Nerd42

I'm looking into those suggestions. The Dell computer looks like it's too big (in size) and the ebuyer site seems to be having "technical difficulties" when I said this needs to be a whole computer, I meant a whole computer box - i can (and would rather) get mouse, keyboard, screen and speakers seperately

Since 1 Euros = 1.3137 U.S. dollars, and their computers are in the thousands, it would appear that their computers are too expensive, but it's always good to have more options.

well that wouldn't work though because it has to make words come back at you - it isn't just a video of somebody typing, it's a video of somebody in an imaginary terminal / telnet session. Besides, that obviously isn't how episode 1 of hak5 was done. Go watch part(s) of hak5 season 1 episode 1 and see when they have green text on black and that's what I'm talking about kinda

that's always good :) I think I'm gonna try and talk my boss into at least *trying* the Mac OS - but if I do, I have no experience using it so we could have problems

Thanks for the tip ... (and that is not sarcasm) I do know how to use google but it looks like those are just motherboards - not computers. I saw one on sale for about $300 and so we *might* be able to custom-build something but my boss really wants to go with a computer that somebody else built and comes with a warrantee and support. Also, it has to fit in a very small space, it has to play DVDs and run Windows (my boss says he won't go with anything but Windows) and it has to be "Stupid People Compatible" meaning no Virtual PC type tricks to get it to work, no Linux and just generally, your grandmother has to be able to use it without calling you on the phone every five minutes asking "What does this button do?" If I'm going to go with something other than the mac mini, it has to fulfill these same requirements (that I think the mac mini fulfills *IF* it will run Windows) and be the same price or cheaper / better in some signifigant, worth-cutting-into-our-profit-margin way. Also, I think I failed to specify that the thing needs to be able to play DVDs. I'm looking at setting up and selling a large number of these computers if I can get a definate solution together that fits in this little box we've kind of built around the idea. (as you can prolly tell, I'm stuck in a pretty small little "can't do this, can't do that" kind of box here)

No, I'm kind of in a box here - it has to run windows (and not as a virtual machine either) AND be stupid people compatible.

Yeah, if it were for me, that's what I'd do. However, it has to be "Stupid People Compatible" I will definately check out those other computer models that have been recommended here. Thanks - hak5 rox!! :)

I'm wanting to find out whether it's possible to put Windows XP on a mac mini and have it run with no problems, possibly using Boot Camp. The only reason I'm thinking of doing this is because this project needs to be a really small yet cheap computer and needs to run specific windows-only software. As far as I know, there is no close competitor to the mac mini in terms of size/cost, since the smallest thing I have heard of in the PC world is about twice the size of the mac mini. If I got Windows XP on there, would it run at all? Would it run reasonably fast? Would it still be able to watch DVDs or plug in USB devices and stuff? Would there be hardware/software/driver compatibility issues and if so, how could they be resolved? Has anyone ever tried this before?

I'm not talking about like the falling code screen savers - like i said, I've already got plenty of those I'm kinda talking about making an animation that just has green text on black, saying like, "USERNAME:" and there's be a blinking cursor, and it would look like somebody's typing, then "PASSWORD:" and ditto and then you know of course it would go on and look kinda like a telnet session or something only it's not real - i want to be able to make it say whatever i want it to, you know, and have all the letters stay in line and look like they're on a real computer screen and all. like the matrix script says, "a screen, so close that it has no boundaries"

i just started watching the show today and in episode 1 there was this green text in it that looks just like the Matrix and I'm wondering how you make videos of that because I can't ever seem to get it to work right. I've been trying to do it in Macromedia Flash but it takes forever and I can't seem to get the letters to all stay in line like they're supposed to. i must not be doing it right. what can i do? is there a program anywhere to help make little Matrix-like green text things happen? (other than the digital rain screensavers - I've got plenty of those, though mentioning your favorites wouldn't hurt I guess)