It’s been a while since I have used a “stable” software which almost made me tear my hair out! As good as the concept of Synergy is the execution could have been better. All credit to the software and it’s contributors/team for making it usable.

Synergy is a software that allows more than one machine share a keyboard and mouse. Just like having multiple monitors the mouse cursor will scroll off the edge of one computer say the desktop and onto the other like a laptop.

Features

The best way to describe Synergy is the pictures from their website:

The software is cross platform so the keyboard and mouse can be shared with Windows, Linux and Mac computer all at the same time. In this post however I will be setting it up with 2 Windows machines.

Synergy also can share clipboards too so copying from computer A can be pasted on computer B.

The software uses the server-client model so the computer with the keyboard and mouse that is to be shared runs as the server and all remaining computers are classed as clients. If a client has a connected keyboard and mouse, it can still operate them independently of the server but the client keyboard and mouse cannot control the server – it’s a one way thing.

I will be using the Synergy setup as the example where The server is in the middle and 2 clients are either side of it.

Windows Server

Download and install the Synergy software. At the time I opted for the stable version which was 1.3.6. There are 32 and 64 bit versions so install the correct one for server. Clients can have different bit version to the software and vice-versa.

Once installed, start the software and a very basic window should appear. Change the selection option from Use another computer’s shared keyboard and mouse (client) to Share this computer’s keyboard and mouse (server).

Click on the Configure… button to open up a new dialogue box. This window sets the computers (monitors really) and their orientation. First, add the server computer to top list using the + button. It is recommended the Screen Name should be the same as the computer name found in (My) Computer > (right click) Properties and the Computer name: is the name of the computer.

Leave Aliases as blank (empty).

Leave Options as all unticked and only tick them if there are issues with the stated keys.

Leave Modifiers as is or change according to preference. This may be useful for different operating systems.

Dead Corners prevents the cursor from jumping from one screen to the next. This may happen when using features such as expose on the Mac where moving the mouse to a designated corner will trigger something. Leave this unticked for now.

The next step is to link the computers together. This tells Synergy how the computers are positioned and which computer to go to when the mouse moves to the edge. It can be confusing at first but it means the screens can be linked in a series or in a circle. Always leaving the % of the screen unless the screens are very different. Working from left to right Select right, Client1, Server in the dropdown boxes. The line should read something along the lines of “of the right (part of the screen) of Client1 goes to Server“ so the right edge on Client one links to the Server. Click the + button below to add the link and ready for a new link.

Add the following to join the server to client1, server to client2 and client 2 to server (see above screenshot).

Click OK to close the dialogue box.

Click on the Advanced… button. This is where you specify which screen belongs to this computer. In this case the screen name should be Server. Either change or note down the Port and ensure it is open on the computer. Click OK to save and close.

Next is to register the program to start automatically by clicking on the AutoStart… button. Read and chose the relevant startup option preferred. I would leave it turned off for now because enabling it stopped it from working. It can be uninstalled but it does required Synergy to be restarted (don’t know why it can’t start the server). Close the dialogue box after.

Don’t bother with Test because it was broken I tried it. Go straight to Start button and the server is up and running if there is the Synergy icon in the tray.

Windows Client

Startup Synergy but this time leave it on User another computer’s shared keyboard and mouse (client) and enter the IP or computer name of the server machine.

Click on the Advanced… button and enter the screen associated with the client. So on Client 1 enter Client1 and Client 2 should be Client2.

Next click Start and it should be connected to the server!

Limitations

It’s mainly nice to have features but it’s still worth noting that:

• Clipboard can only share text. I tried images to files but it did not work.
• Dragging files from one screen/computer to another fails. It prevents the cursor from jumping screens whilst dragging something.
• Synergy doesn’t work when the computer is locked. I don’t have a problem with this limitation on security grounds. This also applies to the first login of each computer.
• High system usage / process freezes prevents the mouse from moving to the other computers. This is reasonable limitation because Synergy does not have enough resources to process the mouse move.
• Network Dependent – If the network is down, then the software will not be able to communicate with each other. This may also apply to unstable networks.

Problems

The UI can be confusing. For example I created a link for a computer, pressed the + button to add another and then OK’d it only to find it does not added it to the list unless you press the + button. Trying to remove a computer screen from the list caused Synergy to crash only to find it restoring to the last successful state. I am now confused as to how to remove them! Also the computer the aliases must match the ones typed on the server or it will error out.

A major issue I had with it was the Test function. Every time I tried it, it would either crash or complain it could not connect depending if it was the server or client. This made me go round and round trying different things only to find pressing start on client and server just worked (more or less).

It still prints out a message stating it’s a unstable software even though I’m using the stable version listed their site (64bit only maybe?).

I have noticed a problem where the clipboard is not being passed back and forth at times. Also the scroll wheel only works intermittently (more often not) which is very frustrating!

On Windows 7 client, the cursor centers to the middle of the screen. In a full screen application such as Windows Media Player, the cursor stays hidden.

It’s an understatement to say there are polish needed. Currently it works for what I need and hopefully it will improve over time.

Summary

The motion is very smooth and seamless. The basic functionality is there but can be improved. It’s a good solution for controller 2 or more computers via one keyboard and mouse. The best part of it is the cross platform even if I do not use it.

Synergy

How to Control Multiple Computers with a Single Keyboard and Mouse

Synergy Troubleshooting

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It holds such a small charge that when it’s unplugged, it goes straight to standby / hibernate mode.

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Mac OSX

Likes

• Spaces – Very useful and was one of the unique points for using a Linux windowing environment. Although it’s not 100% bug free and mature as Linux’s virtual desktop it works very well.
• Expose – I use this feature everyday and is very handy. It serves as a shortcut when I’m using the mouse
• Quicksilver/Spotlight – Another well used feature and whilst Quicksilver is not bundled with OSX by default I do believe it’s a worthy replacement to Sportlight. Linux’s Beagle doesn’t seem to compare to it and Windows has some third party launchers but nothing shipped by default.
• Dock – A much better taskbar than Vista ever had. Applications can animate when they’re loading and icons can adjust in size depending on the dock width. It also serves as a good quick preview bar with programs like iCal using it effectively displaying the current date.
• OSX boot time – Even with all my startup services and apps it still seams to start up a lot faster than Vista
• Bundled software – I think the software that comes with OSX is a lot more useful than Windows. For example the iLife suite is really good and comes on all new Macs for free!
• Stacks – not as used and useful but nice to have and a cool effect
• Icons – I think the icons look a lot better than both Windows and Gnome visually and the styling
• Front row – A nice and easy to use application with my free remote. No need to worry about which version of the OS comes with it.
• No DRM checks – the lack of online checking to verify or falsely verify the authenticity of OSX
• Keychain – Remembers credentials for a lot of things and allows applications to use the keychain

Dislikes

• Menu bar – Seems stupid to detach the menu bar from the application window when the menus are program specific
• Quiting programs – Why does OSX require you to use a keyboard to close it’s application with the Command+Q?
• Enter renames a directory – That’s right it does not open the folder/program it goes into rename mode. To open the file or folder you have to use 2 fingers and press the Command+Down Arrow
• Full does not = full screen – It does kind of make sense that the dock shouldn’t be covered up unless you have auto hide on but then it still can’t go full screen
• Copy & Paste address bar – Without modding Finder you can’t copy or paste a path into it.
• No paint application – There is no built in painting application like Microsoft Paint or Gimp
• iTunes – Have never liked because of it’s a bloatware
• Support for Java – OSX is still stuck on Java 1.5 whilst the rest of the world has moved onto 1.6. Also they do not follow the same version convention as the Sun version scheme
• Get Info – Does not show all the information on a file or directory such as the invisible flag

Windows Vista

Likes

• MP3 tagging – Can be done in Explorer and can also show the tags in an MP3
• Widgets – The ability to display widgets without pressing a hot key and it’s always visible on the desktop
• Windows DreamScene – A very cool feature which allows a video to be used as a background
• Games – Yes the new games in Windows are a lot better and out numbers the Mac.

Dislikes

• Long boot time – Says it all
• Driver compatibility – Improving yet problems still exists
• Aero requirements – Not so much the look and effects but the requirements to run it
• Number of versions – Does Vista really need to come in so many flavors?
• Widgets – Lack of quality widgets compared to OSX
• 64bit support – OSX made it look like child’s play moving from 32 to 64.
• Pinball – The Windows game Pinball has disappeared.
• Start Menu – I hated the scrolling start menu but now it’s forced upon us unless you want it to look old and classic
• Improvements – No real great improvements or changes to help the end user from XP

I’m sure there will be others that I have missed off but these will do for now.

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Chris Pirillo mentioned a library software for the Mac. It sounds boring but it’s pretty neat. It tracks your items which you enter and it does a look up on Amazon. It downloads all the details and picture of the item and onto your “shelf” you can create your own custom shelf categories but the default are item types like “Books”, “Video Games”, “Albums”, etc. The creators of the software are called Delicious Monster.

Basic Functions

Items are entered and searched against Amazon databases. Items can be entered in manually if it’s not on Amazon but it is not very user friendly. The details of the item is in the lower 3rd of the screen and you have to constantly scroll back and forth when your looking for a field.

The best feature about this software is that it can scan bar codes. O.K nothing special. Did I mention with your camera? Using the built-in iSight or external sources can capture barcodes and then automatically downloads and categorises the item. The MacBook Pro iSight wasn’t ideal for doing it because of the reflection from the monitor on DVD cases as well as glossy books so I plugged in a Sony DCR-TRV950 camcorder which worked perfectly. This camera was using the firewire connection. Not only does it pick up my books, music CDs, software and video games but also my TomTom Go 700 barcode, Logitech mouses, etc into a gadget category. I went back to trying the iSight and managed to get better results by tilting the item so it wasn’t face on to the camera. It would be o.k to use the built-in iSight camera for one or two items at a time but a better external one would greatly improve your scanning speed when there is a batch of items to do.

They do offer a bluetooth barcode scanner when you buy the software for $40 but the scanner costs well over $200.

When a barcode is found and scanned it plays an audiable beep. This means the computer scanned the barcode successfully. When an item is found and added to the library it uses the built in voice to read out the title and author of the item. This means the monitor doesn’t have to be facing me when I go through my room ransacking the shelves for barcodes. If you enter or add a duplicate item into the library it warns you and does not add it initially. You can press the +d to add the duplicate. I found 1 duplicate CD and 1 duplicate film which I didn’t know about.

The library allows you to mark items out on loan to people and it picks up my contacts from Address book built into OSX. Nice time saving feature. Of course it allows manual editing to the friends list.

Delicious Library 2 Has some fancy animations when a title is added or deleted to a library shelf. A skeleton square appears when it’s added and then when a picture is found and downloaded from Amazon, millions of parts pour from the top into the skeleton to form the picture. When an item is deleted, it explodes into million pieces.

Navigation

I tried using the Apple remote to navigate the library but it lacked a back button so once you chose a category like gadgets, you couldn’t go back to select a different category.

Delicious Library 2 uses the built in speech recognition to locate your items. It’s a nioce feature and works as long as the speech recogition picks up what your saying.

Publishing / Export

It can export your library to different formats including XML, Delicious 1.5, CSV, Text, etc. The program uses SQLite version 3 database which is open source.

You can publish the library to your iPod, iPhone, FTP and to a folder. It generates nice looking web pages when you choose FTP and folder which has 2 styles, shelf and pecil sketch. The published version can be quite big. The pencil sketch takes up more space. It lacks a search feature which yould have made it practical rather than just a pretty show off page to your friends and family.

I’ve got my iPod sync’d up to my Windows computer and didn’t want to mess with it.

Printing

I haven’t managed to set up the printer on the Mac (or Linux for that matter) because it doesn’t seem to be as easy as Windows to add a network printer running on a CUPS server. I looked at the print preview instead and it looks great. All black and white with the image to the left and description next to it on the right.

Purchase Process

The demo allows 25 items to be added but it has all functions enabled. When you hit this limit you have to buy the software before you can add more. I kept scanning before Terina noticed the demo limit had been hit and all the items I tried to add beeped to say it recognised the barcode but nothing to say it had hit the limit.

I went on to purchase the software and it’s all done from within the software. It gathered the details and filled in the form automatically but as I found out you should check it because I got my email address wrong! Once the payment has been sent and authorised, the program automatically downloads the license key into the software. Magic!

Windows Library – Libra

There is a windows version which is free for non commercial use but the barcode reader is not as good as the
Delicious Library. I haven’t had any luck getting it to read a barcode but I have only tried one Logitech Orb camera. The camera view finder in the program doesn’t have any guidelines like Delicious Library 2 does so you line up the barcode straight and true.

Libra has the ability to import Delicious Library 2 XML files but it didn’t work with version 2. I can see this is only a matter of time before the update it so that it can. I didn’t have time to try exporting and importing other formats like CSV.

There is a nice community button which loads the main window with the forums. Editing items are full screen in the software compared to a 3rd of the window in Delicious Library 2.

It also doesn’t seem as up-to-date as Delicious. It doesn’t have the extra categories and extra functionalities like activity monitor, fancy add and remove item effects, iPod like scrolling overlay which tells you the alphabet range currently in view, etc.

The interface isn’t like the traditional Windows applications (can be a good or bad thing) like a menu strip at the top.

The Cons

Both systems are limited to Amazon’s stores. Whilst it does search through the different locales of Amazon like US, UK, Japan, etc it does not let you add additional sites.

I did have some obscure items which were not on Amazon but the majority were found. The other problem was some items didn’t have any barcodes or the barcodes were too small. This required a manual search through Amazon and if it wasn’t there then you can enter it manually.

The export and publish feature is nice but takes a while for the process to complete. Maybe an incremental update to the files it creates would speed up the process.

The $40 price tag is quite steep but I think it’s worth it if it’s going to save me from buying duplicate copies again.

Developer Official Website
Libra Official Website

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Starting out on Linux with the Asus EEE PC the idea that Linux has is a daemon called gpsd which handles the commication between the computer and GPS. The clever idea for this is so that you can have multiple programs which “asks” the daemon for GPS information so not one program hogs the device. Also once you configured the daemon, it keeps all the settings from port to NEMA specification so all of this does not have to be repeated.

Linux

The first problem I had was establishing a connection between the GPS and computer using bluetooth. Ubuntu kept on saying the device would not accept an OBEX connection. Further investigation and I had to install gnome-bluetooth and bluez-utils. Using apt-get this was easy but it still wouldn’t let me. So I did it via command line:
hcitool scan
This picked it up and I used sdptool to get the serial profile for the device which my GPS supports.
sdptool browse xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Replace the ‘xx’ with the MAC address of the bluetooth GPS device which is displayed when you use the hcitool scan command.

This was where I got stuck. The sdptool didn’t create a serial profile and I stopped there.

Mac OSX 10.5

I then went on to try and get it working with the Mac. There wasn’t a lot of native GPS software for the Mac (that was free) but using port you could install gpsd. For port to run you need to have Xcode installed because it needs a c compiler. Xcode was over 1GB to download so it slowed my progress down. I created a bond between my MacBook Pro and the bluetooth GPS and that was fine. The cool thing was it even tells you the serial port it was on. I tried using KisMac with the GPS module but it didn’t work and also used GPSylon, a java open source GPS software.

After Xcode was downloaded and installed I had fetched gpsd but got confused to how to set up and lauch the daemon on the Mac.

Windows XP/Vista

For XP i used my bootcamp partition and Vista is my normal desktop computer. It was kind of pointless setting up GPS with the desktop because I won’t be able to move it about with me but it was worth a try. I used GPSylon but had trouble with the serial port because GPSylon was designed with *nix in mind and Windows used COM ports. Later on I found I had to jus change the line:
/dev/tty
to the COM port but I have yet to try it.

Mobile Phone

The best luck I have had was on my Motorola Ming(A1200). Technically it is and it is not a computer but it worked best here. I used GPS Track which was really good. JavaME has JSR179 built into the framework specification for location based devices. I would have thought these specification should be ported to the Java SE so that it too can make available the API’s needed for any mobile stuff but they weren’t. Also JavaME isn’t as easy to code for once you are use to version 1.5 and upwards.

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On a brighter note, the Mac client of FolderShare has seemed to have sped up. I guess there isn’t a lot of files to sync to cause the problem of slow GUI response.

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The Basics

It has an “Agent” sitting on the desktop where changes can be made to settings and an activity monitor which shows all the transfers that are happening (highlighted with a red box above).

You register online to the FolderShare service which does not use the Live / Passport sign on username and password. Once complete you have to register each computer on the FolderShare website and all folder syncronization or “sharing” is set up on the website. From choosing the directory to “share” to setting up the directory you want the folder to syncronize to. You can setup personal and public shares which is nice.

You can see the computers that are registered to the FolderShare service and also change their name.

When you access the FolderShare website from the client on the computer it always opens Internet Explorer, not the default browser. The website but does work with Firefox.

Settings

In the client settings there is a “Computer information” area where it displays the name of the computer you have given it. Also states “Basic Version”. I’m guessing they will be charging for the service once it is out of beta. It has built in AES 256bit encryption. The client also has a handy port information. It can tell that it is behind a NAT and shows the port statuses. I’m assuming the list shows the ports it uses but unfortunately you can’t change the port the program uses.

It allows you to setup the number of files it sends and recieves at a time as well as downloading through the Internet (cool!). Encryption and compression options are also available for the you to change. If a file/folder is deleted, it does not remove them straight away. It moves them to a very obscure directory but fortunately this can be changed.

FolderShare creates .p2p files as a place holders for files when it is syncronizing. I have not come across this file format before.

Mac Client

On the Mac side it’s a different story. It works very well on Windows and is very good for home users. On the Mac I experience hanging issues where you get the spinning beachball of death when you do anything that is related to the desktop agent. Registering and creating / syncronizing using the website was fine and was exactly the same as the Windows conterpart (except the directory structure). But you can tell it’s not as well created like other background programs like Quicksilver where it just appears as a taskbar? icon. It appears twice, once in the taskbar (no problems) and second time in the dock.

I also had a problem shutting down the first time where OSX would display an error message that FolderShare is still running. Do you want to continue shutdown or those lines. The following times the notebook shutdown fine.

If possible, I’d leave the mac client alone once it’s set up until they fix the hanging problem. I have yet to see syncing conflicts nor have I experienced any file / folder deletion.

I also had problems when I already had a copy of the files on both sides. Instead of skipping the files, they were renamed to xxx_computername where xxx is the file/folder name and computer name is the computer it came from. It doesn;t resolve conflicts very well and I would have liked to have been asked which copy I’d like to keep or ability to see they are the same files. It’s best to sync with an empty directory to avoid this.

Improvements

They need to make the taskbar icon change or animate when it is doing something linke when it’s transfering files. Also there is no option to pause syncronization. The only option I can see is shutdown which is not 100% ideal. Also whilst it is a good idea to set everything up on an online webpage, it should have the ability to do so offline. I don’t see why I need net connectivity for it to syncronize other the network.

The obvious improvements for the Mac client would be speed / performance and for the client to only display as a taskbar icon.

Summary

On the whole the Windows side seems fine and would recommend it to share between Window to Window computers on the other hand I would hold off from installing it on the Mac.

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I noticed my external 2.5″ HDD’s LED was on constant red meaning it was being accessed so I pulled the USB from the MacBook Pro and it would fade to a light blue screen but still hung. After restarting I did a couple of tests with the HDD plugged in and unplugged.

I can conclude that it would seem to be the HDD. Some searching reveals that it would “check” the drive along with the internal HDD making it longer. A bit annoying if I had a desktop Mac and if it suffered from the same thing.

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Above: MacBook Air

This year’s event wasn’t as exciting as last year with the announcement of the iPhone but the new toy in store is the MacBook Air. My thoughts on the new notebook:

• No user replacable battery (Trust me apple’s batteries aren’t the best. Just look at their battery comments on their apple store)
• No firewire port.
• Re-installing the OS could be a hassle if you need to carry an external drive. (I know you don’t do it all the time).
• No ethernet connection built in. I think you can buy an adapter as an accessory
• Ports are recessed (Not a big problem).
• Price point – only £100 seperates from the air and pro
• Screen still can’t hinge back up to 180 degrees

Above: MacBook Air Mag Safe

Not to sound too negative it is a very slick looking machine and does have it’s practicle uses like presentation and for the road warriors (albeit slightly stripped warrior). I like how the ports can be hidden and the mag safe looks a lot better. The long rumored multi-touch trackpad is also built into the MacBook Air. I’d love it if they upgraded the software to allow current Macs to do the same on the smaller trackpad. It is possible to do this in bootcamp.

Above: MacBook Air Closed

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I didn’t think much of it at first but it got annoying and tried to figure out what it was. To confirm it was static i touched the metal part of a radiator and went back to using the notebook and it was gone… but it came back.

I tried grounding myself on the metal pedals of the G25 but that didn’t work. Very strange.

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A blink of a second and the wireless was disabled and the transfer diaglog was still going. Very nicely done and is on par with Ubuntu when I tried it on 7.04. Very nice. I wonder if Windows will do the same?

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I took a trip to what seemed to me a new Maplin in Eastbourne and bought a 3mm semi-transparent spiral cable wrap. They even had a 5% student discount which gave me a whole 9p off (better than nothing).

On I went and applied around 5cm just like on O’Grady’s website but I only cable tied the end where it connects to the notebook.

Today I felt a bit bored and decided to use some more of the 10 metre spiral cable wrap and did it for the whole length of the power cable from the MagSafe to the power brick. It worked out quite well but the clip doesn’t work anymore but I didn’t use it any way.

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I am still having problems getting the virtualhosts working on the webserver.

I am in Liverpool now because Terina’s Grandad had to go to hospital. He’s o.k for now just very weak. Working back at May Wah is such a chore. Can’t wait to get a proper job.

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First starting with my Booq Bag which I have to say looks really good. Haven’t used it yet since I don’t have any computer to put in it.

Second is the Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre edition ready for bookcamp and a Virtual Machine.

Third and final thing I got for the notebook is a mouse. I got the Logitech VX Revolution. I’m slightly disappointed that it doesn’t have the automatic clutch for the scroll wheel like it’s bigger brother, MX Revolution.

I am impressed how the wireless reciever is stored in the mouse and when you eject it, it turns on the mouse and when you put it back in, it turns the mouse off.

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