[Cialug] BlackDog

[David Champion]

It would work as a storage device... kind of. It has a SD/MMC memory 
slot - I could get it to work with a 64mb MMC card I had, but not with 
my 1gb SD card. Their forums have info on this - apparantly some cards 
use a faster timing memory that's not compatible with the controller 
used in the Blackdog.

The Blackdog comes with Samba, so you could theoretically just mount a 
samba share and copy to / from it.

A USB key drive would be easier to use.

-dc

David Stout wrote:
> Thanks for the feedback. I was kind of hoping it use as a storage device for app at work so I could eliminate the need to take home my laptop every night. I also thought it would be cool to have a Linux machine at work to play with at lunch a breaks.
> 
> dave at visionary.com wrote:   On Fri, Nov 18, 2005, David Stout said:
> 
> 
>>I am considering purchasing BlackDog. Is there any one who can give me some feedback on this device?
>>
>>Thank you,
> 
> 
> You should have made it to the meeting...
> 
> My impression of the Blackdog is that it does what it claims.
> 
> It is a bit slower than what most people expect from a computing
> environment, since it's limited by it's 400mhz mobile PPC processor. It
> does run Firefox reasonabally well.
> 
> The advantages I see:
> 
> - Doesn't require a reboot on the host PC
> - Doesn't install any software, or leave any trace on the host PC
> - You can set up your web / email / ssh clients to have the passwords set,
> so you never have to type them in. So you're essentially using the
> Blackdog's fingerprint scanner, and you'd never have to worry about a
> keylogger on a host PC capturing your passwords.
> 
> Disadvantages:
> 
> - Slowish
> - Needs your apps compiled for the PPC processor
> 
> One question I would have is if you can use it on a totally non-privileged
> XP PC, like at a cyber cafe. The Windows Firewall does prompt you to allow
> some things to be opened.
> 
> Overall I think it's a neat device with a lot of potential for the right
> person.
> 
> Personally I think I'd go for the bootable Live linux cd and / or USB key
> route.
> 
> -dc