[clue-tech] two monitors - the new fad

[Nate Duehr]

Ditto almost all of what everyone else said.  I'm getting very used  
to having two monitors (LCD if possible!) for desktop machines.

I find another thing fairly true about my use of dual-monitors when I  
have them (since I don't always, much of my time I'm on a laptop of  
one sort or another) -- I tend to use the second monitor as a  
"dumping ground" for either:

a) Things that I want to keep open like e-mail but don't want to  
focus on right at the moment, including the usual three to four IM  
sessions on-going throughout the day.

b) Things that I opened to remember to do something with or about  
them, but am putting off until later in the day.  Usually including  
the Outlook to-do/task list at work... just something there to remind  
me "what's next" and "what's quick to deal with but not a priority  
right now".

c) Monitoring software/applications.

d) Long-running compiles, scripts, or other "stuff" that's going to  
take a while that I don't really need to pay attention to.  (On the  
laptops I tend to use "screen" for this, but it's a toss-up on a  
desktop machine with plenty of screen real-estate.  Sometimes my  
fingers remember to type "screen", other times they don't.  Kinda  
depends on how much "mousing" I'm doing at the time.  I try to learn  
to keep my hands on the keyboard and use keyboard shortcuts for lots  
of things.  One hyper-annoying problem with OSX "Tiger" is the change  
Apple made to Mail.App where it no longer has a "read next message"  
hot key.  I just whack the spacebar in Thunderbird to make my way  
through all the new messages in 50 or more folders, already pre- 
sorted by the mail server using Maildir under the hood and IMAP to  
the client.)

e) Virtual machines - VMWare Player (or whatever version) to fire up  
local virtual machines for various things, and/or a centalized  
virtual server we use for logging into customer's VPN's.  Those  
usually get a complete screen, leaving the other for "local" things.

Comments for some folks:

Zonker: The IBM T43's have dual-monitor support... it's great.  Add  
the docking station and a monitor, and their USB keyboard and mouse.   
They even support NumLock turned ON on the big external keyboard and  
OFF on the laptop keyboard in case you cross-over between the two  
accidentally via a recent BIOS update!  I thought that was nifty, and  
haven't seen any other laptop manufacturer's doing that trick (yet).

Someone mentioned some of the software that allows you to share a  
mouse/keyboard with multiple OS's -- but I've forgotten the name.   
Are any of them supporting OSX?

It would be nifty to use the work laptop/desktop (the above-mentioned  
T43 in a docking station) with two monitors and then slide on over to  
the personal Mac laptop's screen without switching keyboard/mouse  
when they're all on the same LAN.  Could even be used other LAN's  
pretty effectively I suppose, too.  :-)

Nate