Twice the desktop it used to be
This is something I've not tried since I was using Windows 98. Dual Monitor Desktops. Support in Windows XP seems to be a lot better and I should probably have done this a long time ago. I had all but forgotten about it until I found a link to an amazing looking setup on Joe Litton's site. No more than ten minutes later and I've slapped an old graphics adapter in to Dogger and I've got the setup below:
The flat panel is normally used to get to my servers via the KVM switch underneath it. Hence it spends most of its time idle. Not no more. Now I can use it to have an app always on show. Nice for something like Notes Administrator where you want to keep an eye on a Live Console session. It's also good for designing web sites and reminding yourself that most people need it to work at a 1024 resolution. Just move your browser over to the other monitor and Bob's your uncle. Well, he's my dad actually.
Notice anything else strange in the photo? Apart from my foot that is! Yep, the Bose MediaMate speakers. I finally got myself a pair, as reward for passing my exam. They are amazing. I've always been put off having speakers for my PC. It always looked like decent sound meant having 6 surround sound units and a bass-tube under the desk. No way, I've got enough cables already thanks. With the Bose speakers you get decent sound at a decent size. With the help of Bailey (far right of photo) I now have my whole CD collection at my fingertips, thanks to iTunes. Brilliant. No more having to get up to change CDs in my stereo. In theory I can sit for 10.6 days without having to move. Cool. I've got it in "shuffle" mode at the moment. I have no idea what's coming up next. Probably a song I didn't even know I had!
Remember when I first mentioned these speakers? Things are a little better but still far from perfect. They now have online shopping. Not sure how it works though. Five days after ordering I called them. Apparently they were having difficulty "downloading" orders for that day. I cancelled it and placed the order on the phone. So, just over a year after I first saw the advert, I now own myself a pair of decent PC speakers ;o)
Did you notice I've not said anything bad about Notes today? Well, it's not over yet. Lotus Notes' support for dual-monitors STINKS!! There you go.
Anyway, I'm off to Edinburgh for the weekend. Should be good as, embarrasingly, this is my first ever trip to Scotland. Tut tut. I blame my parents. They took me to Wales numerous times. Why not Scotland?
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First ever time !?!
You have made a good choice. Edinburgh rocks. I'm 120ish miles away from it but make an effort to go as often as I can.
Beautiful city and good night life ...
We're taking Karen's daughter to the zoo as her birthday treat. Not sure how much nightlife I'll get to see. Will go in to see the castle and whatnot though.
Got a few friends who live there so I might make it back there one day for a large one.
Went to Edinburgh on a lads golf trip, the night life is awesome. The 3 Sisters Bar is the one to go to. We got ourselves into a bit of an argument with the Holiday Inn as one of the lads, in an inebriated state, had an 'unexpected bowel movement' in his sleep!
About Notes support for dual monitors... what's with the properties box only showing on the main monitor (even if Notes is in the other window)and dialog lists popping up where you can't reach them? Is it any better in R6? I take it from your comments here that it's not.
Paul - Did you get away with it? I had a bit of a nightime water movement incident last weekend in a hotel in Derbyshire. It wasn't in the bed though, so I think I got away with it. It's amazing what you think the toilet looks like where you're in that state..
Chris - Not much better in R6. The properties box can get half way on to the second monitor. Notes must think it's about to be pushed off the side so it stops you going any further. The annoying thing is that ALL dialogs default to the main desktop and, even if you move them over, they don't remember next time.
Yes, we got away with it. They tried to charge 80 quid for the cleaning of the mattress. They took us to see it, not a clever sight! We told them to take us to court if they wanted the money. Not surprisingly, we never heard anything. Mind you, the lad who did it hasn't heard the last of it yet. If he ever gets married I think it's one for the best man's speech ;-)
Hence my reluctance to ever get married. I've been in some right states/situations. They should invent rentabestman.com where you get an actor to read a speech you've agreed to.
Could you imagine asking x number of people to take absence from work, to make up a jury, in order to decide whether a drunk owed a hotel 80 quid for following thru in his sleep! Quite an amusing thought isn't it.
I'm best man for my bro' in August. He's lived in Dubai for the last 5 years though so I don't get to know too many stories. Need to start my research soon.
Having spent the last two weeks changing diapers on our newborn, none of these stories strike me quite as off-color or disturbing as they would have before hand. All seems matter of course. I'm dying to know what Jake though a toilet looked like though. Someone had stopped on the e-way to let their 10ish lad think the berm was a toilet last week on the way to work... and I doubt he had the excuse you all have been using.
Notes dual monitor support is flawless. Just leave Notes on the main desktop. Everything else you do on your secondary. ;-)
Jerry. In my defense I was very, very, very drunk. Plus, I can't remember it so I'm not even sure it was me. Maybe it was Karen. Although how she could have aimed up on to the dressing table is beyond me... ;-)
This blog started off about Desktops, now we're back onto Desktops again by the sounds of it!!! ;-)
LOL. You're right Paul. If you don't hear from me for a while you can assume I've done the same to this desk ;o)
Good Work Jake, ... ever vom'd on your girlfriend while she is asleep when drunk.
Nope, but I'm guessing you have. Hope it wasn't on your honeymoon.
I once took a girl I had been seeing for about a week (remember Abigial from FDM? She came to one of Phil's parties with me!) to a ball in Ipswich to try and impress her. We woke up in the morning in our nice hotel and she turned to me to say "Ooh, you were sweaty last night" to which I replied "Well, no, actually...". I should have just agreed.
PS: To people reading this thinking I am an incontinent alcoholic. You are only half right. I can count the number of times this has happened on one hand, which isn't bad considering the number of times I've been that wasted.
I remember her! how long did it last after that?
Well, that was after a week or so and the relationship lasted about 6 months. I dumped her in the end. No, really. She violently took a magazine out of my hand to make me pay her some attention. It was the last bit of attention she ever got from me. Looking back I guess I was a bit of a toss-pot...
You should have just pee'd on her again!
I know a lad whose girlfriend came down the stairs in new robe and underwear and starting undressing to turn him on. He told her to get out of the way so he could see the TV. End of relationship.
LMAO
Somehow, in all my drunken youth, I never managed to be so drunk as to lose track of what I was loosing. Ofcourse, there were a couple of times when I did wake up sweaty... oof. what a recovered memory.
I think my biggest problem while drunk was always picking the lesb' in the room to decide to chat up... I had one year at college where this happened thrice. I got corrective lenses and stopped drinking so much afterward.
Jerry, if there were an Olympic event for getting in a state, the Brits would win hands down. Even over the Germans and the Aussies.
It's good to be good at something.
I can see my plan to retire to England and stay sober is in jeopardy.
Jerry. Great Britain is and always will be a drinking nation. Our whole culture is built around the pub.
Take our three most popular Soap Operas - Eastenders, Coronation St and Emmerdale. ALL based around pubs (Queen Vic, Rovers Return and The Woolpack respectively). It's just the way we are. It's not even about drowning sorrows or about escaping life. We just like to get pissed (drunk, not angry).
Not only do we like to get pissed but we have a tendency not to trust people who "don't drink". Don't know why...
Apologies for this site going all FHM for a while there. I like to think I'm more Esquire, but I have lapses!
@Jerry I'm using the dual monitor support built-in to my new Inspiron. Having Notes in the main window means that I'm developing on my laptop screen instead of on the 21' monitor. What I'd really like is to have designer on the big monitor and Browser/Notes/Help/SameTime on the laptop monitor. Being that it's a laptop, I haven't found a way to switch the main monitor to the external yet.
Which reminds me of something else. Most laptops with external monitor hookups (at least from Dell) support dual monitors. I've got it on my Inspiron and the Latitude from work.
Jake- You know, I've noticed here in the states a bit of that too, folks who drink (or smoke for that matter) as a habit of recreation tend to be discomforted when someone who doesn't do out of habit is around... maybe they figure someone is a spoiler and will be a drag on the spirit of the, er, spirits. ;-) What I find ironic is that some twisted [people] (like myself) enjoy staying sober and watching mates get pissed. :-D I have no rationale or explanation for it.
Chirs - If you have a chance, try this: I remember when I was playing around with dual monitor support, you can designate which monitor is the Primary. When you are in dual monitor mode, two monitors show up on the dual monitor tab on your desktop properties (at least, did with mine). You can click and drag them and designate the primary and the orientation of the desktop. Not sure how well this will work with a laptop as I did this with a desktop and two graphics adapters like Jake has done. Worth a shot, though.