Tuesday, August 29, 2000
The Video Switch Yard
I spent the better part of the day reorganizing the Computer Room so I could use the Belkin Omni View Pro John the paper millionaire of a dotcom gave me yesturday. Heck, I'm still cleaning up.
So far I have three machines hooked up to it—my primary Linux
machine linus,
the network monitor area51
and the
Windows box, killjoy.
It works great but there are a few
gotchas I've come across.
The first is that it will work without being plugged in, but to actually drive the monitor you need the Belkin unit plugged in. Makes sense, in that there is probably a simple embeded system in it to generate the menus and allow you to switch consoles via the keyboard.
The other glitch involves the Logitech trackball I use. With it plugged into the Belkin, the Windows box works fine, but the Linux system doesn't see the mouse at all. Annoying but everything else works wonderfully.
So I have two mice next to the keyboard—the Logitech plugged directly into the Linux system, and a regular mouse plugged into the Belkin (for the Windows system right now).
My roommate Rob is seriously considering getting one. I think he's jealous.