NERDS!!!!
Published 7.18.2008 by ~mattg
As I mentioned in my last twitter post, I’ve moved into the realm of uber-nerd. I’ll do my best to explain how and why that is.
A few months ago I started working from home 4 days a week. In an effort to keep myself from getting carpal tunnel from typing on a laptop keyboard, I searched for a way to share my desktop keyboard/mouse (an MS wireless desktop) with my home PC and my work laptop. I researched various KVMs, but found that I didn’t really need one. I have two Dell LCD monitors, each of which has a DVI and VGA input and the capability to switch between the two (using a little button on the monitor). As I was searching around, I found Synergy, which solved the problem of keyboard and mouse sharing. So, by simply moving the mouse off the bottom edge of the screen, I magically moved to the laptop. Top of the laptop took me back to my home PC. My video configuration was like this: my home PC used the DVI on one monitor and the VGA on the other, and my laptop output (which I use to extend the desktop) went to the unused VGA port. At any given time I can dual screen one of the PCs.
My wife was recently forced to purchase a new machine through work. That meant my old PII linux server was out of a job. Given that I have a lot more power on my new Linux box, I thought it might be nice to actually install a GUI and use the thing. That’s fine, but I don’t have room on my desk for another keyboard/mouse. Synergy and DVI to the rescue!
I just happened to have an old video card with a DVI output lying around. I tossed that into my new linux server and viola, all four ports on my two monitors are hooked up to something. Synergy runs on the Linux box, and all of a sudden, I can move my mouse from my Linux server to my home PC to my work laptop in no time flat.
That’s right, I’m a nerd.
Filed under Networking
