Was talking to my friend, Lestat, about one of our two current office configurations as far as computer setups in the main room. I shot some pictures to show where I sit and work. Picture #1 below:

The first office configuration shows a dual-monitor CRT screen main system and Tablet PC in portrait mode to my left on a v-shaped glass desk. About 6-8 feet away on a secondary desk in front of the main dual-monitor CRT screens elevated is the second beefier system that we’re currently using to watch TV via Slingbox (also have this software installed on the Tablet PC) and to act as the backup machine for the network. It keeps the important files on the network backed up. It’s not a completely automated backup system, but that’s the long range plan.

When I sit up in my chair I can see the picture on the distant monitor pretty clearly. See the screenshot above. I control this secondary backup machine via Synergy from the main system. I can also control the Tablet PC via Synergy so only one keyboard and mouse needs to be used for all three computers.

The Tablet PC, primarily in landscape mode, acts as an email filtering system for some of our POP email boxes and for keeping handwritten notes from telephone calls. The telephone is on the desk to my right. I also use the Tablet PC for IRC chatting.

To the right (not pictured) is another computer on a third desk that is used for our weekly radio show and a few other non-business uses. There are three microphones and a mixer also there. Behind that machine, also not pictured, is an eMac on a fourth desk. From there I maintain the Mac Mode blog and am learning how to use a Mac. The Mac is used as a radio via RadioShark and a chatbot for the IRC channel for the radio show.

We’d like to replace the four CRT monitors we have with LCDS, but not really ready to part with the extra $$$, although I know this would reduce the power bill, so it’s a matter of trading dollars upfront for savings on the backend. Anybody got a good line on buying 4-5 LCDs in bulk? Go ahead and pitch me, but only on that (will remove other unrelated spam, as always).

I’m curious what readers setups are like. What does your current office configuration look like? What OS and configuration are you using for your office or home network?

• Changing work environment, new desk
• Day 405: Dual monitor on Tablet PC alert!
• Day 508: 10% broken and easy to forget about Bluetooth
• Day 577: New Tablet PC purchase handcuffed by Vista waiting game
• Making an office out of a storage room
• Strange Windows XP Pro bootup issue