I knew that these critters are out there, but knowing and seeing are two different things.

Today I saw a computer in a slot all on one card, CPU and RAM and video chipset and all… and its operating system is stored on CompactFlash just like you’d find in your digital camera. How cool is that, huh? My mind immediately turned to thoughts like, “Hey, I wonder if I can get Linux on that thing?” (I couldn’t do any worse than Telos, who decided NT4 was the way to go. I was called in to troubleshoot because the “black box” telco equipment hub in question wouldn’t boot properly. Gotta love seeing BSOD on supposedly state-of-the-art studio equipment.)

I don’t know if what I saw was a true “passive backplane” machine, but until someone tells me otherwise then that’s what I think I saw. Cool.

Yes, I know, I know. I get excited over the dumbest, geekiest things sometimes. But hey, I’d rather be easily amused than difficult to amuse!