Friday, June 03, 2005

Studio Setup: The Next Chapter part 2

I am typing this on the Mac Mini now comfortably ensconced in the "outhouse" (the outbuilding where my studio is located). It was a bit of a challenge to get the KVM working with both the Mini and the 8500. It turns out that the 8500 - since it has an added USB/Firewire PCI card, doesn't power up the card until after the OS is loaded - which means that the KVM switch doesn't receive a full-powered monitor signal until that point. So while the machine is booting up, you get a dim, flickery image on the monitor. VERY distressing the first time it happened! The KVM is working nicely, but the Mini keyboard doesn't have a NumLock key, so there is not way to switch between machines. That isn't currently an issue, but it may be at some point in the enar future. I may swap out the keyboard from the iMac up at the house (which has a numlock key) to see if it will work. That would be a shame, though - I really like the feel of the Mini keyboard.