I hate KVM switches. They are expensive and under-featured. Occasionally, they lose their minds and my mouse goes all wonky. The tangled web of cables beneath my desk would make a tuna net jealous.
I like Synergy. It makes sense to use the LAN for low bandwidth stuff. The flexibility of a software solution enables neat tricks like clipboard synchronization, simultaneous desktop locking, etc.
This begs the question: is it possible to do 100% of this stuff over the LAN? Alas, I fear the answer is no.
Gigabit Ethernet = 1 Gb/s = 125 MB/s
1600×1200x24bpp = 5.5 MB * 30 fps = 164 MB/s (conservative)
Yes, 10Gb Ethernet exists, but what will you buy first: new network hardware, or a 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display?
Yes, one could employ VNC, or some fancy X forwarding, or RDP. Fun experiment: try playing WoW like this.
If I was a hardware hacker, I would design a box with a bunch of DVI ports. I’d skip PS2 or USB entirely, and instead ship with a copy of Synergy. My gizmo would also sport one Ethernet port, and a simple open protocol with messages like connect port X to port Y.
Come to think of it, this gizmo could actually be built into the monitors themselves. Talk about value-add. Please Apple, hear my cry. Put 4 DVI inputs on your monitor and make it software switchable over Ethernet. (Oh, and advertise the protocol over Bonjour, thanx.)
The Microsoft Symbol Server is a great boon for debugging on Windows. Here’s a neat way to create a local symbol cache so that your debuggers launch more quickly.
First, make a share on each of your machines for a local symbol cache. Your username will need write permission to this location.
net share sym$=%SystemDrive%\\sym /GRANT:%USERNAME%,FULL
Next, elect one machine, perhaps a beefy server, to be the LAN master cache and set the following environment variable on every box:
set _NT_SYMBOL_PATH = ^
srv*\\\\127.0.0.1\\sym$* ^
\\\\localserver\\sym$* ^
http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
You’ll want to adjust the line above in case you use a share other than sym$ or a LAN master cache other than localserver.
Now, when a debugger wants a new pdb he’ll use the following search order:
- Local sym$ share
- \\localserver\sym$
- The Microsoft Symbol Server
When the debugger fetches a PBD from an upstream source, he’ll replicate it downstream (official details here). After a few debug sessions, you’ll have a nice big local PDB repository and your debugger will load much faster.
This works on all the Microsoft debuggers: cdb, ntsd, windbg, kd and even Visual Studio.
(credit to Mark Lacey for this tip)
This commmand will boost playback speed by 1.5x, without changing pitch (quite useful for lectures):
mplayer -speed 1.5 -af ladspa=tap_pitch:tap_pitch:0:-33:-90:0 foo.avi
This version will slow playback by half, again without affecting pitch. I find this helpful when learning guitar licks from video:
mplayer -speed 0.5 -af ladspa=tap_pitch:tap_pitch:0:100:-90:0 foo.avi
This requires the pitch shifter from Tom’s LADSPA Plugins (apt-get install tap-plugins).
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