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How about this: you buy a physical device at Wal-Mart for $29.99, plug it in, hook it up to your wifi and leave it plugged into an outlet. It's got Mastodon or

How about this: you buy a physical device at Wal-Mart for $29.99, plug it in, hook it up to your wifi and leave it plugged into an outlet. It's got Mastodon or GNU Social on it and could look like this, but branded: http://thegadgetflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/SmartPlug-01.jpg http://thegadgetflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/SmartPlu...

myrion 10y ago
Then I have yet another device permanently plugged in and running, at a time where I and frankly all of us should try to reduce our energy consumption.
- shrimp_emoji 10y ago
  Ha. Good joke.
- cryptarch 10y ago
  A Raspberry Pi is very low-powered though, it's completely insignificant compared to the power used by the webservices you use daily.
  - lolc 10y ago
    I disagree. Google uses 1/4GW worldwide and that's less than a watt per user.
    - Zaak 10y ago
      Where does that number come from? One data center * 24 backup generators * 3 MW each = 72 MW per data center. Four of those = 288 MW > 1/4GW. Google has more than three data centers.
      - lolc 10y ago
        Ah yes, that number is from 2011, published by Google. Can't find the original. But it was widely reported[1]. Assuming that they're doubling energy consumption every year they'd have reached 8GW in 2016. That's 8W per user if we assume 1 billion users. Energy usage of a Raspberry is not insignificant relative to even this. Doing things at scale is vastly more efficient. And only a subset of Google services can be relegated to a Raspberry. Even if you host your own mails, are you ready to ditch the Google search index and Youtube? [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/technology/google-details-and-defends-its-use-of-electricity.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/technology/google-details-...
  - reitanqild 10y ago
    If the power consumption of a RPi for each household with someone like us is a major thing then I say we have come pretty far in reducing waste of energy. :-)
  - cookiecaper 10y ago
    People don't want another thing to plug in even if it's low-power. IoT is still nascent and I already don't have enough outlets in my house...
- antihero 10y ago
  It's always going to be running somewhere.
- Pxtl 10y ago
  I'd rather see a universal single consumer server with easy download and plugins for all of this stuff. Host my social network, my mail server, my cloud apps, etc. Basically, make social network a part of OwnCloud and sell OwnCloud boxes. Instead of a million small devices, I do one big one... and "big" can still be RaspPi.
freehunter 10y ago
And then my internet connection goes down. Power goes out. I run over my data cap for the month. Comcast shuts me down for running a home server. My home network gets DDoS'd. I miss a patch day and I get hacked. None of these things are a concern on traditional social networks. They have to be solved before the world has any chance of moving to a decentralized network.
- reitanqild 10y ago
  They have to be solved before the world has any chance of moving to a decentralized network. I say no. Most of them don't have to be solved first. Feel free to convince me that 3 days of downtime on my personal messaging account cannot have my personal account is a problem.
  - freehunter 10y ago
    It doesn't matter how you feel about it, take a look at people complaining when Google put a news article about Facebook at the top of the results instead of the Facebook login page: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/feb/11/facebook-readwriteweb https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/feb/11/face... These are people who typed "Facebook Login" into a Google search, clicked the first result without reading, and got confused. Now tell these same users that Comcast blocked their social network or that they can't log in on their phone because their home Internet connection is down. If you want a social network filled with just people like you and me, look at App.net or GNU Social for inspiration. If you want average users to sign in, these issues absolutely do have to be solved.
    - reitanqild 10y ago
      Still not convinced. It doesn't need to be for everyone in the beginning. The early web (when I entered and before) wasn't for everyone. And thats OK for me. Actually I think it is a good way to start.
      - ReverseCold 10y ago
corobo 10y ago
Putting another barrier in front of it is not what's needed for people to use it. Treat it like email (or heck, early Facebook), get big clusters of users in by convincing universities and colleges to run a campus server. Businesses would also be a good idea but a harder sell
- rocky1138 10y ago
  I do quite like this idea. And, it has precedence.

myrion 10y ago

Then I have yet another device permanently plugged in and running, at a time where I and frankly all of us should try to reduce our energy consumption.

shrimp_emoji 10y ago
Ha. Good joke.
cryptarch 10y ago
A Raspberry Pi is very low-powered though, it's completely insignificant compared to the power used by the webservices you use daily.
- lolc 10y ago
  I disagree. Google uses 1/4GW worldwide and that's less than a watt per user.
  - Zaak 10y ago
    Where does that number come from? One data center * 24 backup generators * 3 MW each = 72 MW per data center. Four of those = 288 MW > 1/4GW. Google has more than three data centers.
    - lolc 10y ago
      Ah yes, that number is from 2011, published by Google. Can't find the original. But it was widely reported[1]. Assuming that they're doubling energy consumption every year they'd have reached 8GW in 2016. That's 8W per user if we assume 1 billion users. Energy usage of a Raspberry is not insignificant relative to even this. Doing things at scale is vastly more efficient. And only a subset of Google services can be relegated to a Raspberry. Even if you host your own mails, are you ready to ditch the Google search index and Youtube? [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/technology/google-details-and-defends-its-use-of-electricity.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/technology/google-details-...
- reitanqild 10y ago
  If the power consumption of a RPi for each household with someone like us is a major thing then I say we have come pretty far in reducing waste of energy. :-)
- cookiecaper 10y ago
  People don't want another thing to plug in even if it's low-power. IoT is still nascent and I already don't have enough outlets in my house...
antihero 10y ago
It's always going to be running somewhere.
Pxtl 10y ago
I'd rather see a universal single consumer server with easy download and plugins for all of this stuff. Host my social network, my mail server, my cloud apps, etc. Basically, make social network a part of OwnCloud and sell OwnCloud boxes. Instead of a million small devices, I do one big one... and "big" can still be RaspPi.

freehunter 10y ago

And then my internet connection goes down. Power goes out. I run over my data cap for the month. Comcast shuts me down for running a home server. My home network gets DDoS'd. I miss a patch day and I get hacked. None of these things are a concern on traditional social networks. They have to be solved before the world has any chance of moving to a decentralized network.

reitanqild 10y ago
They have to be solved before the world has any chance of moving to a decentralized network. I say no. Most of them don't have to be solved first. Feel free to convince me that 3 days of downtime on my personal messaging account cannot have my personal account is a problem.
- freehunter 10y ago
  It doesn't matter how you feel about it, take a look at people complaining when Google put a news article about Facebook at the top of the results instead of the Facebook login page: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/feb/11/facebook-readwriteweb https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/feb/11/face... These are people who typed "Facebook Login" into a Google search, clicked the first result without reading, and got confused. Now tell these same users that Comcast blocked their social network or that they can't log in on their phone because their home Internet connection is down. If you want a social network filled with just people like you and me, look at App.net or GNU Social for inspiration. If you want average users to sign in, these issues absolutely do have to be solved.
  - reitanqild 10y ago
    Still not convinced. It doesn't need to be for everyone in the beginning. The early web (when I entered and before) wasn't for everyone. And thats OK for me. Actually I think it is a good way to start.
    - ReverseCold 10y ago

corobo 10y ago

Putting another barrier in front of it is not what's needed for people to use it. Treat it like email (or heck, early Facebook), get big clusters of users in by convincing universities and colleges to run a campus server. Businesses would also be a good idea but a harder sell

rocky1138 10y ago
I do quite like this idea. And, it has precedence.