A Dual View Of The iPad

This morning I read David Pogue's NY Times review of the Apple iPad with great interest, amusement, and to be quite honest, joy! What a refreshing take on a product review! David looks at the device from two perspectives and highlights the features and detractors from both points of view. You see, to many consumers this is a wondrous device that is going to change computing forever, but to the hardcore techie it's not that at all. So rather than attempting to reach out to either camp and offend the other, David has written a review for each. This might be viewed by some as a cop out, but to me it makes perfect sense. The way that I might want to use such a device, or the opinion that I might form of it after having it for a time, is quite likely vastly different than say, my wife's view. We are after all on opposite ends of the techie scale.

You be the judge... refreshing or the Switzerland of tech reviews?

Gadget Review

My home/home office is wired more than the average abode. We have four (4) pc's, a laptop, printer, scanner, Xbox 360, etc... all using a combination of wired and wireless connectivity to our home network. While many of these devices are scattered around the house, my small home office (12 x 8 feet approx. and not currently uncluttered enough to post a picture) holds a lot of gear. I never seem to have enough desk space and with two pc's, one for development and the other for testing, I was challenged to find a practical solution to accessing both machines without sacrificing more desk space or performance. I realize that in a networked world Remote Desktop is an option but I don't have the patience to suffer through the lag time... I know, I should slow down but it's not in my nature.



Enter the 2 port IOGEAR MiniView™ Micro PS/2 KVM Switch. This neat little switch provides the perfect home/office solution. It's small, responsive, and easy to setup and use. For those not familiar with these devices a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch allows you to connect a single keyboard, monitor, and mouse to be switched to any of a number of computers. In the case of the Miniview, 2 pc's to a single keyboard/monitor/mouse using the ps/2 style connections. Navigating between systems requires a simple double tap of the Scroll Lock key, there is also a monitor function which when engaged flips focus from one system to the other, though I have not personally found a practical use for this. I also considered another slightly more expensive KVM which came in a USB configuration and supported audio, but ultimately chose the Miniview as I don't anticipate audio being a requirement and didn't want to spend the extra cash.




The switch provides more desk space and saves the cost of multiple keyboards and monitors. For those unfamiliar with these devices, they are commonly used in IT departments where generally one user is accessing multiple servers from a single location. The commercial versions can control 8 or more devices and can cost in the thousands of dollars. Luckily for us the IOGEAR Miniview is under $100.00. According to their website the MSRV is $39.95 US, but I paid a bit more than that at the local big box retailer (should have checked the website first). View specification here.



Now you might ask why would I want two pc's? Well, consider this the next time you purchase a new system. Rather than giving the old clunker away, add it to your network as a file share . With no shortage of mp3 players and digital cameras all competing for storage space, an extra networked hard drive can be just the solution for backing up and sharing all those jpeg's and mp3 files! That sounds like a topic for another post...