Two screens are better than one
March 2, 2007
Last week I finally managed to obtain a dual monitor setup for my computer at work. Here is the beast:
I have been trying for a year or so to convince various persons at work that 2 screens are better than 1 and that I should get to try. Most stared at me in disbelief, more sensitive to the increased hardware cost than to the arguable efficiency boost. My problem was that my employer has a policy that all employees, whatever their profession, should have exactly the same standard computer setup, namely a compact desktop appliance built by Compaq (yes, it is that old). Those computers are not modifiable in any way that doesn't involve violence. And getting a different computer supporting dual monitors was not an option my employer could consider.
So I tried to solve the problem by myself. I purchased a number of video cards from ebay, with one or two VGA outputs, PCI/AGP... Only to conclude that my company's hardware (compaq evo) does not support any form of alteration of its default setup. All attempts ended up in either BIOS errors or undetected hardware.
Last week I lost patience, grabbed an abandoned workstation and installed Maxivista. It enables the second computer to act as a dual monitor to the first one by installing a virtual video card on the first one that streams screen data to the second. Now we are talking waste of hardware! Two complete computer setups and heavy bandwidth instead of just an additional screen... But that did the trick. And by the way, remember to connect the 2 computers on a close network segment, since the Maxivista protocol is clear text and you don't want peers sniffing your monitor...
The first day, having dual monitor felt strange. I had to move my head a lot more, and it took time to adjust the light, contrast and brightness to get a smooth sight feeling. The second day I had stopped thinking of the fact that I was facing 2 screens. And on the day after, I had to face it: I had become addicted.
Now I can't imagine having my emacs in any other way than in one large window spread across 2 screens and split into various sub windows showing files and shells...
My hope now is that I will make the other developers jealous enough to create sufficient momentum to trigger a company-wide hardware upgrade with real dual monitors as standard...
UPDATE: I wrote this entry in mars 2007. As of september 2008, at least 2 other developers had gone over to dual screen setups and my boss was setting aside budget to buy larger screens just for us developers. Obstinacy does pay back :)
I have been trying for a year or so to convince various persons at work that 2 screens are better than 1 and that I should get to try. Most stared at me in disbelief, more sensitive to the increased hardware cost than to the arguable efficiency boost. My problem was that my employer has a policy that all employees, whatever their profession, should have exactly the same standard computer setup, namely a compact desktop appliance built by Compaq (yes, it is that old). Those computers are not modifiable in any way that doesn't involve violence. And getting a different computer supporting dual monitors was not an option my employer could consider.
So I tried to solve the problem by myself. I purchased a number of video cards from ebay, with one or two VGA outputs, PCI/AGP... Only to conclude that my company's hardware (compaq evo) does not support any form of alteration of its default setup. All attempts ended up in either BIOS errors or undetected hardware.
Last week I lost patience, grabbed an abandoned workstation and installed Maxivista. It enables the second computer to act as a dual monitor to the first one by installing a virtual video card on the first one that streams screen data to the second. Now we are talking waste of hardware! Two complete computer setups and heavy bandwidth instead of just an additional screen... But that did the trick. And by the way, remember to connect the 2 computers on a close network segment, since the Maxivista protocol is clear text and you don't want peers sniffing your monitor...
The first day, having dual monitor felt strange. I had to move my head a lot more, and it took time to adjust the light, contrast and brightness to get a smooth sight feeling. The second day I had stopped thinking of the fact that I was facing 2 screens. And on the day after, I had to face it: I had become addicted.
Now I can't imagine having my emacs in any other way than in one large window spread across 2 screens and split into various sub windows showing files and shells...
My hope now is that I will make the other developers jealous enough to create sufficient momentum to trigger a company-wide hardware upgrade with real dual monitors as standard...
UPDATE: I wrote this entry in mars 2007. As of september 2008, at least 2 other developers had gone over to dual screen setups and my boss was setting aside budget to buy larger screens just for us developers. Obstinacy does pay back :)
