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Microsoft Invents Split Screen PC

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the let-me-have-less-please dept.

An anonymous reader writes "New technology from Microsoft Research India in Bangalore could end the waiting game in offices with limited computers. Researchers are developing software that splits a computer screen in two halves, each side with its own operating system, desktop, applications, cursor and keyboard." Mom! Timmy is on my side of the screen again!

21 of 348 comments (clear)

  1. Fixed by fatduck · · Score: 5, Funny

    Researchers are developing software that splits a computer screen in two halves, each side with its own Vista CD-Key, desktop, Office 2007 license, cursor and keyboard. And don't even think about copying music from one side of the screen to the other, you pirate!
    --
    Making you think you're crazy is a billion dollar industry.
    1. Re:Fixed by keird · · Score: 5, Funny

      it's like a guiness commerical.

      billg: you know how we've forced every computer user in the world to buy a copy of windows for their computer?
      steveb: yes
      billg: well, i've come up with a way to make them buy TWO copies of windows for each computer!
      steveb: brilliant!
      billg: brilliant!

    2. Re:Fixed by timeOday · · Score: 5, Interesting

      if you can have each OS copy on a separate monitor (most cards today handle 2 monitors at least by standard), it's a really really good thing to have.
      Putting several terminals on a computer is a fine idea which has been done since long before the invention of the PC. But this is different; they are actually splitting a single screen in two. What a horrendous setup that is. And since the price of a display is superlinear in relation to its size, it wouldn't even be cheaper!
    3. Re:Fixed by ticklemeozmo · · Score: 5, Funny

      If necessary, a user can move her cursor to the other half of the screen, which opens the door on sharing and collaborating with documents.

      You are right there, just point at the screen. There's no need for virtual collaboration when you have physical collaboration. The ONLY time I can see this being a factor is if my colleague, who is having a heart attack, has the number to 911 in their Outlook Address book and I don't.

      --
      When modding "Informative", please make sure it both has a source and IS actually informative.
    4. Re:Fixed by Garabito · · Score: 4, Funny

      Microsoft Research: The place where computer scientists produce cool ideas and innovations that never get into Microsoft products.

  2. All it needs... by 6Yankee · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...is a Hello Kitty theme. I'd gladly suffer it just to piss the other guy off!

  3. Bill Gates quoted saying: by dotgain · · Score: 5, Funny

    "that's the dumbest fucking idea I've heard since I've been at Microsoft."

    1. Re:Bill Gates quoted saying: by hjf · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I have a feeling that this would be a new Slashdot Classic. Congratulations for being the first slashdotter to use it!. Now, who wants to start tagging with "dumbestfuckingidea" ?

    2. Re:Bill Gates quoted saying: by SpaceLifeForm · · Score: 4, Funny

      Is it electric?

      --
      You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
  4. Too late for April fools! by gvc · · Score: 4, Funny

    Two virtual desktops on one screen! What will they think of next?

    1. Re:Too late for April fools! by Threni · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Sharing a screen using a high refresh rate and lcd glasses that shows each user alternate frames?

    2. Re:Too late for April fools! by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well they consider the fact that you have to have two keyboards a major issue, and the mouse for the person on the right is a problem as it elbow the guy on the right. TO fix this bombay engineerd have developed a new spoken and written language based on a 13 letter alphabet. Actually they have invented two languages. The first language uses the letters "QWERTYASDFGZXC" and the second language uses the letters "YUIOPGHJKLVBNM". Punctuation is only allowed in one language, and top engineers are still working on a base-5 math curriculum for schools.

      In a lab down the hall Microsoft chemists and psychologist are experimenting with drops that can be added to Milk to cause children to develop lefthanded allowing better mousing interaction when one child is lefthanded and one is right.

      An unexpected bonus on the 13 letter alphabet was that now the keyboard can be used one handed allowing the griping hand to hold the mouse all the time. Apparently this is fully engaged mouse posture is helping productivity in the telephone sales boiler rooms of calcutta.

      Problems have arrisen between children unable to speak each others language, and a caste system is developing in which the left-screeners or "sinisters" are considered unclean.

      --
      Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  5. Crash! by gcostanzo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Can the two OS's crash into eachother?

  6. Obviously a Microsoft product. by copponex · · Score: 4, Funny

    So, listen, we've really been working on a solution to customer complaints about the high cost of Vista licensing. So, here it is: we'll help you to afford licenses by keeping them at the same price, but offering technology that will allow you to share a computer and the screen so you can afford the licenses.

    Not having a computer for every employee should make Vista financially feasible for your organization. Plus, you get to participate in the Microsoft Buddy System, Or Binary User Licensing and Limited Software/Hardware Integration Team (BULLSHIT), and you get a MS Dubloon (redeemable for t-shirts and pens) for every time you report your very close neighbor for piracy. We would recommend waiting until he or she goes on break before reporting illegal activity. They're pretty much looking at your screen the whole time otherwise.

    Hey! Where are you all going? You get your own keyboard and mouse!

  7. You young people..... by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 5, Funny

    You young people have it good. When I was a kid, we not only had to share one keyboard, we only had the ONE screen and had to each only use one half, or 40x12 apiece.

    Dad always derided our comments by mentioning that when HE was a kid, he had to share a punched card with all seven of his sibling, so they each only got 10 characters.

    Grandpa would chime in at this point about only getting to use half the dots on a morse code key, his three sisters got the other half of the dots and all the dashes.

  8. Excellent. by FlyingSquidStudios · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now if they figure out a way to reduce my ass by half, the person sharing my monitor can also share my chair!

    --
    http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
  9. Its a sure fire win for ..... by 3seas · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... micro management.....

    Ok so you have this 52" or DLP projector screen and the whole office working off of it.

    I can hear it now, as the manager tells Fred to move his cursor faster and Julie to stop slowing the computer down doing company graphics. While leroy on his break can no longer check to see how his stock is doing. Of course Jackson has to work after hours to do accounting as a matter of keeping the company numbers hidden from those who get paid less but do more.....

    Michael, That sentence you are writing should be done this way...

  10. Extreme programming by iamacat · · Score: 4, Funny

    On the second thought, this would be perfect for extreme programming. Remember, you have to sit close enough to smell each other's farts.

  11. Photo: Microsoft's I'm-a-PC-I'm-a-Mac Commercial by theodp · · Score: 5, Funny

    Exclusive photo. :-)

  12. Targeting tech support? by ushering05401 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It doesn't mention this in TFA, but tech support management apps that I have seen could easily fit on 1/2 a screen w/a tabbed interface. Your main tasks are to lookup the customers, record billable time, notate key points of the problem, read some stepped hep files, and pass it on if the fix is not simple.

    And considering this was developed in India there just might be something to this.

    Regards.

  13. When BSOD hits... by gentoofu · · Score: 5, Funny

    will it cover the entire screen or just the half of it?