Net Slug (NSLU-2)
=================

I have started to clean me desk and to reduce my active computing equipment
(more on that topic later). One of the first steps is a return of the LinkSys
NSLU-2 NAS [1] to active use.

The NSLU-2 (it is sometimes read as "netslug") is good to share attached USB
drives via the SMB protocol. I used it at the only way to attach USB devices to
my ancient computers.  It was retired because I had several devices of similar
role and with wider area of use (the Raspberry Pi, for example).

At the moment I use 2 main desktop computers: the Intel Compute Stick (the
Ubuntu Edition one) and the SGI O2. The Stick is usefull when I need something
relatively secure (for use of vpnc, remote access to other computers and so)
and when I have to connect to modern (and thus bloated) WWW sites. The O2 is
usefull for actual work (programming, TeX typesetting, general and  FEA
computing).

It is obvious that it makes no sense to run second desktop machine just to get
data from and USB stick (or to read pictures from a MMC/SD card from my
camera). The use of the Raspberry Pi is on the same level as the use of the
Stick: I have to turn it on, log in and/or copy the data via SSH and turn it
off. And cannot acces the data unless I turn on a second monitor as modern Xorg
applications cannot run remotely on the old good Xsgi (actually, they do run
but extremelly slowly and with errors and crashes).
Also when the Compute Stick is on then I tend to use it (to open useless WWW
pages and do similar things). When it is off then I have to concentrate on more
useful stuff.

The NSLU-2 use is similar - it must be turned on, then I have to issue and
mount command and after that I can see the USB thingie in my directory
structure. When I copy or edit the date then I can umount the device and press
the on/off button on the fron of the NSLU-2. I does not much simpler but it is.

The device has some limitations: there are 2 USB ports but jsut one can be used
for flash devices. The second one is meant for a hard drive  and this drive has
to be formated by the NSLU-2 utilities before use. And there are other issues.
But that's OK for me as my usual need is to connect just one USB flashdisk at
once (actually I never needed to connect the harddisk here).

References:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSLU2