--- Forwarded Message from Jonathan Perkins <[log in to unmask]> --- >User-Agent: Microsoft-Entourage/11.1.0.040913 >Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 09:58:40 -0600 >Subject: Re: #7805 Mac mini, anybody? >From: Jonathan Perkins <[log in to unmask]> >To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]> >In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]> We thought long and hard about the Mac mini, but eventually decided to go with the pricier iMac. Our reasoning included the following. 1) If you buy the Mac mini you also have to buy a keyboard and mouse ... unless you use the ones from the old G3s, including the horrendous hockey puck mouse. You also have to buy a flat panel monitor. If you add all of these to the price it sees like much less of a deal. If you had a flat panel already, that might be one thing, but if you are upgrading from G3 I Macs, you are starting with nothing that you can carry forward. 2) The whole idea of such a small CPU reminds me of the horrible experience we had with a Mac Cube a few years back. In principle it seems like a good idea because they show you the machine by itself with no cabling. But once you attach the power supply (notice that none of the pictures show the power brick that you have to hide somewhere), the ethernet cable, the monitor cable, the keyboard cable, the mouse cable and the USB powered headphones, you wind up with a real rat's nest of cabling. You could avoid the mouse and keyboard cables by going with bluetooth, but then you wind up with the problem of securing them from theft and the additional expense of the upgrade. 3) I am still not sure how you can have such a small CPU sitting on the desktop without it being in the way. The pictures tend to show it sitting between the keyboard and the monitor, but I have the feeling that the distance between the typist and the monitor might seem a little far. It also requires a pretty deep desk to allow access to the CD drive. I can only imagine what all of that cabling running to the middle of your desk would look like. You could put it off to the side, but then it is harder to reach the CD drive and you run the risk of someone knocking it off the back of the table (or putting things on top of it) not realizing that it is the actual computer. If space is a real concern in you situation, then the Mac mini strikes me as an accident waiting to happen. We are expecting delivery on the new iMacs shortly, so drop me a line if you want to know how the work out. Jon **************************************************** Jonathan Perkins Associate Director Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center University of Kansas 4069 Wescoe Hall 1445 Jayhawk Boulevard Lawrence KS 66045-7590 Phone: (785) 864-4782 Fax: (785) 864-1256 www.ku.edu/~egarc www.ku.edu/~language > From: LLTI-Editor <[log in to unmask]> > Reply-To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum > <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 10:13:36 EST > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: #7805 Mac mini, anybody? > > --- Forwarded Message from "David Pankratz" <[log in to unmask]> --- > >> Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 17:47:26 -0600 >> From: "David Pankratz" <[log in to unmask]> >> To: <[log in to unmask]> >> Subject: Mac mini, anybody? > > You knew this question would come... > > Has anybody tried or considered using the new Mac mini computers in a > lab environment? I've got some smallish workstations where the old G3 > iMacs barely fit, and the new iMacs seem a little too pricey. > > Advantages I see with Mac minis: > -Cost > -Size > -Mac OS > > Disadvantages I see: > -Size (security nightmare) > -No audio input, but USB > > Please help me see better. > Thanks. > > David Pankratz > Loyola University Chicago > > > > > *********************************************** > LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for > Language Learning, and The Consortium for Language Teaching and > Learning (http://consortium.dartmouth.edu). > Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. > Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]) > ***********************************************