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"   The evolutionary path of the computer is curiously cyclical. In the 1970s, companies relied upon mainframes, with multiple users sharing a single central computer through &amp;quot;terminals.&amp;quot; But by the early 80s, the ascendancy of the personal computer had pushed this setup to obscurity, essentially re-orienting the relationship to keep most of a PC&amp;#039;s processing and productivity tasks between the machine and its individual user. The rise of dial-up and then broadband Internet in the following decade changed our conception of PCs from isolated islands of processing power to connected communication devices, not unlike phones or televisions. Unsurprisingly, the boom in connected personal computing coincided with a severe drop in pricing. And now it is not uncommon in the modern American household to have two, three or more computers networked together. Networking is a complex science, involving sharing, permissions, firewalls and a thousand other terms invented a long time ago by computer scientists with no idea that such things would ever concern home users (think the childhood version of the &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m a PC&amp;quot; character from those Apple ads). As a result, most people with home networks today essentially cobble them together using cheap routers and WiFi access points, with no central organizing structure to hold it all together. That&amp;#039;s fine when you have a desktop with maybe the accompanying laptop that hops on the network from time to time, but as the number of machines on the home network increase, so do the confusion and redundancy. It&amp;#039;s inevitable: Your home network needs a traffic cop. Which brings us to the home server. At CES this past January, HP unveiled its MediaSmart Server, the first device to use Microsoft&amp;#039;s Windows Home Server software. And while most users may have seen this not as a watershed moment but as another reason to roll their eyes, that&amp;#039;s because most home users had no idea what servers can really do. Nevertheless, I&amp;#039;m going to make a prediction that everybody will have one in ten years. Why? Because in ten years, everything that could benefit from a microchip inside will have a microchip inside. And that means that we&amp;#039;re all going to own a lot of computers. Your television? A computer. Your cable/IPTV box? A computer. Your cell phone/messaging device? Also a computer. Bedside clock? You guessed it: It&amp;#039;ll be a computer, too. My point is that as processing power continues to get cheaper and more pervasive, you&amp;#039;ll ultimately need a centralized server\u2014that high-powered traffic cop\u2014to coordinate the non-stop exchange of information between your new multitude of devices.  HP&amp;#039;s MediaSmart Server (pictured above) carries up to four hard drive bays\u2014two of them hot swappable\u2014so it can store huge amounts of data in a single location (as much as four terabytes internally, plus a lot more via external USB drives). At the same time, it&amp;#039;s backing up all your computers and devices on the network, storing data redundantly across drives to protect against data loss and reconciling overlapped files\u2014all while letting you roll back to previous versions (even from other users). Did I mention you can access this all remotely? Make no mistake: HP is certainly not the only company developing a home server\u2014just the first. Rumors abound (along with patent plans, pictured below) that Apple is developing an &amp;quot;iServe&amp;quot; device for the home market\u2014but then again, if you look hard enough, you&amp;#039;ll probably find rumors that Apple is developing a garbage-powered spaceship. Devices such as HP&amp;#039;s are so powerful that the home server will immediately fill a need for many small business owners looking for a cheap backup and data management tool (although MediaSmart can&amp;#039;t fit the needs of medium to large businesses because it doesn&amp;#039;t run a sophisticated e-mail exchange). For your run-of-the-mill users at home, however, I think the initial response will be tepid. The MediaSmart Server will probably cost in the $700-$800 range, which could get you a pretty spiffy new computer. Now you could always build your own for about $200 with a processor and the Windows Home Server software, but as with all new technologies, give it two years. I think you&amp;#039;ll be surprised by just how cheap these things will become. The technorati among you may protest: Why do we need home servers when everything is migrating online? Google has a full suite of productivity software available that works through a Web browser, and services like .Mac function as an online virtual server for home and small business users without bringing IT problems home. Combine that with a general trend toward higher bandwidth, and the distinction between your network and the Internet becomes almost academic. Nevertheless, the end result is the same: a server\u2014massive, networked, securely backed up and well-managed storage that is accessible from anywhere. Without it, the era of movie downloads and the networked home will never evolve beyond an early adopter novelty. \u2014Glenn Derene   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a1632/4216337/>