Now that I have dual flat panels...what should I leave open on the other one?

[UNCjigga]

Okay, so I finally figured out how to enable dual monitor support on my laptop under Windows XP (stupid Compaq only puts the drivers in the Evo download section when it works fine on the Presario!)

This is soooo cool, I can be working on my laptop while I play a DVD through TV output, or I can use the external monitor port to drive another display (which I'm using to drive a 2nd 15 inch flat panel!)

At first I would do all my work on my first monitor while leaving Outlook open on the 2nd. That was fun for awhile. Also, when I was working on Powerpoints or layouts in Corel 10 I could work on one monitor and display the rendered image on the 2nd.

But now I want more. Specifically, I'm looking for something that will emulate a Bloomberg-type display on the 2nd monitor (hopefully y'all know what I'm talking about!) I remember there used to be this thing called PointCast which had like streaming content in a screensaver. Unfortunately they got bought out and the current version is horrible (stupid toolbar format, no dualie support! ARRGH!!!) Is there anything else like that out there??? I need to keep some nice streaming distractions open on the 2nd monitor while I work!!! What do you guys recommend? What do YOU do with your dualie setup???

 

[jonMEGA]

winamp ? performance monitor ?

 

[UNCjigga]

Hmm...winamp visualizations sounds neat...but I tried that and the fullscreen plugins default to the main screen (making it a pain to switch them around.) And I'm not geeky enough for a performance monitor.

 

[Parrotheader]

You've tried all the basics. It really just depends on what you're doing. I usually have Outlook on one and either a browser or whatever else I'm working on on the other. When I'm doing site work: GoLive on one, browser on the other. When I'm goofing off: browser on one, AIM/Winamp/Divx or Morpheus/my dog's web cam on the other. Usually it's just a mix of things.

I know what you're talking about ticker wise, but I don't really know of any cool ones off the top of my head. I do watch Yahoo's finance vision a lot on my secondary display while I'm working. Fantastic live video feed and integration with HTML. I'm sure you've seen it before though.

The size of your monitors and the resulting resolutions kind of limit the number of things you can do I guess. I personally run dual 17s at 1152x864 so I have a moderate amount of desktop area. I love duals. It's impossible to go back after you use them on a regular basis.

 

[bUnMaNGo]

I run two 19" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900u's using the "powered by ATI" based Radeon VE card from compgeeks (posted a while ago on the Hot Deals forum)... normally when I code, I leave Visual Studio open in the main screen, and IRC, AIM, and a reference web page for help with my coding. Other times, I just have AIM and IRC in one screen and IE open in another running 1600x1200 on each screen at 16-bit color though, since my card doesn't support 1600x1200@32 bit Thanks to those in Hot Deals that made this all possible *sniff sniff*

 

[MillionaireNextDoor]

My second monitor is an el-cheapo 15" i got from a friend of mine. I use it for dc and aim (too small for anything else)