[ale] Seeking horror/success stories & trends for double monitor setup

[Robert Reese]

Hello Tom,

Saturday, March 9, 2013, 6:39:28 PM, you wrote:

> My goal is to set up a system with enough screen real estate to do online
> grading of scanned papers, hold virtual office hours with a video chat
> system (nobody shows up, but the school expects such and will check) 
> without covering that up so I miss people, and hopefully be able to page
> back and forth through the key. All of this in a big enough format so old
> age eyes can see well enough to stay focused on the job and not on the
> navigation.
...
> I have a system which needs full
> replacement (power supply, motherboard, video card(s), hard disk, and 
> probably a double arm load of USB ports), so I'd like to do it well. I
> turn to the group to get a  handle on what stuff makes adequate sense for
> an adjunct instructor. I'm not looking for exact specs, but I am 
> looking for ideas to implement for success and ideas to avoid for success.
> The time frame is at least a month and a half out - possibly longer.

I use a Lenovo IdeaPad Y570/G570 laptop and a 24" 1920x1080p Asus LED LCD monitor via HDMI.  It's a 16" i7 with dual video cards, though under Ubuntu Linux it doesn't switch between them like Windows does.  I have it sitting on my desk to the right of my monitor; my eyes aren't much younger than yours, I presume, and find the 24" monitor indispensible.  The laptop has decent speakers, though I prefer a set of desktop speakers, an excellent built-in video camera, and stereo mics.  Yes, it has a full-size keyboard with number pad, but on my desk I simply plugged in a USB hub with keyboard and mouse plugged into that.  

Since the laptop is off to my right, I only keep things there I need to have open and accessible, but need to not worry about.  My main focus is the large monitor.  For you, that would be the ideal screen for the video chat and some other stuff you need to have accessible but infrequently use, or use as a side-by-side system.  

I use both Windows 7 x64 and Ubuntu Studio (Ubuntu 12.10) 64-bit, and while it is admittedly much easier on Windows, I successfully use this same setup on Linux.  To be certain, it doesn't always remember what I set it to, but it only takes a moment to correct the screens and have them set up the way I want.

The laptop can be had for about $600 and the monitor is about $150; Lenovo constantly has sales, and this model is already pretty outdated, so you might luck up on a good sale price.  Naturally, other manufacturers offer similar products; I'm just giving you a "this is known to work" scenario.  The hub, keyboard, mouse, and speakers you probably already have.  I love that I can shut down the computer, unplug everything (USB hub, printer, HDMI, speakers, and power) and have the laptop and the power cord in the bag in about 30 seconds.  Reverse set up takes a moment longer, but I still can be computing from bag to ready-state in less than two minutes.  Also, you will have no need to transfer documents, etc. from one machine to another since you're using the same machine at the desk as well as when you're away from your desk.

One last thing: Get a referral for Dropbox if you don't already have one (if you sign up for Dropbox without a referral, you lose 500MB free bonus storage).  IIRC, if you sign up using your .edu email address, they double the bonus storage they give for using referrals and giving them.  There are several great things about Dropbox, including the ability to have your students have a personal shared folder with you for submissions back and forth.  However, it allows you to have virtual backups of files inside the Dropbox folder, in case something happens like damage, theft, etc., as well as access to the files as long as you have access to a machine with internet access and you remember your account login details.  Ask fellow faculty members for a referral code if they have one for you.  The advantage is that both of you earn 500MB bonus storage.  Then, follow the tutorials (about 15 minutes) and you'll gain another 250MB bonus.  If you use an iPhone or Android, you can download the Dropbox app and tell it to automatically sync your photos and videos to the Dropbox account.  Dropbox will automatically increase the size of your acoount - up to 3GB free - when you automatically save the photos and videos.  Feel free to move them from Dropbox onto your computer to free up space, and don't worry about the size of the account being reduced because it won't.

YMMV, but I'm happy enough.

Good luck,
Robert~