1 Mouse $5, 1 Keyboard $10, 1 Monitor $89, 2 Computers.. Priceless.

I am a nerd. There is no way around that, but with energy bills here in California being what they are, and during the summer months with increased heat, having 2 monitors does not help, and having 2 computers on 1 desk, is a hard squeeze as well.

Enter the Micro KVM from IOGear. For $49.95 this is a fair bargin, at my office we have 18 port KVM's and they set office owner back a bit, and even today larger more elaborate kvm's can cost a lot, this is a $50 investment which does great.

Here is how it works in my home office, I have 2 computers, 1 Desktop, 1 Server, different operating systems (Linux/Windows 2000) and I previously had 2 monitors, 2 keyboards, 2 mice, and my desk looked like something from the matrix, well minus the flat screen monitors, so a KVM was definately needed.

I can be in a video game, editing a photo in Photoshop, chatting or surfing on the Windows 2000 machine, with 2 simple taps of the Scroll Lock Key (finally a use!) it will flicker the screen as it transfers control of the keyboard, mouse and monitor to the Linux server so I can restart Samba or Apache, I have XWindows running KDE 3.0.3 and I run applications from its desktop too without any problem, its acts just like the components are all connected directly to the server.

So if you have desk clutter, or a fileserver that you only need access to from time to time, make a $50 investment and be able to use both computers when you need them without moving 1 monitor to the other, or warming up your room with that 2nd 19inch monitor.