About Pogoplugs
Pogoplugs are some of the first “Cloud at home” devices to hit the market. They are small and simple devices that individuals can connect hard drives and flash drives to, and then connect to their home network. The pogoplug then makes these files available to other computers on the network and internet, if the user so chooses. The company, pogoplug, has made all of this very easy - lots of picture guided instruction and straight forward websites.
I have two of these devices, a v2 (or E02) and a v4, and have used both for their intended purposes and I must say that they both perform fantastically, and are excellent devices. They can also be had very cheaply, sometimes for as little as $15.
In addition to their cloud services, they can run ARM based linux distributions! At their core, they are based on a Marvell processor, much like the similarly named Sheevaplug. The pogoplug and sheevaplug are essentially identical in their function and intended use, the pogoplug just does it better because a larger company backed it.
ARM Linux
With the prevalence of ARM smartphones, netbooks, and single board computers (raspberry pi, beaglebone, etc), ARM for linux has gotten considerably better, with more updated kernels and many more pre-compiled binary programs.
Installing Arch (my embedded linux distro of choice, due to it's small size) on a pogoplug is incredibly simple, and only a flashdrive and separate computer are necessary. The guys that write the ArchLinux ARM pages have done a fantastic job in writing guides for how to install Arch on both the E02 and v4. I am linking to those guides below:
Other Purposes
I am currently in the process of combining a pogoplug with an RTL-SDR with the purpose of field/remotely collecting data from ADS-B signals from commercial aircraft. This configuration will be “off the grid”, powered by a solar panel and battery, connecting to open WiFi networks, and (possibly), WWAN services. More info forthcoming.
I ended up doing the above with a Raspberry Pi B+ instead.
