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Going green with a Mac Mini
There have been rumors flying about for a long time that the Mac Mini was going to be discontinued by Apple. Now it’s looking like it might be here for at least a while longer, according to AppleInsider, who report that a new version is in the works.
I have been working on an elaborate post about my uses of the Mac Mini for a while, but now I’m deciding to just go ahead and blurt it out, in short and sweet form.
I have a “lab” of sorts where I test a lot of things on different OS platforms. Years ago, it consisted of several basic “tower” PCs running various versions of Linux and Windows. Those took up a lot of space, consumed a lot of power, and made a lot of heat. A few years ago I downsized to platforms to save space and heat/energy.
Well a few months ago, I took this even further and configured a Mac Mini for the role:
Headless Mac Mini VMWARE Fusion server
I expected this to take quite a fair bit of work and time. It turns out I got all the OSs installed in virtual machines and all the software running in the VMs in just a few hours. I was impressed with both Mac OS X 10.5 and VMWARE. Now I’ve gone from five Mini ITX PC boxes, to one Mac Mini running several virtual machines under VMWARE Fusion. And that still leaves the Mac Mini itself available for whatever I wish. The box is running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, which now has better support for headless operation. The Mac Mini has no keyboard, mouse, or monitor attached, and lives happily tucked away in a closet.
The Mac Mini may not be all that green on paper, but it is far greener than the five systems it’s replacing. There is way less heat, and MUCH less power being consumed and it’s actually more convenient and more usable too.
In terms of space savings, it’s tremendous. Even with the smallish Mini ITX machines, we were still talking about something the size of a trash compactor or a small fridge. Whereas the Mac Mini would easily fit inside a single one of the Mini ITX boxes, with room to spare.
The VMWARE virtual machines are running some rather treacherous apps too and OS variants, and it all works. Apple has created more than a nifty desktop OS with Mac OS X. It turns out to be a pretty darned capable headless server virtualization platform too. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the tricks involved:
- You’ll need to attach the Mac Mini to a keyboard, mouse, and display to get it set up the first time. Be sure to uncheck the “Open Bluetooth Setup Assistant at startup when no input device is present” option in the Bluetooth System Preferences, or every time your headless Mac boots it’s going to complain that it doesn’t have a keyboard or mouse.
- Because this machine is a 24/7 server, I turn off Sleep in the Energy Saver control panel.
- Add any VMWARE virtual machines that you want to start automatically when the Mac boots to the “System Preferences > Accounts > username > Login Items” for the account and set that account to “Automatically log in” at boot (under “System Preferences > Accounts > Login Options > Automatically log in as:”).
- I run the Vine Server VNC server on the Mac Mini to enable any VNC client to remotely view or control the machine. This must also be added to the “Login Items” so it starts automatically when the machine boots.
- I use Chicken of the VNC (and ssh) to remotely control the Mac Mini from other Macs. Linux or Windows VNC clients can also be used to remotely control the Mac Mini and that works fine too (it’s weird to see a Mac OS GUI on Windows).
While I was at it, in the native OS X system of the Mac Mini, I activated the Apache 2 install that comes with Mac OS X 10.5 along with MySQL server and a Wordpress install for good measure.
This all works very well. The only issue so far has been that some major OS updates kill the “headless” operation here because they pop up a dialog during the boot, BEFORE the user is logged in and therefore BEFORE the Vine VNC server is started, meaning no remote access. This sucks because in those cases I have to hook up a monitor/keyboard/mouse just to click ‘ok’ to let the update finish and let the machine reboot. This has only happened with one update so far, so it is an annoyance I can live with, but it would be nice if the mac update process eventually just timed out and completed the update unattended.
iPhone SDK, not quite
I have not had time yet to figure out whether Apple’s direction with the iPhone SDK is a good or bad thing. Apple will be taking the approach that they will be the only way to distribute apps, the gatekeeper. That sounds bad, but I’m told by people I trust that the process will be reasonable, better than the situation we have for distribution of freeware with Symbian Signed for Nokia phones.
The SDK is available now, in beta, but not for writing apps that actually run on the phone, if I understand correctly, but just for building apps and testing them (on a Mac, I believe). So they didn’t really make their promised February 2008 for release, but at least there is progress.
I’ll be spending some time with it and I’ll be particularly interested in comparing the software distribution options for iPhone vs. Symbian/Nokia. Could it be that we are actually headed toward a situation where the only open platform is Windows Mobile? How ironic would that be?
iPhone SDK promised date approaching
As many may recall, Steve Jobs had announced in October that Apple would be releasing its much-anticipated iPhone SDK (Software Developers Kit) before the end of February - I’m certainly not going to let them forget it.
Rumors are flying as the final days wind down. Some say it will happen next week - others say it will be delayed. One has to hope that Apple doesn’t follow in Nokia’s Symbian Signed disastrous ways. if they do, I guess we all have to become Windows Mobile developers or wait for Android.
First experience with iPhone is totally lame
So I broke down and decided to get an iPhone to do some development (hopefully) with it. People have told me there were month-to-month options for AT&T service, but this is NOT TRUE. You have to commit to a 2 year plan. The best deal we could find was to add the iPhone to an existing account. We had to bump the service (increase of $20) and add the iPhone data service (another $20). That’s a $40 increase to our bill for a few more minutes and the data plan. Okay. A $960 commitment, but I can live with that (I guess). Then of course I wanted the $299 4GB phone (that they still advertise prominently in the store) but it’s not available anymore - so I have buy the $399 8GB version. Okay, so now we’re talking $1,400 but fine.
So the guy at the AT&T store sets all this up and takes our money. Supposedly pre-approving all the AT&T service changes. All I have to do is go to iTunes and it will all be great.
Except I open iTunes and NONE of the options that we already supposedly setup at the AT&T store while we waited were there in the iTunes activation. Instead it’s $40 more per month than we were quoted (adding another $960 to the total commitment/cost, bringing me to $2,400 or so now). Oh, this iPhone thing is a great experience so far.
My wife kept a cool head and found online (not readily available in the official AT&T or Apple materials) an 800# we could call for “manual iPhone provisioning” - this was obviously an offshore call center - but after explaining the situation, the rep. supposedly made the adjustments to the account so that we will get the plan we ordered at the AT&T store. I guess we’ll find out when the first bill comes.
Not the kind of thing I expect from an Apple product.
Apple’s iPhone hacker dilema
Everyone has heard about Apple’s threats regarding unlocked iPhones. On Monday, Apple issued this statement “unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone’s software which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed.”
I’m sure this will scare off some people that had considered unlocking their phone. In my case, I have to admit that I was thinking about getting an iPhone now that they can be unlocked, but I’ve put that on hold for now.
It will be very interesting to see if Apple really even continues to pursue this tactic. On the one hand, they must have At&T/Cingular breathing down their neck about it, buton the other hand, just as Microsoft benefited tremendously from all the illegal copies of Windows flying about, one part of Apple must want to encourage the hacking.
It’s not a matter of what can Apple do, contractually, or legally. It’s a matter of what will the costs be if they burn too many people, or the wrong people, and really do cause iPhones to become “permanently inoperable” and refuse to fix them. Apple depends on their standing and reputation. Once they stop being “cool” they will have a hard time getting new customers on product features alone.
Don’t kid yourself. Apple’s iPhone strategy is an iTunes strategy
A lot of us would kill for the master hyping ability of Apple and Steve Jobs. What they achived with the iPhone is nothing short of incredible. And perhaps some of us are just being a little jealous when we write posts like those of Richard Stastny and Michael Robertson. For the most part, I agree with their posts, and I encourage you to check them out.
There is one thing that stood out for me in the comparison table by Michael Robertson between the Nokia E61 and iPhone:
I highlighted the one (and only) place where iPhone is totally unique: iTunes. Michael notes that Nokia is the world’s largest phone maker, selling more than twice as many phones as their nearest competitor, but none of them offer syncing with iTiunes — and they likely never will. This point gets lost in a bullet-point “features list” like the one above.There is no other phone today that will work with iTunes and this is the only thing that makes this phone stand out, really. The rest is fluff and window dressing, including the touchscreen. Someone can copy everything else about this phone, and as Michael’s chart shows, there are already phones that do more than the iPhone, in all other respects.
Personally, the fact that the wi-fi is crippled is a huge black eye for Apple and something that simply outrages me. It’s the kind of thing we expect from AT&T, but for Apple to be all over that is just painful. And it is a very slippery slope. But I digress.
The point is, everything about Apple’s iPhone strategy is really an iTunes strategy, to make iTunes central to one’s life experience. Will it work, given all the downsides and limitations of the iPhone product? Time will tell.
They want people’s attention, the way Google and Microsoft want our attention. That’s what iPhone is really about.
