Mac Pro update
I still don't have a Mac Pro. (I do have a very nice 23-inch Cinema HD display, but I've never really understood the concept of hooking an external display up to a laptop. Do people just stick them off to one side as a secondary monitor? So beyond testing it out once, I haven't done that.) The Apple Store tells me it will ship by February 14, which is still two weeks away, and a full five weeks from placing the order. Still, given I barely avoided ordering an obsolete model, I'm not complaining.
I use dual display all the time because the laptop is my computer. I don't have a desktop computer.
ReplyDeleteSo when I'm at home, I plug in the IBM Model M and the LCD display and have the laptop off to one side as the system box.
But you know, the system box has this status screen. So turn it around a bit and plop on your Mail and IM and other things that you want to know about, but not by distracting you when you're thinking.
Then you can turn away from your desktop with IBM Model M keyboard, and glance every now and then at the status screen when you're good and ready. And you can really pay attention because you know you're not going to be interrupted by some shitty spam message.
Which happens all the bloody time when I'm using the laptop without the external monitor. And I have to admit I used dual screen desktop for years without discovering the benefits of a distinctly inferior second screen as a status indicator.
If the laptop screen really was nearly as good as the main screen, you'd be all fair and balanced and tempted to use it as the second screen. But a screen which is a different kind of screen is actually more useful.