The NASA Clean Air Study has been led by the NASA in association with the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA). Its results suggest that certain common indoor plants may provide a natural way of removing toxic agents such as benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene from the air, helping neutralize the effects of sick building syndrome.

Cool! But then I came across this article: Can House Plants Solve Indoor Air Quality Problems?. Sad but true John R. Girman (Chief of the Analysis Branch at EPA’s Indoor Air Division) has prepared a memo that details some shortcomings of the NASA study’s claims for the efficacy of plants. Girman’s memo responds to some of the technical issues presented by Snyder and other advocates of IAQ control with house plants.

The memo’s title is “Comment on the Use of Plants as a Means to Control Indoor Air Pollution”. Girman analyzes the notion that NASA research shows plants are effective at removing indoor air pollutants at realistic concentrations and time frames. He calculates that at the most favorable conditions, it would take 680 plants in a typical house to achieve the same pollutant removal rate Wolverton and his colleagues reported they achieved in the test chamber.

Final results are still unknown but one thing is for sure: plants are great for decoration and relaxation. I’ll get even more of them.

Update 01/12/2007
As of today, the Zonescreen site is offline and the software has been removed. Unfortunately I could not find any free (as in beer) maxivista alternative software. Please help if you know any.

Update 03/01/2007
A maxivista freeware clone version or maxivista alternative is called “ZoneScreen“. It is an “under development” software and still in beta stage. Very simple interface but it kinda do the job. Check it out.

I always loved the remote control possibilities of free software such as UltraVNC & Co. The idea of remotely control a computer inside my lan from my Wi-Fi notebook is fascinating.

Recently though I found an even more interesting option for my laptop: to use it as a second monitor. You can indeed use a spare computer as a second monitor simply using the proper software and a network. No need for dual-head vga cards.

As you can see the windows extends over the two monitors just like if they were connected to the same dual-head VGA card… but they are not! The computers are just running a special software that redirects the video signal over the LAN network (Wi-Fi or cabled).

I’m using the awesome MaxiVista software (it’s not freeware nor opensource though… shame on them!). I discovered it on the UltraVNC forum as someone was asking the developers for a future implementation of this feature in the next releases of UltraVnc. So “maybe” we should expect to have a free UltraVNC software with such capabilities as well in the future.

Another feature you may find interesting is the ability to control a computer from a remote machine (exactly like UltraVNC) but without seeing the server’s desktop on the client. Let me make you an example: my notebook is placed right here next to my desktop (as you can see from the pic above). Now… when I want to control my notebook I simply move the mouse to the left… and it magically disappear from my desktop PC appearing on the notebook’s screen. I can run programs, surf the net, chat and do other stuff without having to switch mouse/touchpad or keyboard/keyboard every time.

This not an extension of my desktop anymore… but it’s a nice remote VNC session, without the server’s screen appearing into the client. Useful when both machines are near and you need to simultaneously control both without switching screens. This feature is available on Win2Vnc.

It is compatible with the UltraVNC server or the TightVNC server. No need to install other software on the server machine.

Here’s a brief summary of what you can do:

• When you have to use both PCs with a single mouse and keyboard, and both machines are near (so you don’t need to view the server desktop on the client) just use Win2Vnc.
• When you have to use both PCs but you’re not sitting in front of the server machine, use UltraVNC or TightVNC. You’ll see the server’s desktop on your client and you’ll be able to control it.
• If you need to use a spare computer as a second monitor, use MaxiVista. This just extends the whole desktop over the other PC’s monitor. Beware though: that’s not free.

Useful Resources

Lifehacker: How to control your home computer from anywhere
On Wikipedia: VNC, Synergy.