HR will never pass your résumé up to the person who can actually appreciate your experience and knowledge.
Any shop that has let HR insert themselves into the hiring process like that is pretty much doomed. Avoid at all costs.
Well, when the company gets beyond about 50 employees, that "Just happens". It sucks big time; but every Head Hunter I have spoken with has lamented the "Checklist" type of HR résumé-culling.
It's almost enough to make you want to stuff your résumé full of impossible experience, like many of the résumés of particularly Chinese "engineers", where it seems like the vast majority will list 30 years-worth of experience on every high-level engineering project in China they can find a reference to on the internet, and then being of an age where they would have started to work 10 years before they were born, knowing full well that there is absolutely no way to verify any of their claims. I don't want to sound racist (I most assuredly am not!); but I have seen some pretty laughable engineering-candidate résumés come across my desk, and it seems like Chinese engineering candidates seem particularly inclined to "pad" their experience (and I would suspect their schooling in some cases, too).
So, you might give that a shot, just to get past the HR gatekeeper. Then, when you get to actually talk with the person who will be your new boss, be prepared to SHOW them what you can do, and get off the subject of specifics in your résumé.
I aced an embedded developer interview a few years ago by taking out a sample of a particularly compact and component-dense product I designed the hardware and software for, and tossing it on my (future boss') desk, and saying, literally "Any Questions?"
The moral of the story is, if you can get past the HR droids, you can usually demonstrate that you have the skills. It's just getting to that point that is soooooo difficult!
You aren't putting your data at risk, unless you are sharing your android phone with some idiot. The user that is smart enough to download from sources he trusts, check the reviews, watch for unnecessary permissions etc... is not at risk from these scams.
So, I can either just click a link on the iOS App Store and KNOW all that stuff has already been done for me, or waste two hours scouring the internet just to figure out whether some stupid egg timer app is going to sell my soul to the Ukraine right?
I don't know about you; but my time is worth a lot more than that.
The curated collection approach is not perfect; but it sure seems to work out quite well in the real world, where the rest of us live...
Which I believe anyone who is not completely delusional would agree has not been the case so much for the Android "Wild West" approach. Note, for example, that Apple has never had to exercise its "Kill Switch" option for an App already in the Wild; whereas Google has had to do so on several occasions.
A sales "engineer"? Much like a "sanitation engineer"?
Save the engineering titles for people that actually do engineering. You were a glorified sales rep-- that's it.
There are sales positions that require enough specific knowledge of the systems involved that they actually do require a person with an engineering degree and/or experience.
I browse the web a lot with it. But I feel eventually there will be buffer overflow, flash, various vector attacks, that will compromise my phone.
It seems Andriod's java api is very very limited to internals which is bad as you can't make a shield like you can in Windows. Anyone have a suggestion?
Walled Gardens are the TSA Security Theater of the mobile space (coming soon to a PC near you!)
Not hardly.
When you talk about the TSA, there are literally hundreds of examples of the TSA not catching "banned items". WIth the iOS App Store, there have been what, one or two completely benign "breaches" in three years?
Hardly a fair comparison.
And, when compared with the track record of Android, even in the supposed "official" Android App Store, you would be bat-shit crazy to seriously suggest that Apple's curating of the App Store is "theater".
Why would you want to avoid Android just because other Android users might make bad choices? Why would you care how easily a clueless user can click on `yes, install some random crap which claims to be a virus-checker`? I don't.
Why would you put your private data at risk every day just to satisfy some childish ideological paranoia?
you can read each post and practically watch this kids mental health waste away as he gets more and more butthurt about apple reaping what they've sown.
This "kid" is 55 years old.
And you're right; Apple has reaped what it has sown. And they have the stock value, market cap, and bank account balance to prove it!
Where exactly is the FUD? It's against Apple's license to run on non-Apple hardware, and they did go to some lengths to enforce the policy. Whether or not their protection is "a problem for the typical Slashdot reader" changes nothing with regards to those two points.
So, I see: No one is allowed to have proprietary software for their proprietary hardware systems, right?
(And please don't give me the tired rubric of "Apple uses the same stuff as everyone else." Well, yes they do, and no they don't. So, the net effect of those two statements is "Apple does not use the same stuff...")
Contrary to the popular view on Slashdot, it is not inherently evil to have proprietary software. Some projects are just too big to "crowdsource". What you have to decide is what software best suits your needs. If that software can be F/OSS, then GREAT!!! But sometimes, that just ain't possible. And the number of F/OSS advocates (RMS-level excepted) that have "pet" OS X and/or Windows systems on the side is proof positive that what I am saying is true, when it comes right down to it.
So, since Apple is, unabashedly, first-and-foremost a hardware company, they really do have a cognizable and reasonable interest in making it at least a little difficult to just slap their magnificent OS on any old beige box.
only problem is, is that IOS was out before android. So how can android phones look different before IOS if they didn't exist?
I have tried to parse the moebius-like timeline of the above comment; but I can't figure out what the antecedent of the the word "they" is in the quoted text. Can you restate that in English, please?
So you're saying apple owns minimalism? They're the only ones who are allowed to create thin devices featuring a large screen and black sides around it? Would you exclude the galaxy tab if it had a handle on it? No, I doubt anything would satisfy you, or Apple for that matter.
Apple did go to some lengths to make it hard running OS X on vanilla x86 systems. Like, AES-encrypting various system kexts and making it impossible to dump the memory of DSMOS driver to get the decryption keys.
If you really believe that Apple Protected Binaries should be a problem for the typical Slashdot reader, then this is your lucky day. And if you don't really believe what you are saying (which is what I suspect is the case), then quit spreading your FUD.
I wonder where the term Reality Distortion Field comes from.
Why, from the Apple Haters, of course.
Next foot-in-mouth question?
shipped the very first Intel macs with Bootcamp
While trying hard to make it impossible to run Mac OS X on any non-Apple device...
You really DO need to come out of your Mom's basement once in awhile and update your Apple Hater rhetoric.
If you are referring to the long-dead DRM rumor regarding the dormant TPM chips in the original Intel-designed reference designs that Apple "leased" to Developers right after the Intel-switch was announced, you do realize, of course, that there was never any software (including OS X itself) that used that TPM chip, and that hardware was quickly rev-ed out of the mobo designs.
Instead, we have a robust Hackintosh community, that Apple has, by and large, utterly ignored.
Do you really think that, with their ability to have custom-silicon designed and fabricated, Apple couldn't make it utterly impossible to put OS X on non-Apple hardware? Get real!
How long before Apple reproduces the iPhone market model on the Mac ?
Two, three years, tops. They stated their intent when the iPhone came out, and everything they've done since supports their intent.
Perhaps you might look at the more sane conclusion: That there were more and more "switchers" happening every day, and Apple (and apparently Google and Microsoft) recognized that one of the things that can help make a platform successful is providing a brain-dead-easy way to find software (and especially software that has been "vetted" as not being some big trojan), rather than depending on the several poorly-advertised (and in some cases, very poorly organized) software aggregators, and so modeled certain aspects (mainly look-and-feel) of the Mac App Store after the iOS App Store.
But that doesn't fit in with your breathless predictions of doom and gloom.
Excuse me; the parent was moderated as -1 Flamebait, for responding to a CLEARLY incite-ful post (which was moderated at +5 Insigthtful, for fuck's sake).
Yes, the fandroids with mod-points are out in force today...
What apple proved is that people would be happy with what was basically an oversized phone, rather than a scaled down laptop, which was really the only revolutionary bit of the idea
Except that, according to Jobs, the iPad was actually developed first, before the iPhone. So, perhaps, the iPhone is more of a scaled-down iPad than the reverse. And if you've ever used both, you would likely agree that that is a fair assessment.
And you may have forgotten, so I also have just one thing to point out regarding Jobs' claims that Android became popular by becoming a nearly direct clone, (UI and form-factor-wise at the very least), of iOS devices...
And if the German Courts were fooled by a bit of chrome, shame on them.
I was perhaps your biggest fan. But an Apple boycott is not how you come back to us unless they've done something dire and they haven't.
Come back and let us beat down your trolls. That would be better than this.
If you can't do that, at least make the issue SOPA and PIPA. That we can get behind. Apple's not going to do it because their fans really don't give a darn about what us geeks think.
Really? Over-generalize much?
I've been an Apple fan since 1976, and I care very much about Our Rights Online.
I also have just one thing to point out regarding Jobs' claims that Android became popular by becoming a nearly direct clone, (UI and form-factor-wise at the very least), of iOS devices...
When I was using iTunes, it as only for media player things. Ripping was done from linux. I didn't own am iPhone/iPod/etc then.
Anyways, drop the apple gear and it will work.
I guess you didn't notice my statement that the Mac mini-based system I put together has been working in some fashion for over two years, and with all the current software (hardware hasn't changed) for over a year and a half.
So, you actually got it backwards. Use iTunes to rip to ALAC or 256k AAC, but use either Plex (buggy and unstable) or Boxee (less buggy and much more stable) as your Media Center/Server.
Yes, I do that today. Though for iTunes use it's a good idea to put a delay in the auto start of iTunes to make sure the share is completely ready. What I meant about reliable, and didn't explain very well, is that iTunes over NAS seems to be slow and klunky according to what I've read on the net. Ripping and importing a CD, for example, can take FOREVER. And syncing content to say an iPhone from iTunes running off a NAS can be verrrrrry slow too. So I was curious how the OP got around this or if he even saw any of it.
Thanks!
Good idea on the startup delay for iTunes, especially if iTunes is also a Login Item. Although most of this guy's stuff comes "pre-ripped" (he is a bittorrent addict), I have had the occasion to Import some stuff into his library, and I didn't notice any discernible "delay" or "slowness", in importing up to the NAS. Perhaps the people who have been having problems are running NASs (NASes? NASties?) with a "iTunes Server" built in (many do!), and have the "reindexing" interval set so low that reindexing operations are happening during the import/rip process. Just a guess, though...
Curious, just how do you use NAS to feed an iTunes library? I haven't figured out how to elegantly and reliably do this. I've considered using an AFP share and a symbolic link from the local drive to point to the AFP share, but that doesn't seem totally reliable across reboots. I've also considered setting up an iSCSI initiator on the Mini and then mount iSCSI volumes from a NAS server but that also doesn't seem terribly reliable. This has to be reliable enough that when I'm traveling my wife has no problem getting to videos for the 3 year old:-). Please share your setup. Thanks!
Using a NAS with a AFP share that is defined in the account's Login Items seems to be quite stable across reboots, at least with Snow Leopard. You can add a mounted volume to Login Items, even though the dialog text makes it seem like you can only add "Applications".
A mac mini is a perfectly valid (if expensive) media solution. I personally use 2 synology NASs feeding a Mac Mini which is a dedicated iTunes server feeding 4 apple TVs (When I win the lotto I might try out a promise pegasus but until then the synology NASs are growing the library nicely). It's a bit of a pain to remux mkvs to mp4s but it works and it's a really nice solution once you've gone through the headaches of setting it up (yes better than a boxee box -- tried it, now gathering dust, better than every DLNA solution I've tried). The Apple TVs are just really, really nice media end-points and iTunes is a perfectly good management system.
But yea iCloud has no place in any video solution (your purchased shows can be streamed -- movies can not, and this solution will introduce you to your ISP's bandwidth caps very quickly).
I will agree that a Mac mini makes a wonderfully stable, no-fuss media server. I set up a combo media-server/htpc system for a friend, based on a HDMI-capable Mac mini, Boxee (went through SEVERAL media servers, first on Windows and then OS X, before deciding on Boxee and the Mac mini), with an IRTrans IR Transceiver and the most-excellent iRed "virtual remote" software. Oh, and all of this is supported by a 6TB Buffalo NAS (already purchased. I would have spec'ed something different).
With this setup, I haven't had to transcode ANYTHING, and this guy had a mixture of every audio and video format the bittorrent world has to offer; so, not having to transcode 50% of his collection just to use iTunes (which I would have preferred to use) was a definite "plus". He also had a requirement that he be able to browse his media by his already-established directory structure (rather than by genre, artist, etc.), which of course is not really an option with iTunes (and getting harder to find in most media servers in general), so Boxee was the best (and most stable!) bet.
However, this system is able to stream audio/video to anywhere in his house, as well as control his legacy A/V gear (which (audio) is already distributed to several places inside and outside) through the IR scripts I have created. iRed has a wonderful built-in webserver that can publish any "remote" you create as a web page; so "anywhere" control becomes as simple as any device that can pull up a web page.
This system has been up and running in one form or another for two years with no major issues, and in its current form for nearly a year. The only remaining issue seems to be finding a good web front-end for Boxee. All the ones I have found have had one fatal flaw or another; but I haven't seriously looked for nearly a year. Currently, there is not really a need for supporting Apple TVs; but if that becomes interesting, we may have to switch to an iTunes-based system, or hope that someone figures out how to install a Boxee-compatible (DLNA?) client on the ATV2.
Since this guy travels a bit, the Mac mini also provides a very secure and robust "gateway" for his to access his files (and media) while on-the-go using SSH/SFTP. He also runs his mail through the mini, and I set up an experimental WebDAV server on the machine as well. Administration of the 'mini is done through Apple Remote Desktop, or through SSH, or, if you're "local", using his TV and his MacBook Pro or a wireless keyboard/trackpad combo.
Slashdot Mirror
HR will never pass your résumé up to the person who can actually appreciate your experience and knowledge.
Any shop that has let HR insert themselves into the hiring process like that is pretty much doomed. Avoid at all costs.
Well, when the company gets beyond about 50 employees, that "Just happens". It sucks big time; but every Head Hunter I have spoken with has lamented the "Checklist" type of HR résumé-culling.
It's almost enough to make you want to stuff your résumé full of impossible experience, like many of the résumés of particularly Chinese "engineers", where it seems like the vast majority will list 30 years-worth of experience on every high-level engineering project in China they can find a reference to on the internet, and then being of an age where they would have started to work 10 years before they were born, knowing full well that there is absolutely no way to verify any of their claims. I don't want to sound racist (I most assuredly am not!); but I have seen some pretty laughable engineering-candidate résumés come across my desk, and it seems like Chinese engineering candidates seem particularly inclined to "pad" their experience (and I would suspect their schooling in some cases, too).
So, you might give that a shot, just to get past the HR gatekeeper. Then, when you get to actually talk with the person who will be your new boss, be prepared to SHOW them what you can do, and get off the subject of specifics in your résumé.
I aced an embedded developer interview a few years ago by taking out a sample of a particularly compact and component-dense product I designed the hardware and software for, and tossing it on my (future boss') desk, and saying, literally "Any Questions?"
The moral of the story is, if you can get past the HR droids, you can usually demonstrate that you have the skills. It's just getting to that point that is soooooo difficult!
I don't.
Oh, so you DO use iOS after all? ;-)
You aren't putting your data at risk, unless you are sharing your android phone with some idiot. The user that is smart enough to download from sources he trusts, check the reviews, watch for unnecessary permissions etc... is not at risk from these scams.
So, I can either just click a link on the iOS App Store and KNOW all that stuff has already been done for me, or waste two hours scouring the internet just to figure out whether some stupid egg timer app is going to sell my soul to the Ukraine right?
I don't know about you; but my time is worth a lot more than that.
The curated collection approach is not perfect; but it sure seems to work out quite well in the real world, where the rest of us live...
Which I believe anyone who is not completely delusional would agree has not been the case so much for the Android "Wild West" approach. Note, for example, that Apple has never had to exercise its "Kill Switch" option for an App already in the Wild; whereas Google has had to do so on several occasions.
A sales "engineer"? Much like a "sanitation engineer"?
Save the engineering titles for people that actually do engineering. You were a glorified sales rep-- that's it.
There are sales positions that require enough specific knowledge of the systems involved that they actually do require a person with an engineering degree and/or experience.
Get over yourself.
As someone who just went through this, it is going to be tough
I will second that. If I hadn't gotten a job from a former employer (who already knew my bona fides), I'd still be unemployed.
HR will never pass your résumé up to the person who can actually appreciate your experience and knowledge.
I browse the web a lot with it. But I feel eventually there will be buffer overflow, flash, various vector attacks, that will compromise my phone.
It seems Andriod's java api is very very limited to internals which is bad as you can't make a shield like you can in Windows. Anyone have a suggestion?
Buy an iPhone.
There. I said it. But I doubt you'll listen...
he implication of this article is that the same mess is going to start happening with Android phones and tablets,
FTFY
Walled Gardens are the TSA Security Theater of the mobile space (coming soon to a PC near you!)
Not hardly.
When you talk about the TSA, there are literally hundreds of examples of the TSA not catching "banned items". WIth the iOS App Store, there have been what, one or two completely benign "breaches" in three years?
Hardly a fair comparison.
And, when compared with the track record of Android, even in the supposed "official" Android App Store, you would be bat-shit crazy to seriously suggest that Apple's curating of the App Store is "theater".
Why would you want to avoid Android just because other Android users might make bad choices? Why would you care how easily a clueless user can click on `yes, install some random crap which claims to be a virus-checker`? I don't.
Why would you put your private data at risk every day just to satisfy some childish ideological paranoia?
hahahahah check this out:
http://slashdot.org/~macs4all
you can read each post and practically watch this kids mental health waste away as he gets more and more butthurt about apple reaping what they've sown.
This "kid" is 55 years old.
And you're right; Apple has reaped what it has sown. And they have the stock value, market cap, and bank account balance to prove it!
Oh, a college boy, eh?
No, just someone with a vocabulary larger than 100 words.
Where exactly is the FUD? It's against Apple's license to run on non-Apple hardware, and they did go to some lengths to enforce the policy. Whether or not their protection is "a problem for the typical Slashdot reader" changes nothing with regards to those two points.
So, I see: No one is allowed to have proprietary software for their proprietary hardware systems, right?
(And please don't give me the tired rubric of "Apple uses the same stuff as everyone else." Well, yes they do, and no they don't. So, the net effect of those two statements is "Apple does not use the same stuff...")
Contrary to the popular view on Slashdot, it is not inherently evil to have proprietary software. Some projects are just too big to "crowdsource". What you have to decide is what software best suits your needs. If that software can be F/OSS, then GREAT!!! But sometimes, that just ain't possible. And the number of F/OSS advocates (RMS-level excepted) that have "pet" OS X and/or Windows systems on the side is proof positive that what I am saying is true, when it comes right down to it.
So, since Apple is, unabashedly, first-and-foremost a hardware company, they really do have a cognizable and reasonable interest in making it at least a little difficult to just slap their magnificent OS on any old beige box.
Or maybe you're just too far gone to see that.
only problem is, is that IOS was out before android. So how can android phones look different before IOS if they didn't exist?
I have tried to parse the moebius-like timeline of the above comment; but I can't figure out what the antecedent of the the word "they" is in the quoted text. Can you restate that in English, please?
U mad bro?
So you're saying apple owns minimalism? They're the only ones who are allowed to create thin devices featuring a large screen and black sides around it? Would you exclude the galaxy tab if it had a handle on it? No, I doubt anything would satisfy you, or Apple for that matter.
Please.
Apple did go to some lengths to make it hard running OS X on vanilla x86 systems. Like, AES-encrypting various system kexts and making it impossible to dump the memory of DSMOS driver to get the decryption keys.
If you really believe that Apple Protected Binaries should be a problem for the typical Slashdot reader, then this is your lucky day. And if you don't really believe what you are saying (which is what I suspect is the case), then quit spreading your FUD.
I wonder where the term Reality Distortion Field comes from.
Why, from the Apple Haters, of course.
Next foot-in-mouth question?
shipped the very first Intel macs with Bootcamp
While trying hard to make it impossible to run Mac OS X on any non-Apple device...
You really DO need to come out of your Mom's basement once in awhile and update your Apple Hater rhetoric.
If you are referring to the long-dead DRM rumor regarding the dormant TPM chips in the original Intel-designed reference designs that Apple "leased" to Developers right after the Intel-switch was announced, you do realize, of course, that there was never any software (including OS X itself) that used that TPM chip, and that hardware was quickly rev-ed out of the mobo designs.
Instead, we have a robust Hackintosh community, that Apple has, by and large, utterly ignored.
Do you really think that, with their ability to have custom-silicon designed and fabricated, Apple couldn't make it utterly impossible to put OS X on non-Apple hardware? Get real!
How long before Apple reproduces the iPhone market model on the Mac ?
Two, three years, tops. They stated their intent when the iPhone came out, and everything they've done since supports their intent.
Perhaps you might look at the more sane conclusion: That there were more and more "switchers" happening every day, and Apple (and apparently Google and Microsoft) recognized that one of the things that can help make a platform successful is providing a brain-dead-easy way to find software (and especially software that has been "vetted" as not being some big trojan), rather than depending on the several poorly-advertised (and in some cases, very poorly organized) software aggregators, and so modeled certain aspects (mainly look-and-feel) of the Mac App Store after the iOS App Store.
But that doesn't fit in with your breathless predictions of doom and gloom.
Excuse me; the parent was moderated as -1 Flamebait, for responding to a CLEARLY incite-ful post (which was moderated at +5 Insigthtful, for fuck's sake).
Yes, the fandroids with mod-points are out in force today...
When the definition of "copy", "look like" and "iOS-alike" is as broad as Apple's, then yes, it is literally the only way to design a tablet.
Keep on deluding yourself, fandroid. Do you really think that this is a "broad" definition of "copying"?
Really?
What apple proved is that people would be happy with what was basically an oversized phone, rather than a scaled down laptop, which was really the only revolutionary bit of the idea
Except that, according to Jobs, the iPad was actually developed first, before the iPhone. So, perhaps, the iPhone is more of a scaled-down iPad than the reverse. And if you've ever used both, you would likely agree that that is a fair assessment.
And you may have forgotten, so I also have just one thing to point out regarding Jobs' claims that Android became popular by becoming a nearly direct clone, (UI and form-factor-wise at the very least), of iOS devices...
And if the German Courts were fooled by a bit of chrome, shame on them.
I was perhaps your biggest fan. But an Apple boycott is not how you come back to us unless they've done something dire and they haven't.
Come back and let us beat down your trolls. That would be better than this.
If you can't do that, at least make the issue SOPA and PIPA. That we can get behind. Apple's not going to do it because their fans really don't give a darn about what us geeks think.
Really? Over-generalize much?
I've been an Apple fan since 1976, and I care very much about Our Rights Online.
I also have just one thing to point out regarding Jobs' claims that Android became popular by becoming a nearly direct clone, (UI and form-factor-wise at the very least), of iOS devices...
When I was using iTunes, it as only for media player things. Ripping was done from linux. I didn't own am iPhone/iPod/etc then.
Anyways, drop the apple gear and it will work.
I guess you didn't notice my statement that the Mac mini-based system I put together has been working in some fashion for over two years, and with all the current software (hardware hasn't changed) for over a year and a half.
So, you actually got it backwards. Use iTunes to rip to ALAC or 256k AAC, but use either Plex (buggy and unstable) or Boxee (less buggy and much more stable) as your Media Center/Server.
Yes, I do that today. Though for iTunes use it's a good idea to put a delay in the auto start of iTunes to make sure the share is completely ready. What I meant about reliable, and didn't explain very well, is that iTunes over NAS seems to be slow and klunky according to what I've read on the net. Ripping and importing a CD, for example, can take FOREVER. And syncing content to say an iPhone from iTunes running off a NAS can be verrrrrry slow too. So I was curious how the OP got around this or if he even saw any of it.
Thanks!
Good idea on the startup delay for iTunes, especially if iTunes is also a Login Item. Although most of this guy's stuff comes "pre-ripped" (he is a bittorrent addict), I have had the occasion to Import some stuff into his library, and I didn't notice any discernible "delay" or "slowness", in importing up to the NAS. Perhaps the people who have been having problems are running NASs (NASes? NASties?) with a "iTunes Server" built in (many do!), and have the "reindexing" interval set so low that reindexing operations are happening during the import/rip process. Just a guess, though...
Curious, just how do you use NAS to feed an iTunes library? I haven't figured out how to elegantly and reliably do this. I've considered using an AFP share and a symbolic link from the local drive to point to the AFP share, but that doesn't seem totally reliable across reboots. I've also considered setting up an iSCSI initiator on the Mini and then mount iSCSI volumes from a NAS server but that also doesn't seem terribly reliable. This has to be reliable enough that when I'm traveling my wife has no problem getting to videos for the 3 year old :-). Please share your setup. Thanks!
Using a NAS with a AFP share that is defined in the account's Login Items seems to be quite stable across reboots, at least with Snow Leopard. You can add a mounted volume to Login Items, even though the dialog text makes it seem like you can only add "Applications".
A mac mini is a perfectly valid (if expensive) media solution. I personally use 2 synology NASs feeding a Mac Mini which is a dedicated iTunes server feeding 4 apple TVs (When I win the lotto I might try out a promise pegasus but until then the synology NASs are growing the library nicely). It's a bit of a pain to remux mkvs to mp4s but it works and it's a really nice solution once you've gone through the headaches of setting it up (yes better than a boxee box -- tried it, now gathering dust, better than every DLNA solution I've tried). The Apple TVs are just really, really nice media end-points and iTunes is a perfectly good management system.
But yea iCloud has no place in any video solution (your purchased shows can be streamed -- movies can not, and this solution will introduce you to your ISP's bandwidth caps very quickly).
I will agree that a Mac mini makes a wonderfully stable, no-fuss media server. I set up a combo media-server/htpc system for a friend, based on a HDMI-capable Mac mini, Boxee (went through SEVERAL media servers, first on Windows and then OS X, before deciding on Boxee and the Mac mini), with an IRTrans IR Transceiver and the most-excellent iRed "virtual remote" software. Oh, and all of this is supported by a 6TB Buffalo NAS (already purchased. I would have spec'ed something different).
With this setup, I haven't had to transcode ANYTHING, and this guy had a mixture of every audio and video format the bittorrent world has to offer; so, not having to transcode 50% of his collection just to use iTunes (which I would have preferred to use) was a definite "plus". He also had a requirement that he be able to browse his media by his already-established directory structure (rather than by genre, artist, etc.), which of course is not really an option with iTunes (and getting harder to find in most media servers in general), so Boxee was the best (and most stable!) bet.
However, this system is able to stream audio/video to anywhere in his house, as well as control his legacy A/V gear (which (audio) is already distributed to several places inside and outside) through the IR scripts I have created. iRed has a wonderful built-in webserver that can publish any "remote" you create as a web page; so "anywhere" control becomes as simple as any device that can pull up a web page.
This system has been up and running in one form or another for two years with no major issues, and in its current form for nearly a year. The only remaining issue seems to be finding a good web front-end for Boxee. All the ones I have found have had one fatal flaw or another; but I haven't seriously looked for nearly a year. Currently, there is not really a need for supporting Apple TVs; but if that becomes interesting, we may have to switch to an iTunes-based system, or hope that someone figures out how to install a Boxee-compatible (DLNA?) client on the ATV2.
Since this guy travels a bit, the Mac mini also provides a very secure and robust "gateway" for his to access his files (and media) while on-the-go using SSH/SFTP. He also runs his mail through the mini, and I set up an experimental WebDAV server on the machine as well. Administration of the 'mini is done through Apple Remote Desktop, or through SSH, or, if you're "local", using his TV and his MacBook Pro or a wireless keyboard/trackpad combo.