To BYODKM, or not to BYODKM
BYODKM may sound like an industrial group from the 80’s, but it’s actually a Steve Jobs neologism and, it’s also a website. Faster than than a speeding iPod shuffle off the shelves, two brothers have launched a fan site devoted entirely to a device that *very few people actually possess* yet. A site that received well over 500 comments on its post announcing a giveaway of said device. The Mac mini is some ridiculously popular “not-quite-here-yet”-ware.
Of course, this is a fantastic idea and I wish them all the success. And yet, I’m waiting for folks to start talking about the fact that not every machine needs a D, K and M. As more and more households have more than one computer, one or more of those machines is going to start taking on the role of server in some regard: home media server, file server, MP3 server. Folks in the IT industry already know that you don’t need a DKM for each server, and quite the contrary. You can control an entire fleet of mini servers all from the comfort of your own laptop or primary desktop machine using a number of remote control solutions.
Just to name a few options, we have
VNC, the open source candidate. I have only ever made use of it on the Windows side (blashphemy!) but I hear tell that it works swimmingly with almost any imaginable configuration of OSes - there are even ports for Palm and PocketPC.
Timbuktu, an old favorite from the days of OS 9, though I have not used it under OS X
Apple Remote Desktop - and we all know Apple derives obsessive pleasure from developing slick software to work with its gorgeous hardware.
Does anyone want to recommend other solutions? Can anyone weigh in on which tools might find themselves most useful to the home user as they deal with an ever-burgeoning array of gadgets that beg to be integrated?
