I’m very busy with a lot of updates which I need to test on all my test machines and production systems that I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day to get everything done. My current dayjob is also very interesting and challenging and requires a lot of input from my brain. But I’m still chugging everything as well a I possibly can so expect some more blogposts in the coming week.

Here is nice one for the people wh recently bought a mini, someone found out that it will take 8 Gb of usable memory just like the newer MBP’s. It’s a shame that it still soooo expensive but it is a good thing to look forward to. I’m almost temped to by another mini just to see how this would perform. I think it would make a awesome server, although I must confess that of my current production server only half of it’s 1Gb is in active use.

For people looking to host a server at MacMiniColo.net, they have some second hand mini’s listed on the sign up page which will do the job perfectly for less money. I did this myself as well and it is stil working. I like their service so much I recently renewed for a two year period.

Back to testing…

Update: Forgot to mention that I’ve finished installing everything on a clean install of Snow Leopard. So that now works as it is supposed to do. Next up getting my mini ready for the update and installing everything in 32 bits.

As you might have remembered my oldest mini had died a few weeks ago by a malfunctioning hard-disk. Getting a new disk took this long as my new MBP was enjoying all the attention it got from me. Installing everything a new and playing with a copy of Snow Leopard.

I got the mini a brand spanking new WD Scorpio Blue 320 Gb for 79 euro, it had the most bang for the money. I had to look for the putty knife because it has been a while since I opened up my Intel mini for a faster HD. Installing it was as simple as always and I was finished within 30 minutes. I’m now installing everything fresh, starting with Tiger to be able to test the new Dovecot instructions on Tiger for the people with the older G4 machines who can’t support Leopard yet. Please remember that after Snow Leopard Tiger support will be officially dropped. (which does not mean you won’t get any help but I won’t be testing everything in advanced and I will only assist in trouble shooting). when that is done I will install Leopard on a different partition (plenty of room on the new HD!) to be able to support all the people still using G4 and G5 based Macs.

If you consider that I bought this Mac mini in 2005 and it has been on constantly since a few weeks ago it means that the hard disk has lasted for almost 4 years of continuous use. Not bad for a cosnumer device!

By the way thanks for all the donations in the last few months as you can see your money is being put to good use.

After being annoyed for the nth time that my internal hard disk (still the standard 60 Gb) was full and hed to move some ofmy stuff to one of the 3 external hard disks connected to my desktop mini. I found a good deal and bought myself a Samsung 250 Gb, 7200rpm drive for 69 euro to replace the internal drive. I now can put my iTunes collection on the internal drive and as an added bonus the mini feels a bit more responsive. I haven’t actually measured it but compiling apache again looks like it is happening faster.

Why do I tell you this, because I paid for the drive partly with some of the money I got from the donations I received from some happy users. As this mini is used to test everything first I thought it was appropriate.

Next target for the donations is getting a new Mac (I hope for a new mini), I need it to be able to support you who want to compile everything in 64 bits mode. My current mini’s don’t support 64 bit. I’ve got one of the early Intel mini’s also paid for partly by donations in September 2006! (Boy does time pass quickly when you have fun)

Currently I can only support Tiger and Leopard on G4 and Intel 32 bits machines. Planning for the future I would like to support 64 bits Intel machines as well. As soon as Snow Leopard comes out the plan is to drop support for Tiger so from then on I will support Leopard on G4/G5 and Intel (32 and 64 bit) and Snow Leopard on Intel (32 and 64 bit).

I hope you agree with this decision as it is impossible to support every combination. I know some of you still use Tiger on older Macs and are unable to upgrade. Please know that I’ll try to help you to the best of my ability even if you are not using one of the supported combinations.

Since having a Mac mini at Macminicolo.net I currently have the luxury position of having two Mac mini’s connected to the internet. This gives me the ability to try new configurations for the DIYMacServer setup.

The first thing I tried, now I’ve got everything migrated, was getting my home server to work as a backup MX server. I found out that it was pretty straightforward and adding one line to the main configuration made it work.

I’ve added it to the documentation set, so if you have the same luxury as I have and have more than one server connected you could use the this as well. Read how to do it here: Configuring a backup (relay) MX server.

The Apple TV has only been released for several days now and the hacks keep coming in ! I don’t have one yet and don’t see one coming in the near future as I just spend my alloted budget on a new PS3. Would love to hear from anyone who’s attempted to install Apache, Mysql and even the mailserver. I wish I could get my hands on one for a short period just to try it out… It would be one hell of a cheap server !

Maybe it is an idea to start a new donation round for one if people are interested in the results ?

Update: It looks like Apache was already found running on the Apple TV !