Name: Marshall Dunbar
Room: Home Office
My desk setup has been a constant work in progress. My wife would call it an obsession. I like to think of it as a hobby. The main purpose of my setup is to eliminate clutter. Going to school online causes me to be at my desk a lot. So, I need as much real estate as possible to take notes and read through textbooks. Just as I need this added real estate on my physical desk, I also need it on my monitors desktop. The dual monitors help me in this aspect of being efficient in my studies. I am a Theology major and the monitors allow me to have my Bible Study software up on one monitor and Microsoft Word up on the other for note-taking or writing a paper.
On the fun side of things, I utilize the dual monitors by watching TV in fullscreen mode on one monitor while doing other things such as surfing the web on the other. I can also operate Microsoft Windows through Parallels on one monitor well doing something Mac-related on the other. I guess I am a bit of a multi-tasking junkie.
I situated my Macbook Air next to my desktop for easy access and quick retrieval when on the go. The bottom line is that it all works together nicely. I must admit though, above all else I just think it looks great!
Tech Resource List:
- Apple Mac mini, 2.4 GHz, 8GB RAM, 320GB HHD
- Apple Macbook Air, 1.86GHz, 2GB RAM, 128GB SSD
- Apple 20-inch Cinema Displays (2)
- Apple iPhone 2G and Apple iPhone 3GS
- Apple iSight Webcam
- Apple Wireless Keyboard
- Apple Magic Mouse
- Apple Magic Trackpad
- Apple Remote
- Elgato EyeTV Hybrid
- Elgato Turbo .264
- Bose Companion 3 Series II Speaker System
- Bose QuietComfort 3 Headphones
- Yamaha Motif XS6
- Iomega 500GB eGo Helium Portable HD
- Western Digital 320GB Portable HD
- Rain Design mStand
- HP Photosmart C3180 Printer.
- Ikea Dioder Lighting Set
Organization/Tech Tip: I would say, "express yourself"! I'm all about clean lines and cool design. I think no one does this better than Apple. Along with that, whatever machine you use try to find complimenting accents to connect the whole work area, bring it all together. Little things like the pen and holder located on the right side of my desk adds an attractive feature.
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Where's that desk from??
How did you get the menu bar to mirror across both of your displays? I would loooooooove that feature!
@BenV:
It looks a lot like the IKEA Utby bar table, but it's much shorter and doesn't have the leg supports that the Utby has.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S09843459
@phjohnst:
I think he might be using SecondBar.
http://blog.boastr.net/?page_id=79
Hiram:
You are correct! It is the UTBY bar table. I just sawed off the legs to make it a desk.
Also, in my opinion SecondBar is a must when using dual monitors to give you a more uniform look.
Nice set up.
How did you connect the (2) 20in Cinema Displays? Did you have to use a third party device? If so what?
Thanks,
Ed
Ed:
Thank you. The new Mac mini supports dual monitors via a Mini DisplayPort and a HDMI port. I had to use two adapters; a Mini DiplayPort to DVI and an included HDMI to DVI. It works flawlessly!
What is the desktop background/theme? Custom or is that a program? Thanks in advance.
Ansela:
Like I tell my wife, "There are worst things I could be addicted to". Right?
J. Andrew Johnson:
Cool name! Anyway, The background is all custom. I use GeekTool. It is a very cool pref plug-in for Mac. You can add things like text, time, date, weather, calendar events and to-dos to your desktop. All you need is the script which is easy to find by "googling".
Here is a link to show its possibilities:http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/geektool
Yes Dear...