Uni Preparation - A Tech Focused Post
Well soon after results day, the Uni preparation has started. I’m in full flow of prep now, with a selection of Saucepans, Frying Pans, Woks, Cutlery, Crockery and various other kitchen supplies, bedding and tons of other stuff.
The biggest problem I’ve had with preparation is my technology.Being a computer scientist, a gadget enthusiast and an out and out techno freak as some people like to call me, this is an important stage and cannot have corners cut. So to set the background I am taking my Desktop PC, My Macbook and my Xbox 360. As well as the extras like 2 Digital Cameras, my Video camera, my wireless access point, My Dell Streak and the zillions of cables needed to connect it all together.
So First things first. I have my Desktop consisting of the tower and its componants, my 23” Samsung Syncmaster P2350 monitor, my very old Microsoft Wireless Keyboard and Mouse, my very old 2.1 speakers and the cables I have with it. I then have my year old Macbook Pro 13” with 2.23 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 120GB Hitachi Hard Drive and upgraded 4GB of RAM. And Lastly my Xbox 360 Premium with 60GB Hard Drive. Thats the tech described for all those interested.
At Uni I have the problem of connecting all this together for use with the monitor, speakers and keyboard and mouse. After a lot of searching I now have a solution. First of all I’ve decided to upgrade my speakers to a set of Logitech Z323’s as these make the connections a bit easier and after several years of having this current set of labtec speakers an upgrade is probably due. For my Xbox I already have a cable that outputs sound through RCA phono connections and then video out through HDMI. So I have the problem of connecting RCA from my Xbox, 3.5mm Jack from my pc and my macbook to the single pair of RCA phono connections on my speakers. So by using something like a 3 way RCA audio switch I sort out the problem of connecting the audio by using RCA to 3.5mm leads for the PC and macbook, and standard RCA leads for the Xbox.
For the video, my monitor has both a VGA and a DVI connector on it. For this one I am going to use a 3 way HDMI switch. An HDMI lead from the Xbox to the switch, a DVI to HDMI lead from the macbook to the switch, a DVI to HDMI adapter for the PC and then an HDMI lead from that to the switch and finally another DVI to HDMI lead from the switch to them monitor. Perfect.
Lastly I have my keyboard and mouse. This doesn’t need to switch to the xbox so a two way switch is required to switch between the PC and the Macbook. so I’m going to use a two way USB type B to 1 USB type A switch and a couple of USB A Male to USB B Male leads to plug the pc and the macbook into the switch and the wireless reciever for my keyboard and mouse will plug directly into the switch.
Sorted. A solution consisting of a hell of a lot of switches to plug everything in together. But once done it will be quite an elegant solution.
The last couple of things to do Tech side is to find an All in one Printer and upgrade my Macbook HDD to a Western Digital Scorpio Black 2.5” 7200 rpm drive.
