Open Source Software KVM (KM Actually)

I just bought a Black Friday Dell special.  I bought the Inspiron 530s with an Intel Pentium Conroe Dual Core Processor E2200(2.2GHz, 800FSB) with 1MB cache, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz, 320GB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive (7200RPM), FREE Shipping & Handling all for $299!

I was shopping around for an upgrade to my current 2 port KVM (which connects my MacMini and eMachine T5212 but was kind of stumped since the new Dell is a USB keyboard/mouse rig and I currently am old school with the keyboard/mouse KVM.  My problems vanished when I discovered this gem called Synergy.

Synergy is an open source software KM solution which allows you to share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without any special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all.  I can't wait for my new Dell to arrive to set this thiing up.  I also plan to drop it onto my MythTV set-up which is connected to my 42" LCD.

YODM3D: Yet anOther Desktop Manager 3D

For the past several weeks I have been pining for a Beryl like desktop manager for Windows. I am happy to report that I have been successfully using (without a single issue) a program called Yod'm 3D which is short for Yet anOther Desktop Manager 3D.

Yod'm 3D is a virtual desktop manager available for Windows 2000, XP and Vista. It is notably the first program to offer a cube-style virtual desktop management feature on Windows operating systems.


Vista3D effects with Yodm3D & Madotate3D & MyExposé & Flip3D

It offers a "cube-effect" when switching between virtual desktops. It's the first desktop manager that makes this feature available on Microsoft Windows. Yod'm 3D makes use of and requires DirectX 9 in contrast to most other virtual desktop managers that use OpenGL. One of the best parts is it does not require installation to run so pick it u, drop and go.

Yodm3d 1.4 is the last free version and its hosted by KLT.

Groovy and iText

Since first installing Groovy on my eee PC many new eee PCs have been released by ASUS (900 & 1000 models with larger screens, ATOM processors, larger memory, and XP! -- I though ms discontinued selling XP). In the meantime I've been coding with Groovy and have been loving the productivity. Java is once again new and fun and easy to crank out scripts that help automate tasks.
I haven't dived into Grails fully yet but I've been keeping up by listening to the Groovy and Grails Podcast (up to episode 72 as of the writing of this blog entry).

I've also been using a great (Free) Java-PDF library called iText to help me to work with PDFs in Java. If you need to do anything with PDFs (create and generate, split, concatenate, manipulate, bookmark, you name it) I recommend you check this tiny library out. Start with the tutorial and have fun.