Thread: Mac Mini MINI

Originally Posted by 786mine

but what is a good way for windows based?

search, man...Windows users HAVE to shutdown smoothly or else you risk corrupting and losing files. Every Windows user on this forum has made it work.

thanks, i did. found lots of info.

Originally Posted by simon_C

...since osx is so stable and can handle this kind of abuse easily, it shouldn't be a problem.

I dare to disagree. While this is certainly true when it comes to the kernel, some other parts of the operating system, user applications and especially open document/preference files can be damaged by doing this, because (exactly as if you use shutdown from command line), they do not get a chance to be closed properly. So if you have no problems, it is not because of great stability of OS X itself, but because you are lucky to use applications that tolerate this :-)

I also believe that turnig the computer off this way increases the boot time, as the OS X runs disk check at the first boot after such a "dirty" shutdown.

what about visibility from your seating position? can you see everything clearly or do you sometimes have to search for it? have you thought about modifying your display to use some kind of angling mount that will make things easier to see?

It can be hard to see in bright daylight, but it is also very bright at night. The washout from bright light won't be fixed by angling it towards me. I like where it is because it's easy to reach. I rest my hand on the gear shift and can change songs with out looking at it by using CCAR as my front end. The controls are lined up along the bottom.

Even the orange LED displays of my car are hard to see in sunlight with the top down. I have to take off my sunglasses.

Mike

Mike

A quick short term solution would be to have two or more sets of graphics for day/night/top down/sunny days etc. The day/sunny ones for example may have dark background with really bright text etc .. so depending on day/time etc you can run a script through cron to change the graphics prior to starting ccar... or you can have one or more versions of ccar side by side which you launch depending on conditions... :-)

You may also want to check if ccar is running first as you may not want to change in the middle of listening to a song ....

Not elegant but it will work...you can also ask script to "speak" which version its starting for that added apple coolness factor to mask the kludge :-)

Just to let you all know, happy MINI owners, the cupholder is rated EUR 9,90 + shipping on the ebay!
I ordered mine from germany on monday here and this morning I had my hands on it!

FireAnt
Very CLEAN job, just afraid I won't be able to get it done as clean as yours .
Doesn't it vibrate/move too much with your alluminium rod? How did you bend it?

Thanks...

Let me see if I can trace it and scan and post on my web site. Mike

I would put a UPS in your car. A small one which will be used to do a managed shutdown when the ups looses power.

I only suggest this method because I can tell that some people are willing to spend the dollars to set it up.


12v battery -> Pure Sine wave inverter -> UPS -> Mac

Many UPS's have a USB connection to the mac and management software. You can set it up so that when the UPS looses power it sends a message to the machine to shut down.

You can run scripts before the shutdown/sleep - even tell the ups to wait 15 min before shutting down.

This is a good option because you can stop somewhere for a few min (say 7/11) and your machine wont shut down.

Edit: Don't cheap out and get a modified sine wave inverter - they break stuff.