Denis Lemire's Site

The only thing to date that I’ve missed from the dark ages of using Windows XP Pro is the built in Remote Desktop capability. RDP is one of the very few things I’ve seen come out of Redmond that actually worked beyond a satisfactory level.

Nearly three years ago my work machine was replaced with a PowerMac G5 running OS X Panther, ever since I’ve been looking for an equivalent solution for those occasions when I need GUI access to my desktop via the company VPN.

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Being a technology enthusiast I had a very hard time waiting until October to give Leopard a test run on my Mac Mini.

I decided to give the beta build (9A527) a test run to see what I have to look forward to when the family pack I’ve been eye-balling finally hits store shelves.

Unfortunately, unlike my initial impressions of Tiger, Leopard has already given me enough gripes and annoyances to dampen my excitement towards its release.

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The AirSurfer WISP network I manage for Triton Networking Solutions Ltd. utilizes hundreds of Motorola Canopy Subscriber modules to connect individual broadband clients to our network.

In order to mass manage these devices, Motorola provides CNUT. CNUT is a great tool, but in spite of the fact that it was written in cross platform languages from day one (Currently Java, previously some Perl in the mix for good measure) it is only packaged for Windows and Linux systems.

I’ve been dissatisfied for some time in the exclusion of support for CNUT on my desktop OS of choice. Being in a creative and inspired mood late yesterday evening, I did what any self respecting, Canopy using, red blooded, vigilante coding network geek would do.

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I decided it was time to upgrade my Mac Mini as it’s always been a little sluggish with the factory installed 512 MB of memory.

Picked up a couple Kingston 1 GB modules (KVR667D2S5/1G) from the local Memory Express ($99.95 each). I was a little hesitant to use the Kingston ValueRAM as opposed to the system specific Kingston kit (KTA-MB667K2/2G) but the cheapskate in me opted for the ValueRAM for approximately $70 less.

As for the tools, I ran to Canadian Tire to pick-up a handy Mastercraft putty knife ($6.29) and some sandpaper ($2.49). Two hours of struggling and $208.68 later, the Mini is now equipped with a whopping 2 GB of RAM.

Special thanks goes out to the wife for having more patience then I did in getting those last two screws in place while reassembling the unit.

So far the machine seems stable and the performance difference in the machine is pretty dramatic. At $239.32 dollars less than WestWorld quoted upgrade price of $448, the whole exercise seems to have been a success.