Home ›

A Look at the Ben NanoNote

Issue 198

From Issue #198
October 2010

Dec 01, 2010  By Daniel Bartholomew
 in
The Ben NanoNote provides a command line you can fit in your pocket. It's lighter than most smartphones, it costs around $100, and it's based on free and open-source software and hardware.

Games on the NanoNote

No geeky device of the last ten years has been considered much of anything if you couldn't play id Software's first-person-shooter (FPS) DOOM on it. The Ben NanoNote is no different. I wouldn't call DOOM on the NanoNote “playable”, but you can walk around, shoot things and get through the various levels without dying too much, provided the difficulty is set to “I'm too young to die.”

Quake, another FPS game from id Software, also can be run on the NanoNote. Again, the usability is low (it's harder to play than DOOM), but it does work in a slow, jerky sort of way.

A more usable game available for the Ben NanoNote, from the same developer who provided the DOOM and Quake binaries I used, is Frotz. Frotz is an interpreter for Infocom-style text adventures (like Zork). There are some issues with text wrapping weirdly with strange line breaks, but the games I tried played fine.

Playing an old Infocom adventure on the Ben NanoNote.

Playing DOOM on the Ben NanoNote. Seems like everything plays this game.

You also can play Quake on the Ben NanoNote, but not very well.

Resources

Qi Hardware: qi-hardware.com

Ben NanoNote Wiki: en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_NanoNote

Applications Included (or Proposed for Inclusion) with the Default Firmware: en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Applications

Xburst Tools: projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/xburst-tools/downloads

Instructions for Installing Debian: pyneo.org/howto/debian/nano.html

Games for the NanoNote: downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/zear/games

GMU: wejp.k.vu/category/gmu

OpenWrt: openwrt.org

Daniel Bartholomew works for Monty Program montyprogram.com as a technical writer and system administrator. He lives with his wife and children in North Carolina and often can be found hanging out on #maria and #linuxjournal on Freenode IRC.

______________________

Comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

WiFi data rate on Ben NanoNode and SDW823

Jorg Conradt's picture
Submitted by Jorg Conradt (not verified) on Thu, 01/06/2011 - 09:05.

Hi everyone!

For a research project I am considering a Ben NanoNode with WiFi; but I need "reasonable" data rates. The official web pages (http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_in_Nanonote) state super high rates, so I have trouble believing that:

* Throughput
TCP Tx 15.3Mbps
TCP Rx 19.2Mbps
UDP Tx 12.6Mbps
UDP Rx 14.9Mbps

Can anyone confirm these rates or has anyone other experiences? What is a typical data rate on Spectec SDW823 + Ben NanoNode?

Thanks for any comments!!

Jorg

Wi-Fi should be possible with a MicroSD card

Søren Lund's picture
Submitted by Søren Lund (not verified) on Mon, 12/20/2010 - 08:58.

According to the wiki[1] it is possible to get Wi-Fi on the Nanonote. You need a Spectec SDW-823 MicroSD card[2], that costs around $90 and seems to be a little difficult to find.

[1] http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_NanoNote_Wi-Fi
[2] http://www.spectec.com.tw/sdw-823.html

Webcast
More Resources
How to Build an Optimal Hadoop Cluster to Store and Maintain Unlimited Amounts of Data Using Microservers

Realizing the promise of Apache® Hadoop® requires the effective deployment of compute, memory, storage and networking to achieve optimal results. With its flexibility and multitude of options, it is easy to over or under provision the server infrastructure, resulting in poor performance and high TCO. Join us for an in depth, technical discussion with industry experts from leading Hadoop and server companies who will provide insights into the key considerations for designing and deploying an optimal Hadoop cluster.

Learn More

Sponsored by AMD

White Paper
More Resources
Private PaaS for the Agile Enterprise

If you already use virtualized infrastructure, you are well on your way to leveraging the power of the cloud. Virtualization offers the promise of limitless resources, but how do you manage that scalability when your DevOps team doesn’t scale? In today’s hypercompetitive markets, fast results can make a difference between leading the pack vs. obsolescence. Organizations need more benefits from cloud computing than just raw resources. They need agility, flexibility, convenience, ROI, and control.

Stackato private Platform-as-a-Service technology from ActiveState extends your private cloud infrastructure by creating a private PaaS to provide on-demand availability, flexibility, control, and ultimately, faster time-to-market for your enterprise.

Learn More

Sponsored by ActiveState