Why run a family pictures website, DNS or any other low CPU-use server on power-hungry Intel-based hardware when an AppleTV2 does the trick? The folks at MacMinivault.com have set up a webpage on a AppleTV 2 (go ahead, try to take it down) jailbroken with httpd as an example of what can be served off of the little 6 watt, A4-powered dynamo. Put 10 of these together and you’ll be using the same power as a single 60 Watt light bulb.
They say this won’t be a cost effective solution for their customers (8 GB of storage won’t cut it) but is a ‘fun experiment.’
What’s interesting is that Apple likely has an dual core A5-platform AppleTV coming out shortly which may push a little more into the Intel server space. Perhaps more interesting is that the A5 chips could also make nifty little ChromeOS-busting terminals or even cheaper laptops.
If you want to create your own little AppleTV 2 server, they recommend the following:
Apple to launch iOS-powered TV display this fall? (9to5mac.com)
ARM to dominate mobile PC market by 2015, says president (9to5mac.com)
SSH in and change the root password
Use apt-cache and apt-get to find and install lighttpd
Use SFTP to upload a /etc/lighttpd.conf config file for lighttpd
Within /usr/sbin/ run lighttpd-angel -f /etc/lighttpd.conf to start lighttpd
Write a plist file in /Library/LaunchDaemons to launch lighttpd on boot
