[dba-Tech] Using Dual Monitors

Dan,

My laptop has a 17" 1440 x 900 which is a very nice size / 
resolution for a laptop.

The new monitor, a Hanns-G HI-221 went on a one day sale on 
Newegg the other day for $199 including shipping.  I had to 
jump on that.

I have always been leery of getting a flat screen with those 
insanely high resolutions because the pixel size is so small 
that characters are tiny and stuff (at native resolution).

This one is 22" but the resolution of 1680 x 1050 just 
"feels" perfect.  I am getting old and my sight was never 
very good so I need a good character size at native 
resolution, without having to do the "translation" stuff 
that makes things all fuzzy.

Both my laptop and this new monitor fit that bill perfectly.

I find it extraordinary how easily the mind adapts to the 
extended desktop and the mouse moving off the page onto the 
next monitor.  It would probably be even nicer with two 
identical size (and positioned) screens.  My laptop is 
slightly smaller and sits on the desktop so it is slightly 
lower than the monitor.

The only issue so far is hitting the close button in the 
upper right of the laptop without the cursor moving off the 
screen to the right and on to the monitor.

All things considered, mighty fine!

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com


Dan Waters wrote:
> Hi John,
> 
> I'm using 2 ViewSonic 20" 1600 X 1200 monitors - and yes it's almost heaven!
> 
> Along with the monitors came a desktop control panel, with which I can
> select preferences for innumerable things I never even thought of.  But one
> of those is which monitor do I want the dialog boxes to show up on?  I can
> choose left, right, or whichever monitor has the cursor on it at the time.
> 
> By the way, yesterday I posted a reply to you about using an unbound
> auxiliary form to edit memo fields - I didn't see it arrive.  Do you
> remember it being posted?
> 
> Enjoy 2 monitors!
> Dan
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
> Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 8:37 AM
> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> Subject: [dba-Tech] Using Dual Monitors
> 
> I finally broke down and bought a 22" flat panel for a 
> second display, attached to my laptop and life is wonderful.
> 
> Except... little things still don't work quite as you might 
> expect.
> 
> Don't get me wrong, the situation has improved markedly 
> since the last time I tried this several years ago.  the 
> desktop extends to the second monitor without a hitch.  I 
> can just drag things over there and use them.  The mouse 
> cursor just slides between the two monitors quite intuitively.
> 
> The second monitor is just slightly higher resolution than 
> my laptop - 1440 x 900 for the laptop and 1680 x 1050 for 
> the second screen.  On a 22" screen the native character 
> size is just right, big enough to be seen easily by my aging 
> eyes.
> 
> But, little things.  Like remote desktop.  When I set it up 
> I set up the second monitor as the desktop extension.  I 
> remoted in to the client and the remote machine set up at 
> 1440 x 900 and all is well.
> 
> However I decided to move the "main" monitor to be the new 
> one.  Now remoting in tries to use the higher resolution on 
> the remote desktop and the remote desktop has slider bars. 
> What the heck over?  I tried switching back so that the 
> laptop is the main screen but the remote access still shows 
> sliders.  Sigh.  I do a LOT of remote access and this 
> (sliding around the desktop) is not going to fly.
> 
> Another "niggly issue", I set up the code to be on the new 
> (slightly bigger) monitor and the database container on the 
> laptop (smaller).  Works fine except that when I have edits 
> in multiple code windows and try to save the save dialog 
> comes up on the laptop (database window) rather than the new 
> monitor (code window).  I can drag the dialog over to the 
> monitor but the next time it opens up it is back on the lap top.
> 
> Just little problems like that.
> 
> I hate to sound ungrateful though, this really is a marked 
> improvement on a single monitor screen.
> 
>