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Mac mini Built Into Wall
Lilmuckers writes "I have just completed a project to build a Mac mini into the wall of my kitchen. It is hidden and everything works perfectly."
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He couldn't find space for an Mac mini? It's only 6.5 inches wide and 2 inches tall.
If space was such a critical factor just get the iMac with the computer built into the monitor. Add a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse and you can store them in a drawer when not needed.
Quality Hosting e3 Servers
For a real challenge, try to do what the Russians do and build your kitchen into the Mac Mini!
If you "get" pointers add me as a friend (116)!
This reminds me of an old story at the Univeristy of Iowa where they moved a computer department into a new building wherein years later they are trying to find a server. It is still serving packets and no one can seem to find it. Suddenly someone realize that it was probably left at the other building years before when they moved. They go over there and are looking around when someone says 'well the server would have been right here where this wall was. On a hunch, they rip open the wall and sure enough, there is the server still serving packets... 4 years later!
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
The submitter really asked for it, didn't he?
...for an underpowered box. Shoulda rolled a household server. Meh.
Blar.
Blocking IE makes me so cool. Nevermind that I'm a geek living in the basment, I'm cool because making a website that blocks IE makes up for all my shortcomings.
http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/ec82a64b93fc80051 9411ac2b6ea8a9b/index.html
Also, a hint: If you have a G4 Cube you wish to hide in your kitchen, merely replace the current heating elements in your oven with the ol G4 Cube. It is both sightly and functional this way.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Just the wires are. The MAC is under the cabinent.
This isn't innovative at all.
It's a little less tacky than cutting a hole into your painting for a HDD.
have just completed a copy of SpaceShipOne built entirely in Lego... It is hidden, but I tell you that everything works perfectly..
Sorry, this sig is beneath your current threshold
I fail to find the use for that... besides I think it is a lot of work for saving just a few inches in space, it is almost ridiculous with the size of the screen he took.
:)
Anyways... I would have put it in the badroom
http://www.caffeine-junkies.com/?mode=articles&pag e=print&id=7 seems OK, and is all on one page.
Manta
Can someone make an open source program that will do all the cooking for this guy? Like controls the toaster, fridge, stove. Macs do all kinds of interesting things, let it be a virtual wife!
Well if it isn't the leader of the wiener patrol, boning up on his nerd lesson...
Here [Next] is [Next] my [Next] Mac [Next] Mini [Next] in [Next] a [Next] wall.
For everyone who just wants to skip to the chase and see "a Mac Mini in someone's kitchen wall", which is what I wanted to see (not pictures of an effing butter knife)...completed Mini in the wall.
Also, I think the entire W3C group has a simultaneous conniption with the author's use of "Clicky" to note an image that is also a link. That's the purpose, astoundingly, of a BLUE BORDER around an image...along with the cursor change, the tool tip, AND the display of a URL in the bottom of the browser window. I think it's probably worse than the usual "to see a picture of me and a llama, click here. To find out more about llamas, click here."
I know I had a conniption, thanks to the atrocious grammar....
Please help metamoderate.
I happened to see this before any comments were posted, and started going through the pictures as quickly as I could. I made it to number 9 before it got borked.
How much for shipping to PL? ;P
One that hath name thou can not otter
For alllll that effort he went through, this was the final result.
I was expecting to see something beautifully plugged into the wall like an ATM or whatnot, but this just looks like a regular computer. If he'd just put the Mac Mini under the table it'd look the same. Haha.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
The title really says it all..
- Mind
My wife and I were discussing the purchase of a 37" 1080p lcd monitor and mounting it in our bedroom mainly for watching dvd's. I thought that it would be cool to mount a Mac Mini in the wall in order to hide all the wires, and use the bluetooth keyboard and mouse to control it from across the room (in the bed, specifically).
Helping with organizational effectiveness is our job.
The kitchen strikes me as somewhere where there's often water, and from my limited experience with water and computers, that might not be a good thing! Of course a Mini is bordering on being cheap enough to be disposable...
Drag n' Drop DVD Recommendations
That's nothing - I used to use a VAX 9000 as a wall. And a furnace.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
What about heat? [No, I am still not using a Mac, so I do not know what kind of temperature a Mac mini produces, but I doubt it keeps cool if no cold air is avalible.]
Screw the FSM - Real geeks believe in the Invisible Pink Unicorn
"I have just completed a project to build a mac-mini into the wall of my kitchen. It is hidden and everything works perfectly." I have just ripped that macmini off the wall, the parts and wires are now visible, and nothing works for the poor guy.. oh and I am being hunted.. gimme a break! is it monday yet?
Outputting very little heat, virtually no noise, Half decent preformance, full services for file sharing, web services, ftp services, dns sevices, the entire works.. One of these babies could sit in everyone's room, in every house. Its no wonder they are popular. I am surprised that more people havent done unique and clever things with there mac minis.
His next project involved building it into another spot. That is why the page could not be displayed!
The solution is to make sure that the MacMini has Aqua pre-installed. You have to do it the proper way with the installation disc. Merely splashing it on the case will cause trouble.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Something tells me this is a step backward.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Apparently, he built his webserver into the wall as well, and his house in on fire.
Anyone care to recommend a TV card/box to go with a Mac Mini.
threadeds blog
isn't visible either, but isn't working nearly so well.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
If you don't build the screen into the wall, preferably a touchscreen, what's the point?
I can understand the desire for a terminal in the kitchen. Even just for kitchen-related stuff -- I'm a complete zero as a cook, but if you put a recipe in front of me, I can follow it (so if the recipe is correct and complete, I can get great results). Having a terminal in the kitchen helps a lot. I guess the video player possibilities are nice there too.
I'd like a source for that type of switchplate, for some different things I have in mind.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
If space is at a premimum why not embed the monitor in the wall also? Put the mini behnind the montior and mount the monitor on a piano hinge so it doubles as an access port to the mini. Then you don't have to mod the mini at all and you end up with a much cleaner install. Just extend the ports to a wallplate and your done. Go a step further and use a touchscreen monitor, then use a Keyboard Viewer to do all of your typing.
wow that wallplate is so ugly. he should pay somebody the $40 to get it machined out of aluminum if he has the CAD for it.
Whats up with the cable going from port to port? Jebus, he could have just run it straight down to the box. What does he plan to do? plug other things into the mac thru the ethernet port often?
Given the cleanliness of the floor, I'm guessing his dad (or someone else) actually mops the floor once in a while. It seems a bit risky to leave the Mini on a cardboard box so openly exposed - much less all the wires on the floor.
I get the impression he'll be back at work doing water damage repair sometime in the near future.
Here's another nice use of a mac mini, it's even easier to install:
_ us.html
http://www.w3sh.com/archives/2005/05/enfin_un_bon
about their iSeries and such
n ds/index_flat.html
d ex.cfm?fuseaction=viewarticle&CO_ContentID=13885
http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/iseries/lege
It also includes the "server" lost behind the wall. The reenactments are cute and somewhat based on "true" stories.
Another set of stories is at...
http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/nodeuk/ukarchive/in
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Here: http://www.caffeine-junkies.com.nyud.net:8090/?mod e=articles&page=print&id=7
That funny comment reminded me of something I saw years ago touring the old Commodore plant in West Chester, PA.
Somewhere in the piles of stuff I have accumulated over the years I have a picture. It's a picture of a picture frame encompassing an internal floppy drive embedded in the drywall behind it.
The story goes that an engineer was up all hours of the night trying to debug a problem with his new floppy drive circuitry. After hours and hours of fruitless troubleshooting, he discovered that the problem wasn't with the circuitry, it was with the drive itself. The frustrated engineer picked up said floppy drive and whipped it at the wall - where it became one with it. The picture frame was later added for decoration.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
All of this may be true - and yet, I still don't want one!
That sort of things irritate me. Sure, I'm all about standards compliance, but there's no need to make it a religion as this asshat has. There is NO need whatsoever to interrupt a user and lecture him for using an 'inferior' browser.
Yay, your code is standards compliant. Good for you. If you're that worried about complaining IE users, you obviously don't know how to code a standards-compliant website that doesn't break non-compliant browsers. So good of you to publicly reveal your web programming shortcomings.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
I put the thing in the friggin' silverware drawer.
Problem solved! Next!
Ethernet, usb, firewire & vga. The ethernet I do not understand though, wireless would have saved the ethernet link.
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
I just bought this monitor a few days ago and finally hooked it up last night. It works great with my powerbook, and the picture is fantastic.
If you are going to use it with the mac mini, you might consider attaching the mac mini itself to the back of the display. If you use a wall bracket to mount the display to the wall, there would be sufficient space. You can bolt a piece of metal between the monitor and the mounting bracket to serve as a mounting plate for the mac mini.
Incidentally, as far as choice of computer goes.. the mac mini will drive the display fine at native resolution (so long as you use the DVI 1 input) and is a fairly cheap alternative way to watch DVD at 1080p, as an external scaler capable of doing this runs about $2000. It also makes a great display for photo slideshows as the resolution is fantastic.
It's also worth noting that the display itself has a pretty decent scaler in it as well. If you attach a decent progressive scan player to the screen via component, the picture you get will be very good - I found it's at least as good as the picture from the powerbook playing a DVD.
The one drawback for using a mac mini on this display is that you won't have anywhere close to the horsepower needed to play any HD content. I doubt the mini is capable of playing 1080i MPEG2 TS much less H.264 at 720p or 1080p. My powerbook is a 1.4ghz G4 like the mini though, and I have an HDV camcorder that I can get 1080i MPEG2 TS from, so if you want to know the results of my testing on the mac's ability to do MPEG2 HD, drop me a line.
Didn't the current iMac design appear before or at the same time as the mini? Seems like that's exactly what he was looking for.
He could have taped one of the firewire TV tuners to the back of it for the TV function (or streamed it over the LAN from some location with better reception than the kitchen).
If you want a hidden/accessible computer, this isn't the solution to use.
He should have used an LCD panel that flips down from under a cabinet and stored the mac mini or other SFF PC in the cabinet above it and routed cables accordingly. All hardware hidden and wires too.
This guy must have an understanding wife. Mine would've shot me if I put a custom (i.e. crappy) dremeled face plate in her kitchen wall and wanted to use counter space for a monitor. Not to mention how much she hates cabling.
get laptop sheeesh
but the first page I saw was one bitching that I was using IE. I'll take my IE and go somewhere else, thanks.
I bought one of them as soon as I could get my hands on one from the first batch that arrived at the St. Louis Apple store.
I agree that it's a very cool little box, and inspires people to make projects around it due to the small size and silent nature of it.
But really, I'm less than impressed with the majority of these projects I see posted to web sites and blogs. For starters, if you imbed your Mini in a wall so the back is exposed, you've just made it impossible to use the CD/DVD combo drive or writer since it slot-loads from the *front*.
And how much work is really involved in most of these "I installed a Mac Mini in my new car/van/SUC/truck!" projects? So far, they've all been about the same. They slap a 12 volt to 120 volt inverter on a cigarette lighter/accessory power plug in the vehicle and plug the Mini into that. Then they hide all the wires under the carpeting and buy some type of VGA compatible LCD display or touchscreen, and lastly use some sort of compact-sized keyboard that they tuck under a seat or in a compartment someplace when they're not typing on it. A Mini is so small, it takes practically no effort to "install" it in a vehicle. Just stick it somewhere in the trunk or in a glove box or whatever....
On the downside, the Mac Mini has relatively lousy video (only 32MB RAM and a Radeon 9200 that can't even support Apple's "core image" features of OS X 10.4). This makes it kind of a drag for gaming, which would arguably be a major benefit of having an in-car computer otherwise. (Get some wireless joysticks and let the kids play video games on it from the back seats of your van, for example.)
Not only do they claim that the site is not compatible with IE (which renders it fine) But they claim that the website is w3 compliant.
After the page loads I get a nice JavaScript error, and also decided to check the w3 validator and found 24 errors, not making the website compliant.
If your going to complain about " standard compliant browsers" you should at least make your site compliant to THE standards you claim to enforce.
TruePunk | Games
Well, years ago, someone paved his driveway with Apple ][ computers - this guy has a long way to go to build a kitchen from Minis...
Oh well, what the hell...
I more or less view it as the internet workstation. It can sit in mothers room, and have a nice LCD flat screen monitor and be small and out of the way. The traditional computer desk with its bulk and size needs not be. It can easily fit on the side end table by the couch with its wireless keyboard and mouse.
pickup a big enough LCD monitor and it could easily be your wireless multimedia center for TV, dvd movies, and internet surfing in the living room.
Did it mention the power consumption of the entire unit is less than what the average intel cpu alone uses?
So what?
Yes, for the love of God.
Stop the world; I need to get off.
um... the current iMac's have a VESA mount, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and integrated DVD burner & USB...
mount the dang thing on the wall.
Apple's got a refurb 17" iMac G5 w/SuperDrive for $1000. Add Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and you're talking another $159. VESA wall-mount is about $100. Apple BT Keybord $60. Logitec BT Mouse (so you get more then one button) $60... done.
if you really want to take up counter space, and not mount it on the wall... save the $100. Or use the $100 and find a zero footprint base.
This solution is cheaper.. MUCH faster... cleaner... WAY easier... and less wet and dusty.
- sUNtiGEn (MSK2)
- matthewk (MSK2)
instead of clicking next every 5 wordsg e=print&id=7 will help a lot
http://www.caffeine-junkies.com/?mode=articles&pa
Motherfucker.
I use a browser based off the IE core (Maxthon) for reasons I'm willing to discuss at great length -- I've used Firefox, Galeon, Konquorer, Safari, et. al. for years as well, and I understand the arguments and the power of each.
So don't fucking talk down to me at your site intro because my browser reports as IE (and is, in fact, not totally compliant, rendering-wise.) You just lost a potential reader.
I understand the need to advertise Firefox. But don't stand in front of your driveway and refuse to let me enter until I talk to you about why I'm using an unfashionable, prone-to-breakdown brand of car.
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
...to upgrade to a new Intel Mac Mini in a few months!
No, really. I know it's a Mac and this is /., but still.
Improve at backgammon rapidly through addictive quickfire position quizzes: www.bgtrain.com
from the because-you-can't dept.
I absolutely LOVE how 99% of all slashdot users are absolutely idiotic hatemongers. Most of which know not of what they talk. It feels even more like a prepebusescent teen hangout than it did 4 years ago. Good going trolls. No wonder I hear people telling me how much of a waste this site is these days. Get a life. Act in real life like you do here and see where it gets you. The internet as the location for behaving the way you want but don't have the courage to do in real life is something you all should have grown out of by the time you graduated high school.
Of course, it could just be that I'm expecting too much of the ol' slash - time was it really was full of techy/geeky news instead of filler (some settling may have occurred in transit). A Mac Mini is so small to begin with that building into things is fucking trivial.
-1, lame
How is this "news?" Who would consider this "stuff that matters?" Slow Sunday?
erno: hm. I've lost a machine.. literally _lost_. it responds to ping, it works completely, I just can't figure out where in my apartment it is.
It's pretty darn small. Why all the work to hide a good looking box?
blah, blah, blah
and then he goes and puts a monitor and keyboard that take up more space than the mac mini would have. Why not put the monitor on the wall too? And store a wireless keyboard on the side of the cabinet. Then you have a nice setup and complete use of your kitchen.
JasonBlogs
Not worthy of an "ask slashdot", but does anybody know where to go for information about hacking inkjet printers?
I've been searching for a day or two, and have found NO information about screwing with the manufactured-in printer limitations. I want to print on any length paper, but the manufacturer says buy another printer. I say screw them, my hp 7350 is all I need.
Just casting a line out, any pointers or links?
DT
Is this thing on? Hello?
A fucking hour later, we can see all the pictures. Jesus christ! Why make 22 different pages? Make one fucking page. We all have broadband!
1) Takes forever to load (Probably Slashdotted, but all that SQL to post static content doesn't help either...)
2) Takes forever to scroll down the page because of that @#$#%& molecule image
3) No gallery. Just a bunch of page numbers with nothing to guide the user to what he or she is interested in. Hey, I just wanted to see the finished product. I'm not interested in a picture of some cables. I've seen cables before, you know? They don't get any more interesting.
4) Spell check? Definately not encorperated into the web design process
When looking through the some 21 pictures I thought the finale was gonna be grand but it proved to be otherwise! Why waste your time on building an built in the wall mini mac when you can probably just suffice with running off of bluetooth and wireless remotely? You can always just cut a hole inside the counter so you can connect the monitor. What a waste of time and effort. Not a very good looking built in the wall mini mac either!
This is one of the lamiest lamie lame-like things I have ever seen. Now watch as I punch a hole in the wall and shove my PSP into it.
Also, his website SUCKS.
ugliest website yet created.
The one drawback for using a mac mini on this display is that you won't have anywhere close to the horsepower needed to play any HD content. I doubt the mini is capable of playing 1080i MPEG2 TS much less H.264 at 720p or 1080p.
You're probably right. Apple even recommends a better system for "852x480 (480p) video at 24-30 frames per second".
unless I'm missing something, this seems worse than an iMac in every way.
Even the link in his name on the blurb is wrong! This guy's pretty funny.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
At least we now know that after the intel switch your mac Mini will still be worth something as a construction material...
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
What a prick.
... he managed to butcher the ONLY aesthetically pleasing piece of equipment he bought!
Sorry but you are the only one who fits that category in this conversation. He was not spending your money, he was not spending the public's money, he was spending his own money. He's not doing anything that is offensive to any reasonable person with the possible exception of Apple designers.
What the hell is so aesthetic about a cube? I love my mini, it's price, it's size, it's low maintenance, but it's not a friggin piece of art.
Make your site warn away IE users, then post it to Slashdot. Clearly the guy is just trying to bolster his ego by being elitist, while looking for a pat on the back.
In a world that reinforces the negative, we have to shore up our self-image when we can. Leave him his outlet.
Upon investigation, I found that the powerbook and probably the mini also are capable of MPEG2 1920x1080 ... probably because the graphics cards can accelerate the decoding. They aren't particularly fast enough to do deinterlacing though, so you'll have to rely on the monitor to do that part. ATI has H.264 acceleration in their next chipset, but it's still up in the air as to whether or not current ATI chipsets will get any H264 accleleration or whether or not quicktime will end up taking advantage of it.
I am pretty sure that the 1.42GHz mini could do the 480p H264; my 1.5GHz powerbook does fine with it.
first you push that non ie bullshit then i continue to ge this:
/home/l1lmucke/public_html/functions.php on line 383
Warning: mysql_connect(): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (11) in
Could Not Connect To Database: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (11)
you suck! and in case you missed the headline, jerk...
Try http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_red_frog/sets/184 830/
I did the same sort of thing to punish my Gateway Solo. I had been using it for shipment tracking for my, um... business, when it triggered a false alarm and told UPS to jettison the valuable, um... cargo for no reason.
Of course, it was in my lair, not my office, and the wall was made of carbonite, not drywall.
Hahahahaha. Eat that Windoze scum! Now my concubine can serve me and my extraterrestrial band can entertain me while you decorate my chamber wall!
pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory7
using a short patch lead on show like that seems totally braindead to me when he could just take the incoming network cable straight to the mac
he used a bus powered hub for all the USB ports, frankly i'm surprised he made the dvd drive work on that at all and he himself admitted that it didn't work on the usb hub with the new led connected.
also he doesn't mention the power of the heater but i wonder if he has thought about the rating of the wall socket that he has connected everything to. some heaters basically use up the entire rating of a standard 13A socket.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Didn't you read? All the bugs at that site are Microsoft's fault. You should not have used Microsoft. And, if you really were not, then your Aunt Doris who uses Microsoft is to blame.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
- That he was so obsessed with the goal of hiding a computer in a wall that he went out and bought a computer that's so small there's absolutely no point in hiding it in the wall. And to make matters funnier, he didn't make the CD drive accessible and had to buy an external one... about the same size as a Mac Mini and a lot uglier.
k itchen/cut5.jpg
- This quote: "Since the Mac is designed in america, it's most convenient to measure it in their units, Imperial units, goodness knows why they can't use SI units like the rest of the world, probably their bias against the french."
(Hahaha. He has a point.)
- This picture: http://www.caffeine-junkies.com/images/articles/i
Just screams out 'M-m-m-mac mini!'
He should've scrawled labels on it with black marker pen...
- The whole "I'm so cool, I own a computer made by Apple Macintosh" (it's Apple, retard), "and I openly show how much I hate IE" (annoying) and "Let's deliberately get to a stage where I have to test it's still working as an excuse to show an Apple desktop" thing he has going.
- This unnecessary comment: "NOTE FOR LAYMEN: it's imperitive that the wires for the LED are kept the same way around, because an LED is just that, a DIODE, and thus it will only work if the current is going one way."
Well, no shit Sherlock! I'm glad your university degree taught you *something*. Personally I learned that in Science class at about age 12.
- The excessive use of CAT5 for everything just to look cool to a Slashdot audience. Ironically, ends up looking a complete pratt by using a patch cable *outside* of the wall. I have no words!
- At the end of the day, all he did was plonk the Mini on the floor and create a wall-mounted port replicator, and even end up wasting money on an external optical drive!
Got to love it. You have to be sorry for him, he's obviously just trying to look cool. He's also fallen for the old pitfall of obsessing so much about solving a challenge that didn't even exist, he ended up creating more problems and overcomplicating the whole thing. But it's so funny.
I couldn't see any place in the final picture where he could use the CD/DVD part of the mac. Did I miss something, or did he?
creation science book
Thanks. I always wondered why Greedo was called Greedo. I had no idea it was really Bill Gates wearing a mask.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I just bought a toaster and plugged it in, hmm wait I did not waste enough money, I just bought a redundant dishwasher and built it into the wall of my kitchen.
I bet no one gives a damn about that either.
It must be a breeze to upgrade... for a man who can build his computer out of nothing but duct-tape at least.
Give me a break, it's like the site is discriminating against me - how RACIST of it.
If someone could fit a full-size G5 in a wall, that MIGHT make me think a little.
Articles like this make me want to puke my guts out.
Again, bring my Karma level down!!! Do it, it will make me feel SO bad!
Maybe I should mount a MINI in my ass - there is probably room, and yes, although it's tight, all of those CAT5's should fit nicely.
Fire hazard. Enough said.
The main point was the touchscreen and an audio out...
I really want a recipe/weather/music/video screen for when I'm cooking and was thinking about an audrey for the task.
I was wondering if you could use the touchscreen for everything, but as you use the keyboard, there must bet no practical touchscreen keyboard included...
also browsing the web or my own personnal recipe site...
Can you give us more feedback of it's use as a kitchen appliance and automation, please ?
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
Great idea putting a mini mac into the wall. I love how small thenew mac is. I went and picked a couple up for my kids who are starting college this month with a door room smaller then most prison cells so I figured they could use a smaller machine. I am so excited for them both like as if I was the one attending school again. Myy question to the writer is where else would you put a mini mac if you could?
Years ago, I built my Lisa into the wall of my kitchen.
She was a good wife, but she nagged me one too many times.
I object to that article, and to the next reply.
When I was little, I used to stuff broken watches into the plaster walls of my house. Now people are stuffing all of these high tech gizmos in.... bleh!
... and he sure fucked up a lot during the 'process'
I'm all for DIY, and clever uses of technology. This however, was not one. The mini is a pretty little pc. It's tiny, aesthetically pleasing... heck it's something to show off, not hide.
So this guy cut it up, added a couple plates to his wall, cluttered his table top with some wires and.. for what? Saving less than 1 square foot of countertop.
We should have awards for best misuse of good technology.
I have a customer who velcros EVERYTHING with double sided velcro tape. Sometimes it works better than others.
Frankly, all this guy needed to do was velcro the mini to the back of the LCD. Boom Done.
#5273
<erno> hm. I've lost a machine.. literally _lost_. it responds to ping, it works completely, I just can't figure out where in my apartment it is.
Then using a knife I levered the power button board off the back of the mac, away from it's glue.
Did you check your grammar? Maybe you should look at http://paulm.com/how_to/get_a_gold_star_at_grammar _and_spelling.html
...the mac is already in the kitchen, it's only 3 feet away from REALLY being a "Mac-in-trash".
Seriously though, He's gonna crap if his hard drive ever dies.
Who cares about the ozone layer?...thanks to CFC's I can write my name......IN CHEESE!!!
Why in the world would I want to pay you for a couple of screensavers and a number of different pointers with my Knoppix Distro?
"This picture: http://www.caffeine-junkies.com/images/articles/ik itchen/cut5.jpg"
Don't Drink and Dremel.
(apologies to Matt Groening)
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Then you could have had company.
Let's see.
Take a mini mac, hide it under cupboard, extend cables and build it into a really shoddy little home-made panel.
Post it on web with really crappy pics and lots of typos. This is not even worth reading.(well, it's more like a graphic novel anyway).
And please! When modding a Mac, NEVER use a yellow LED's. Just go and buy a blue or clear LED!
What a fucking crappy mod!
"I used to have that really cool,funny sig
Gives a whole other meaning to 'FireWire' doesn't it?
Yawn. Ugly and slow pages showing some tired work of some totally useless crap. This is not even cool useless crap!
Funny, I'm trying to convert everyone at home also - hence my sig. If you see any future posts from me, I usually rotate the holidays from Labor Day to Thanksgiving to Christmas, Easter, etc.
:)
It does amaze me though. I'm not a smart-ass about what I know, but when my parents or relatives DON'T take my advice about something technical it bothers me for some reason.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
Ahahaha! Yeah man, go! So funny, I have a couple for the same purpose (thankfully unused). Here's how I obtained my first sample in yet another short anecdote:
:)
Many years ago, I worked for Electronics Boutique (don't get me started on THAT). We had an Amiga 500 (which I upgraded the memory with my own money to something USEFUL) and I used to run all manner of demos and the like on it.
We got a rare visit from a C= rep and I asked him for some more demos. He was happy to assist and within days I got 20+ discs with all sorts of stuff (mainly Newtek demos).
A few days later some of the games I had stopped working and then one day, everything faded out and I got this cryptic message:
'Something wonderful has happened Your AMIGA is alive !!! and, even better... Some of your disks are infected by a VIRUS !!! Another masterpiece of The Mega-Mighty SCA !!'
Yeah, GREAT. Guess where it came from? Yep. C=. How did I know? Because I never had any problems before I received the disks from the rep, and almost all of his disks had the virus INCLUDING THE WRITE PROTECTED ONES.
I called the rep back and tried to warn him, but apparently he wasn't in. Ever again. God, C= had a problem keeping people back then!
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
This Website does not obey standards itself by requiring cookies, but not providing any privacy statement about their use and not proving any opt-out choice. This is both rude and illegal in Europe.
... a statement to individuals which clearly outlines a user's rights as well as an 'opt out' choice."
"need to include
Cookies Present Legal Woes
Cookies are only allowed "...on condition that the subscriber or user is provided with clear and comprehensive information in accordance with [the Data Protection Directive about] the purposes of the processing and is offered the right to refuse such processing".
Data protection law passed in Europe
The moral for Caffeine Junkies is - check your own standards compliance before criticising alleged problems with IE.
I get that screen and I'm running Camino! Not only that but I have cookies disabled, so I can't see this "hack" at all. Which is just fine because it sounds lame anyway. My mac mini is hidden inside my 1950s-era wooden stereo cabinet. I had to cut holes in the back of it to get the wires to the machine - does that count as a hack? I have a portable Victrola on top of the cabinet so it looks really stylish. The mac serves movies and music to my entertainment center. Can I be on slashdot now?
Can't think of anything much better do to with a Mac.
I currently have the mini connected to my 50" Sony Rear Projection LCD TV. It looks great and i believe it does do the 1920x1080. Its connected via HDMI to DVI. I dont believe it does to the 1080i i think its 720i. Lots of technical info here.... its monday morning.... If anyone would like more info i can check tonight. Also works great with my 17" PB. The only down side is the tv will only do a few resolutions. I have not yet investigated it but i had problems running games since most start in 800x600 which i dont beleive this tv will display. I also have the feeling that the bulb life will not be the same. But no need to but it in the wall it looks great on the shelf. Able to trash my DVD player. VLC is great. Wireless Keyboard and mouse. Its basically a really big LCD. What a great way to enjoy such a beatiful OS.
There is a touchscreen keyboard available for Audrey if you want to ditch the physical keyboard:
http://www.keithandgina.com/audrey/
It works well enough, but I still prefer using the actual IR keyboard. I find that it's tougher to type quickly on the virtual keyboard and that became annoying to me.
Lots more good Audrey info over at http://www.audreyhacking.com/
PS - There is a version of VNC that you can run on Audrey. Supposed to make life easier in the home automation dept, but I've never tried it.
-DaveR
I have a Powerbook in the space that used to be for a retracting cutting board, ( just 1:1/2'' deep) in my kitchen. But then I also have a toaster in a small drawer, with the power cord totally hidden.
Sometimes I can't find either of them!
Anyone got a mirror, or at least a few images they can upload somewhere? Curious to see it but naturally the site is shut down due to bandwidth usage.
Well I kinda doubt that you can watch much video on it, although maybe if it was a dedicated task without any other processes running... it's only something like a Geode running at 200Mhz, but I forget exactly.
I just use the built-in browser, haven't loaded much custom software on it (being QNX rather than Linux, there just isn't as much available). But just having a browser in unlikely places is very useful - I can google or look up recipes or display movie times when we're trying to decide what to do for the evening or find things quickly on yp.yahoo.com or get a map and directions. For home-automation I haven't gotten much farther than some PHP scripts which present buttons to turn lights on and off, so far. (Cron jobs are running the pool pump and certain lights every day, but I don't have a UI for changing that.) At one point I had PHP controlling the volume on the server's sound card, and then had the server's audio out going to an amp that had speakers in the kitchen, so I could start up XMMS on the server and then remote-control the volume. But I planned to have a much better remote-controlled jukebox some day, just haven't gotten around to it. The Audrey's audio output is not really that great to play through a bigger stereo - there is some hiss all the time, and if you hook up the phone jack to a phone line, the noise gets worse, and it puts noise on the phone line, too. I had hoped to use one for music all by itself in the bedroom but it's not good enough, so I got a Rio Receiver instead (and that turned into such a drawn-out hacking process that it's still not useful yet).
I had a vgetty-based voicemail system working for a while, and was using php scripts to permit browsing voice messages and playing them on the audrey. But now I'm trying to switch to asterisk and do voip so that stuff's all going to change.
I also had some php/rrd/digitemp temperature graphs. Need to get that going again but now I'm using owfs instead of digitemp - much better for dealing with multiple sensors on the same one-wire bus.
Realistically if you just want to do home-automation without programming it yourself (like I do) just get MisterHouse. I think you can use it from any plain old browser.
The Audrey browser does have an old version of Flash FWIW, but not Java.