TechEvangelists

For those of you wanting to do screen spanning on Apple's "Budget" computers, check this out:



http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/ibook_e.html



As part of Apple's intent to differentiate their product lines, they have crippled the ability of iMacs and iBooks to do screen spanning though they can still do mirroring. Fortunately, you can reenable it. Worked like a charm on my 20" iMac. Note that you'll also need the optional VGA/DVI adapter.

I'm a big fan of the dual screens. In fact, when I'm not at my desk I get frustrated at how clunky it feels to only have my laptop screen to use. It's especially awesome when doing QA -- I can have the test application open on one screen and a bug tracker open on the other and just scan between the two. Delicious!

Dual screens are the way to go. I've two 19" LCDs, one in a vertical orientation. There's nothing better than being able to view more lines of code vertically.

Thanks for the info, Zach—I'm glad there's a way to re-enable screen spanning. As much as people love Apple, they have a history of crippling their hardware. For example, consider the downgraded recording capability of the iPod which can be exploited by loading an Linux for iPod firmware. Why, Apple?

Canon has done similar things with their camera features—they crippled the Digital Rebel's firmware, though it used the exact same circuitry as the more expensive 10D. Luckily, there is a hack for enabling the lost features. C'mon, Canon. Seriously.

I think we'll continue to see companies purposefully reducing the value of their hardware in order to induce sales. By the same token, we'll continue to see ingenious hacks to restore this lost value (think PSP hacking, XBox, the beat goes on...). If manufacturers would embrace the mod community, they may find that they can extend the work done and incorporate the new ideas into future products (Counterstrike & Half-Life—you go, Valve). Until then, there's lots of hacking to do...