apple Two Mac Mini Servers - What Do?

[CPressland]

Hey guys,

Just started a new job and I've been given quite a nice loadout of Hardware, iPhone 4S, Dell Latitude E6510 and 2 x MacMini Servers (Core i7, 8GB, 2 x 500GB HDD).

I've set the first one up as my primary station and setup the second with Apple Remote Desktop but have nothing to do on it so far, was considering converting it into an ESXi server for creating a Virtual Test Lab or even running VMWare Fusion on it.

Does Neowin have any ideas for what I can do with this equipment?

Thanks

Chris

[tiddlie]

I'm not entirely sure this is a question for Neowin....surely if they've given you the hardware they intend you to use it for work, so your answer should be 'use it for the job'.

[Dick Montage]

I'd be asking your line manager what projects were forthcoming that necessitated the hardware - then prep them for that.

[CPressland]

lol, I already did, the hardware is to use as I see fit.

I'll just create a Virtual Test Lab on it.

[Crisp]

Use them wisely.

[Japlabot]

Well we have no idea what your job is and what your job duties are. What would I do if someone gave me 2x Mac Mini servers to do whatever I see fit during work hours? Watch movies, play games and surf Neowin.

[cybertimber2008]

Join Neowin's folding@home team (for the off hours?)

[CPressland]

Well we have no idea what your job is and what your job duties are. What would I do if someone gave me 2x Mac Mini servers to do whatever I see fit during work hours? Watch movies, play games and surf Neowin.

Global Support for a new Product that's being rolled out. It's a OS X and Windows thing, hence the need for test labs and VMs to test cross compatibility.

Join Neowin's folding@home team (for the off hours?)

That sounds like a solid idea. But has Folding@Home really gone anywhere? I setup my PS3 to run it years ago but Sony slowly started making it harder and harder to run the client.

[PNWDweller]

Or you can join them to the world community grid and help fight cancer, childhood hunger, diseases etc. :) I am joined up with them with my Mac and a few other 'always on' systems, even ones that aren't.

World Community Grid

[CPressland]

But have any of these projects achieved anything?!

[cybertimber2008]

But have any of these projects achieved anything?!

F@H has gone places...

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Papers and http://folding.typepad.com/news/2011/08/2012-michael-and-kate-b%C3%A1r%C3%A1ny-award-.html

and the biggest...

http://folding.typepad.com/news/2011/08/results-page-updated-new-key-result-published-in-our-work-in-alzheimers-disease.html

One major result is in the area of Alzheimer's Disease (paper #95). It is believed that Alzheimer's Disease results from the misfolding of the Abeta peptide. Understanding how Abeta misfolds could give us some key insights into how to cure Alzheimer's Disease. This paper experimentally tests a key prediction made in an earlier paper (paper #58: "Simulating oligomerization at experimental concentrations and long timescales: A Markov state model approach" by Nicholas W. Kelley, V. Vishal, Grant A. Krafft, and Vijay S. Pande. J. Chem. Phys. 129, 214707 (2008); DOI:10.1063/1.3010881). In this paper, we show experimentally that there appears to be a beta turn in the Abeta as predicted. This leads to a very stable form of misfolded Abeta which could be used as a starting point for a new Alzheimer's therapy. We are heavily pursuing this research direction at the moment.