You may have heard of this oddly named little device called the Chumby.

What is it? Well, it's a bit hard to describe as it can be a lot of things! Here's what the chumby web site says:

Why would I want one?

It's just pure 24/7 gratification to be able to have the Internet on tap. Sure, you can get the same information on your computer, but why be stuck behind a keyboard to enjoy your internet addictions? Here are just a few of the things you can do:

• Catch the latest news headlines, sports, weather, stock prices.
• Play your iPod® mp3 files through built in speakers. Charge it too.
• Enjoy your Flickr and Facebook photos as a digital picture frame.
• Stay updated on new Netflix releases or view your movie queue.
• Make and share e-greetings, photo mash-ups, goofy animations.
• Wake up to the multi-tone alarm clock.
• Track any eBay auction or Craigslist item.
• Monitor incoming email on any POP3 account.

What are the features of the chumby?

Wi-fi connectivity • access to the free Chumby Network • 3.5" LCD color touchscreen • two external USB 2.0 full-speed ports • 350 MHz ARM processor • 64 MB SDRAM • 64 MB NAND flash ROM • stereo 2W speakers • headphone output • squeeze sensor • accelerometer (motion sensor) • leather casing • AC adapter included

I bought one of the little guys for Christmas as a gift for my father. I could have given him just the Chumby and that would have been enjoyable; however, I wanted to kick it up a notch and make it more fun.

What I was originally looking for was a digital photo frame, with no subscription fees, that would allow me, their friends, and relatives to send them e-mails with attached photos and have them show up and randomly displayed on the chumby -- yet keeping it all private.

I couldn't find anything -- and then stumbled across the Chumby, which is far more than just a digital photo frame.

So, I wrote 3 separate pieces of software to make that possible to do what I wanted.

1. A Windows application (as a service), that checks e-mails every 15 minutes to a specific e-mail account. When an e-mail arrives, it's checked for validity (to make sure the sender is trusted), then all of the attached images are compressed, shrunk, and uploaded to a web site. This was written in C# (.NET 3.5).
2. A website portion written in PHP which provides an XML document with the 75 most recent photos that were uploaded sorted.
3. A small Flash widget which connects to the web site, queries for the list of photos, randomizes it, and then shows each photo for a specified length of time.

My father and mother really enjoy the gift. I've got a young nephew who is the star of many photos -- and they love seeing new photos of him show up (they may be less excited to see silly pictures of our cat).

(Our cat and a gift my wife gave me ... a marionette of Frank Lloyd Wright).

I had considered several pay services for hosting my photos, but there are a few restrictions that you need to be aware of. The most important is that the Chumby does not use a full version of Flash. It uses the embedded version (Flash Lite 3). It cannot show Progressive JPEG files. So, my first choice for image storage (where I store personal photos today and I would definitely recommend) is SmugMug. However, they only serve up progressive JPEGs (great for computers, but not so great for the Chumby). Too bad.

I experimented with a few other pay options, but decided that the best way to secure the photos in a way that was easily accessible to me was to build it myself. It took far more time than I had expected (I was new to flash, and the complexities of doing debugging on an external device ...). However, the end result was well worth it. (Some photo storage sites have NO API access whatsoever. Lame. Shame on you! And a few are over designed. I looked at a lot of them!)

The Chumby is still in 'early adopter' mode right now, but I believe you can still pick one up. The hardware won't change before the final release. Only the software (which is fully upgradeable by Chumby). If you like gadgets, it's something you should check out. It's fun. Currently, it comes in very fun packaging as well (sort of grain-bag/knapsack bags).