Hi Guys,
(Also posting to http://lists.kaos.to/listinfo.cgi/dc404-chat-kaos.to )
This is similar to, but not related to, the bootable Kali USB stick that
Keith mentioned. And, people have been doing Linux on a stick for some
time. What's cool about this project is the ecosystem they're trying to
build to provide the poor with computing capability they've never had.
There are also some neat security advantages.
This relates to a new project to provide computing for billions of
people (over time) who don't have it. It's called Keepod. There are
85,000 computers junked in the USA (as an example) every day according
to them. With Keepod, they take an old computer and remove the hard
drive and set it to boot from their USB stick, which has a variant of
Android on it. So, you can have a shared computer at a store or library
or school, etc. Any interested parties, charitable organizations,
churches, stores, etc. can provide the host computers and potentially, a
place to put them. A person just walks up, inserts the Keepod, and
boots from the USB stick. They have their own customized environment to
work with. It requires minimal resources. 2006 vintage x86 computers
with a dual core cpu and 1 GB of ram will do. The user does what he has
to do, as he would at a library, shuts down, then leaves and takes the
Keepod (along with the OS and all persistent data) with him. This
potentially not only makes computing available to many who wouldn't have
it, it provides some neat security features, since nothing persists on
the host machine and everyone's Keepod is separate and private. If
someone's Keepod stick became infected, it would have no way to infect
the host and spread directly to other users. It could, of course, try
to do things over the network, but it's lifespan on that computer would
be limited to that session. It could, of course, reactivate the next
time that Keepod were booted. If a user found out he'd been compromised
by malware, he could save his data to another place, format the memory
stick, and reload the Keepod software. Of course, the user's ability,
given the target audience, to know he'd been compromised, may be less
than it would in more technically sophisticated users.
Main Site - http://keepod.org/
Site Video - http://player.vimeo.com/video/94715454
(I had to save the media file separately to get it to play.
Probably related to my Firefox security settings.)
BBC Article - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27346567
Even though many in the US have computer access, the group says they're
getting lots of interest from the US both in terms of using the system
at places like schools, libraries, and stores; and providing host
computers, etc.
Thought you'd like to know.
Sincerely,
Ron
--
(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such. I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)
Ron Frazier
770-205-9422 (O) Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com
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