Without fiddling with a Leopard installer’s disk image and throwing some stuff out, you’ll need at least an 8 Gb SD card to make a portable Leopard installation.

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Wasn’t that easy? Now all you need to do is wreck your internal disk so you’ll have a reason to boot from the SD! I’m kidding. And before anyone asks, no, you can’t boot a PC with this card.

The guys over at Computer Choppers are now offering a custom Mac Mini anodizing service, letting you really give your computer a new look. The great thing about the anodizing process is that it’s highly scratch resistant and doesn’t chip off like paint can, plus your machine keeps that great metal look that paints often cover up.

Colors run the gamut, including such lovelies as blood red, a sapphire-like deep blue and emerald-esque dark green among others. Exotics like a hard black, graphics, custom logos and even a camouflage finish are also available for an up-charge. Prices for the service start at $199 USD, and go up from there. For more information, contact Computer Choppers here.

While not running on official Apple hardware, the Hackintosh Jr. gets its looks from the big tower Macs, but at 5.5″ (h) x 7″ (w) x 5″ (d), it’s not much bigger than a Mac Mini (although it is quite a bit taller).

Modder Widefault (the same guy who gave us the Geiger Counter PC and the Lunchbox Firewall),  built the Hackintosh Jr. from hand-shaped mesh and sheet aluminum. At the heart of the Mac Hack Jr. is an Aaeon GENE-9310 sub-compact mobo, sporting an Intel Core Duo T2500 processor, 2 GB of RAM, integrated Wi-Fi connectivity and a 2.5″ Seagate Momentus hard drive.

Of course, when I first heard the name “Hackintosh Junior,” I thought that Widefault was talking about this system…

Mac modder Charles Mangin really did an amazing job seamlessly integrating Macs from both the 20th and 21st centuries. At first glance, the machine looks like a stock Mac Plus, but look closer and you’ll see all the detail work that Charles did, like adding a hidden Superdrive (from an iMac G5), a pair of USB ports underneath, as well as a third one tucked away behind a sliding door inside the floppy drive slot.

Thanks to improvements in miniaturization, all of the newer technology fit neatly inside the old case, leaving plenty of room to spare.

He even went so far as to swap out the innards of an old Mac ADB mouse with a modern optical USB one.

The Frankenstein’s monster of a machine is nicknamed “Marvin” after the paranoid robot Marvin from The Hitchikers’ Guide to the Galaxy. If you want to see more of how Marvin came to be, check out photos of  entire build over on Charles’ Flickr album. (The mouse mod is documented separately here).

Now all we need is to figure out a way to cram this whole thing inside a Commodore PET, and we’ll be all set.

[via MacMod]

The mutant offspring of an old G3 iMac and a VHS deck, Cory Baker’s iVHS casemod is one of the ugliest Mac designs I’ve ever seen. Heck, even the original iBook toilet seat design was more attractive.

I guess the only good news here is that this bastard child didn’t get its start as an actual iMac. Cory actually purchased an a la carte iMac motherboard off of eBay (for about 20 bucks) and modded it to fit into the case of his old VHS deck. With the addition of an ATX power supply, a few cables, a VGA connector and some electrical tape, this Frankenstein’s monster of a Macintosh was born.

At least he could have used a Betamax deck, couldn’t he?

All it took was a little orange paint for the “pumpkin”, and a JPEG viewer application for the face. This is the best use for old Macs since the original MacQuarium.

Got a great geeky holiday craft idea? Send us a tip!

[MAKE via Mike Ballan]

Apparently a computer shop had about twenty old Mac IIs and IIfx computers lying around gathering cobwebs and decided to build a sofa out of the technological dinosaurs.

Since each Mac II was originally designed to hold a heavy 20-inch CRT on top, the couch has no problem supporting the rear ends of numerous couch potatoes. Regardless, my ass hurts just looking at the thing.

[The BradLands via TechEBlog]

Now, Esslinger’s son, Marc, has put together a never before seen gallery of designs that Apple never released.

My personal favorite has gotta be the Phone Mac, complete with a touch-sensitive screen. Maybe that’s where they got the idea for the iPhone (although I thought this was.) The caption from the gallery even says that it was a collaboration with AT&T if you can believe it!

In addition to the Phone Mac, the gallery features a variety of interesting machines, including some wild early Macintosh and portable computer prototypes. There’s even a 1984 design for a wireless wrist communicator which wasn’t far off from predicting today’s technological marvels.

Be sure to hop on over to Fudder to check out the entire collection. You won’t be disappointed.

[via Ministry of Tech]

All of your favorites are there: the smiling computer, the watch, the paint bucket and the dreaded bomb among others. The cards come in a pack of 10 and are available from the MoMAstore for about $4 a pack.