I’ve got a double headed set of thunderbolt Mac monitors for most of my work, but do most of my work through ssh to a pair of headless Intel NUCs

Those are the systems where I run my “mainframes”.  Every couple months I usually end up re-imaging one or both of my NUCs, which is a bit of a pain, since I need a monitor attached for that operation, and the Mac monitors are designed to not work with anything non-apple, and don’t even have an HDMI input.  This means hauling out an old VGA LCD monitor that floats around the house, scrambling around to find an HDMI/VGA adapter, and then putting it all away when I’m done.

With a reimage of my “nuc2″ overdue, I bit the bullet and forked out $60 CAD for a cute little 7” LCD Starto brand monitor that I can keep on my desk for when I need it:

I’ll also be able to bring it on the road with me with one of the NUCs, like when I go to the office in Zurich, or to the Raincode office in Brussels, since I always need a temporary display to find my IP address on such trips (at home I can use the fing app on my phone to find my IP address after boot.)  The new monitor looks a little funny against the backdrop of the giant Mac monitors (see it hiding right between them behind the mac itself), but it will do the job nicely for the very occasional uses I’ll have for it.