A ZD Net columnist talks about selling Linux to uers in Jamaica, and how you can almost see the change of expression on people’s faces when they finally “get” the benefits of Open Source software.

ZDNet UK reports on the new Asian-language registrations of Internet domain names. One company says it registered 16,000 domain names Friday (those Asians are ahead of us in a little time warp).

Bell Worldwide has released PreViking 0.3 under the GNU General Public License. PreViking is an Telephony Deamon written in C that has been designed with a modular structure that easily allows the addition of new services and the support of new hardware. Currently a calling card service is supplied and a service for recording voice prompts.

The Register does a story on Red Hat’s drive toward profits, saying the Linux distributor is on track for 100 percent revenue growth by the end of 2001.

ZDNET reports that Microsoft Corp. shareholders Thursday defeated
the company’s first-ever shareholder proposals
that would have forced the software giant to detail
political contributions and take a vocal stance on
human rights abuses in China.

2600’s layout and design artist, ShapeShifter, is scheduled to go on trial in Philadelphia on Tuesday, November 14. He was arrested during the Republican National Convention and held on half a million dollars bail.

Linux.com has this story: “The first thing you’ll need is fairly obvious. A box of some form running a GNU/Linux flavor of some sort (Or BSD, Solaris,
etc). Fortunately, there are lots of boxes laying around in most educational and business environments running this weird
thing called windows that are perfect candidates for such liberations.”

Wired.com reports: New devices cram up to 20 GB of data into packages small enough for a front pocket. Four USB gadgets that simplify file storage will be on display at Comdex.

Just as two Speakers of the House quit while trying to bring down Clinton, record execs continue trying to take down Napster. From Wired.com.

– By Jeff Field–

Many of the Linux users I know have more than one PC, and most of the time they use them simultaneously. There are several ways to do this. The first, and most obvious, is to have one monitor, keyboard and mouse for each machine. This can be messy and difficult to manage, however. For those short on desk space or who don’t want the hassle of switching input devices, there are devices, called KVM (keyboard video mouse) switches, which will run multiple computers off of one set of mouse, keyboard and monitor. Today’s review talks about one such device, the Belkin Omnicube SOHO 4-Port.

The Device
When it comes to choosing a KVM, there are many options. There are some that are a manual analog switch, which simply switchs the signals from your mouse, keyboard and video to another set of cables. While these function, they aren’t always the best — there are many programs that, when faced with a lack of keyboard or mouse, will fail. The cheaper KVMs don’t take this into account, and so you may run into such programs that will fail if you switch between machines.

The Belkin Omnicube, on the other hand, is an intelligent KVM. What this means is that when you switch from, say, computer No. 1 on your KVM to computer No. 3, your KVM will know that if computer No. 1 (while booting, for instance) looks for a mouse or keyboard, it should find something. This prevents the problem of bootup errors and programs having trouble operating when they think there is no mouse or keyboard.

Another excellent feature of this KVM — also a result of the Omnicube’s digital design — is that it has a very useful hotkey feature. If you want to switch from one computer to another, you don’t need to use the button on the KVM, you need only hit scroll lock twice within two seconds and then hit a number key (one through four) corresponding which PC you want to switch to, and you will be switched to that PC. This is handy because using the switch on the KVM, if you want to switch from PC 1 to PC 4, you have to hit the button three times in order to get there. By using the hotkeys, you can go directly from PC to PC.

One problem with KVM switches is that, with the extending of the VGA cable over a longer distance, signal degredation becomes a problem at high resolutions and frequencies. Running at 1024 * 768, I could not go higher than a 60Hz refresh rate without having a problem with ghosting (images would seem to be “smeared” on the monitor). Running at higher resolutions caused no trouble up to 1600 * 1200 as long as the refresh rate was low enough. For those running large monitors at high resolutions, ghosting might be a problem, because they will want a higher refresh rate. For most users, however, this should not be an issue.

Included in the package is what is needed to connect the KVM to your monitor, mouse, and keyboard, as well as a power supply. However, in order to connect the KVM to your PCs, you need to order cable kits, which can beas low as $8 a piece on sites such as Pricewatch.com. It is recommended you either buy the Belkin cables or obtain well-known high quality cables, in order to avoid signal degredation in the VGA connection.

During my use, I found the Omnicube 4-port to not only be well designed, but to be extremely useful. Where I would have had to switch cables before, I know simply hit a few keys and I am working on my other machine. While using the device to switch between a Windows machine and a machines running XFree 4.0.1, I had no problems. Other than a short pause before the mouse is workable, the device works flawlessly.

Conclusion
For those users who need the ability to run multiple PCs from the same station, a KVM can be an invaluable tool. While the Belkin Omnicube is a little more expensive than some KVMs, running around $100, the quality and features of it make it well worth the price. The Omnicube is a solid device from a company known for quality product, and I feel safe recommending it to those who need such a device.

Check out Belkin’s Web Page.

Jeff Field is NewsForge’s hardware reporter.

NewsForge editors read and respond to comments posted on our discussion page.