I love my KVM but...

[Bob Crabtree]

Yesterday, my older brother (yes, there are people older than me still alive) - a relative computer newcomer - sent me a link to a video clip on AOL titled, Little Britain, Lou and Andy, Egypt Win the World Cup.

Stupidly, I didn't think twice about clicking on the link even though I should have stopped for a moment to consider if it was safe.

Well, sure enough, after watching the clip (on which the sound seemed very strange), and after I closed the player window, there was this weird music going on in the background.

So, next I closed Firefox (and then Internet Explorer, just in case). But that didn't help.

It was Ctrl-Alt-Del time - calling up Task Manager to see what nasty processes were putting up this maddening, short, repeating bit of music.

I closed various processes down and that didn't help.

So, now it was reboot time.

And that didn't help.

Naturally, I then sent a nasty email to my brother, complaining about the "infection" his email had landed me with.

Then it was time to use google (it is your friend, as I'm fond of saying) to try to search for a solution to the problem.

I tried but failed utterly to find anything remotely likely - any search that had the word "Music" in it seemed doomed to failure.

So, I thought I'd try to get really specific - finding a search phrase that accurately described how the maddening music sounded.

The best I could come up with (and I thought it really was a very accurate description) was, "Pink Floyd-ish".

But as I was about to type that in, the penny dropped.

What I was hearing was one of those maddening musical standfirsts that are played on DVDs after they've loaded and while they player awaits your instructions.

And where was it coming from?

Well, from my No.2 PC, which has its sound routed through the same speakers as No.1 PC and No.3 PC.

Many hours earlier - I realised - I had put into PC No.2 a Pink Floyd DVD or, more accurately, the Roger Waters' - in the flesh live - DVD. And No.2 PC (unlike No.1 PC) is set up to auto-play optical discs.

All three PCs are connected via a KVM box so that I only need one keyboard, monitor and mouse on my desk to access multiple machines (there's cabling, too, for a fourth PC).

Ask me any other day about my KVM box and I'll tell you that I love it dearly and wouldn't be without one (okay, the mousing path has died a death but I can just about live with multiple meece - my desk is quite big).

But yesterday, I really wasn't feeling very well disposed towards my KVM - not even a little a bit.

Senility - what I wouldn't give to have less of it (that should probably read, "What would I give to have less of it?", cos I've forgotten already).

Bob

[DavidM]

Oh dear.

[Funkstar]

Originally Posted by Bob Crabtree

Yesterday, my older brother (yes, there are people older than me still alive)

really? wow....



sorry, had to