No student should go without (at least) two monitors
Summary: Forget that I'm a journalist for a moment, because no matter how much I try, I'm a student first until I finish my doctorate. I have recently discovered the joy of having dual monitors and my life has never been as sweet as a result.
Forget that I'm a journalist for a moment, because no matter how much I try, I'm a student first until I finish my doctorate. I have recently discovered the joy of having dual monitors and my life has never been as sweet as a result.
For the life of me, I cannot see how I survived before. As most of my lectures are recorded, I can download them from the university virtual learning environment, watch on one screen and write my notes live on the other; sitting with a cup of tea in my hand and without the need to change out of my pyjamas.
Just the fact of having an extra desktop gives me and any student, theoretically, the space to multitask and work effectively. Lifehacker reports research conducted by Jon Peddie shows the leap in productivity by 20-30%.
As I have added a TV tuner card to my main desktop, I can now have my main viewing channel, BBC News, running on one desktop to give me a constant stream of news and worldly-goings-on, and work happily on something separate on the other machine.
Speaking to a dear friend of mine, Bryant Zadegan of AeroXP, he got me thinking about Windows 7 and Aero Snap, the new feature which snaps windows to the sides of your screen. If you don't have a dual-monitor setup, having a widescreen display can allow you to pretty much have the same experience.
You'd be surprised as to how much more productive you can be with an extra bit of desktop space. Your thoughts? Do you need a dual-monitor setup? Is widescreen for you and nothing more? TalkBack and share your thoughts.
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
Two monitors
We use a cad program, Bentley Microstation, and our users have the drawing open on one screen and the tools on the other.
If we tried to remove one monitor now that they've been with two for some time, it wouldn't be pretty!!
RE: No student should go without (at least) two monitors
RE: No student should go without (at least) two monitors
Why stop at two?
Screen space is a resource like any other, and there's only so much you can pay attention to at any given time -- but context preservation at least reduces the context-switching overhead.
Why Stop at two?
John
jwlarmond@yahoo.com
Been that way for me since DOS days
When Windows 98 came along, it was easy for anyone to do it.
RE: No student should go without (at least) two monitors
You have to have a 24" widescreen to get at least 1200 pixels screen height.
Everybody always says but '24" is so big'. But that's BS, a 24" widescreen is the same height (physically & in pixels) as a 21" CRT
Depends on the LCD...
RE: No student should go without (at least) two monitors
It is totaly awesome.
RE: No student should go without (at least) two monitors
now and it's a huge productivity boost. (actually I have
three - two on my main work machine, and one on an
older machine I use primarily as a mail server) Recently, I
moved office from the far corner of the building to an
office right next to the boss. Originally he mocked my
"mission control" set up. But after watching me work, the
secretaries started bugging him for second monitors. He's
recently added a second one - and now some of the other
senior scientists are doing the same. It's not a case of
"monkey see, monkey do" - I've been doing the mission
control thing for years. It's a case of suddenly realizing the
significant productivity boost you gain.
cheers, Mark
Since my college days
RE: No student should go without (at least) two monitors
RE: No student should go without (at least) two monitors
Watching 2 porn movies at once
Seriously, why the hell would a student need 2 monitors when they hardly use 1 for the right reasons??
At work is another story ... specially when you must multi-task between email, word, special apps, a command console and wasting time answering idiots who like using MS Communicator (the new corporate big-brother).
RE: No student should go without (at least) two monitors
Yea sure, all students need two monitors and someone to hold their hand as they walk around campus and someone to wipe their bums too.
Finally tution should be free for them too!
Did you get paid to pen todays article, just wondering?
Cheers'
Dave
prefer one widescreen
but I have two regular desks (work office & home office) and I move my ultralight notebook between them almost daily. Each has the equivalent of a desktop docking setup. Widescreen is a good second best to dual monitors ... so why not duals at each desk? Because I said *almost* daily. I also travel a lot by air and have to use only the notebook's widescreen when on the go. It is just too blamed hard for me to mentally adjust back to only one screen. So it's widescreen all around for me.
RE: No student should go without (at least) two monitors
RE: No student should go without (at least) two monitors
It might interest wackoae to know how useful it is to be able to have a document open for the main essay (for even CS students have to do some writing), another for links and references, a third for brief notes/the set questions, and a browser window. That's why a student needs two monitors. Desks in halls just aren't big enough for thirty handouts and scrawlings on notepads.
If you're feeling lonely, Davecason, then you can wipe my arse for me.