Oblig. First Post from the Mini

[Black]

Housemate was able to accept delivery.
Lots of plastic and seals to break, felt dirty.
Fired it up to make sure it wasn't DOA, then took it apart to add RAM (got me 2 GB off a guy on LEMswap) and swap my Macbook's 320 gigger in.
Felt even dirtier after an antenna connector came off unintentionally-- thought I broke a solder joint but after an eternity I got it back on.
Almost no way to open one of these without leaving some sort of marks.

Forgot I broke the tab off the macbook hard drive (in 4/08) or better said had a false memory of having got a fresh harness from Apple with intact pull tab in there-- had to go through the whole mess of taking the lower case off (it didn't come off all the way for some reason but I didn't need it to to be able to shove the drive out.

A few bumps, e.g. booted into open firmware and gave long scary messages before deciding it was willing to start up normally from a hard drive that thinks it's in a macbook. Don't know if that's going to be an every time thing. Thought it would be easier to get my DiNuovo bluetooth keyboard recognized; I like bluetooth but in many ways trying to get a device seen reminds me of SCSI randomness sometimes.
Finally got recognized by a) finding a power switch on the KB and b) using it. Bluetooth reception is significantly stronger on the mini than on the macbook, as it picked up the iMac in the other room (never happened with the 'book).

Now on to find the macbook's native drive (hiding out in some external case or another) and the virgin harness (please be in the macbook's box . . .). Halfway there . . .

[silvarios]

Woa, Black, are you saying your iMac's Bluetooth is set to discoverable? Turn that setting off posthaste. You don't need to broadcast your availability to every one in range.

I live in an apartment and I can see people's cell phones from my Asus.


Nathan

[GeneL]

Way to go, Black. LEADER!

You certainly undertook more than I ever would on a Mini

Btw, Nathan what's the problem with leaving Bluetooth discoverable? I never thought about it until your mention, thinking it had to do with my PB finding my BT Apple mouse. I turned it off (obviously, I had it on) and the mouse still works.

If it only means that I might see someone else's BT cellphone it doesn't seem like a big deal, but if it can cause a security issue for me I'd like to know.

Your answer will help set my mind straight on this.

Thanks for your thoughts,

GeneL

[silvarios]

Easiest answer, do you really want everyone in range to know you have a PowerBook, MacBook Pro, iPhone, etc? I know exactly what phones my neighbors have when they leave their Bluetooth discoverable. If I was nefarious minded, I could at the very least, know who to target for burglary/theft.

Another issue is that you don't want people to be able to target any possible unsecured/poorly secured Bluetooth services.


Nathan

[GeneL]

Thanks for the super quick reply, Nathan!

[silvarios]

Hey, no problem. I 'm glad I could be of help.


Nathan

[Black]

I may have my LEADER taken back from me for saying this, but I will admit I enjoyed taking apart and reassambling the mini even slightly less than upgrading my white intel iMac's hard drive. I think it's an amazing amount of machine for the money but I wish there was a way to do basic upgrades without feeling like I dodged a major bullet when it starts up after reassembly.

GeneL wrote:
Way to go, Black. LEADER!

You certainly undertook more than I ever would on a Mini

Btw, Nathan what's the problem with leaving Bluetooth discoverable? I never thought about it until your mention, thinking it had to do with my PB finding my BT Apple mouse. I turned it off (obviously, I had it on) and the mouse still works.

If it only means that I might see someone else's BT cellphone it doesn't seem like a big deal, but if it can cause a security issue for me I'd like to know.

Your answer will help set my mind straight on this.

Thanks for your thoughts,

GeneL

[silvarios]

Black, you are 100% correct. The mini has failed utterly when it comes to serviceability.


Nathan

[abevilac]

Ok, guys, you're getting me scared now. I have a 500GB 7200rpm HD and 4GB of RAM that I want to put in my new mini this afternoon and I am not sure I want to do it now. I have changed out drives and added ram in lots of previous machines [including the PowerMac 8500 which was just awful to work on], but the smallness of the mini gets me scared that I won't get it all back in.

Talk me down, please, or ...

[decay]

Remember the tray that slid out of the back of a Performa?



that would ROCK on a mini!