Visual Nomads

I have an older HP Pavilion d9600 in my bedroom as a Media Center. The 17″ screen seems to be ideal when paired with the docking station to elevate it an give some larger speakers. One problem I had was that I was having to use my phone as an alarm clock. After about a month of this I got tired of it and decided to find an alternative way using the PC.

There are many alarm clock solutions out there but I wanted something full of features. After trying 5 or 6 different solutions I found Atomic Alarm Clock v5.87 which did everything I needed. This software allows you to set multiple alarm clocks at any interval on any day. This was perfect for me since I work one set of hours Monday – Wednesday and another set of hours on Saturday and Sunday.

Key Features:

• I love being able to set any MP3 as the alarm (I use the beep.mp3 which comes with it)
• I also love the ability to gradually increase the volume until you turn it off. This makes for a better wakeup for me.
• Another feature I like is that it can launch any program when the alarm goes off.
• It will also wake up your computer from sleep/hybernate! Perfect for my power settings.

The Problem: The only problem I had with the program is that it normally becomes the focus window when the alarm goes off, but doesn’t take focus when Media Center is open. As a result I would have to minimize Media Center, then turn off the alarm. I wanted to be able to just hit the OK button on my remote to turn off the alarm. Since I always fall asleep to a TV show or movie (I have my Vista power settings set so that the computer will go to sleep after 1 hour and hibernate after 2) and have the alarm wake the machine up, I was sick and tired of minimizing Media Center.

The Solution: After googling for about 30 seconds I found the command to end a program. I set Atomic Alarm Clock to run tskill with a parameter of ehshell. Now when the alarm goes off, it closed Media Center for me and makes the alarm dialog the primary window. A quick fumble for the remote and a tap of the OK button and everything is perfect!

Click here to download it: Atomic Alarm Clock (99)

A few weeks ago I finally received my Dell Mini 9. After using it every day since then I found that it is perfect solution for what I need. Small, portable and powerful enough to run almost any application, it is the ideal solution for travel. When I bring it home however, I found my desk cluttered with multiple input devices (a keyboard/mouse for my primary computer and a keyboard/mouse for the Mini 9).

Looking around for a solution I came across many KVM switches which is what I am used to using at work. After looking for hours I was about to settle on the KVM swtich from SmartHome.com. Being the cheap bastard that I am, I kept digging for other solutions. Finally I came across several solutions similar to VPN.

With a few solutions at my disposal I finally decided to give Synergy a shot. After downloading a small 4 meg file and a quick 5 minute setup, I was able to use my primary computer’s keyboard and mouse on both the primary computer and my Mini 9 through my home network. Their website explains it better than I can…

Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It’s intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all. Learn more about how it works.

Basically I can set my Mini 9 next to my other computer (allows you to connect up to 4 different devices), connect to my wireless network and simulate another monitor on my primary computer. Best part? Its totally free! Give it a shot, let me know how you put it to use.