I remember several successful experiments have been done in the last decade that powered different devices using a highly focused microwave gunplexer. In one instance, they powered an RC plane up to about 50 ft in the air. The only problem, of course, was that the transmitter had to be pointed directly at the plane with a very narrow beam. This wasn't exactly practical for mobile devices, but could work fine for a fixed source and destination depending on range.
Re:Been there, done that, spent less
on
Mac mini to PC Hack
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Logic - 5.82"(W) x 10.0"(D) x 2.79"(H) Mini - 6.5" (W) x 6.5"(D) x 2.0" (H)
Been there, done that, spent less? Don't think so...
The mini is smaller. The mini is more than likely less noisy. The mini comes standard with certain things you might need in a computer, such as:
- hard drive
- cd rom
- processor
- memory
- operating system
The base price of the Sumicom PC is cheaper, but I doubt you'd actually build that PC for less than the price of the mini (especially if you actually paid for Windows *gasp*; Linux excluded).
Not to mention the Logic device is just plain fugly.
Those $85 sticks of ram have serious compatibility and quality issues. They are the 128x4 design, usually only 4-layer pcb, and even on the PC side will only work with a very limited set of VIA chipsets.
Macs have historically been picky with ram. I had to buy new ram for my G4 Cube after upgrading to Jaguar because the old stuff wasn't up to spec. The cheapest ram I have seen that could potentially work with the mini is about $155 on newegg.com. That ram is the good stuff - 64x32, 6-layer.
Other than that, any ol' DDR PC2700 1gb unbuffered should work. But I have a sinking feeling the cheap sticks won't work.
My guess would be it is auto-switching. The Cube, iBook, and Powerbooks all have external adapters silimar to the Mini and are auto-switching.
Also, the specs page http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html lists the line voltage as 100-240v, 50-60Hz. I would assume that Apple isn't localizing the voltage like the eMac and iMac G5.
Apparently the modem is a separate board, similar to the PowerMacs and iMacs. I wonder if Griffin will release a new version of the gPort to support Midi on the Mini. http://griffintechnology.com/products/gport/
Actually, Dell will be more than happy to remove spyware for you. I have a friend who ran into this exact situation the other day, but Dell wanted to charge him $40+ to remove it, since this obviously isn't included in the warranty or regular tech support. The solution? I pointed him to http://www.lavasoft.de/ and Ad-aware removed it for free.
Ok I can understand why some people would be upset having to pay for the full version of 10.2. I for one am excited and can't wait to get my copy, having already ordered it from Apple's online store.
For those who call this a "point" release and bitch about forking over $129 for the full version, I have a few comments:
1) $129 is fhe FULL version, Hell, MS wants $99 for the XP Home edittion UPGRADE! Who gets the better deal? The next time I want to reinstall the OS, I only have to whip out ONE cd and go for it, not reinstall Win2k or whatever first, then intall the XP upgrade. I personally bought the public beta of OS X for $29, then the $99 upgrade to OS X, then paid yet another $19 for the 10.1 update. But. all of those purchases combined with the $129 purchase of 10.2 is STILL cheaper than a full version of Windows XP Professional.
2) Stating that this is merely a point release is a drastic understatement. First of all, look at the features upon features that have been added to this release! There are not just useless GUI enhancements as in most Windows releases (read: XP). CUPS printing support, MS Exchange support in Mail.app, true Windows network compatibility including Active Directory support for network logon and resources, and Quartz Extreme are some of the big ones for me. These may be considered minor enhancements to some, but this makes my Powerbook and iMac seemlessly connect in the enterprise.
If you take a look at all of the additional software, enhancements, and new additions and technologies, then one could argue that migrating from Win 95 to WinXP was merely a "point" release. Just my 2.
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I remember several successful experiments have been done in the last decade that powered different devices using a highly focused microwave gunplexer. In one instance, they powered an RC plane up to about 50 ft in the air. The only problem, of course, was that the transmitter had to be pointed directly at the plane with a very narrow beam. This wasn't exactly practical for mobile devices, but could work fine for a fixed source and destination depending on range.
Logic - 5.82"(W) x 10.0"(D) x 2.79"(H)
Mini - 6.5" (W) x 6.5"(D) x 2.0" (H)
Been there, done that, spent less? Don't think so...
The mini is smaller.
The mini is more than likely less noisy.
The mini comes standard with certain things you might need in a computer, such as:
- hard drive
- cd rom
- processor
- memory
- operating system
The base price of the Sumicom PC is cheaper, but I doubt you'd actually build that PC for less than the price of the mini (especially if you actually paid for Windows *gasp*; Linux excluded).
Not to mention the Logic device is just plain fugly.
Yep. The Command (Apple) keys works as the Windows key. The volume controls even work on XP it seems.
Those $85 sticks of ram have serious compatibility and quality issues. They are the 128x4 design, usually only 4-layer pcb, and even on the PC side will only work with a very limited set of VIA chipsets.
Macs have historically been picky with ram. I had to buy new ram for my G4 Cube after upgrading to Jaguar because the old stuff wasn't up to spec. The cheapest ram I have seen that could potentially work with the mini is about $155 on newegg.com. That ram is the good stuff - 64x32, 6-layer.
Other than that, any ol' DDR PC2700 1gb unbuffered should work. But I have a sinking feeling the cheap sticks won't work.
The gPort supports OS X for midi no problem.
e _serial.html
http://www.griffintechnology.com/software/softwar
My guess would be it is auto-switching. The Cube, iBook, and Powerbooks all have external adapters silimar to the Mini and are auto-switching.
Also, the specs page http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html lists the line voltage as 100-240v, 50-60Hz. I would assume that Apple isn't localizing the voltage like the eMac and iMac G5.
Apparently the modem is a separate board, similar to the PowerMacs and iMacs. I wonder if Griffin will release a new version of the gPort to support Midi on the Mini.
http://griffintechnology.com/products/gport/
Actually, Dell will be more than happy to remove spyware for you. I have a friend who ran into this exact situation the other day, but Dell wanted to charge him $40+ to remove it, since this obviously isn't included in the warranty or regular tech support. The solution? I pointed him to http://www.lavasoft.de/ and Ad-aware removed it for free.
Ok I can understand why some people would be upset having to pay for the full version of 10.2. I for one am excited and can't wait to get my copy, having already ordered it from Apple's online store.
For those who call this a "point" release and bitch about forking over $129 for the full version, I have a few comments:
1) $129 is fhe FULL version, Hell, MS wants $99 for the XP Home edittion UPGRADE! Who gets the better deal? The next time I want to reinstall the OS, I only have to whip out ONE cd and go for it, not reinstall Win2k or whatever first, then intall the XP upgrade. I personally bought the public beta of OS X for $29, then the $99 upgrade to OS X, then paid yet another $19 for the 10.1 update. But. all of those purchases combined with the $129 purchase of 10.2 is STILL cheaper than a full version of Windows XP Professional.
2) Stating that this is merely a point release is a drastic understatement. First of all, look at the features upon features that have been added to this release! There are not just useless GUI enhancements as in most Windows releases (read: XP). CUPS printing support, MS Exchange support in Mail.app, true Windows network compatibility including Active Directory support for network logon and resources, and Quartz Extreme are some of the big ones for me. These may be considered minor enhancements to some, but this makes my Powerbook and iMac seemlessly connect in the enterprise.
If you take a look at all of the additional software, enhancements, and new additions and technologies, then one could argue that migrating from Win 95 to WinXP was merely a "point" release. Just my 2.