Arnt Gulbrandsen
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2011-03-07

My old custom-made Cherry keyboard

Tidying my office, chapter 17, in which beloved hardware is less beloved than a usable shelf.

I'm throwing away the keyboard Cherry made for me sometime around the middle nineties.

It has an AT keyboard plug, so I haven't been able to use it in a while, and it's worn out (more…)

2011-02-13

ReadyNAS runs linux, of sorts

It's debian. apt-get install works. But they removed some files without telling dpkg, and edited some, too.

For example, they removed the man pages. Why? It's a NAS: Disk is the one resource it has in abundance, and the man pages aren't even big.

Foo.

2011-02-10

Linux and the Brother MFC-8880DN

When my previous printer ran low on toner, I bought a new printer. Billing is critical. A Brother MFC-8880DN, which I already know from setting it up for someone else.

It's a decent network printer. Notable positive aspects: It can scan in colour (even though it's nominally a monochrome printer). (more…)

2011-01-29

Linux on the Nokia Booklet 3G

My previous laptop (a Lifebook P7210) grew bad-tempered. Investigate or replace? Stupid question considering how much netbooks cost.

My new laptop is a Nokia Booklet 3G, a moderately expensive netbook with good battery lifetime, a 3G modem, a high-resolution screen and no fan. Ubuntu 10.10 runs well (more…)

2010-11-26

More on the Samsung SCX-4828FN

I've had the 4828 for half a year, and have had several bad experiences.

I have crashed the printer twice. Once by printing the guice guide using chromium and once by printing a book-length ΤΕΧ (dvips) document, mostly text with some tables and figures.

The copier is really, really bad at copying grey-on-white or green-on-white text. (more…)

2010-10-17

Das Keyboard, ultimate silent

Nice. Very nice.

It's solid, doesn't move around on the desk, the keys feel clear without any jarring click, (more…)

2010-08-11

Telly Terminate

The Telly Terminate is a small keyring gadget to turn TVs off. It appears to have sold well during the recent sports event.

Pro: It turns TVs off. (more…)

2010-07-02

Oxca KVM over IP

Oxca makes a range of KVM products, including one to provide remote KVM access via TCP/IP. The latter uses a java applet and runs in the browser, and isn't very fine at all. (more…)

2010-05-26

Linux and the Samsung SCX-4828FN multifunction printer

I have a Samsung SCX-4828FN printer/fax/­copier/scanner, and use it with linux and BSD. (Update: I've a follow-up posting about the printer.)

The printer is fine for black and white text, such as I usually print: Fast, crisp text with fine edges, nicely readable. Duplex printing just works. The printer can print quite close to the paper's edge, too. (more…)

2010-05-05

Dropping terminal escape sequences

I need to reconfigure a device via its serial console; the device emits many ANSI/VT escape sequences and other control codes. These are perhaps helpful if one is typing, but not so helpful when a script is to reset and reconfigure the device.

The following perl s/// magic gets rid of most (but not all) escape codes. (more…)

2010-04-22

ReadyNAS NV+, WD Caviar Green disks

WD Caviar Green disks (WD15EADS-00S2B0 in my case) like to unload the drive heads to save power. The ReadyNAS likes to load them again. This causes two problems: Frequent eight-second delays as the drive heads move away from the platters and then back towards them, and in my case, the drives would reach their stated lifetime (300,000 load cycles) in less than a year.

Several solutions exist. (more…)

2010-03-30

Ubuntu 9.10 on the Lifebook S4572

Sad to say, but I recently installed ubuntu 9.10 (karmic koala) on a Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook S4572. I installed the minimal system followed by xubuntu-desktop and gcompris: xfce is supposed to be better for small boxes and gcompris is the whole point. (more…)

2010-03-17

Popcorn Hour A-110

The Popcorn Hour A-110 is a small silent box that can play ISOs and other movies scaled up to 1920×1080 resolution. We have one, diskless, connected to our NAS via gigabit ethernet, (more…)

2010-03-01

My monitor crashes the Linux kernel

If my Benq M108 mouse is plugged into the USB hub of my Eizo S2100 monitor while linux 2.6.31 (and several others) boots on my Zotac ION-ITX-B motherboard, then the kernel freezes after this line:

[ 0.828204] io scheduler cfq registered (default)

Numlock does nothing, I need to press the any key.

If I unplug the mouse from the hub, or the hub from the PC, then the boot succeeds. (more…)

2009-12-28

ReadyNAS NV+

I bought a ReadyNAS NV+ years ago, and don't like it. It serves files, but does so many things badly that next time I want to add more disk space, I intend to purchase something else. (more…)

2009-12-04

Libertango, the 2009 version

Zotac ION ITX B motherboard, Silverstone SG05 case, Scythe Slip Stream 120mm fan, Be Quiet SFX power supply, SSD. (more…)

2009-02-12

Quickmill 3035 Pegaso

The Quickmill 3035 Pegaso, also called Quickmill 03035 or Quick Mill 3035 (or other combinations of the same units) is an espresso machine with built-in coffee grinder and an unusual heating mechanism. (more…)