General Robots

Charles Bukowski war ein Geek!

Das Bild von Bukowski in mit einer Flasche Whiskey vor seiner Schreibmaschine ist sicherlich nicht falsch. Ich wusste allerdings nicht, dass er sein Spätwerk auf einem Mac IIsi getippt und ein Gedicht geschrieben hatte, das erstens „16-bit Intel 8088 chip“ hieß und in dem zweitens der C64 vorkommt. Außerdem fand er diese neue Technologie, die sich da abzeichnete schon super, dieses Dingens, mit dem er sofort und mit einem Klick Gedichte veröffentlichen könnte… dieses Dingens, dieses Internet. Holy fuck, der Buke war ein Geek!

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On Christmas Day, 1990, Charles Bukowski received a Macintosh IIsi computer and a laser printer from his wife, Linda. The computer utilized the 6.0.7 operating system and was installed with the MacWrite II word processing program. By January 18 of the next year, the computer was up and running and so, after a brief period of fumbling and stumbling, was Bukowski. His output of poems doubled in 1991. In letters he remarked that he had more poems than outlets to send them to. The fact that several books of new poems appeared in the years following Bukowski’s death in 1994 can partially be attributed to this amazing burst of creative energy late in life. The Macintosh IIsi helped to enable this creative explosion.

Charles Bukowski and his Apple ComputerFlying in the face of the adage “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” Bukowski kept an open mind about new technologies. Although he wondered if Dostoevsky would have ever used a computer or if he would lose his soul as a writer, Bukowski quickly realized the substantial benefits of the Macintosh and wondered how he ever wrote without one, considering the typewriter archaic. In correspondence, Bukowski championed his computer to friends, stating that they would never regret getting one for themselves. Linda signed Bukowski up for a computer class, and he went willingly, demonstrating his eagerness to master the new technology. A short time later, Bukowski characteristically claimed that he had a secret, foolproof system for dealing with his computer’s many shutdowns and malfunctions, much like he had a system at the racetrack.

In general Bukowski kept abreast of new innovations that would further his writing. In a letter to John Martin, his Black Sparrow publisher, Bukowski mentioned the availability of a technology (the Internet) that would allow him to send poems instantly. The speed and ease of new technologies amazed, excited, and inspired him. When he first got a fax machine, Bukowski immediately wrote Martin a fax poem. In late 1992, Bruce Kijewski approached Bukowski with the idea of electronic books. Bukowski was intrigued. He wrote back, “Yes, you have a strange project: electronic books. It might be the future as more and more people find that the computer is such a magic thing: time-saver, charmer, energizer.”

Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, and the Computer (via Cyn-C)

Nach dem Klick noch sein Nerd-Gedicht, muss ich selbstverständlich hier haben.
Gib mir den Rest, Baby…

Computers inspired by Computers inspired by Kittens inspired by Kittens


(Youtube Direktcomputers, via BoingBoing)

Dieses „Kittens inspired by Kittens“ war mir neulich eine Spur zu albern und ein wirklicher Katzen-Fan bin ich ja auch nicht, weshalb ich es nicht verlinkt hatte. Wozu auch. Da ist das hier schon viel eher mein Fall.

Retro Computing: 1960 Promotional Film for UNIVAC

This 1960 promotional film for the UNIVAC computer is amazing to watch — it’s amazing to think how much computing has changed in just a few decades: Computers have gone from being these large exotic machines to a disposable device that can fit in your pocket.

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Der Computer im Film Teil 1: Die Eroberung des Privaten

Computer spielen im Film zumeist eine Nebenrolle. Dort, wo ihnen die Hauptrolle zugewiesen wird, erfahren wir viel über unsere Visionen und Ängste im Zeitalter der Mikroelektronik. In einer mehrteiligen Textreihe werden Filme der 1970er bis 1990er Jahre darauf hin betrachtet, wie Computer in ihnen dargestellt werden. Dieser erste Teil befasst sich mit der Eroberung und Vernichtung der Privatsphäre durch die Computertechnologie.

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The 7 Biggest Asshole Computers in Science Fiction

When computers inevitably take over the world, you can bet that sci-fi writers are going to be the first ones slaughtered by their electronic death rays. Throughout the history of science fiction, they have frequently been portrayed as scheming machines that want nothing more than to enslave or destroy humanity. Whether acting as a metaphor for society’s fear of the unknown or reflecting upon concerns about the misuse of technology, computers are the genre’s whipping boy. So it makes sense that they are often troublemaking punks out to spoil our fun in sci-fi films and TV shows.

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The Greatest Workstation Of All Time

Those designers at NovelQuest have gone a little bit crazy with their latest workstation offering. They called it the Emperor and it looks like something Darth Vader will sit on. It has three large monitors for a panoramic view, THX Dolby surround sound, air filtering, light therapy, webcam, battery backup, and lots of other stuffs.

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Take a Stroll Down Computing Memory Lane

It’s hard to believe that there was a time before high-speed Internet access, wi-fi, or even USB. Back then, the word “computer” meant a big beige desktop box with a bulky CRT monitor – not a sleek notebook – and being online means you’re tying up the phone line to the consternation of your mom.

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3-Ton “Brain” Is Problem-Solver (Jul, 1935)

THE largest and keenest “mechanical brain” in the world was exhibited recently for the first time at the University of Pennsylvania. Weighing three tons, the mechanism can solve complex problems in one-sixth of the time usually required by human mathematicians.

The novel machine has ten “integrators,” each of which is set by a hand dial to determine the effect of a variable quantity on the problem at hand. During the setting of a dial, a knife-edged wheel comes in contact with a small steel disc. By controlling friction, the speed of the small wheel becomes the main factor in problem-solving.

Built at a cost of $50,000, the device required the services of 115 skilled workers over a 15-month period before it was completed.

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Doku über Computer-Geschichte (5): The World at Your Fingertips


(Viddler Direktfingertips)

(Teil 1: The Machine that changed the World, Teil 2: Inventing the Future, Teil 3: The Paperback Computer, Teil 4: The Thinking Machine, Teil 5: The World at Your Fingertips)

Here’s the fifth and final episode of The Machine That Changed the World, this one focusing on global information networks including the Internet, and the communication benefits and privacy risks they create. This is the most familiar material of the documentary, so I’m going to skip the notes and annotations this time. I hope you enjoyed the documentary as much as I did.

And, as promised, here’s the BitTorrent file for high-resolution copies of all five videos. It’s a 3.1GB download with five H.264 encoded MP4 files.

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Doku über Computer-Geschichte (4): The Thinking Machine


(Viddler Direktmachine)

(Teil 1: The Machine that changed the World, Teil 2: Inventing the Future, Teil 3: The Paperback Computer, Teil 4: The Thinking Machine, Teil 5: The World at Your Fingertips)

The fourth episode of The Machine That Changed the World covers the history of artificial intelligence and the challenges that come from trying to teach computers to think and learn like us.

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Doku über Computer-Geschichte (3): The Paperback Computer


(Viddler Direktcomputer)

(Teil 1: The Machine that changed the World, Teil 2: Inventing the Future, Teil 3: The Paperback Computer, Teil 4: The Thinking Machine, Teil 5: The World at Your Fingertips)

The third episode of The Machine That Changed the World covers the development of the personal computer and the modern graphical user interface, which made computing easy to use for everyone. Highlights include interviews with Apple’s Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, drawing with a computer in 1963, great footage from Xerox PARC, and some 1992-era predictions of the future from Apple and others.

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1968 Computer & Mouse Demo

On December 9, 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart and the group of 17 researchers working with him in the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA, presented a 90-minute live public demonstration of the online system, NLS, they had been working on since 1962. The public presentation was a session in the of the Fall Joint Computer Conference held at the Convention Center in San Francisco, and it was attended by about 1,000 computer professionals. This was the public debut of the computer mouse. But the mouse was only one of many innovations demonstrated that day, including hypertext, object addressing and dynamic file linking, as well as shared-screen collaboration involving two persons at different sites communicating over a network with audio and video interface.

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Doku über Computer-Geschichte (2): Inventing the Future


(Viddler Direkthistory)

Der zweite Teil der Computer-Geschichtsdokumentation ist auch schon online.
(Teil 1: The Machine that changed the World, Teil 2: Inventing the Future, Teil 3: The Paperback Computer, Teil 4: The Thinking Machine, Teil 5: The World at Your Fingertips)

In the ’50s, vacuum tubes were an essential component of the electronics industry, located in every computer, radio, and television. Transistors meant that far more complex computers could be designed, but couldn’t be built because wiring them together was a logistical nightmare. The “tyranny of numbers” was solved in 1959 with the first working integrated circuit, developed and introduced independently by both Texas Instruments and Fairchild. But ICs were virtually ignored until adopted by NASA and the military for use in lunar landers, guided missiles, and jets. Electronics manufacturers soon realized the ability to mass-produce ICs. Within a decade, ICs cost pennies to produce while becoming a thousand times more powerful. The result was the birth of the Silicon Valley and a reborn electronics industry.

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Doku über Computer-Geschichte: The Machine That Changed The World


(Viddler Direktmachine)

„The Machine That Changed The World“ ist eine 5-teilige Dokumentation über die Anfänge der Computerei, die einmal gesendet und danach nie wieder veröffentlicht wurde. Andy Baio von Waxy.org hat sie aufgetrieben und postet sie verteilt auf diese Woche. Ich hab’ alle fünf Teile auf VHS und kann nur sagen: das lohnt sich, aber sowas von. Absolutes Must-Watch!

(Teil 1: The Machine that changed the World, Teil 2: Inventing the Future, Teil 3: The Paperback Computer, Teil 4: The Thinking Machine, Teil 5: The World at Your Fingertips)

The Machine That Changed the World is the longest, most comprehensive documentary about the history of computing ever produced, but since its release in 1992, it’s become virtually extinct. Out of print and never released online, the only remaining copies are VHS tapes floating around school libraries or in the homes of fans who dubbed the original shows when they aired.

It’s a whirlwind tour of computing before the Web, with brilliant archival footage and interviews with key players — several of whom passed away since the filming. Jointly produced by WGBH Boston and the BBC, it originally aired in the UK as The Dream Machine before its U.S. premiere in January 1992. Its broadcast was accompanied by a book co-written by the documentary’s producer Jon Palfreman.

With the help of Simon Willison, Jesse Legg, and (unofficially) the Portland State University library, we’ve tracked down and digitized all five parts. This week, I’m uploading them, annotating them with Viddler, and posting them here as streaming Flash video as they’re finished. Also, the complete set will be available as high-quality MP4 downloads via BitTorrent by Friday.

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The Evolution Of Computer Commercials

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The Victorian-Era Supercomputer And The Genius Who Created It

The London Science Museum finally completed work on the Victorian era’s greatest supercomputer, the Difference Engine No. 2, 120 years after the death of inventor Charles Babbage. This five-ton machine is currently traveling across the pond to San Francisco, and will go on display in America for the first time starting May 10th at the Computer History Museum.

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101 Great Computer Programming Quotes

“Hardware: The parts of a computer system that can be kicked.”
(Jeff Pesis)

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The Handy Uses of a Home Computer, 1970

Computers for the home have been envisioned by science fiction writers and engineers ever since a huge, unwieldy prototype was developed 25 years ago. The whole futuristic age they prophesied, with an omnipotent electronic monster named Horace in every living room, is still a long way from realization, but compact consumer computers have quietly entered the household. While the market hardly rivals TV sets or refrigerators, the computer-as-home-appliance is now more than just a toy for the wealthy or a mysterious instrument for technical specialists.

Those pioneer families who have one, like the Theodore Rodmans of Ardmore, Pa., have discovered their obedient machine can perform a large variety of useful functions. Dr. Rodman originally brought it home for medical research, but then his family found it could also plan mortgage payments, help out with homework, even play with the children. Although the cost is still high, computers like theirs have come within possible reach of a two-car family budget. A small, self-contained model is available for $8,000, complete. The Rodmans’ computer system, called time-sharing, uses a Teletype terminal connected to a big central unit via telephone. It costs $110 a month to rent, plus $7.50 per hour of use.

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East German Computing: The Robotron 1715

robotron.jpg

I stumbled across this East German PC while exploring Sergei Frolov’s Soviet calculator collection last week. Manufactured in 1984, this utilitarian “Worker’s PC” was based around a clone of the Zilog Z80 processor running at 2.5 MHz.

It ran what seems to have been an iron curtain variant of the C/PM OS popular in the west until it was obliterated by the MS-DOS juggernaut in the mid 1980s. The display offered 16×24 or 28×80 green text, and I’m willing to bet it had no graphic or sound capabilities. The machine was initially offered with 64 KB RAM, which was later upgraded to 256 KB.

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boy… girl… computer – New dating craze sweeps the campus

boygirlcomp.jpg

Out of computers, faster than the eye can blink, fly letters stacked with names of college guys and girls—taped, scanned, checked and matched. Into the mails speed the compatible pairs, into P.O. boxes at schools across the land. Eager boys grab their phones… anxious coeds wait in dorms … a thousand burrrrrrrings jar the air . . . snow-job conversations start, and yeses are exchanged: A nationwild dating spree is on. Thousands of boys and girls who’ve never met plan weekends together, for now that punch-card dating’s here, can flings be far behind? And oh, it’s so right, baby. The Great God Computer has sent the word. Fate. Destiny. Go-go-go. Call it dating, call it mating, it flashed out of the minds of Jeff Tarr (left) and Vaughn Morrill, Harvard undergraduates who plotted Operation Match, the dig-it dating system that ties up college couples with magnetic tape. The match mystique is here: In just nine months, some 100,000 collegians paid more than $300,000 to Match (and to its MIT foe, Contact) for the names of at least five compatible dates. Does it work? Nikos Tsinikas, a Yale senior, spent a New Haven weekend with his computer-Matched date, Nancy Schreiber, an English major at Smith. Result, as long date’s journey brightened into night: a bull’s-eye for cupid’s computer.

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Top 10 Evil Computers

comps.jpg

Ah, computers. They make our lives so easy… but we should fear them, for they may yet turn on us. We’ve collected together ten of the most ee-vil computers to not only achieve sentience, but decide that those pesky, squishy hu-mans just have to go.

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Time Magazine 1965: Die computerisierte Gesellschaft

computer.jpg

Sehr schön! Modern Mechanix hat großformatige Scans eines Time Magazine-Artikels von 1965, aus einer Zeit, als Kraftwerk grade mal anfingen, über Computer nachzudenken und das Konzept des Personal Computers noch flüssig war: „The Cybernated Generation“

The computer is, in fact, the largely unsung hero of the thrust into space. Computers carefully checked out all Gemini’s systems before the launch, kept precise track of the spacecraft’s position in the heavens at every moment, plotted trajectories and issued precise commands to the astronauts. On their detailed instructions, the astronauts made the first change of orbit ever achieved in flight; computers not only designed the new orbit, but also told the command pilot at what time and for how long he should fire his thrusters to achieve it.

While man’s exploration of space would be impossible without computers, the biggest changes worked by these remarkable machines are taking place right on earth. Just out of its teens, the computer is beginning to affect the very fabric of society, kindling both wonder and widespread apprehension. Is the computer a friend or enemy of man? Will it cause hopeless unemployment by speeding automation, that disquieting term that it has brought into the language? Will it devalue the human brain, or happily free it from drudgery? Will it ever learn to think for itself?

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Links vom 26. 11. 07: 1000 Frames of Hitchcock, Scarlett Johansson Zombie und das Über-Computer-Poster

Music

OK Go’s LED Jackets
Rising star of modern design, Moritz Waldemeyer, is collaborating with the quirky kings of Geek Rock, OK Go, to fashion a new kind of stage performance. The band recently approached Waldemeyer to design the costumes for their latest performance, and his solution quite literally lights up the stage – thousands of LED lights, stitched into the jackets of the four performers, will turn each of them into a moving light show. Waldemeyer’s inspiration was the flickering lights of the slot machines in the casinos of Las Vegas.

DJ Moule – Le Boot de la Semaine
New boot of the week by the prolific and Mashup artist extrordinaire DJ Moule. ‘Dig It On takes on a foursome containing the Chemical Brothers, T-Rex, Anne Lee, and Marvin Gaye. French Floor Filla.

Movies

Celebrity Star Wars
Photoshop Contest

1000 Frames of Hitchcock
“1000 Frames of Hitchcock” is an attempt to reduce each of the 52 available major Hitchcock films down to just 1000 frames.

Hitchcock Triple Feature
Though not as commonly known, Alfred Hitchcock’s late British period is nonetheless an intriguing look at what delights were to come from his later work.
Secret Agent (1936), Young and Innocent (1937), Jamaica Inn (1939)

Atom
The Clash of the Titans Watch now
Discovery of the Atom – Development of Quantum Mechanics
The Key to the Cosmos Watch now
Radioactivity – the Atom Bomb – the Big Bang – Why are we here? – How were we made?
The Illusion of Reality Watch now
Parallel universes – Different versions of us exist – Empty space isn’t empty at all – Differences in our perception of the world in the universe and the reality.

Design

Evan Perry’s Hyper-Realistic Sculptures
Evan Penny’s eccentric portraiture transforms the figurative tradition into contemporary observations on the nature of representation. His lifelike sculptures and photographs tantalize us with vivid allusions to reality, while emphatically affirming their fictional demeanor. When faced with one of Penny’s incredible people, we may not believe what we see.

Vintage Ads

How To Change Scarlett Johansson Into A Zombie
Photoshop Timelapse Video. Meine Zombies sind immer noch besser. Celebrity Zombies! Muss ich mal drüber nachdenken.

Logo R.I.P.
In todays ruthless business environment, corporations face uncertain futures. The forces of globalisation are creating unprecedented change. Yet apart from the displacement, downsizing and elimination of the workforce, the other casualities are the visual manifestations of the company: its logo, or trademark. Logo RIP is a commemoration of logos withdrawn from the ocular landscape.

Stelar C Muscle Mashine
The Muscle Machine is a six-legged walking robot, five metres in diameter. It is a hybrid human-machine system, pneumatically powered using fluidic muscle actuators. The rubber muscles contract when inflated, and extend when exhausted. This results in a more flexible and compliant mechanism, using a more reliable and robust engineering design.

User Experience Of The Future
We’ve got used to a number of things. To traditional mouse-keyboard user interaction, to 2D windows-based user interface and to a rather unspectacular user’s workflow which enables one user interact with only one application at a time. For instance, while you’re browsing in your web browser you can’t scale your text and resize your window simultaneously — unless you are a keyboard-shortcut-master.
Good news: it can be different. Below we present some of the outstanding recent developments in the field of user experience design. Most techniques may seem very futuristic, but they are reality. And in fact, they are extremely impressive. Keep in mind: they can become ubiquitous over the next years.

Adams Wallpapers

Und so.

Über-Computerposter
Das Poster „PC-Geschichte bzw. Computergeschichte“ wurde bereits zweimal im Jahre 1997 (20 Jahre PC) und 2002 (25 Jahre PC) produziert und sehr erfolgreich aufgelegt. In diesem Jahr feiert der PC nun seinen 30. Geburtstag und es wird ein neues erweitertes Poster erstellt, welches auf der Basis des bereits vorhandenen Posters “25 Jahre PC-Geschichte“ basiert.

Human observation of dark energy may shorten the life span of the universe
Could humanity’s observation of dark energy have shortened the life span of the universe? The answer is “yes” according to the author of a new scientific paper that has recently come to light. Featured in the latest edition of New Scientist magazine, the subscriber-only story, “Has observing the universe hastened its end?”, discusses the paper and its claims.

Retro-Christmas-Catalogue-Scans

Star Craft: The Story so far
Die Terraner reisten das erste Mal in die Tiefen der Galaxie, als eine Navigationsfehlfunktion ihre automatisierten Kolonieschiffe vom Kurs abbrachte. Die Schiffe verfehlten ihr geplantes Ziel und erlitten auf drei weit zerstreuten Welten des Koprulu-Sektors Bruchlandungen.
Über mehrere Jahrzehnte hinweg etablierten die Terraner Kolonien, breiteten sich auf weitere Planeten aus und gerieten miteinander in Konflikt. In dem Jahrzehnt nach dem Ende der Gildenkriege hatte die Terranische Konföderation die unangefochtene Vormachtstellung über den Kolonialraum.
Die terranischen Kolonien wurden sich das erste Mal bewusst, dass sie nicht allein im Universum sind, als eine schimmernde Flotte von Kriegsschiffen der Protoss unvermittelt über der Konföderationswelt Chau Sara auftauchte. Die hochentwickelten, fremdartigen Schiffe äscherten die Oberfläche des Planeten ohne Vorwarnung ein.

Russia to build new cosmodrome on home soil
Russia will build a new cosmodrome on its own territory capable of handling human spaceflight, Russian media reports. President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree that clears the way for the construction of the new cosmodrome which will begin hosting launches in 2015.
The launch centre, in Russia’s Far East region of Amur, will be called Vostochny, said, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov. It would be Russia’s first launch centre for manned missions on its own territory.

6 Incredible Ocean-Going Hotels from Around the World
Here are six hotels that are perfectly designed for the nautically inclined.

History of Medicine Collection
Planet Tyler’s Flickr photoset contains some of the wonderful things found in University of Buffalo’s History of Medicine Collection such as the Oxypathor, electric chest and lung protector, and this 1861 Illustrated Manual of Operative Surgery and Surgical Anatomy.

Raubkopierer sind Terroristen
Am 30. November wird der Bundesrat wieder zusammentreten. Dann wird auch das Gesetz zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung zur Abstimmung vorgelegt. Es ist zu erwarten, dass die Großkoalitionäre dem Gesetzesentwurf zustimmen werden. Eine Empfehlung des Rechtsausschuss des Bundesrates fordert indes sogar eine Ergänzung des Gesetzes, die auch eine zivilrechtliche Auskunft über die Bestandsdaten ermöglichen soll. Der Hintergrund ist, dass die Lobbyvertreter der Software-, Film- und Musikindustrie gerne in einem noch höheren Maße rechtlich gegen Urheberrechtsverletzungen, d.h. “Raubkopien” über Tauschbörsen, vorgehen würden.

Doom 3 Case Mod

This is a Computer?

Big Bird, Snuffy und die Computer

Was der deutschen Sesamstraße eindeutig fehlte, war Big Bird und Aloysius Snuffleupagus. Was hatten wir stattdessen? Tiffy und Herr von Bödefeld. Suuper. Den beiden hätte ich nicht gerne beim Computern zugesehen. Big Bird und Snuffy dagegen schon. Embedding disabled by request, Fuckers.

(via, wo es noch ein paar weitere Big Bird-Videos gibt…)

Computer hab ich zum Fressen gern…


(Youtube DirektFrankOz, via)

Merken:

Beim arbeiten mit zwei Rechnern, kann der Mauszeiger NICHT von Screen zu Screen bewegt werden, auch nicht, wenn man das eine Minute lang versucht.