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Hardware Hacking Businesses Apple

Mac mini Built Into Wall 264

Posted by CmdrTaco from the because-you-can dept.
Lilmuckers writes "I have just completed a project to build a Mac mini into the wall of my kitchen. It is hidden and everything works perfectly."
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Mac mini Built Into Wall More

Mac mini Built Into Wall

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  • Real Estate Sure is Expensive these days (Score:3, Insightful)

    by WebHostingGuy ( 825421 ) * on Sunday July 31, 2005 @11:36AM (#13208132) Homepage Journal
    He couldn't find space for an Mac mini? It's only 6.5 inches wide and 2 inches tall.

    If space was such a critical factor just get the iMac with the computer built into the monitor. Add a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse and you can store them in a drawer when not needed.

    • Re:Real Estate Sure is Expensive these days (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @11:45AM (#13208192)
      He couldn't find space for an Mac mini? It's only 6.5 inches wide and 2 inches tall.

      Two things:

      1- there's more to space-taking than just the size of an object: put a 6.5 wide object in the middle of a desk, and you may well find it cumbersome, either because you work with large objects on the desk anymore, or because it gets in your way, or whatever. There's also the clutter of cables going to/from it that, in my experience, is much much more anoying than the space taken by the computer.

      2 - the guy may have wanted a neat, out-of-sight installation. Sticking your computer into the wall is the definite way of hiding your computer :-)

      Just so you know, my computer is hidden in a cupboard, and I have extra-long VGA, keyboard, mouse... cables going to my desk. It really is much cleaner visually, not to mention the lack of noise.

    • If space was such a critical factor just get the iMac with the computer built into the monitor. Add a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse and you can store them in a drawer when not needed.

      Have you seen an iMac? Even the G5 is still way too large to just "store in a drawer" when not needed. I just bought a 17-in model--the smaller of the two--and it's still quite large. Keep in mind it's the display that's 17 inches, and there's still about an inch of space on the top, left, and right and about four inc

    • It isnt even built into the wall its just sitting under the kitchen unit. Shame as I could easily building one into the wall (along with a small vent).
    • Yeah no kidding. And he still had to get an external drive as well, which of course is almost as big as the whole mini. :-0

      Having a keyboard and mouse right out there on the kitchen counter doesn't make a lot of sense.

      He could've at least built the display into the wall, or hung it on the wall.

      Another idea I saw elsewhere is to put a glass panel in the countertop and put the display underneath. Of course, that's primarily useful for reading recipes or doing web stuff but not for watching TV.

      I have an Audr

    • Re:Real Estate Sure is Expensive these days (Score:4, Funny)

      by efatapo ( 567889 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @03:55PM (#13209644)
      Seriously, someone should tell this guy about the iMac [apple.com]. It's like Apple did all the work for him.

  • Unix built into a wall at ISCA (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Foofoobar ( 318279 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @11:39AM (#13208148)
    This reminds me of an old story at the Univeristy of Iowa where they moved a computer department into a new building wherein years later they are trying to find a server. It is still serving packets and no one can seem to find it. Suddenly someone realize that it was probably left at the other building years before when they moved. They go over there and are looking around when someone says 'well the server would have been right here where this wall was. On a hunch, they rip open the wall and sure enough, there is the server still serving packets... 4 years later!

  • Wow, slashdotted already... (Score:4, Funny)

    by motbob ( 897343 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @11:39AM (#13208149)
    The submitter really asked for it, didn't he?

  • All that work... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by FatSean ( 18753 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @11:40AM (#13208154) Homepage Journal
    ...for an underpowered box. Shoulda rolled a household server. Meh.

    • Shoulda rolled a household server

      I really haven't seen a server of any kind that was able to roll, with those pesky square corners and all.

    • ...for an underpowered box. Shoulda rolled a household server. Meh.

      Underpowered? This thing is in the kitchen, right? What the heck are you doing in your kitchen that a 1GHz+ processor running MacOSX is "underpowered [apple.com]"? Maybe "underpowered for a game rig", maybe "the kitchen is no place for a computer", but combining them? A computer in the kitchen will be used for recipies and e-mail. 1.25GHz is plenty for that. He won't even notice that the hard drive is less than 10k RPM.

  • I did the same with my Dell. (Score:5, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @11:42AM (#13208166)
    I did the same sort of thing with my Dell running Windoes ME. Only it was my office, not my kitchen. It did not take much effort or thought. It was really more of a spur of the moment thing. That final blue creen was the last straw. Seconds later, the Dell was embedded in the drywall halfway up on the other side of the room.

    Also, a hint: If you have a G4 Cube you wish to hide in your kitchen, merely replace the current heating elements in your oven with the ol G4 Cube. It is both sightly and functional this way.

    • Amiga Lore - Embedded Machinery (Score:5, Funny)

      by Chordonblue ( 585047 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @12:22PM (#13208407) Journal
      That funny comment reminded me of something I saw years ago touring the old Commodore plant in West Chester, PA.

      Somewhere in the piles of stuff I have accumulated over the years I have a picture. It's a picture of a picture frame encompassing an internal floppy drive embedded in the drywall behind it.

      The story goes that an engineer was up all hours of the night trying to debug a problem with his new floppy drive circuitry. After hours and hours of fruitless troubleshooting, he discovered that the problem wasn't with the circuitry, it was with the drive itself. The frustrated engineer picked up said floppy drive and whipped it at the wall - where it became one with it. The picture frame was later added for decoration.

    • I did the same sort of thing to punish my Gateway Solo. I had been using it for shipment tracking for my, um... business, when it triggered a false alarm and told UPS to jettison the valuable, um... cargo for no reason.

      Of course, it was in my lair, not my office, and the wall was made of carbonite, not drywall.

      Hahahahaha. Eat that Windoze scum! Now my concubine can serve me and my extraterrestrial band can entertain me while you decorate my chamber wall!

  • It's not built into the kitchen... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Banner ( 17158 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @11:42AM (#13208168) Journal
    Just the wires are. The MAC is under the cabinent.

    This isn't innovative at all.

  • And I... (Score:4, Funny)

    by felipin-sioux ( 772177 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @11:42AM (#13208171) Homepage
    have just completed a copy of SpaceShipOne built entirely in Lego... It is hidden, but I tell you that everything works perfectly..
  • http://www.caffeine-junkies.com/?mode=articles&pag e=print&id=7 [caffeine-junkies.com] seems OK, and is all on one page.

    Manta

  • Arrrrrrrg (Score:5, Informative)

    by SuperBanana ( 662181 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @11:47AM (#13208204)

    Here [Next] is [Next] my [Next] Mac [Next] Mini [Next] in [Next] a [Next] wall.

    For everyone who just wants to skip to the chase and see "a Mac Mini in someone's kitchen wall", which is what I wanted to see (not pictures of an effing butter knife [caffeine-junkies.com])...completed Mini in the wall [caffeine-junkies.com].

    Also, I think the entire W3C group has a simultaneous conniption with the author's use of "Clicky" to note an image that is also a link. That's the purpose, astoundingly, of a BLUE BORDER around an image...along with the cursor change, the tool tip, AND the display of a URL in the bottom of the browser window. I think it's probably worse than the usual "to see a picture of me and a llama, click here. To find out more about llamas, click here."

    I know I had a conniption, thanks to the atrocious grammar....

    • Re:Arrrrrrrg (Score:4, Insightful)

      by suitepotato ( 863945 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @11:57AM (#13208265)
      And does it come under the heading ironic that this site boasts of W3C compliance, arrogantly stops IE users with some insult warning screen despite the site rendering just fine when you get past it, and violates probably a dozen of the rules laid down in the very first incarnation of Vincent Flanders' Webpages That Suck?.

      Wrapping yourself in anti-MS/anti-IE leetness and promptly do the website wrong anyhow seems to be getting alarmingly common.
      • I agree.

        There was one time I had to recompile the program "Books" for Mac OS because at the bottom every page in its save-as-HTML output that said "if this page doesn't render right, upgrade your browser". I didn't think the output pages did anything special to warrant that kind of thing.

        On the other hand, it showed how easy it was to modify and recompile an app that was written for XCode, it took a minute or so to find that part of the code, remove it and a minute to recompile.
      • It doesn't render properly in IE, since IE doesn't support fixed background images for things other than Body, so the "transparent" boxes effect doesn't work.

        Works in all browsers that properly support CSS1 though, instead of claim to but don't really like IE.

    • Re:Arrrrrrrg (Score:2, Insightful)

      by jinushaun ( 397145 )
      Here [Next] is [Next] my [Next] Mac [Next] Mini [Next] in [Next] a [Next] wall.

      Very bad form indeed, and he basically set himself up for being Slashdotted. Yes, let's force several thousand people each to access your server 21 times.

      • I'm not sure what's worse, having people to access your server 21 times or having people load your entire article w/ all your pictures on just one page.

        of course, he could've thumbnailed them, but it isn't the case in this article. personally i think (seeing how many people stopped hitting 'next' after a few pages), this probably saved him a ton of bandwidth.
        • if you are database driven (which he is) with a fairly slow server but a fast link the former is probablly worse.

          if bandwidth is the constraining issue then splitting images between pages makes sense.
    • Visit the site running IE and you get a splash screen from the webmaster saying something like "This site uses CSS and doesn't work with non-compliant browsers like IE. Continue at your own risk or upgrade to a better browser."

      Funny thing is, the site looked just fine. *shrug*

  • Much ado about... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jez9999 ( 618189 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @11:51AM (#13208226) Homepage Journal
    For alllll that effort he went through, this [caffeine-junkies.com] was the final result.

    I was expecting to see something beautifully plugged into the wall like an ATM or whatnot, but this just looks like a regular computer. If he'd just put the Mac Mini under the table it'd look the same. Haha.
    • Yeah, it's lame. At first, I thought he was going to put the whole machine behind the wall plate, in an electrical box. But no, that's just the cable outlet. The machine is on the floor on a piece of cardboard.

      An "electrical box in the wall" form factor for computers might be useful. Machines are getting small enough.

    • And why did he (skillfully!) black out the photos on the wall? I wonder what they could have contained that he didn't want the world to see?
  • My wife and I were discussing the purchase of a 37" 1080p lcd monitor [westinghousedigital.com] and mounting it in our bedroom mainly for watching dvd's. I thought that it would be cool to mount a Mac Mini in the wall in order to hide all the wires, and use the bluetooth keyboard and mouse to control it from across the room (in the bed, specifically).

    • Re:I was just thinking last night of doing the sam (Score:4, Interesting)

      by GoRK ( 10018 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @12:30PM (#13208455) Homepage Journal
      I just bought this monitor a few days ago and finally hooked it up last night. It works great with my powerbook, and the picture is fantastic.

      If you are going to use it with the mac mini, you might consider attaching the mac mini itself to the back of the display. If you use a wall bracket to mount the display to the wall, there would be sufficient space. You can bolt a piece of metal between the monitor and the mounting bracket to serve as a mounting plate for the mac mini.

      Incidentally, as far as choice of computer goes.. the mac mini will drive the display fine at native resolution (so long as you use the DVI 1 input) and is a fairly cheap alternative way to watch DVD at 1080p, as an external scaler capable of doing this runs about $2000. It also makes a great display for photo slideshows as the resolution is fantastic.

      It's also worth noting that the display itself has a pretty decent scaler in it as well. If you attach a decent progressive scan player to the screen via component, the picture you get will be very good - I found it's at least as good as the picture from the powerbook playing a DVD.

      The one drawback for using a mac mini on this display is that you won't have anywhere close to the horsepower needed to play any HD content. I doubt the mini is capable of playing 1080i MPEG2 TS much less H.264 at 720p or 1080p. My powerbook is a 1.4ghz G4 like the mini though, and I have an HDV camcorder that I can get 1080i MPEG2 TS from, so if you want to know the results of my testing on the mac's ability to do MPEG2 HD, drop me a line.

  • Small, but not water proof (Score:4, Insightful)

    by intmainvoid ( 109559 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @11:55AM (#13208249)
    The kitchen strikes me as somewhere where there's often water, and from my limited experience with water and computers, that might not be a good thing! Of course a Mini is bordering on being cheap enough to be disposable...

  • Mac Mini Built Into Wall (Score:5, Funny)

    by $RANDOMLUSER ( 804576 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @11:56AM (#13208252)
    That's nothing - I used to use a VAX 9000 as a wall. And a furnace.
  • What about heat? [No, I am still not using a Mac, so I do not know what kind of temperature a Mac mini produces, but I doubt it keeps cool if no cold air is avalible.]
  • Outputting very little heat, virtually no noise, Half decent preformance, full services for file sharing, web services, ftp services, dns sevices, the entire works.. One of these babies could sit in everyone's room, in every house. Its no wonder they are popular. I am surprised that more people havent done unique and clever things with there mac minis.
    • I bought one of them as soon as I could get my hands on one from the first batch that arrived at the St. Louis Apple store.

      I agree that it's a very cool little box, and inspires people to make projects around it due to the small size and silent nature of it.

      But really, I'm less than impressed with the majority of these projects I see posted to web sites and blogs. For starters, if you imbed your Mini in a wall so the back is exposed, you've just made it impossible to use the CD/DVD combo drive or writer si
      • I more or less view it as the internet workstation. It can sit in mothers room, and have a nice LCD flat screen monitor and be small and out of the way. The traditional computer desk with its bulk and size needs not be. It can easily fit on the side end table by the couch with its wireless keyboard and mouse.

        pickup a big enough LCD monitor and it could easily be your wireless multimedia center for TV, dvd movies, and internet surfing in the living room.

        Did it mention the power consumption of the entire unit

  • Goatse warning!!!!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Spackler ( 223562 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @11:59AM (#13208273) Journal
    His next project involved building it into another spot. That is why the page could not be displayed!

  • Something tells me this is a step backward.

  • Somebody call the fire department (Score:3, Funny)

    by artemis67 ( 93453 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @12:02PM (#13208296)
    Apparently, he built his webserver into the wall as well, and his house in on fire.
  • isn't visible either, but isn't working nearly so well.
  • Given the cleanliness of the floor, I'm guessing his dad (or someone else) actually mops the floor once in a while. It seems a bit risky to leave the Mini on a cardboard box so openly exposed - much less all the wires on the floor.

    I get the impression he'll be back at work doing water damage repair sometime in the near future.

  • Another use of a mac mini: in the bathroom! (Score:5, Funny)

    by tranquillity ( 137776 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @12:11PM (#13208354)
    Here's another nice use of a mac mini, it's even easier to install:

    http://www.w3sh.com/archives/2005/05/enfin_un_bon_ us.html [w3sh.com]

  • Yeah, I did this too. (Score:3, Funny)

    by greg_barton ( 5551 ) * <greg_barton&yahoo,com> on Sunday July 31, 2005 @12:26PM (#13208429) Homepage Journal
    I put the thing in the friggin' silverware drawer.

    Problem solved! Next!
  • Ethernet, usb, firewire & vga. The ethernet I do not understand though, wireless would have saved the ethernet link.

  • Why not just buy an iMac? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sdpinpdx ( 66786 ) <`sdp' `at' `scottp.us'> on Sunday July 31, 2005 @12:33PM (#13208467) Journal
    Didn't the current iMac design appear before or at the same time as the mini? Seems like that's exactly what he was looking for.

    He could have taped one of the firewire TV tuners to the back of it for the TV function (or streamed it over the LAN from some location with better reception than the kitchen).

    • Also, doing all this cutting and extending of wires on a Mac Mini is just, well, kinda dumb. I mean, sheesh... The Mini is small, unobtrusive, and attractive. This is the LAST computer you'd feel the need to hide underneath a cabinet. If you're going to hide a computer in the cabinetry, at least make it a homebrew unit or something.
  • get laptop sheeesh

  • Awful website. (Score:3, Informative)

    by blanks ( 108019 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @01:16PM (#13208710) Homepage Journal

    Not only do they claim that the site is not compatible with IE (which renders it fine) But they claim that the website is w3 compliant.

    After the page loads I get a nice JavaScript error, and also decided to check the w3 validator [w3.org] and found 24 errors, not making the website compliant.

    If your going to complain about " standard compliant browsers" you should at least make your site compliant to THE standards you claim to enforce.

    • Make your site warn away IE users, then post it to Slashdot. Clearly the guy is just trying to bolster his ego by being elitist, while looking for a pat on the back.

      In a world that reinforces the negative, we have to shore up our self-image when we can. Leave him his outlet.
  • Well, years ago, someone paved his driveway with Apple ][ computers - this guy has a long way to go to build a kitchen from Minis...

  • For the love of God Montressor!! (Score:3, Funny)

    by OneDeeTenTee ( 780300 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @01:28PM (#13208782)
    Yes, for the love of God.
  • instead of clicking next every 5 words
    http://www.caffeine-junkies.com/?mode=articles&pag e=print&id=7 [caffeine-junkies.com] will help a lot
  • From the site:

    You Are An IE User
    This site has been coded for standard compliant browsers. IE is not one of these browsers.
    We, at Caffeine Junkies, recommend that you upgrade to a better browser such as:

    Motherfucker.

    I use a browser based off the IE core (Maxthon) for reasons I'm willing to discuss at great length -- I've used Firefox, Galeon, Konquorer, Safari, et. al. for years as well, and I understand the arguments and the power of each.

    So don't fucking talk down to me at your site intro because my brows

    • Considering he's a mac user, he probably doesn't care that you boycott his site.

      Considering he's been slashdotted, he might even be grateful.
      • Haha, indeed.

        I'm a Mac user as well. I use Windows, Macs, Linux, and Unix boxen daily. Firefox on the Mac and *nix, Maxthon on the PC.

        But yes, the boycott was just rhetorical. I'm visiting his site and expressing my displeausre on slashdot.
    • Friends don't let friends drive junk.

      Lay off, isn't he punished enough?

      Seriously, it goes both ways. Being blocked for NOT using IE hasn't been an uncommon problem and IE users may start to see the other side of it more often.

      It's a public service for people who don't know that using that non-compliant security hole posing as a web browser impacts us all in pages that don't display properly, spam and viruses.

    • And not only that, but it's not even valid HTML... It is valid CSS and "Made With Opera" and a bunch of other stuff that matters about 0.0001% as much as valid html does, so that's just great to know.
  • Even the link in his name on the blurb is wrong! This guy's pretty funny.
  • At least we now know that after the intel switch your mac Mini will still be worth something as a construction material...

  • nice idea but a few issues (Score:3, Informative)

    by petermgreen ( 876956 ) <plugwash@p[ ]ink.net ['10l' in gap]> on Sunday July 31, 2005 @04:47PM (#13209842) Homepage
    using a short patch lead on show like that seems totally braindead to me when he could just take the incoming network cable straight to the mac

    he used a bus powered hub for all the USB ports, frankly i'm surprised he made the dvd drive work on that at all and he himself admitted that it didn't work on the usb hub with the new led connected.

    also he doesn't mention the power of the heater but i wonder if he has thought about the rating of the wall socket that he has connected everything to. some heaters basically use up the entire rating of a standard 13A socket.

  • What makes it all very funny... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Cloud K ( 125581 ) on Sunday July 31, 2005 @05:00PM (#13209890)
    - That he was so obsessed with the goal of hiding a computer in a wall that he went out and bought a computer that's so small there's absolutely no point in hiding it in the wall. And to make matters funnier, he didn't make the CD drive accessible and had to buy an external one... about the same size as a Mac Mini and a lot uglier.

    - This quote: "Since the Mac is designed in america, it's most convenient to measure it in their units, Imperial units, goodness knows why they can't use SI units like the rest of the world, probably their bias against the french."
    (Hahaha. He has a point.)

    - This picture: http://www.caffeine-junkies.com/images/articles/ik itchen/cut5.jpg [caffeine-junkies.com]
    Just screams out 'M-m-m-mac mini!'
    He should've scrawled labels on it with black marker pen...

    - The whole "I'm so cool, I own a computer made by Apple Macintosh" (it's Apple, retard), "and I openly show how much I hate IE" (annoying) and "Let's deliberately get to a stage where I have to test it's still working as an excuse to show an Apple desktop" thing he has going.

    - This unnecessary comment: "NOTE FOR LAYMEN: it's imperitive that the wires for the LED are kept the same way around, because an LED is just that, a DIODE, and thus it will only work if the current is going one way."
    Well, no shit Sherlock! I'm glad your university degree taught you *something*. Personally I learned that in Science class at about age 12.

    - The excessive use of CAT5 for everything just to look cool to a Slashdot audience. Ironically, ends up looking a complete pratt by using a patch cable *outside* of the wall. I have no words!

    - At the end of the day, all he did was plonk the Mini on the floor and create a wall-mounted port replicator, and even end up wasting money on an external optical drive!

    Got to love it. You have to be sorry for him, he's obviously just trying to look cool. He's also fallen for the old pitfall of obsessing so much about solving a challenge that didn't even exist, he ended up creating more problems and overcomplicating the whole thing. But it's so funny.
  • I couldn't see any place in the final picture where he could use the CD/DVD part of the mac. Did I miss something, or did he?

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