I was just thinking how cool it would be if someone could develop a way to use a laptop Screen, Keyboard, and Pointer as a controller for another computer. My guess is that it would need to be done at the hardware level, as current ports on laptops are not designed for this sort of thing. It might not seem very useful at first glance, but would definitely come in handy when administering servers that are not connected to a KVM already, or used as a temporary display when troubleshooting monitor or videocard problems on computers. You could even crack your laptop into a larger KVM and control multiple connected machines!

The idea would be that you could somehow hit a special function key, and your VGA and PS2/USB ports would become inputs rather than outputs. Even better, make it a button that is addressable from bios so that you can switch modes without any OS running.

I’ve come across several occasions where I’ve had to cobble together a keyboard, mouse, and display of some sort in order to troubleshoot or setup a server or desktop pc. All the while I had a perfectly good display, mouse, and keyboard sitting there unused on my laptop, all in a very neat and compact form factor.

Maybe I should pitch this idea to some VC’s…but…they would probably just laugh in my face and tell me to fix their broken Treos.