/cyber/ - Cyberpunk & Science Fiction★

Guns are cyberpunk. Shoot it, since that's the only worthwhile thing to do with it. It's a fucking 10-year-old mac mini. It's not old enough to have appeal like 1980s laptops, not new enough to do anything remotely fun with.

>>43311 (OP)

Is it PPC or gay-ass 70s x86?

>>43311 (OP)

Install some BBS software on it.

Then post the IP here so we can telnet into it.

>>43311 (OP)

If it's PowerPC, you can run MorphOS on it.

It's an x86 Mac Mini, unfortunately. I'd rather not destroy it, it's cute and I like. Currently I am trying to install a System 8 emulator to run Macintosh Plus programs and use the mac formatted floppies I had acquired over the years.

>>43351

>Currently I am trying to install a System 8 emulator to run Macintosh Plus programs

What's the fucking point using that specific machine then if it's just a standard x86 PC?

>>43358

It's in a small form, has integrated wifi and sound, I got it for free, and i'd like to find a use for this specific machine.

Your best bet is to find a single use for it and treat it like an appliance. Either load a minimal linux on it, attach a 5TB HD and set it up to be a stereo frontend, or schway it out and use it to learn vim or emacs and become a supercybernerd, set it up to run SETI at home or do protein folding stuff, or SET IT UP TO BE A DESIGNATED TOR EXIT NOTDE, or give it to your mom for a ChromeOS easy-peasy browser-only box.

Unfortunately, this is the problem most of us have; there IS no problem that old computers--no matter how cool–are the solution to. A new PC will always do whatever an old one will do, and they will do it better. Old PCs literally have no value and we humans (especially the DIY nerds among us) are hardwired to see value in old things. But I have tried to figure this out for my own old laptops and I've come to the conclusion that it has no value outside of becoming a single use appliance of some kind.

I hope one of my suggestions sticks with you.

>>43376

I have been struggling with coming to terms with how useless these old machines are, yet I cannot seem to stop myself from saving them. Just the other day I found a computer, not too old but old enough to lack USB of any kind, and I just took the RAM from it. I have no use whatsoever for antiquated RAM, but a preservation instinct inside me drove me to take it. Now I have almost 256 megabytes of RAM that most likely doesn't work, sitting on my desk. Hell, I haven't thrown away a single machine and have a cupboard full of broken laptops that I cling to with the false hope of fixing them one day. Perhaps it's the jew in us all that keeps these silicon relics from being recycled.

I found a box of Macintosh formatted floppies that seem to work okay with it. Any schway thing to do with these floppies, while we're at it?

>>43435

When compupocalypse hits us and Cyber Police will turn on all those botnet chips hidden in modern processors you'll be glad you had all this antique junk around.

How noisy is it?

Animu, music and shitpostiong online doesn't require a lot of power, so running something silent as your main driver and turning on loud beast only for heavy lifting would be awesome.

Look into thin clients. I failed to find an adequate solution for myself, but maybe you will be more successful.

Or just connect it to your TV as an HTPC.

>>43435

>get a milkcrate

>find the newest/best 5 or so laptops

>pull those suckers apart and pull the motherboards.

>use m3 screws to mount the motherboards to some wood/acrylic and mount that to the inside of the milkcrate with regular wood screws

> get a fat ass router or switch

> cat5 that shit together

budget supercomputer.

>>43479

you can just stack laptops on top of each other or whatever.

Also, my laptop wouldn't turn on when disassembled, I still didn't figure out how did it recognize that.

>>43486

hahahaha that is so funny. i once had a hamster that wouldn't turn me on while i was reading made up bullshit.

threw him outta window.

>>43365

Install OpenBSD on it, do the resister trick so it boots with out a monitor hooked up. Then hide it in a wall or somewhere with a hidden connection to the internet.

All Intel "Core" series chips have intentional backdoors in them. Later chips have improvements to the backdoor like built-in 3G, but early chipsets still have the basic functionality of listening silently on all network interfaces.

Use it as a media server. Don't use it for anything important or sensitive, like CCTV, email, VOIP or as an airgapped cryptography computer.

>>43451

This could work. Gentoo on the mac mini for ease of use and that comfy "anything you want" user interface. The beast machine sleeps until it gets a WOL packet and then it gets to work on compiling packages or running a steam game.

You really don't need a super powerful computer most of the time. Some of the most fun I've had is with ancient hardware.

>>43435

There's decent cause to believe that older machines have the capability of full botnet-freedom like >>43448 said, so there's that going for them.

>>43515

>like built-in 3G

Source? 3G connectivity isn't exactly a simple thing, or small enough to package well.

>>43376

>>43435

Older machines may not have spying shit built into the hardware