So recently just set up a Mac Mini. This is to replace my current VNC computer .This move was motivated by my recent desire to develop for iOS. The beauty of the Mini is that it's intel based, and therefore a cinch to have the best of both worlds... or rather the ability to enjoy a real world, on top of a very controlled one. (flame on apple drones)
So yes, I got the Mac Mini, and after a faulty minidisplay port to VGA adapter issue, I was up and running. Now while I can conceed that OS X running on a UNIX foundation is a cool thing, I also have to admit that doing things other than what Apple intended for you to do, is much more involved (read complicated) than on a windows machine. Just goes to show that for doing real work a Windows box is ideal.
This said, after looking and looking for tutorials on setting up OS X's built in ssh daemon I was able to get the public/private keys in place, and was finally able to remotely create a tunnel to the loopback adapter.
On the iPad this is done through iSSH which is currently the only app that I know of that allows one to establish ssh tunnels, and leaves them up when moving out of the app. (There is an apple imposed 10 minute timer on it, in which the user has to switch back to iSSH to keep the connection live)
The app is very well made, and the developer is on top of it in terms of support and listening to feature request. I HIGHLY recommend this app.
Once the tunnel is created, we can switch to Real VNC's iOS VNC Viewer to start the remote session.
Here you can see that the layout of the app is very nice, leaving you with a screenshot of the last session before disconnect. Clicking on it starts the connection. The app and VNC Server support 256 bit AES encrypted connection as well.
After the connection is established you can work as if you were sitting at your Mac.
So what are you seeing here? OS X and Windows 7 Ultimate compliments of Parallels Desktop 6. This means I can work on my windows based projects and also iOS development remotely anyway I have an internet connection.
A word on Parallels. Their integration method with OS X is amazing. I totally recommend purchasing this if you have any desire to run windows on your mac box. What you see above is their coherence mode. It's the 2 OS's side by side. But your windows programs behave just like OS X programs. Evemon and Netbeans are running above, both windows programs. The Windows 7 start menu is also displayed.
One last thing. Setting up WOL was not too tricky, but it is noted that you can only wake a mac if it is sleeping, not if it is completely powered down. Fortunately the Mac Mini uses such little power when idle and running, that while it's sleeping it is seriously negligible.
My next post should contain some PC computer upgrades. Some hints are Lian Li, additional monitor, and a few other things to name a few.
- Matt-Fu
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