Jan

24

iStat Is Reporting For Duty: Available Now

ImageFor those of you who read the last post about iStat and were disappointed to find that it wasn’t available at the time, you’re in luck! Just last night, the Apple gatekeepers approved and listed iStat on the App Store. It’s a beautiful app for the iPhone.

For more on the app, see the official page at Bjango.com. Or, just head straight to iTunes to buy the iStat app. (iTunes link)

Jan

16

iStat: An iPhone App To Watch Your Mac

ImageiStat Menus and iStat Pro is very popular Mac software to watch the inner workings of your Mac. These applications keep an eye on things like CPU and RAM usage.

Just recently, the same company that develops these apps has announced iStat for the iPhone. It’s an incredibly good looking app that will let you watch the resources on your Mac. It includes views of RAM, CPU, network, uptime, temps, etc. It also offers great implementations of pinging and traceroutes to servers. Incredibly useful if you are running a remote Mac server.

This app will also let you take a look of the stats of your iPhone like memory usage, disk space, etc.

This app has been submitted to Apple for review and should be on the App Store soon.

And it gets even better for Macminicolo customers. In an exclusive deal with Bjango, all Macminicolo customers can receive free copies of the application. See here for more details and screenshots.

Jan

2

An Update From Macminicolo

ImageWe’re expecting a really good week for Mac mini users at Macworld next week. In honor of the annual Mac mecca, we are offering a Macworld Promo Package. Basically, this is our best package discounted at 15% and also with no setup charges. The offer is good thru the end of next week. (Jan 10, 2009)

With the mac mini becoming more and more a way for people to have their own server, we’re getting more people who would like the performance of a colocated machine, but may not know all they need to know. We’ll often have people sign up for a new account and ask for our recommendation on consultants who may be able to help with their setup and maintenance. This could include simple file serving, managing things like Daylite or Filemaker.

I’d love to have a nice database of consultants who could do these things. I know a lot of our customers and other smart folks read this blog, so I thought I’d put out a call here. If you work in consulting or have knowledge in an area that might be useful to server customers, please send me a note and I’ll add you to my list. We’d love to refer some work out.

We got this email from a new customer recently. Made us feel good about what we do here:

Macminicolo-

Thanks for getting our machine up so quickly.

We were sure glad to find your service. Our company was really trying to shave costs to stay afloat. When we found your company, we knew you guys could help.

Moving our two Xserves to Mac minis has saved us a bundle. We were able to sell our old G5 Xserves, buy two brand new Intel minis, and still have cash left over. These new minis actually perform better thanks to the Intel inside. Also, we’ve cut our colocation costs from $385 for two XServes to $110 for two minis. This is a monthly savings for us that will really come in handy.

In short, we really appreciate what you guys offer. Thanks for “saving the farm.”

That was a nice note to see. We are glad we could help.

We hope all of our FAM readers have a great 2009.

Dec

9

FTP Maker: Easy Uploads to a File Server

ImageI know that quite a few of our customers use their their Mac minis as file servers that they share with their clients. This application will be an answered prayer for many.

With FTP Maker, you just start up the application and enter your information. (e.g., server address, directory, password, etc.) You can also add a logo for your company. Once complete, you just push “Create FTP Upload Application.” FTP Maker will then create an application that you can pass to your customers so they can easily upload to your server. Once they have it, they just drag and drop files on the application and everything else happens automatically.

What a great idea for an application. You can download a trial at the developer’s site. If you decide to purchase it, the license will cost $30.

Dec

9

A Poll on iPhone Security Practices

ImageIf you have a moment, I’d love for any readers to take a quick poll on iPhone/iPod Touch security practices. The only pre-requisite is that you own one or the other. It’s just 7 short questions.

To perform the poll, I took advantage of the great Google Docs. You won’t need to sign in or leave any personal data.

The poll can be found here

Thanks for your time.
Update: We had a good number of responses come thru and have no shutdown the poll. Thanks for taking the time.

Nov

28

Macminicolo Black Friday Sale

ImageWe know we have quite a few folks who are planning to get a Mac mini hosted with us soon. For them (and any others) we’re having a Macminicolo Black Friday Sale. Anyone who signs up today will have their December charges waived. Just mention Black Friday in the comments section when you sign up.

(This can also apply to any machines added by current customers.)

We hope your holidays get off to a good start.

Nov

5

Mac mini Information

ImageWe get messages all the time asking about Mac minis and their future. Well, the short term future is much like the present since Apple has confirmed no new products thru the holidays.. But have no fear, we are still certain of the future of the Mac mini.

But there is some good news in the mean time. Apple has lowered the costs for upgrades on the Mac mini. For instance, when the Mac mini was first released, it cost $150 to upgrade to 2GB of RAM. It was later lowered to $100 and just recently changed to $75. This is great news for those who run mac mini servers and we’ve updated our prices to be in line with Apple.

In addition, we’ve updated our inventory list of used Mac minis.

Sep

10

Seven iPhone Apps For IT

ImageIf you’re reading this blog, you probably have a Mac server setup somewhere that requires your attention occasionally. For those of you with an iPhone, I hope to help you out.

Over on the Macminicolo.net site, I’ve put together a list of seven iPhone applications that I use every day to work with the Mac servers and IT work in general. You can read it here.

Jun

18

MMC Spotlight: Venice Arts

ImageThe other day, we saw a pretty good spike of traffic going thru one of our switches. We’re always happy to see this because it usually means that someone is doing something worth talking about with their minis.

It turns out, the traffic was heading to the box hosted by Venice Arts. I talked with the admin of the box and he told me about the great project they’re doing. It’s moving photo gallery called “The House Is Small But The Welcome Is Big.”

The day the traffic came rolling in, it was due to being highlighted on MSN.com. The article was titled AIDS victims show their stories — in pictures and here is a short excerpt talking about the photos:

The photo gallery, online and traveling in the United States and overseas, is unlike others about AIDS and Africa: The images are both joyous and wrenching, and they were shot by women and children who are caught in the pandemic that has killed and orphaned so many.

Photographers from the outside often capture only unrelieved tragedy; those inside can tell a fuller story, say the Los Angeles-based founders of “The House Is Small But the Welcome Is Big,” created to focus attention on the AIDS crisis and promote action.

The pictures were taken by 18 AIDS-orphaned children from Maputo, Mozambique, and 15 HIV-positive women in Cape Town, South Africa. An exhibit opens this week at a Denver art gallery, Gallery M, and will be seen in New York, Los Angeles and internationally.

This article brought 11k unique visitors in just under three hours. Surely each of them were loading page after page of these photos and the Mac mini held up great. From what I’m told, there is a whole lot more ahead with this great project including a photography research institute at USC and a pulitzer nominee as the creative director.

Do you have an interesting way you’re using your Mac mini server? Let Us Know about it.

Jun

16

A Source For Used Mac minis

ImageAs I frequent different Mac forums, there are often threads asking where to get used Mac minis. Craigslist and eBay are the obvious suggestions. Also, Apple will sometimes list refurbished Mac minis on their site, though they don’t last long.

The amazing thing is that Mac minis (like most other Macs) keep an incredibly good resale value. Even the original G4 minis that sell on ebay are often just $100 less than when they were new. It’s amazing.

Since we have a lot of Mac minis coming in and out, we’ll often have extra ones that are available for purchase. We decided to keep a page of Mac minis that we have available. And as a bonus, we have a $75 discount for anyone looking to purchase one of these minis for use here in our data center.

So, take a look at the used Mac minis. We’ll keep it current as inventories change.

Update: I know we just posted this post and the minis a couple days ago, but they’ve already all been bought. It’s amazing the interest in used Mac minis. We’ll update the page as more come in.

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