Blackdog

[Andrew J. Brehm]

<http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/08/10/HNusbserver_1.html>

Unless somebody has actually seen this, I think it is a hoax; or at
least it wouldn't work as described here.

How would it take control of the console, specificallt the monitor? Does
it us virtual machine software on the host platform? The company Web
site <http://www.projectblackdog.com/> doesn't say.

Otherwise, what do you think of the device?

[Andrew Reilly]

Post by Andrew J. Brehm
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/08/10/HNusbserver_1.html>
Unless somebody has actually seen this, I think it is a hoax; or at
least it wouldn't work as described here.
How would it take control of the console, specificallt the monitor? Does
it us virtual machine software on the host platform? The company Web
site <http://www.projectblackdog.com/> doesn't say.

From the discussion on Slashdot, it's not as sinister as that, and it does
work. It presents itself to the USB host as a umass (disk storage)
device, and Windows sees an AUTORUN program there, which starts a
full-screen X11 server, which communicates back over the usb cable with
the box, using a network protocol. Presumably your Windows session would
still be there, underneath, and probably accessible with alt-tab.

Haven't seen one myself, but it sounds pretty neat.

Cheers,

[I R A Darth Aggie]

On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 13:06:11 +1000,

+ From the discussion on Slashdot, it's not as sinister as that, and it does
+ work. It presents itself to the USB host as a umass (disk storage)
+ device, and Windows sees an AUTORUN program there, which starts a
+ full-screen X11 server, which communicates back over the usb cable with
+ the box, using a network protocol.

Damn, that's clever.

+ Haven't seen one myself, but it sounds pretty neat.

I was thinking that would be pretty cool to have. Now I think I'll
definitely obtain one at some point.

James

[Peter Mogensen]

Post by I R A Darth Aggie
I was thinking that would be pretty cool to have. Now I think I'll
definitely obtain one at some point.

Yeah... that's cool, but as some one said: It's a cool answer looking
for a problem. What would you use it for? A USB-stick and a Live-CD
would get you much of this already.

Now... if the thing also was a smart-phone ... that would be useful.

Peter

[Andrew J. Brehm]

Post by Andrew Reilly

Post by Andrew J. Brehm
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/08/10/HNusbserver_1.html>
Unless somebody has actually seen this, I think it is a hoax; or at
least it wouldn't work as described here.
How would it take control of the console, specificallt the monitor? Does
it us virtual machine software on the host platform? The company Web
site <http://www.projectblackdog.com/> doesn't say.

From the discussion on Slashdot, it's not as sinister as that, and it does
work. It presents itself to the USB host as a umass (disk storage)
device, and Windows sees an AUTORUN program there, which starts a
full-screen X11 server, which communicates back over the usb cable with
the box, using a network protocol. Presumably your Windows session would
still be there, underneath, and probably accessible with alt-tab.
Haven't seen one myself, but it sounds pretty neat.

It does indeed. And it's not very epensive either.

Unfortunately, they appear to want to patent it.