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macmod posts

Filed under: Video, Mods

Not quite 'The Brick,' but fun anyway

It's many bricks, technically: Lego Bricks. Students at the San Francisco Art Institute used 2,588 bricks to build an enormous Mac Pro case.

The design wasn't without its problems -- partway through the movie, three "Lego engineering catastrophes" forced the addition of a support beam under the middle of the case, presumably to support the weight of the hardware inside.

The exterior design isn't the only thing impressive about it: On the inside, it's a Mac Mini that's FireWire-linked to a PC Hackintosh. Nice.

The case was submitted for the 2008 MacMod Challenge.

Filed under: Mods

MacMod '07 has begun

Each August, we anticipate the start of the MacMod Challenge, a time for case modders to compete for bragging rights and glory (among other prizes). Last year's entries included the iMac mini LCD and the Tonka iMac. In fact, did the 2005 challenge produce the first iMac with "Intel inside?"

The list of prizes and judges for 2007 are yet to be announced , but a glance at the information page reveals a new category: "iPhone mod."

Thanks, Timmy!

Filed under: Macworld, Cult of Mac, Mods

MacMod booth tour



The mad modders at MacMod have their very own booth at Macworld this year with a myriad of mods on hand for your enjoyment. Go check them out and say hello at booth N4320 in the oft-neglected North Hall of the Moscone Center. While you're there, grab a Sharpie and autograph the PowerMac to be a part of the community mod project!

Check out the Gallery for pictures we took of some of the mods currently on display at the booth.

Filed under: Hardware, Hacks, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends

Variations on a theme: It's not a Mac O'Lantern, it's a Pumputer



More Halloween hacks for you - check out the Pumputer, made by Brenda and Adam. They say "The Pumputer was conceived of to bring home the company's carving contest award for the Information Technology department. A 1990 Macintosh Classic computer was obtained and carefully dismantled. After insertion into a large pumpkin, it's peripherals were color coded to adhere to the Pumputer 1.0 model standards, and connected via VineBus, a very advanced serial connection."

Before you check out the pics - let me caution you. There are some serious power tools involved! Not for the faint of heart or collectors of Mac Classics.

Thanks, John!

Filed under: Mods

2006 MacMod entries are in!

Oh, how I love the annual MacMod challenge. The entries for 2006 are in, and some of them are just great. Check out the Clockintosh, the iMac mini LCD (a mini with a LCD right in the top of the case, maybe my favorite mod this year) and the Tonka Mac. Voting ends on Tuesday, September 12. Here's hoping that your favorite does well.

Filed under: Desktops, Hardware, Cult of Mac, Mods, Mac mini

A Mac mini in an NES



This is an impressive mod. Brent Housen's friend has taken a Mac mini, gutted it, and reassembled it inside an 'old school' (as the kids say) NES. The power button on the NES puts the Mac mini to sleep, and the Reset button ejects the CD tray. Pretty sweet, I just hope you don't have to blow on the CD's repeatedly to get them to work.

[via Joystiq]

Filed under: Hacks, How-tos, Mods

Crazy Eastern European G4 Car Mod

If there was ever a doubt about Eastern European Mac fans, let that shred of uncertainty be squelched. Today on MacMod one of the most amazing car installs of a Mac I have ever witnessed was posted after being translated [from Czech?].

Jiri Jirout first created a custom housing with waterproof-yet-breathable Gore-Tex ports for his 450MHz G4 (codename Sawtooth). The Sawtooth model is near and dear to my heart, I am writing this post off my 400MHz Sawtooth which was upgraded to 2GHz with a Powerlogix CPU. Next, he modded his Eastern European Tatra brand car to include:

  • An ethernet network
  • Wifi for hotspots
  • GPRS to internet for the car in cases where one is too far from Wifi
  • GPS with a Garmin module and Route 66 mapping software
  • Custom front end software written in Cocoa for car data
  • Custom movie player software
  • Scripts for iTunes so that back seat passengers can listen to different music than in the front
  • And much more...
The fact that the original article from which this is translated dates from the winter of 2003/2004 makes this mod all the more amazing. Huge props to Jiri Jirout and his crew of microcontroller designing and software writing friends.

Filed under: Accessories, How-tos

How To: Build your own computer speakers

I am not an audiophile by any means. My iMac is hooked up to some JBL creature speakers which sound just fine to me. However, if you are an audiophile and a do it yourselfer (another group I do not count myself amongst) then has MacMod got the project for you!

With the help of some tools and some raw materials you can create your own HiFi computer speakers and be the envy of computer geeks the world around, or at least have an excuse to use use the word 'tweeter' more than is normally socially acceptable.

Tip of the Day

Use Spotlight as a reference tool. Type any word in the Spotlight box and one of the top entries will be a definition. Click on it, and it will bring up the dictionary application to check the word in either the dictionary, thesaurus, Apple database, or Wikipedia.


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