[svlug] regarding the chumby

[Paul Reiber]

[various authors wrote:]
> > >
> > >  A friend of mine mentioned the "Chumby":
> > >  http://www.chumby.com/
> >
> > A friend of mine has one.  Think of it as a wifi-enabled digital
> > picture frame stuffed in a small bean bag.  I don't know what I'd do
> > with one, but he loves it.
>
> AFAIK, the Chumby is an expensive FOSS-based alarm clock.  It's a great
> idea, but I don't see how it is useful, other than as a cool gadget that
> wakes you up by playing YouTube.

I recently got a Chumby, and I absolutely LOVE it.  Regarding
"expensive" I don't see $180 anywhere _near_ expensive for what you
get (that's been talked about previously, and can be found out
on-line, so I'll not go into it here) - Christian, if you don't see
how it'll be useful, I guess you'll just have to look closer.  It's
insanely useful.

Brian's original query was:  {paraphrased} $180 is too much to spend
if it's not as cool as it looks on paper.

Well, Brian -  it's DEFINITELY at least as cool as it seems on paper -
way cooler, and getting even cooler than that over time.

The Chumby keeps getting better and better... all on it's own, without
much help at all from me.  New and innovative chumby widgets are
popping up - sometimes daily.  The developer community's got traction
and is growing.

It auto-updates itself (unless you turn that off) - for example, when
I first bought it, my chumby only played music it could find if hooked
to an iPod.  Now, it plays streaming music from over the 'net and from
a variety of other sources.

A few things Brian didn't mention that I find "cool" include: - it has
tilt sensors of some sort, appears to have a microphone on the front
(3 holes that look awfully mic-ish, in any case) has ssh and http
daemons, and can be told via http://chumby.com to "change channels"
and/or load and run specific widgets.  THAT's pretty cool - for
example, before leaving work, I can effectively tell it whether I'd
like to hear classical or rock playing in the background as I come
through the door to my apartment.

Regards,
-Paul http://Reiber.org