Shopsmith Forums

One of the machines is a ME version without USB ports, the other an XP and they are attached to a bytlan keyboard-video switch. It has 4 ports but at present I use only two. I have a keyboard and a mouse and a old monitor plugged in and then switch between which PC I want to use. The ME machine is not on the net and I still use it for things like Quicken(2004) and not much else. The XP is more of a relic of my last system which I should just archive and part with. It is really seen better days and it is so slow because of all the baggage it has from years of use. If I were to clean it out and upgrade the software I guess it would be usable again but I don't have the motivation. I keep it around because I still find things I need on it but it gets used less and less.

I have another machine that hangs off the TV in the bedroom that is also a W10 machine and I have a workgroup setup share resources between the 3 machines on the lan.

I want a new laptop, my old one died and was parted with so I'm up for one of those and I am going to be upgrading my present system this fall.

I'll take a look at the program you mentioned it might be handy for some of the things I do. I'd like to have two monitors that I can share with the main system like Dusty mentioned. I can't do that at this point and it is something I'm looking forward to. (I have played with it but with TV as the second monitor but I have no place to have it here and if I do that then the bedroom has no TV....)

Ed

BuckeyeDennis wrote:

reible wrote:

dusty wrote:I also learned of a trick that has probably been there forever.

I work in fractions most of the time and whenever I wanted to see dimensions in decimal I had to select Model Info to have that option available to me. I accidentally learned today (just now) that I can select Model Info and then drag it to the second monitor and it is there in real-time.

That is interesting. I live in a one monitor world since I don't have room for a second monitor on my work table. Well I do but there is a monitor I share with two other PC's by way of a switch box. The other monitor is really old, one of the first viewsonic flat panels and very limited resolution. I want to ditch it but the PC's are old too and their video cards limit what I can attach monitor wise. When I upgrade my main system later this year I think I will retire both of those machines and get a new monitor that will allow me to use two monitors and share that monitor with this system and the new system. I'd like to go to higher resolution which this PC can already do but for the monitor so I guess I really need to upgrade both monitors.........

Anyway nice find!

Ed

Hey Ed, if you have multiple machines at the same workstation, you should check out Mouse Without Borders. It lets you control up to four machines with the same mouse and keyboard, and also do simple drag-and-drop file transfers between them. No switchbox required. I use it with my main Win7 desktop, an old XP machine I still use for video editing, and also my Win7 laptop as needed. It makes the three machines feel like one extended desktop.

reible wrote:One of the machines is a ME version without USB ports, the other an XP and they are attached to a bytlan keyboard-video switch. It has 4 ports but at present I use only two. I have a keyboard and a mouse and a old monitor plugged in and then switch between which PC I want to use. The ME machine is not on the net and I still use it for things like Quicken(2004) and not much else. The XP is more of a relic of my last system which I should just archive and part with. It is really seen better days and it is so slow because of all the baggage it has from years of use. If I were to clean it out and upgrade the software I guess it would be usable again but I don't have the motivation. I keep it around because I still find things I need on it but it gets used less and less.

I have another machine that hangs off the TV in the bedroom that is also a W10 machine and I have a workgroup setup share resources between the 3 machines on the lan.

I want a new laptop, my old one died and was parted with so I'm up for one of those and I am going to be upgrading my present system this fall.

I'll take a look at the program you mentioned it might be handy for some of the things I do. I'd like to have two monitors that I can share with the main system like Dusty mentioned. I can't do that at this point and it is something I'm looking forward to. (I have played with it but with TV as the second monitor but I have no place to have it here and if I do that then the bedroom has no TV....)

Ed

BuckeyeDennis wrote:
Hey Ed, if you have multiple machines at the same workstation, you should check out Mouse Without Borders. It lets you control up to four machines with the same mouse and keyboard, and also do simple drag-and-drop file transfers between them. No switchbox required. I use it with my main Win7 desktop, an old XP machine I still use for video editing, and also my Win7 laptop as needed. It makes the three machines feel like one extended desktop.

If you are looking at new hardware, the new 4k monitors are awesome. You can get a 28" 4k monitor for about $500. I just got a whole new system at work, fast laptop with SSD, docking station, and a 28" 4k monitor when at the desk. I can put two portrait-mode letter-sizes documents on it side by side, and it's as good as reading hard copy. That would be a B-size print to you.

I also upgraded the home desktop with an SSD a couple weeks ago, because the 7-year old hard drive was getting loud when seeking. Made it feel like a whole new machine. Load time is now "right now".

OK with the new build of windows10 on the other machine I had no issues doing the sketch up update, no having to be administrator or anything. At this point I will have to guess that it was a windows10 build issue. So ignore what I've said unless you have problems.

Ed

Mouse without borders is interesting. I have two machines up and running it and it does as they say it does. It does seem to have a lag when returning to the original screen or perhaps that had to do with traffic on the net(other PC was downloading the sketch up update).

So thank you for the introduction!

I might see if it will install on the ME machine, if it does then I can plug in the lan cable and play with it. I have my doubts that it will work but it will not hurt to try.

This is not really new as we did this years ago but with unix systems. Compact PCI processor cards in units with only lan connections and the machines booted over the net with a local back up copy on the HD and no keyboards or mice in site. PC access via samba. This was back around 2000 or just before. We had people from NJ working on machines in IL developing and testing code and running operations, all networked together with us locals.

Ed