A new way to use a Mac mini
Submitted by tlarkin on Sun, 08/24/2008 - 17:05
My work had a problem. They needed several hundred slim profile machines due to limited space in offices for a certain deployment. The only machine spec'd for what my boss thought would be good and with in our budget were these Gateway low-profile slim all-in-one computers. Due to manufacturering restraints Gateway was unable to produce enough of these computers. So one of my bosses, Eric, decided to look elsewhere. We already had some of these 17" Acer LCD monitors laying around and we got a good bulk deal on more if need be.
After researching it my boss, Eric, found these reare mounting brackets for the Mac mini. They attach to the back and can mount it directly to the back of a LCD monitor.
The Master lock was the only one we had at the time. It will probably be replaced with something a bit smaller. This is a pretty slick thing he did. Most of these boxes will run Windows XP Professional, but a small portion of them will run OS X. The end user would never even know they had a Mac Mini attached to the back of their LCD monitor unless they physically checked. The mounting bracket allows you to securely fasten the Mac Mini to the back of it and of course lock it down so no one can take it off. When he showed this to me I took pictures of it with my blackberry and am now posting it on my blog.
Now, only if Apple would start to realize they are in fact an enterprise solution to technology at organizations and companies. I know that Jobs has stated clearly to everyone that Apple is a consumer company. However, having worked with a large Windows/Novell environment in the past and now switching and working in a mainly OS X and Open Directory environment there are so many things that I really like about it. It isn't bullet proof or perfect but I think if Apple would perhaps put a bit more time into it over say the iPod or the iPhone I think they could accomplish really cool things. In the end I guess you can't blame them though since the iPod and iPhone are two very large cash cows for Apple.
At the public school system I work for we often have space issues with desktops. There just isn't enough room in some of the older buildings, and a few of the buildings are historically protected so we can't drill holes or run cables with out some sort of approval first. I don't mind it all that much because the older buildings are really cool and are something you don't see any more. We have to innovate with deploying things like this, and our budget of course isn't bottomless, there is a limit.
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Comments
Piggybacked Mini's
Dude, that is sweet...
Josh Holland
where to get the mounting bracket