tonido software suite is a nice addition to the TonidoPlug, at a cost $20 less than the current PogoPlug device. The additional functionality take care of most personal cloud needs. I find that the PogoPlug’s file sharing ease of use is enough to keep it around.

Previous articles:

http://blog.craiglpatterson.com/2009/11/16/playing-with-the-pogoplug/

http://blog.craiglpatterson.com/2009/11/25/plug-into-plug-computing/

http://blog.craiglpatterson.com/2010/02/08/a-tonidoplug-is-plugged-in/

http://blog.craiglpatterson.com/2010/02/08/plug-into-plug-computing-update/

With the addition of the Nook, I carry at least four gadgets with me to work each day, six some days. I have my T-Mobile G1 Android phone in my pocket at all times. I have my Apple iPod Nano (5th generation) to listen to music in the car, gym, and office and to listen to podcasts in the car and gym. I got this for my birthday late last year. It is one of my most used gadgets. Then there is my hand-held amateur radio. This is a 1.5 watt VHF/UHF transceiver that I carry in my bag. it’s smaller than my phone. I can hit the local repeaters with it, or listen to NOAA weather radio, etc. Occasionally, I carry my personal laptop. And once in a while one of my two GPS units, usually my Garmin Nuvi 205W, if I am off to some IT vendor event. And now I add the Nook.

As many people have noted, an iPhone can replace the G1, the iPod, the Nook, the GPS, and the laptop in some cases. There is no substitute for the hand-held transceiver. I will admit that smart phones, both Apple and Android, are very capable. I use mine to run a variety of unique apps that take advantage of the phones capabilities. But, it’s primary purpose is to be a phone. If it doesn’t do that well, it’s not a useful tool. Yes, it can play music, and an iPhone can sync up with my iTunes library. But, the amount of time I use my iPod means that my phone will have to live on a charger all day. Same with navigation. For a short trip across town, it’s fine. For hiking, no. For cross country travel, not without a car charger.

As for ereading, I have used my phone, my previous phone and Palm devices, and my laptop. Did they work? Yes. Was it the best way to read ebooks? No. Not even close. Between battery life, screen quality, and reader software they can’t compare to a dedicated device.

I haven’t even mentioned photography. The new phones are coming equipped with 5+ megapixel cameras, HD video recording, and now even photo/video editing capabilities. I still carry my 15+ pounds of photo gear when I need it, or a good point and shoot. I still can’t accept the quality of photos from most smart phones. Although the iPhone and new Android phones have much improved cameras and they will replace the point and shoot compact cameras for many (most?) people.

I am very particular about buying good tools that do the job I need. And, I have yet to find an all-in-one electronic gadget that will replace my collection of single purpose tools and do as good a job. There are too many compromises to fit that functionality into a mobile device. Battery life is still the biggest issue that I see. My iPod goes for 3 or 4 days with heavy usage, my Nook 7+ days, my DSLR 600+ photos, GPS lasts for a full day with constant use on a long trip. My phone can barely last a day unless I set the email client to only check email hourly, I turn off 3G data, I dim the screen to the minimum, I turn off vibrate, and I make few calls.

I realized I have the same issue with hand and power tools at home. I have metric and English socket sets and wrench sets rather than one of the universal tools, “As Seen On TV”. I have 6 different hammers, each with a set of tasks. I have innumerable drill bits, for different materials. I have 3 sizes of Vise-Grips to fit the job. I have pliers galore. I also have two multi-tools. One is in my pocket. It is small, with scissors, knife blade, and several other small tools I rarely use. I really need a good pocket knife. The other multi-tool gets carried along camping and fishing and traveling as a last resort tool when “real” tools are not available.

I can make do when I need to. I can use the tools and materials at hand to get a job done. When I have to make do, it’s a frustrating process. I spend my time fighting with “tools” to get the job done. With the proper tools, I can focus on the task and not making the tool work for the task. The task gets done quicker and with better quality, with the proper tools.

It won’t be long before I need a big red rolling tool chest for my electronic tools.

We use MySQL 5.1.x “Enterprise” on several servers at work. We have several production servers that are replicated to slave servers as hot spares, reporting servers, and to a disaster recovery server. As part of our setup one of our backup servers needs to replicate from two different servers and databases to two different local databases. So, I need to run two instances of MySQL. There are three basic ways to accomplish this: run two instances of MySQL directing each to a different configuration file with appropriate port, directory, pid file settings; use mysqladmin to manage multiple instances; use mysqld_multi to start multiple instances. Mysqladmin has been deprecated and will be removed in 5.4, so I’m not investing energy in that solution. Option one will work, it just means more files to manage. Mysqld_multi allows using a single configuration file with definitions for each server instance. It’s straightforward and pretty easy to set up.

Mysqld_multi is a Perl script that parses a single config file containing multiple server instance definitions. There is just one problem. It doesn’t work. It throws the following error:

Unmatched right curly bracket at /usr/bin/mysqld_multi line 171, at end of line
syntax error at /usr/bin/mysqld_multi line 171, near "}"
Execution of /usr/bin/mysqld_multi aborted due to compilation errors.

As a programmer, and sysadmin, I expect that an error like that must be the result of some combination of version incompatabilities or poor configuration. Since I had just upgraded MySQL to the latest version this made sense. I updated all the packages on the server, rebooted, tried again.

Unmatched right curly bracket at /usr/bin/mysqld_multi line 171, at end of line
syntax error at /usr/bin/mysqld_multi line 171, near "}"
Execution of /usr/bin/mysqld_multi aborted due to compilation errors.

After way too much effort I pulled the script into a language aware editor and found that the script did, in fact, have an unmatched right curly bracket. I removed it. I ran it again, thinking that this couldn’t possibly be the problem. A large technology company like Sun Oracle wouldn’t let a product out the door with this kind of fundimental bug. They must have run this script at some time and found this error. No, they didn’t. Once the errant bracket was removed, the script ran. Perfectly.

Coincidentally, I just received our quote from Sun Oracle for “enterprise” support for MySQL. Seems kinda high.

• K-9 Mail
• Weather Channel app
• Greed
• Locale
• AppManager
• TasKiller
• OI Safe
• T-Mobile MyAccount
• FaceBook app.
• Twitdroid and TritterRide were on my phone for a while. But, as little as I use Twitter, I found it was easier to just put a bookmark on my home page and use the web site directly.
• Mobile Defense by Neevo.
• Cyanogen ROM image.
• Retro Clock and Retro Date widgets.

I posted this list last September. A lot has changed since then. For one, I dumped the Cyanogen ROM and when back to the straight factory issued 1.6 firmware. After several total reinstalls from scratch episodes, I decided I needed my phone to work reliably more than I needed the benefits of the alternative ROM. I do miss the ability to move apps to the SD card.

The Retro Clock and Date widgets are still here, front and center. Joining them on the home page is the Weatherbug widget. The Weather channel app really lost performance with the admob ads running. And the Weatherbug widget just looks and works better.

I’m still using the Facebook client. It seems to work fine, especially for as little as I use it. I’ve been trying out more Twitter clients. I’ve tried Seesmic, Swift App, and now TweetCaster. I like Swift App quite a bit, but TweetCaster has displaced it recently. So far, I really like it. Greed is still my Google Reader client of choice.

I am still running Mobile Defense, OI Safe, and T-Mobile MyAccount.

If I am actively buying, selling, or just shopping on eBay PktAuction is on my G1.

The most recent change is that I dumped Locale. I had been running a beta version for a while. It work well enough, but since it relied on the GPS, it was a battery hog. The beta expired, and Locale is now a pay app. Which is fine, but the price is $10. I really like the concept behind Locale, but it doesn’t work well enough to pay $10. And  reports on the new version have not been positive. So, I search for replacement, and found Setting Profile. It does basically the same thing, and costs $3. It does not rely on the GPS for positioning, but either on cell signal triangulation, a specific cell tower ID, or a WiFi AP SSID. Although none of these provide the precision of the GPS, they are more battery friendly, and less fiddly when going in and out of buildings. It has taken a couple of days to learn how to set up profiles, rules, locations, but it’s working pretty well. I recommend it as an alternative to Locale.

That’s the inventory highlights. What’s on your ‘droid?

In the software arena, OpenPogo is moving to PlugApps. In response to the limited NAND memory available in the PogoPlug v2, the hackers in the OpenPogo project have created a new project and site, PlugApps. This is a Linux distribution that will boot from an attached USB drive, rather than replacing the supplied OS on the PogoPlug, TonidoPlug, or SheevaPlug. The site includes information to help decide if OpenPogo or PlugApps is the right direction for your plug hacking needs.

There are two wikis I didn’t know about when the earlier article was written:

PlugCompter.org and ComputingPlugs.com

And new products (or announcements, at least):

Marvell Plug Computer 3.0 has been announced. It has a 2Ghz ARM based processor, integrated wireless, and a hard drive. This is currently an OEM product, so there is no indication if or when it will show up as a consumer product.

Global Scale Technologies, reseller of the SheevaPlug dev kit, have added 3 new products for pre-order (March delivery):

GuruPlug Server

Linux Kernel 2.6.32
1.2Ghz CPU
512MB RAM
512MB NAND Flash
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
U-SNAP I/O
1 Gigabit Ethernet port
2 USB Ports

GuruPlug Server Plus

Same as the Server except the follow port configuration:

2 Gigabit Ethernet port
1 eSATA
2 USB Ports
1 MicroSD Slot

GuruPlug Display

Linux Kernel 2.6.28
1.2Ghz CPU
512MB RAM
2GB NAND Flash
4MB SPI Flash
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
Wi-Fi 802.11n
U-SNAP I/O
1 MicroSD Slot
1 HDMI Port
1 100Mbit Ethernet
3 USB 2.0
1 Mini USB 2.0 OTG

Pricing ranges from $99-$149. These are dev kits, with no application software, just the base OS.

And a mainstream media mention:

Popular Science

The TonidoPlug is built on the same Sheevaplug platform as the PogoPlug version 1 (and others), with the exception that the TonidoPlug has more RAM. Both units came nicely packaged, the consumer plug manufacturers have paid attention to Apple here. As with the PogoPlug, there isn’t much in the package: The plug computer, a power cable, an ethernet cable. Plug it into power, your router, add a USB drive, and you are up an running. Actually, you can set up the TonidoPlug without the USB drive attached, but some functionality will be necessarily absent.

The hardware is basically the same, so what makes the TonidoPlug special? Ubuntu for one. The plug is running Ubuntu 9.04. So it has a very recent Linux kernel, and messing around the plug via SSH is similar to any other Linux server. Apt-get is there, as well as other standard Linux tools. More on this later. The main difference between the PogoPlug and TonidoPlug is the Tonido software suite. This is a collection of apps running on the TonidoPlug, and administered as plug-ins in the Tonido admin app. This is in addition to the plug administration app to handle the low level setup of the plug (adding SMB shares, mounting drives, etc.). The apps include: Explorer (file explorer), Torrent (bittorrent client), WebSharePro (file/drive sharing), Workspace (PIM, group collaboration), OpenID (OpenID server), Photos (photo sharing), Jukebox (mp3 server), Money (personal finance), Thots (basic blog), Desktop Search, Backup. In addition for $19.99, you can add an SSL cert to run these apps over SSL.

PogoPlug is mostly focused on file/drive sharing. And it does it well. I have used mine to make my files available to me wherever I have internet access. And I have used it to make photos and other files available to other people via an obfuscated URL. This has worked well to transfer large numbers of large files to people with minimal computing skills. But, that is about it. And this functionality requires the intervention of the PogoPlug.com services to make the connection to your PogoPlug.

The TonidoPlug is much more autonomous. It does support a re-director service to connect you and others to your TonidoPlug via a sub-domain. But, you can use DynDNS.com or any other dynamic IP service. Or, if your plug has a static IP, you can point your self managed domain name to it. It’s your choice. I tried out the WebSharePro, OpenID, and Torrent apps so far. The Torrent app works well. It’s similar to using the Transmission web client. WebSharePro is taking a little getting used to. I haven’t figured out yet how to set a readonly share that I can send a link to someone to gain access. It appears to require setting up individual users, with usernames/passwords. I’ve only just started using it, so I won’t say it can’t do it. The OpenID server seems to work fine. I was able to log into serverfault.com using my TonidoPlug OpenID URL. I like that. That is all I have had time to explore so far.

As I said earlier, the TonidoPlug runs Ubuntu 9.04. So, if there is room, it should run most anything that will run on the ARM version of Ubuntu. I installed Webmin and Firefly using guides found in the TonidoPlug user forums. It took some tweaks to get them both running. Firefly picked up my iTunes library, but doesn’t appear as a shared library on the network. More tweaking needed. Webmin works fine. The TonidoPlug is probably a friendlier hacker plug than the PogoPlug, but with more out of the box functionality than a plain Sheevaplug.

Look for a slightly used version 1 PogoPlug on eBay soon.

There are two other plug computing devices based on the Sheevaplug hardware:

CTERA CloudPlug – This is aimed at the business sector, it includes an eSATA port in addition to the usual USB. It also has an online cloud backup capability.

Quadaxis QuadPlug – Looks similiar to the other consumer plugs, also based on the Sheevaplug hardware.

In addition to the off the shelf products there are several online resources to augment these products:

pogoplugged.com

openpogo.com

plugcomputer.org

open-rd.org

plug-server.com