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Eug Wanker · Jan 19, 2005, 10:26 AM

What is macminicolo.net?
We are a data center based, colocation service. We provide you with a menu of services including multiple redundant very high speed internet connections, remote control electrical power, a highly secure location to house your Mac mini, remote monitoring and remote human hands. You can then control your server via any remote protocol you like.

Ratm · Jan 19, 2005, 10:30 AM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
macminicolo.net

Guess not? Link doesn't work.

Mafia · Jan 19, 2005, 10:59 AM

facility looks fake imo. but maybe.

gator · Jan 19, 2005, 11:14 AM

And why, exactly, would you do this?

waxcrash · Jan 19, 2005, 11:16 AM

Can the standard 2.5 HD in the mini run 24/7 as a server? I know they put 2.5 HDs in blade servers, but those HDs are designed for 24/7 operation.

Eug Wanker · Jan 19, 2005, 11:26 AM

Originally posted by Ratm:
Guess not? Link doesn't work.

Link works fine.

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
macminicolo.net

spatterson · Jan 19, 2005, 01:45 PM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Link works fine.

Not working here

Eug Wanker · Jan 19, 2005, 02:29 PM

I erased my cache in Firefox and reloaded. Works fine.

I then tried IE too. Works fine.

http://www.macminicolo.net/

MaxPower2k3 · Jan 19, 2005, 02:51 PM

the reflection in that image is upside-down. that bugs me.

d4nth3m4n · Jan 19, 2005, 03:20 PM

what kind of heat are we talking about with this kinda deal?

turtle777 · Jan 19, 2005, 04:29 PM

What ?

What's that thing supposed to do anyways ?
And WTF do they use Mac minis for it ?

Total waste, total BULLCRAP !

-t

turtle777 · Jan 19, 2005, 04:33 PM

quotes from FAQ
We deal in things like Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, and OSHA reporting.

Mwahahaha

And what's that supposed to mean ?
I bet they couldn't even state in a few sentences what SOX is.
But it sure sounds official and professional.

-t

Millennium · Jan 19, 2005, 04:42 PM

Originally posted by turtle777:
And WTF do they use Mac minis for it ?

It's a fascinating idea, actually: colocation on a budget using cheap machines. It's a step up from the advanced hosted services that give you lots of access on a shared machine (like phpwebhosting.com, which I use) and full-blown (and expensive) colocation services. I can see growing sites looking into options like this.

Superchicken · Jan 19, 2005, 04:45 PM

Sounds like a sweet idea... it'd be sweet to have your own mini server. Actually I might see about running a web server off my parent's interweb connection with a mini

Mojo-ike · Mar 17, 2005, 08:51 AM

oh, yes, they are absolutely for real.

i sent them my mini early this week and they hooked it up in record time. and even got a phone call from them to jibber-jabber about it when it was all done.

so far, absolutely NO complaints. they are the real-deal. and they got FAST connections (yes, lots of redundancy).

i did a LOT of looking online to check these guys out and the possibility of other colo facitilies and.. they won my business. i couldnt find any other facility that was even close to their prices, options, and infrastructure.

as of today: i would definitely say check them out!

and so that you know: i was happily hosted at pair.com for the last six years - and had no complaints about them either (other than their slow uptake of security).

ManOfSteal · Mar 17, 2005, 08:58 AM

Interesting.

hayesk · Mar 17, 2005, 10:01 AM

I doubt it.

But for the benefit of the doubt (and assuming Mojo's post is legit), how do they plan on cooling these machines so tightly packed together? Do they explain to their customers that 2.5" HDs aren't designed to run 24/7? When these machines start crashing and burning when they fill up their racks, are the clients going to demand their money back?

Even though anyone who uses a mini for a full time professional server may deserve what they get, and I hope by some miracle, these machines can survive crammed together in a rack, I can't help but wonder how many "Apple's quality sucks, Mac mini's are pieces of junk" complaints we're going to see.

Sarc · Mar 17, 2005, 03:50 PM

I wonder how a Mini with an external, high speed, firewire HDD would perform as an interweb server.

olePigeon · Mar 17, 2005, 04:27 PM

I'm wondering if they're just cheap Celeron PCs running Linux, then they just tell you they're running them on Minis.

Millennium · Mar 17, 2005, 05:09 PM

Originally posted by olePigeon:
I'm wondering if they're just cheap Celeron PCs running Linux, then they just tell you they're running them on Minis.

There are many ways -some obvious, some subtle- that you could tell Linux and OSX apart, even from the command line. Modifying Linux to eliminate these methods would be more trouble than it's worth. Given that, it should be fairly easy to tell if this is really the case.

hayesk · Mar 17, 2005, 10:17 PM

Originally posted by Millennium:
There are many ways -some obvious, some subtle- that you could tell Linux and OSX apart, even from the command line. Modifying Linux to eliminate these methods would be more trouble than it's worth. Given that, it should be fairly easy to tell if this is really the case.

Especially since you can have VNC or Timbuktu access to the machines.

Sarc · Mar 17, 2005, 10:30 PM

uptime.netcraft.com should provide a very easy way to determine if they are running Mac OS X.

Also through the CLI, there are -many- ways to tell.

G4ME · Mar 18, 2005, 12:46 AM

if they sealed off the back and then sucked air from the front to the back with quite a few fans i bet they would suck enough fresh air to cool the minis. Also no one mentioned putting them in a walking fridge/freezer.

Zimphire · Mar 18, 2005, 05:54 AM

Originally posted by MaxPower2k3:
the reflection in that image is upside-down. that bugs me.

I noticed that too. It's reflecting the top.

Zimphire · Mar 18, 2005, 05:57 AM

Originally posted by G4ME:
if they sealed off the back and then sucked air from the front to the back with quite a few fans i bet they would suck enough fresh air to cool the minis. Also no one mentioned putting them in a walking fridge/freezer.

Who knows, all know is that they are not using that rack in the pic

(Says so on the page.)