
Making sharp and compact PDFs from scans
I've found that document scanner software rarely generates good PDF files when scanning plain text documents. The PDFs are often big in file size, with artifacts and may not be sharp and contrasty enough for a clear reprint. The issue is that lossy compression similar to JPEG is used in …
... read more ...
The Thinkpad USB Keyboard Adapter
Quite some time ago I posted a short news bulletin on my old blog about a project to create a Thinkpad keyboard USB adapter. I never got around to make a real post about it, but the bulletin got noticed enough around the interwebs that an article was written and …
... read more ...
hashstress - Hardware stress test using hash calculations
This post is about a little script I wrote named: hashstress
. It's intended for stressing and testing the correctness of disk I/O, cache, memory and processing subsystems for an extended period of time. The basic idea is to generate files with random content and repeatedly calculate hash checksums verifying …

Samsung Galaxy S7 still the best?
After dropping my aging Samsung Galaxy S7 I decided to look for a new smartphone. To my surprise I concluded that I wanted the exact same model again. This post is an evaluation of the Galaxy S7 after two years of use and a discussion about why I chose the same model again.
... read more ...
Setting individual mouse pointer speeds in Linux with micetune
This post is about micetune, a Python script I wrote for setting individual pointer speeds for different mouse devices in Linux, with the ability to reduce the speed beyond what the control center setting allows. The script changes the real pointer speed without involving acceleration.
... read more ...
Linux Mint 18 on Lenovo T420s
I recently installed Linux Mint 18 on my old trusty Lenovo Thinkpad T420s. This post is about the tweaks and tools I used to make the machine run great. Read on for tweaks specific to Thinkpads, general tweaks for laptops and tips relevant for dual booting Windows and Linux.
... read more ...
Lenovo Thinkpad T420s after 5 years of use
Sometimes there is a beauty in the wear and tear that shows on heavily used equipment. I think this is true for my trusty ol' Thinkpad T420s. Here's a couple of pictures of its current state and a recap of my experiences with the machine, good and bad.
... read more ...
Passing URL parameters to client only
I wanted to implement a search plugin for the Just Search Portal so searching shortcuts built into browsers could be used to pull up the portal conveniently. To make this work, the portal must support retrieving queries from the URL like other search engines ...
... read more ...