a glob of nerdishness

I’m currently back to using two monitors, with one mostly for buddy lists and task logs. It’s a handy arrangement, although since the screens are about two feet apart and at different heights I doubt I’m getting full use out of the extra 17″ patch of real-estate. The Mac seems to deal with additional monitors well. Except for iCal notifications popping up right between the two monitors (maybe that was intentional, but I would have preferred one on each screen instead) things seem to be designed with their usual flair.

But here’s where I hope they go the extra mile some day: system sounds directed to the correct monitor. I’m a fan of sending audio to a stereo system (via Airport and sometimes USB audio) and Mac OS X already provides an good way to keep most system blips and whistles coming out of my iMac. Why not extend that so I can route system output from apps on the second monitor to a second audio device, or event the line-out on the back. Then when someone IMs me in a window on the second display I’ll hear it on my left, and won’t spend time scanning my 24″ screen for new text.