Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Synergy between PC and Mac

While spending another evening at home working on work, I finally decided I'd had enough of occasionally reaching for my desktop mouse while working on my MBP and the brief moment of confusion that follows when the PC mouse fails to move the Mac pointer, so I installed Synergy, which I last played with about five years ago. Setting it up on a Mac is a royal pain, so if you're interested in doing what I did - installing Synergy on a Windows 7 box and an MBP running Snow Leopard on the same local network so you can use one mouse/keyboard between the two of them (without extra hardware) - then follow these steps:

Step 1 - Download Synergy
Download the Synergy installer on each system: 


Step 2 - Install  Synergy on the Mac
On the Mac, double-click to unzip the archive and then navigate to the new directory in Terminal. Then move the two executables to /usr/bin:

sudo synergy* /usr/bin/

Go to /usr/bin/ in Terminal and change the permissions on the two files:

sudo chmod 755 synergyc
sudo chmod 755 synergys

Step 3 - Install  Synergy on the PC
Double-click the installer.

Step 4 - Download QSynergy
QSynergy is a cross-platform front-end for Synergy, download it on both systems:


Step 5 - Install  QSynergy on the Mac
Double-click the installer and command-tab over to the new Finder window. Open a new Finder window and navigate to the Applications folder. Drag the QSynergy.app icon into the Applications folder.

Step 6 - Install  QSynergy on the PC
Double-click the installer.

Step 7 - Configure QSynergy on the PC
Run QSynergy (tap Start, type the first few letters of QSynergy and hit Enter). Check "Use this computer to control others", click "Interactively configure synergy" and click the  "Configure Server" button.


A monitor icon for your Windows system should already be present in the center of the grid. Drag the monitor icon in the upper right down into the grid to add a screen for your Mac. Place it wherever you'd like the screen to exist "virtually", so that when you move your mouse to that edge of your Windows monitor the pointer moves into the Mac monitor.

Double-click the icon for the new screen you just added to configure it. All you need to do is add your Mac's WINS name to the "Screen name" field, followed by ".home". To check your WINS name on your Mac, go to Apple menu > System Preferences > Network > Click the active network connection > Click the "Advanced" button > Click the WINS tab > Look in the "NetBIOS Name" field.

Type the name in the "Screen name" field on your Windows box, followed by ".home", ex:

KERMIT.home

Click OK and you're done.

Step 8 - Configure QSynergy on the Mac
Run QSynergy (tap COMMAND + SPACE, type the first few letters of "QSynergy" into the Spotlight field in the upper right, make sure "QSynergy.app" is highlighted and hit Enter). Check "Control this computer from another one" and type the name of your Windows box into the "Name of the server" field. To check the name, tap Start on your Windows box, right-click "Computer", select Properties, and look at the value for "Computer name".

Type the name into the "Name of the server" field on your Mac.

Note: if you have trouble connecting later, try typing your Windows box's IP address into this field instead of the name.

Step 9 - Run the server on the PC
Click the "Start" button in the QSynergy window on your PC.

Step 10 - Run the client on the Mac
Click the "Start" button in the QSynergy window on your Mac.

Step 11 - Check that it works
If the Synergy system tray icon on the Windows box displays a little lightning bolt, the connection's been established. Try moving your Windows mouse pointer past the edge you chose during configuration on your Windows monitor. If you don't remember which edge you chose, try all four of them! If everything works, your Mac pointer should suddenly start moving with your PC mouse as soon as you've moved the Windows pointer past the chosen edge. You should be able to move it freely between the two monitors.

These steps "just worked" for me. If they don't work for you, try the QSynergy support page:

Monday, January 16, 2012

Put together a system for my five-year old...

She's learning about computers in kindergarten so I figured it's high time she became comfortable with one at home. Rebuilt an old HP Slimline I haven't used in like three years, a 17" Sony monitor collecting dust in the garage, and my backup wired Logitech laser mouse. For once I didn't have an extra keyboard lying around, so I gave her the standard issue Dell I use on my main desktop (always thought of myself as a tricked-out keyboard type of guy, but ever since my last wireless, ergonomic, multimedia enhanced keyboard died a couple years ago, the Dell has, surprisingly, been more than adequate). After a couple hours in Windows Update (I think the last time I turned this system on was in 2008 or 2009), the setup's running smoothly, and my kid's in seventh heaven. Also known as pbskids.org.

This of course left me with a mouse but no keyboard for my main system, until my next visit to Micro Center. I was able to log in using the mouse and the on-screen accessibility keyboard, but after logging in, using it for everyday tasks gets old quick. Luckily it didn't take long for me to remember Windows Speech Recognition, which I'd last played with in 2009 when Vista was released. Seems to work about the same in Windows 7 (I love it), but that's another post. A couple days later I was finally able to get over to Micro Center and peruse the keyboard aisle.

At first I thought I'd get another tricked out multimedia keyboard, but upon reflection, I decided to look at the small form factor bluetooth keyboards. What I'd love is a bluetooth, backlit keyboard with a numpad and a decent look for under $100 (or even $50), but that day hasn't come yet. What I walked out of the store with was a small, bluetooth keyboard by a company called "Rocksoul" for $30. It has chiclet keys and a nice simple look:



It wasn't until I got home and took it out of the box that I realized it was a Mac keyboard - instead of a Windows key, it had a Command key, which was flipped with the Alt key.

After going crazy trying to use it for a few minutes (never realized just how often I hit Alt+Space to bring up a window's system menu), I decided to remap the keys to my liking. I was surprised to find that Windows 7 doesn't really come with a way to do this (aside from manually editing the registry), although Microsoft's Keyboard Layout Creator is a free download. It sucks though, and I didn't feel like trying any others out once I discovered that a utility I already use, AutoHotKey, lets you remap keys as well.

Here's the code I entered into my AutoHotKey script to swap the Command and Alt keys:

; Keyboard remap
LWin::LAlt
RWin::RAlt
LAlt::LWin
RAlt::RWin


In the end, I think I've decided to return this keyboard after all. While I like the small form factor in principle, it's distracting to type on it, and I miss the extra keys like the numpad, Home/End/Delete, Page Up/Down, and the Print Screen key. Furthermore, there's no Control key on the right side, and the leftmost bottom key is not Control but a Function key, very distracting. Finally, and I think this is a Mac thing - the Escape key only works for some things. I can dismiss a select list with it, but can't, for example, dismiss an open dialog box, which is second nature to me.

All in all, a nice enough keyboard, but not for me.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Access your recently used apps with Dock4Droid

I find accessing recently used applications on my HTC Incredible (Gingerbread) to be slightly annoying, mostly because I'm a lazy, impatient, good for nothing bum. You just tap and hold the Home button for a second. The main issue I have with it is Android's faux multi-tasking, but that aside, the slight delay when holding the Home button trips me up when I'm on a roll or in a hurry, and I'm limited to eight recent apps. There are a number of solutions that help manage recent tasks. Today I found one that, while it doesn't actually speed me up, is a welcome change (for the moment).

"Dock4Droid" puts an OSX-style dock on your phone. It's minimized to a thin, transparent glowing bar on one edge of the screen. Tap and hold, and the dock pops up, complete with magnification, displaying icons for your most recently used apps. Pausing on an app icon and releasing launches the app. Dragging your finger off the dock, or past the end of the list, dismisses the dock (unlike OSX, where this action removes the icon from the dock).

The dock can be customized in a number of ways. I've only tested the free limited version, but the dock can be moved to any screen edge, number of recent apps set, colors changed, etc.

Give it a try, here's the Market link for Dock4Droid.