[nycbug-talk] how are soekris boxes?

[Jesse Callaway]

On Jul 29, 2004, at 10:39 AM, Barry Kominik wrote:

> Michael Hanulec wrote:
>
>>
>> there was tons of talk about them in June.  has anyone received 
>> theirs yet?  anyone onlist done anything cool w/ them yet?
>>
>> -- 
>> hanulec at hanulec.com        cell: 858.518.2647 && 516.410.4478
>> https://secure.hanulec.com          EFnet irc && aol im: hanulec
>> _______________________________________________
>> talk mailing list
>> talk at lists.nycbug.org
>> http://lists.nycbug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
>> % Be sure to check out our Jobs and NYCBUG-announce lists
>> % We meet the first Wednesday of the month
>
> I got mine a few months before all that talk. I love it. I use it as a 
> home firewall/web/mail server running openbsd. I installed a 60 gig 
> laptop hard drive. The only problem I have is heat. The system runs at 
> about 60C which I think is too hot, though I haven't seen any errors. 
> I just bought a cheap usb wifi card with the prism3 chipset. I plan on 
> playing around with making a wifi base station. I'm also thinking of 
> swapping out the hard drive for a compact flash. Has anyone ever seen 
> one of these: US Modular 2.2GB compact flash;  
> http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?dpno=338550  In the product 
> details it says the media is glass. I'd love to find out more about 
> this as it is cheap, $176.
>
> Rgds,
> Barry
>

I'm fascinated by these micro hard drives. Glass? I'm trying to read up 
on them and have found one cool thing:

The heads are floated above teh platter on an air bearing. Thus they 
don't work at high altitudes because the air mass can't push hard 
enough on the head-beam.

I'm also trying to read up on how giant magnetoresistance works, but I 
have little knowledge of spin and polarity.