The first thing Ah noticed as the UPS man drove up the driveway was that his truck was brown. Ah quickly changed directions on my Simplicity riding lawnmower and said to myself," Screw It the lawn can wait." Ah disengaged the blade in my mulching mower and the mower dumped a huge load of mascerated grass. Screw it Ah thought again Ah'll clean it up tomorrow and raced across the backyard in fifth gear comin' to a lawn tearing halt at the split rail fence. The UPS man said, " Don't stop on my account." Screw It Ah thought but smiled and said "Oh, That sections done."

Ah immediately took the package inside and set it on the kitchen island. Mah wife asked, "What did you get now!?"

Acting coy I said. "Just some computer junk, don't worry you pretty little head over it."

"Open it." she said.

"Naw" Ah retorted. "Ah have to get ready for work, open it for me, eh?" Ah went outside and zoomed the lawnmower in the garage. When Ah came back in Ah saw she had ripped the end of the box but stopped when she got to those nasty, always pesky sytrofoam bits. Ah finished opening the box and inside was a double secret balistically sealed blister pack. Man, Ah hate those things worse then rabid jackalopes in heat. Ah had to take out my Buck knife and carefully slice the top off then cautiously rip the seals apart. Always a dangerous proposition, sharp edges ya know.

Ah was reewared with my new Linksys Proconnect Integrated KVM (keyboard, video, mouse)2-port Switch. Now if'n yer like me you have more than one or two computers lying around. Since there ain't no one that would be sufficently grateful if I gave `em one and sellin' used computers ain't so EZ Ah figgered the most beneficial alternative is for me to make use of it. Ah already have two computer stations in the house so a third woulda gone over like a lead balloon with the wife but Ah want to use my 366 celeron (at one time the flagship of the fleet). The KVM switch allows me to use two computers using only one mouse, keyboard and monitor thus allowing me even more purposeless computer time to enjoy.

Ah wanted to hook it up right away but mah wife decided since Ah had something new it would be best for her to use the little time Ah had before work to read the news and dash out a dozen e-mails. Ah moped around then headed down to the Used Industrial Tire and Crane Service to make sure Ma wasn't filching no Kerosone. Mah pleasure would just have to wait 9 more hours.

Well, after work Ah finally got down to it and hook up was a breeze. Let me describe the unit to ya all (Fig 1). There is a central hub bout the size of a pack a butts. It is purple and black. Into it ya hook up yer monitor, keyboard(ps/2), and mouse(ps/2). Ah have a Logitech USB wireless mouse but it came with a USB to ps/2 adaptor so Ah was in like Flint. It also has a couple small laghts on it to let ya know which computer yer wastin' yer time at.

Snaking out from the hub are 2 sets of 3 cords. Each is four foot long. At the end of the cords are hookups for monitor, mouse and keyboard (color coded) which nachurally hook to the back of each of yer two computers. That's it. The directions then state that to switch between systems simply "press and release the scroll lock key twice". Well Ah did but Holy Baloney....nuttin' happened. Well Ah checked the duh-rections again....everything was OK there. Then Ah checked the connections but nuttin'. Ah was so unsettled Ah hit that scroll lock button twice lickety split in exasperation and LO!!
It switched. Guess Linksys should wrote " do a quick double tap, like ya was shootin a varmint with yer .22"

Really, as well as amazingly to me Ah can now switch between my 366 Celeron and 1700 AMD with just a quick double tap. Ah have noticed no degradation in image quality or input response. The unit provides other switching options as well...such as auto-scan betwixt yer units at set intervals. There must be a reason to do that but Ah sure as heck don't know what it is.

Why would a pud need a gizmo like this??? Why to make better use of the rest of yer gizmo's. Why have a perfectly good computer sitting around collecting cosmic transmographication rays when it can be in use while collecting aforementioned rays?

Ah plan on using mine to play those pesky DOS games that windows XP (a great OS) don't like.

Ah got my Linksys Proconnect Integrated KVM 2-port Switch from Googlegear fer $38.50 speeedbucks deeelivered.

Ah give it 3.5 outta four stars. It loses half a star cause it's sits on the floor where I can't admire it. Though Ah guess a more enterprising pud could put it somewhere else

Speeeed

Fig 1

July 5, 2003

Linksys Proconnect Integrated KVM 2-port Switch