2 = 1, as long as 1 = 2

Added a new video monitor to my laptop, in an effort to replicate the convenience of having two monitors like at my work desktop. I expected the laptop would try to go into presentation mode, as if I was connected to a projector, and sure enough it did. Not a problem.

Then I adjusted the settings to make the new monitor act as an extension of the desktop. At which point it promptly took over as the primary monitor, and made the screen on my laptop become the second monitor. While this would normally just be something awkward to correct, it became reminiscent of 1990s computing when the video mode on the new monitor was declared to be incompatible, so the screen went dark… Meaning that my only access to everything on the Windows desktop AND the location of any window or program I tried to open was on the monitor I now could not see. Even though my laptop’s screen was reporting as monitor #1 and the new one was monitor #2, inexplicably #2 was automatically set to be the primary monitor – normally #1. So 1 was 2 and 2 was 1. Riiiight.

Think. I am smarter than this machine right? What can I do?

Well, like any resourceful red-blooded American, I simply began guessing where programs and buttons might be on the dark screen with my mouse and clicking. After 10 or 10,000 attempts and the requisite cursing, I randomly hit something that worked, turned off the second monitor, changed settings and took over the primary monitor slot with my laptop’s screen. All better.

And this isn’t even ByTor messing with me like this.

I am beginning to believe in the One Computer.