It's official. The world loves the Mac Mini (although I still can't justify one). Here are some of this past weeks stories:

Mac mini: ìa Slick Little Budget Computerî
Edward Baig writes for USA Today, ìIt [Mac mini] resembles a coaster on steroids ó or a container for Wonder Bread. The familiar Apple logo is the only obvious sign that the handsome 2-inch-tall, white-with-silver-trim, square box on my desk is a different sort of wonder.î [Source: Apple Hot News, Jan 27, 2005]

KVM Switch
In response to a readerís question of whether thereís a way to share a single monitor, keyboard and mouse between a Mac mini and a Windows PC, Walt Mossberg writes in the Wall Street Journal, ìYes. Itís called a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch, and it allows you to run two or more different computers from the same monitor, keyboard and mouse, switching between or among the computers at will.î [Source: Apple Hot News, Jan 27, 2005]

A Small, Silent Desktop
PC Magazine reviews the Mac mini, concluding, ìThe Apple Mac mini makes an attractive entry point for the Windows-to-Mac switcher, the Mac user who needs an upgrade from a pre-1-GHz Mac, or the user on a budget who wants a small, silent desktop with a really cool design.î [Source: Apple Hot News, Jan 25, 2005]

Mac mini sales looking good
The first signs of success for the Mac mini already appear on the web this week, as Amazon and AppleStore web sites show good ranks for the new Mac. [Source: MacOSXRumors]

Merrill Lynch: Best Buy to sell Mac mini
Best Buy may soon begin to sell Mac minis in at least some of its stores, Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich said in a research note on Friday... [Source: MacMinute]

AP: Mac mini is the 'right computer for our times'
Associated Press technology writer Matthew Fordahl is the latest to give Apple's new Mac mini a glowing review... [Source: MacMinute]

Will Mac Mini spur petite-PC revolution?
CNET News.com's John Spooner says that PC makers are closely following consumer interest in Apple's Mac mini, hoping to piggyback on its success if sales are good... [Source: MacMinute]

Mac mini leads Windows switch - stock is short
If making users switch is part of the plan, Apple's new Mac mini is accomplishing its mission.

If you have a Mac, you've used Expose. MouseposÈ is something similar, except that its purpose is to show you (or someone you're demonstrating something to) where the mouse pointer is. Or more properly, an area of focus around the mouse pointer.

This is great for demonstrations, explanations or when you've lost the mouse cursor yourself :-) It also reduces the number of smudged fingerprints on your screen.

MouseposÈ is free (with a free registration required) and is available at Boinx Software.

I ended up following the MacWorld Keynote address via the MacScoop low-bandwidth feed, which was sufficient enough to get the facts as they rolled in. Sufficient enough, in fact, for a colleague sitting next to me to try ordering an iPod Shuffle as soon as the words "ships today" appeared on the screen. He didn't have any luck since it seems that at least a million other people were trying to do the same thing. The online store appears to be up now though.

I have to say, I think the premise of the iPod Shuffle is good. The idea of random selections of songs out of your music collection works for me - this is generally how I listen to music anyways. If I manually create playlists they always seem to contain the same set of songs :-)

The Mac Mini looks good too. A little underpowered in the video card department, but a good entry level unit. And...wow...is it ever small. I know a number of people who've been thinking of switching from Windows systems and this will probably push them into it.

The only thing I was disappointed about: I was hoping for bumped PowerBook specs - I'd like to upgrade to a 15", and now I'm going to have to wait until the rumoured speed-bumps come true...

Lots of pictures and witty repartee at my favorite technology site, Gizmodo

I've just finished upgrading the motherboard in my PC (an ASRock K8 Combo-Z board, which is cool in that it has both a Socket 754 and 939). Predictably, in doing so I crossed the critical threshold which causes every bit of software I own to require "re-activation".

I wasn't too worried about this because I've actually bought all of the packages. And, in fact, I haven't had any problems except for the Media Center Extender for Xbox.

Each time I tried to reactive Media Center Extender, I received the highly informative "Error 45080", and instructions to call a toll-free number for re-activation.

OK, so I finally had a few minutes to do this. After reading off the 9 groups of numbers to a machine, I was told that there was a problem. I was transferred to a human who, after I again read off the 9 groups of numbers (several times, with a reboot in between), told me there was a problem and the code was invalid.

Right. So I know this is valid, because I've got the disk. The human on the phone gives up and transfers me to technical support. After a few minutes, I'm disconnected because "all lines are busy".

Rather than going through the 30 minute process again, I decide to try an uninstall and reinstall of Media Center Extender for Xbox on the theory that the code that it's showing, which I need to give to customer support, is somehow referencing the old hardware configuration.

Voila, this time the Internet based re-activation works fine and I'm done. No need even to phone back to customer support, which suits me just fine.