From left: Super old 14inch LCD laptop, 22inch widescreen LCD, and 15.4inch widescreen laptop
For my final year project (FYP), I will need two computers because of the current FYP prototype. The previous FYP student designed the system to use a minimum of two computers. Therefore, to test and learn more about the system, I have modified my workstation setup by adding my sister’s old laptop to become a multi monitor, multi computer configuration.
To control the secondary laptop, I am using a program called Synergy which acts like a KVM switch through a network. With this open source program, I am able to control the other laptop with the same keyboard and mouse I use on my main laptop. To ’switch’ to the other laptop, I just need to move the mouse pointer to the other screen. I will write a short guide on this later.
My 22-inch widescreen monitor is connected to the laptop on the right and it acts as a primary monitor. On the other hand, my laptop’s LCD is set to become my secondary monitor. Both this screens share the same desktop space. Therefore, I can drag windows from one screen to another.
Due to space constraint, I was not able to place the screens side by side. However, in my hostel room in university, I have managed to place the screens closer to each other.
During the Malaysian General Elections 08, I was glued to my computer from morning to night. Although I was in Singapore, I managed to get up to date information of the elections. This is because I was running 3 streaming channels (TV1, TV3 and Channel News Asia) on my laptop’s screen and was constantly refreshing MalaysiaKini.com on my primary screen.
This would not be possible without my multi monitor setup


