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So you want the smallest possible Netbook running OSX but dont want to buy a crippled MacBook Air… buy a Dell Mini 9 and install OSX on it.

 

So whats it good for? its tiny it has no moving parts it can serve as a memory card backup for photographs or to surf the web, watch movies, etc

Want to try it? get a Dell mini 9 with at least a 16GB Solid State Drive and head over to:

http://mydellmini.com/forum/how-to-install-mac-os-x-dellefi-method-t3925.html

I got mine working in two hours, and I’m using it right now to type this up. I tether it to my iPhone for surfing the web anywhere and “free”. I did the two memory stick approach if you have any question leave a me a comment.

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Here’s a video of mine running, shot with my iPhone

 

This is the list of software used to make this happen:

Syslinux; This is used to make your USB drive bootable

DellMiniBoot123v8.01 ; This is the boot drive image to install OSX version 10.5.5 and below
DellMiniBoot123v8.02b1 ; This is the boot drive image to install OSX version 10.5.6 and above

DellEFI 1.07.1 ; This is the app that modifies OSX and includes/modifies system drivers so the Dell Mini 9 devices are recognized. Just copy this file to the bootable USB drive you will run it once OSX has booted.

After installing OSX the mini will not boot automatically, you will have to use the boot via USB drive and press “escape” and type 81 and force the boot with -x -f.
You might have to do this a few times until it actually boots OSX for the first time. Once OSX boots run the DellEFI to update the drivers, next boot will be done normally without the aid of USB drive.

 

Thanks to mechdrew from http://mydellmini.com for the great guide.

 

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So I’ve been running an old Dell server with Windows Server 2003 as my file/backup server. It has 1TR of data that gets backed up to an external USB drive via robocopy nightly, it also gets backed up offsite monthly. Its pretty fast, it has a gigabit network card, the boot drive is SCSI and the data is mirrored on two drives for speed. Since its Server 2003 I can have multiple shares for all kinds of media and other users and permissions are very granular which is great. But I wanted to simplify it by getting rid of the server and using a NAS drive so I could waste less energy, and also use a Mac filesystem instead of SMB/NTFS since this can become difficult to manage…

I heard that Apple’s Airport Extreme was really good so I gave it a try… it has great potential but it was handicapped by Apple, they disabled basic permission/account settings so if you wanted to share folders among several users and have private folders at the same time you couldn’t. So you can share an entire drive among many users with a single password, or you can create different accounts for each user so they’ll have private folders, but cant have both! so if you wanted to share music/photos/etc with a bunch of users while maintaining other private folders you cant… so I’ll have to research LaCie’s Ethernet Bigdisks.

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As we continue to use our computers they collect more and more files and little by little performance slows. Here are three tips that can help your older PC become a bit faster and help your overall experience.

Adjusting Windows visual effects:  by default windows has enabled many fancy graphical effects that make the interface look “pretty” at the cost of more memory usage. Performing this step will free up some memory:

Adjusting performance; Go to “Control Panel” and pick on “System” and under the “Advanced” tab choose performance settings and select “Adjust for best performance”.

 

Disabling Disk Indexing; out of the box Windows indexes all the files on your hard disk, this is a great feature if you’re always running searches on your computer. But chances are you’re not always searching for files, and when you are you don’t mind waiting a little if it means faster overall performance.

Disabling XP disk indexing will improve performance as-well:

 

Defragmenting your hard disk: over time computer disks become “shuffled” – data becomes disorganized all over the disk. Example when you create a new file it may be in one single location on your disk, but after reopening and editing/adding to the file your file might not be able to be saved on the same physical place so the file would be divided into chunks and spread over the disk. This slows down file access and thus your whole computer. Defragmenting your disk organizes all the data sequentially improving file access.

To defrag your system go to “Control Panel” click on “Administrative Tools” choose “Computer Management” under the storage section you should see “Disk Defragmenter” choose Drive “c:” and “Defragment”

 

All three steps can be performed on MS Vista as well.

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Here’s my list of essential free software you must have:  (not sorted)

VLC: The best video player ever… it works with 99% of all video files. No more hunting for codecs. XP-MAC-ETC

Google Chrome: Super fast web browser, sure there is Mozilla Firefox but I like Chrome it works fast and no questions or prompts while starting/closing. XP

MM Taskbar: Have multiple monitors? this enables you to extend the task bar to the other monitors. Time saver. XP

AVG Antivirus: Free antivirus, if you cant afford a real antivirus so your self a favor download this until you can afford a “paid” version. XP

Avast Antivirus: Free antivirus that its fast and less intrusive than AVG. XP-MAC-ETC

Spybot: This tool keeps your PC free of spyware, install it now before you catch something!. XP

Vuze: Bitorrent client, you can download all kinds of files … (legal and NOT). XP-MAC

PeerGuardian: So now you’re downloading some content that might not be 100% legit… this tool will help protect your privacy. If you’re downloading torrents have this ON. XP

TrueCrypt: Keep all your drives encrypted to protect your files. This tool will help you if someone steals your drives/computer or the feds take your PC due to the torrents you’ve been downloading jk. XP-MAC-ETC

Hamachi: This is a program/service that allows you to create a Virtual Private Network so you can access your PC/drives from anywhere. XP-MAC-ETC

Logmein: This is from the same makers of Hamachi and it allows you to remote control your PC from anywhere its free and its awesome. XP-MAC

ExtraOutlook: Run multiple sessions of Outlook on same PC. Great hack that allows multiple mail profiles to be opened at the same time. XP

This list will grow with time… this is what I remember right now

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