My UP Baguio Computer

I'll never have a setup as nice as this:



Yes, its three monitors. A center 19" with flanking 17" monitors.

Well, its not really a single computer. The middle and right monitors are attached to a single computer (twinview in X11, 2560x1024 resolution), and the left monitor on a separate system.

Why only one keyboard and mouse? Well, a friend of mine found a nifty opensource project on Sourceforge called Synergy which allows a single keyboard and mouse to be shared across three computers via the network. And it doesnt have to be just linux, my friend's setup is a linux computer + a windows computer + an iBook laptop. In fact, my own computer has a 4th monitor attached to a WinXP computer a few desks away.

And the configuration is so simple! Take a look at my synergy configuration file:

section: screens
    amuyao:
    amihan:
    habagat:
end
section: links
    amuyao:
        right = amihan
        left = habagat
    amihan:
    left = amuyao
    habagat:
        right = amuyao
end

(amuyao is a mountain in the cordilleras, amihan is the northeastern monsoon, habagat is the southwestern monsoon, so its like west, mountain, east)

To basically access another computer, all you have to do is move your mouse pointer to that computer. Of course you cant drag applications across computers, but you do have a shared clipboard.

Why do this? Well, aside from the answer because i can ;), my thesis involves distributed computing. So instead of physically getting off my seat to program on a remote computer, i just push their monitors together, configure synergy, and just move the mouse to work on the other computer!

Just two more shots, for anime fans out there, here's my themed wallpaper, the three Rayearth girls.



And of course, nothing beats the absolute coolness of my screensaver. ^_^