"Laptop Rockers" nowadays use various techniques to avoid the 1/8" curse. One of them is PC Card audio cards, which do exist but not in the mainstream. One good example is the Kyma box, which can interface to a PC Card or PCI card and has an upgradeable amount of 1/4"/XLR outputs and inputs, plus multiple special-use DSPs. Not a bad deal.
The other avenue many take is the newer USB audio route, which was only recently supported on the Laptop Rocker Laptop of Choice, the Wallstreet Powerbook, but is making headway. Check out http://www.usbstuff.com for some products in that range.
Finally, they don't have to use laptops-- I for one have a rackmount system that has a breakout 1U space audio box with 1/4" balanced connectors, preamps, the whole works.
As far as software, I would imagine that some of the newer DirectSound enabled ones (for Wintel) allow different tracks to go out of different outputs on your card. So if you have 8 outputs, 1/2 go to broadcast, 3/4 for vo, 5/6 for monitor, etc...
OK, wait a minute-- where did you get the information for the student directory? Did you collate it yourself, going door to door and asking for major and email address? Because if you are using Purdue's info there, that might be a little problem.
If a school I attended allowed the database of students to be used for whatever purpose, I'd be a little miffed.
Another neat thing to try if you don't want to mess with the V part (the most annoying) of a KVM switch:
On one system, get a videocard with a TV out.
On the other, get a videocard with a TV in.
TV out-->TV in.
Using a (cheap, old) KVM switch, hook up the keyboard and mouse
Open TV window on computer #2
Voila! Picture-in-Picture. If you squint hard enough, you might just be able to read 14-point fonts.
I actually do this with my Commodore SX-64 to save space. The keyboards on those things are extendable (separate from the CPU,) so I can put the unit on the floor.
I had a similar situation.. here I have two systems and not enough space for 2 K, Vs and Ms. I looked around a bit and the best thing I saw was the Belkin Omnicube.
I bought the cube from some online place and set it up, doubling the tangle of wires behind my system immediately. After turning on both systems, I noticed that on one, the video was nigh unreadable, and on the other, it was slightly fuzzy, just enough to get on my nerves.
This is unacceptable. The one that was unreadable was my linux box, berry, who decided to start flickering uncontrollably when hooked up to this evil box. How did I solve this? Buy better cables. I went downtown and picked up the most inanely expensive monitor extension cables money could buy. I ended up spending $80 on monitor extension cables. These things were gold plated, had all sorts of RFI protection, you name it.
Berry still flickered. Damn! Much less so, but it still pissed me off. Carrot, on the other hand, was quite alright now.
What it turned out to be: I also had one of those evil DVD decoder cards in line with Berry (it was a dual boot machine, no more.) I pulled it out and moved the DVD over to Carrot. Now everyone plays nice -- except--
The damn scroll mouse. I have a Logitech scroll mouse that I love to pieces and wouldn't sell for any amount of BeOS stock a few weeks ago. The scroll thing works fine when I start up just one machine, but if I hit the switch, it loses all scroll functionality. Even if I go back to the main machine again-- just because I hit that switch once, both computers seem to have forgotten what a scroll wheel does. Gah. Belkin confirmed this 'issue' but have no solution.
Thing is, now with my super-massive cables, I wouldn't trade this setup for anything. But caveat emptor, because as simple as these devics sound, they're a pain in the ass.
So I took some time to read up on RBL/MAPS and agree with most of you here.. I guess my annoyance is directed at the fact that this is something I can not opt out of. No, I can *not* change ISPs, this is where I work.
Since I use procmail I tend not to care much about spam. My procmail filters are not anti-spam, they are just pro-people: I know who and why I get email and have told Procmail to deal with it accordingly. So I do get spam, in my inbox, but since my more important messages are flagged that way there's no big deal.
If there was a way that I personally could opt out of MAPS/RBL, if it worked on the user level and not the hostlevel, then I would. But as of now I have no way to email certain people from my place of employment. This is not a big deal, yes I have other accounts, etc... and yes I know that it would be nigh impossible from MAPS/RBL to work on a user-level instead of a host-level.
I think what they're trying to do is great, but on the other hand, they're going to piss some law abiding people off one day. Kudos to them for sticking through it.
Problem with this system: it punishes the 'little users' for their ISPs mistakes. I was more than a little irked to find that I couldn't send email from my professional address to my mother of all people because my hostname was on their 'blackhole' list. I went through the site and the mail server I had been using was abused by some spammer through an open relay so it was put on the blacklist.
Now, this is a big place, and the wheels of bureacracy only turn so much so far, and this event happened months ago and our sysadmins haven't gotten around to fixing this little nuisance yet. So now because some people don't want to use procmail or hit the delete key when they get UCE, I can't email my freakin' mother.
I hate spam as much as the next guy, but this banding together and automatic trial-by-fire via 'intelligent systems' is going a little too far. I have a feeling these RBL guys have a pang of glee as they happily restrict an entire domain from sending email somewhere... "That'll teach 'em"... that'll teach 'em what? To pester their poor sysadmins to "do something"? _They_ didn't send the spam.
People love to make fun of what's on top. It's as simple as that, really. CNN (or whomever wrote it, doesn't matter) knows that it'll be popular amongst *everyone*, practically. And even those who 'support' Microsoft by having it on their systems won't complain, will they? There's no entertainment value in that.
An analog: I do remember hundreds of slightly anti-Spice Girl news propaganda right around their big three months or whenever it was. A reputable news source wouldn't think twice about running a cutesy column about 'marketed masses' or silicone implants, because *everyone* hates the Spice Girls, right?
Well, no, some who-knows-how-many Million people bought their record. And listened to it.
And installed it, did their work on it, wrote this post on it.
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"Laptop Rockers" nowadays use various techniques to avoid the 1/8" curse. One of them is PC Card audio cards, which do exist but not in the mainstream. One good example is the Kyma box, which can interface to a PC Card or PCI card and has an upgradeable amount of 1/4"/XLR outputs and inputs, plus multiple special-use DSPs. Not a bad deal.
The other avenue many take is the newer USB audio route, which was only recently supported on the Laptop Rocker Laptop of Choice, the Wallstreet Powerbook, but is making headway. Check out http://www.usbstuff.com for some products in that range.
Finally, they don't have to use laptops-- I for one have a rackmount system that has a breakout 1U space audio box with 1/4" balanced connectors, preamps, the whole works.
As far as software, I would imagine that some of the newer DirectSound enabled ones (for Wintel) allow different tracks to go out of different outputs on your card. So if you have 8 outputs, 1/2 go to broadcast, 3/4 for vo, 5/6 for monitor, etc...
OK, wait a minute-- where did you get the information for the student directory? Did you collate it yourself, going door to door and asking for major and email address? Because if you are using Purdue's info there, that might be a little problem.
If a school I attended allowed the database of students to be used for whatever purpose, I'd be a little miffed.
I actually do this with my Commodore SX-64 to save space. The keyboards on those things are extendable (separate from the CPU,) so I can put the unit on the floor.
I had a similar situation.. here I have two systems and not enough space for 2 K, Vs and Ms. I looked around a bit and the best thing I saw was the Belkin Omnicube.
I bought the cube from some online place and set it up, doubling the tangle of wires behind my system immediately. After turning on both systems, I noticed that on one, the video was nigh unreadable, and on the other, it was slightly fuzzy, just enough to get on my nerves.
This is unacceptable. The one that was unreadable was my linux box, berry, who decided to start flickering uncontrollably when hooked up to this evil box. How did I solve this? Buy better cables. I went downtown and picked up the most inanely expensive monitor extension cables money could buy. I ended up spending $80 on monitor extension cables. These things were gold plated, had all sorts of RFI protection, you name it.
Berry still flickered. Damn! Much less so, but it still pissed me off. Carrot, on the other hand, was quite alright now.
What it turned out to be: I also had one of those evil DVD decoder cards in line with Berry (it was a dual boot machine, no more.) I pulled it out and moved the DVD over to Carrot. Now everyone plays nice -- except--
The damn scroll mouse. I have a Logitech scroll mouse that I love to pieces and wouldn't sell for any amount of BeOS stock a few weeks ago. The scroll thing works fine when I start up just one machine, but if I hit the switch, it loses all scroll functionality. Even if I go back to the main machine again-- just because I hit that switch once, both computers seem to have forgotten what a scroll wheel does. Gah. Belkin confirmed this 'issue' but have no solution.
Thing is, now with my super-massive cables, I wouldn't trade this setup for anything. But caveat emptor, because as simple as these devics sound, they're a pain in the ass.
So I took some time to read up on RBL/MAPS and agree with most of you here.. I guess my annoyance is directed at the fact that this is something I can not opt out of. No, I can *not* change ISPs, this is where I work.
Since I use procmail I tend not to care much about spam. My procmail filters are not anti-spam, they are just pro-people: I know who and why I get email and have told Procmail to deal with it accordingly. So I do get spam, in my inbox, but since my more important messages are flagged that way there's no big deal.
If there was a way that I personally could opt out of MAPS/RBL, if it worked on the user level and not the hostlevel, then I would. But as of now I have no way to email certain people from my place of employment. This is not a big deal, yes I have other accounts, etc... and yes I know that it would be nigh impossible from MAPS/RBL to work on a user-level instead of a host-level.
I think what they're trying to do is great, but on the other hand, they're going to piss some law abiding people off one day. Kudos to them for sticking through it.
Heh... well, it's a (large) university, not an ISP.
Problem with this system: it punishes the 'little users' for their ISPs mistakes. I was more than a little irked to find that I couldn't send email from my professional address to my mother of all people because my hostname was on their 'blackhole' list. I went through the site and the mail server I had been using was abused by some spammer through an open relay so it was put on the blacklist.
Now, this is a big place, and the wheels of bureacracy only turn so much so far, and this event happened months ago and our sysadmins haven't gotten around to fixing this little nuisance yet. So now because some people don't want to use procmail or hit the delete key when they get UCE, I can't email my freakin' mother.
I hate spam as much as the next guy, but this banding together and automatic trial-by-fire via 'intelligent systems' is going a little too far. I have a feeling these RBL guys have a pang of glee as they happily restrict an entire domain from sending email somewhere... "That'll teach 'em"... that'll teach 'em what? To pester their poor sysadmins to "do something"? _They_ didn't send the spam.
People love to make fun of what's on top. It's as simple as that, really. CNN (or whomever wrote it, doesn't matter) knows that it'll be popular amongst *everyone*, practically. And even those who 'support' Microsoft by having it on their systems won't complain, will they? There's no entertainment value in that.
An analog: I do remember hundreds of slightly anti-Spice Girl news propaganda right around their big three months or whenever it was. A reputable news source wouldn't think twice about running a cutesy column about 'marketed masses' or silicone implants, because *everyone* hates the Spice Girls, right?
Well, no, some who-knows-how-many Million people bought their record. And listened to it.
And installed it, did their work on it, wrote this post on it.
So why is there an Amiga icon next to this story? Besides the rumours for the past years, does this 1.44 floppy thing have anything to do with Amiga?