some newbie advice ( controlling/server?)

[onemacmini]

hi there,

in my next house i want some type of machine in the cupboard and several touch screen monitors around the house to control music, lights and all other gadgets...

my question is:

how can i have each screen logged into its own account on the same computer and use them all at the same time?

 

[mkrishnan]

I don't know if that will be very readily possible... if they're controlling household devices, then clearly they all have to agree, right? I.E. the porch light is either on or its not. So do they really need separate user accounts? I'm not sure of a way to allow for multiple simultaneous logged in users in most of the major OSes. Some Unix/Linuxes might be able to do it....

You might do one of two other things:

1) each screen has its own computer... you could even use Tablet PCs as the touch screens... and they are all logged into a central server (under separate accounts or whatever, as you wish).

2) all the screens are the "same" -- they all show the same thing and they all interact with the same account. Or else one account drives different "pages" on each monitor that are designed for the particular rooms

Hehehehe, don't expect this setup to be cheap, incidentally. But it would be very impressive.

If you want them to be Macs then you would probably need to start getting your customizer looking into aftermarket Mac mods that provide touchscreen...such do exist.