Triple Monitors on a Dell Latitude e6520

I have just recently started using a triple monitor setup and I've got to say, it's pretty bomb. I've used 2 monitors before and never thought I would make use of a 3rd one, but low and behold I am addicted. Now i have a Dell latitude on a port replicator, a.k.a. docking station. Because of the way the computer is designed it can only support 2 monitors. On the physical computer it has a VGA output and a HDMI output. The port replicator has two DVI outputs and one VGA. Looking at it i assumed you could use three monitors easily. I was clearly wrong. The drivers installed only support 2 monitors. The solution is pretty simply but not the most reliable. Using a Star Tech USB to DVI adapter that creates another driver for the computer to install a 3rd monitor. So now I run 3 monitors, one on HDMI, one on VGA, and another using the USB to DVI adapter. The only problem is with the reliability of the adapter. It is relatively cheap (around $45) and does allow the third monitor but has displayed some problems coming out of sleep. Once Windows goes into sleep mode or the screen saver comes on the adapter has been known to not come back on. Solution usually is a restart of the computer or sometimes unplugging and plugging the adapter back in. While this creates the occasional inconvenience, the 3 monitor setup is awesome! A different solution may also be to get a better, more expensive adapter, however this solution works for me and I do enjoy having email on one screen, research on another, and documents I am working on the other. Highly effective and great for getting work done.

Update

This is due to a limitation of the video card that is in the 6510, 6520, 6530 models because they don’t have a discrete video card.  The new models 6540 have 2 video cards, the “run of the mill” Intel graphics card only supports 2 monitors but the discrete video card (Nvidia) that was added to these supports 3 or more monitors by itself.

If you order this make sure you get the discrete Nvidia cards.

Smead Smartstrip Labels - Activation Code

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Uncorking Tech

The first blog of Uncorking Tech is now in session.

Technology is a must and how the Amish try to survive without it is insane. There is a form of information technology in everything you touch. Even eating a bowl of cereal couldn't be accomplished without technology being somehow involved. Technology is taking leaps forward and is showing no signs of slowing down. Just a few years ago talking to a computer was something they did in Star Trek and never would you have thought that would be real anytime before the year 2100. What will be next?

Can I get a robot with such extreme AI that it develops a heart? That right there is one thing I am glad technology can not touch. The very part that makes us human. As hard as we try we will never get to a place of programming anything close to the human brain. It's too complex and created by a God that would never share the glory of his greatest creation.

Straying away from that topic let's talk about this new Siri technology that has been placed in the new iPhone and iPad. Relatively primitive and still in BETA mode it seems to function pretty well, the one problem is that it can only respond to request that have been pre-programmed, unfortunately it does not learn how to conduct answers by itself. Like the recording the professor left Will Smith in I Robot. That means there is a guy behind a desk who tells Siri what to say. Not exactly how you want to picture it but the amount of programming that went into it is extensive and only increasing. Some generic responses can be made to most questions you ask it. Ask it anything about you and most often it will answer with a question. Ask it to tell you a joke, I hear it is quite hilarious. Need to hide a body? Siri will get right on that for you. How about calling you an Ambulance? Not that easy, unless you want Siri to refer to you as Ambulance. Intuitive non the less. Making calling someone even more unlikely. Why call when Siri can have the conversation for me? I almost feel like it is like that scene in Harry Potter when Harry and Ron had Herminoe tell the other things they could say themselves. I feel Siri is the way of the future. Pretty soon you will be ordering your Big Mac from her and that may very well take the job away from your average high schooler. That is why I am standing on the side of technology, someone has to fix it when it breaks.