I am currently using a dual screen KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) setup. I chose to use a KVM because I did not have the money or the space to run more monitors. Both of the computers are connected to a network so that I am able to see the same documents on both computers and do just about any file manipulation I want to do on both. One computer is running XP, and the other is a Vista/Ubuntu dual boot system.

There is one feature I wish to add to this setup, and that is a shared/network/remote clipboard. It would be really handy to be able to copy and paste text and images between the two computers. Text would be enough to keep me happy, but the ability to copy and paste images would be a real bonus.

I had seen some tools around the web in the past which I thought would do the job for me. I initially wanted to test them out to so that I could recommend the best one to the readers of Inspect My Gadget. I did not have any luck in getting any of them to work so I am turning this article over to you.

This article will take a look at a handful of Network Clipboard options which are all available for free online. I didn’t think it would be so hard to get this feature up and running, because there are existing applications designed for this task. I assumed it was a feature that many people would want, and possibly already use. Have you had success with getting similar functionality on your network? Please, let me know, this one has me stumped.

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One of the big questions for people interested in moving over to Vista is “Will my games work under Vista?”. I have tried out 10 of my games and had quite a successful adventure into Vista Gaming. I was able to get all the games below up and running, but it wasn’t without its difficulties.

To be fair to Vista, most of the problems I came across were related to video card drivers which have nothing to do with Vista itself. I started off this experiment using the drivers that came with my video card. I soon found that an update was required and this allowed most games to work without any other tweaking.

This article will look at a broad range of games which have been popular over the last 8 years. I will also explain my successes and difficulties installing each of these. All games are legitimate copies and cross many genres.

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The hype surrounding Windows Vista was too much for me so I headed out to the shop and bought a new system capable of running Vista. I did not have much of an idea of what Vista would be like. I had read the occasional article and seen a few screen shots but I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I took it home and hooked it all up and pressed the power button. The computer came to life and there was no login required to get to the desktop. I was greeted by the Welcome Center which showed me the specs of my new computer. There were a few shortcuts to look after various tasks such as transferring data from my old computer and to add/modify user accounts. I closed this window down and had a look around.

This is a brief article explaining my first few days with Vista. I have had good look around and found many nice features. It is likely that we will all come across Vista sometime in the future and this article will prepare you for your first touch of Vista. So far I love it though it is like a Rolls Royce without a gearbox; in that it looks very nice but you can’t do much with it yet. In general, current games do not work with it and you will probably do best sticking with XP unless you only want to run Microsoft Office apps which it does well. I look forward to seeing what it is capable of as the weeks and months roll on but at this stage, it doesn’t offer a great deal.

(Update - 10 Days in: Vista is running very well and stable. I have tried to get some of my games up and running in Vista and I have had great success. Please read my article “Vista Gaming: Will your games work under Vista?” for a complete rundown of my experience with gaming in Vista.)

A detailed list of what software has been tested and is known to work under Vista is at iexbeta.com.

There are many more new features than what is listed in this article and I am sure I will find many more nice surprises as I continue using Vista. These are a few of the highlights that struck me as I started my appreciation of Vista.

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Voice over internet protocol (VOIP) has been around for a few years now and is used in many call centres and homes as a secondary line. There is no denying that it is incredibly cheap, but is it as good as a Tel-co phone line direct to your house ?

I have had Engin VOIP as the main line in my house for a year now. I got married and moved out of home. The new house already had a cable internet connection so I decided to stick with it. Signing up to the Engin VOIP service meant I would not have to rent a phone line for phone or internet services. This seemed like the ideal solution, embracing new technology to save myself money.

This article will explain my experience with the Engin service in Australia and show you the positives and negatives of using VOIP services.

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