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                <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from July 2015</title>
                <description>Entries from July 2015</description>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>

        
        <item>
                <title>New laptop - some more clues and ideas based on feedback</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html</link>        
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                <pubDate>Sun, 5 Jul 2015 21:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
using &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.francecrans.com/&quot;&gt;FrancEcrans&lt;/a&gt;, but it
might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One tip I got was to use the
&lt;a href=&quot;https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb&quot;&gt;Skinflint&lt;/a&gt; web service to
compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.

&lt;p&gt;When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
(which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
Debian Sid/Unstable according to
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.corsac.net/X250/&quot;&gt;Corsac.net&lt;/a&gt;.  The reports I
got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
replace it.  I&#39;m also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I&#39;m
also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
&lt;a href=&quot;http://pro-star.com&quot;&gt;Pro-Star&lt;/a&gt;, another was
&lt;a href=&quot;http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/&quot;&gt;Libreboot&lt;/a&gt;.
The latter look very attractive to me.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
as I keep looking for a replacement.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
&lt;a href=&quot;&quot;&gt;lapstore.de&lt;/a&gt; web shop for used laptops.  They got several
different
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/&quot;&gt;old
thinkpad X models&lt;/a&gt;, and provide one year warranty.&lt;/p&gt;
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                <title>Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html</link>        
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                <pubDate>Fri, 3 Jul 2015 07:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
flickering.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
still as
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html&quot;&gt;I
described them in 2013&lt;/a&gt;.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
good help from
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353&quot;&gt;prisjakt.no&lt;/a&gt;
where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
deteriorated since X41.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
have suggestions.&lt;/p&gt;
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                <title>MakerCon Nordic videos now available on Frikanalen</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MakerCon_Nordic_videos_now_available_on_Frikanalen.html</link>        
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                <pubDate>Thu, 2 Jul 2015 14:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Last oktober I was involved on behalf of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/&quot;&gt;NUUG&lt;/a&gt; with recording the talks at
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.makercon.no/&quot;&gt;MakerCon Nordic&lt;/a&gt;, a conference for
the Maker movement.  Since then it has been the plan to publish the
recordings on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.frikanalen.no/&quot;&gt;Frikanalen&lt;/a&gt;, which
finally happened the last few days.  A few talks are missing because
the speakers asked the organizers to not publish them, but most of the
talks are available.  The talks are being broadcasted on RiksTV
channel 50 and using multicast on Uninett, as well as being available
from the Frikanalen web site.  The unedited recordings are
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/user/MakerConNordic/&quot;&gt;available on
Youtube too&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is the list of talks available at the moment.  Visit the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://beta.frikanalen.no/video/?q=makercon&quot;&gt;Frikanalen video
pages&lt;/a&gt; to view them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Evolutionary algorithms as a design tool - from art
      to robotics (Kyrre Glette)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Make and break (Hans Gerhard Meier)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Making a one year school course for young makers
      (Olav Helland)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Innovation Inspiration - IPR Databases as a Source of
      Inspiration (Hege Langlo)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Making a toy for makers (Erik Torstensson)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;How to make 3D printer electronics (Elias Bakken)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Hovering Clouds: Looking at online tool offerings for Product
      Design and 3D Printing (William Kempton)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Travelling maker stories (Øyvind Nydal Dahl)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Making the first Maker Faire in Sweden (Nils Olander)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Breaking the mold: Printing 1000’s of parts (Espen Sivertsen)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Ultimaker — and open source 3D printing (Erik de Bruijn)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Autodesk’s 3D Printing Platform: Sparking innovation (Hilde
      Sevens)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;How Making is Changing the World – and How You Can Too!
      (Jennifer Turliuk)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Open-Source Adventuring: OpenROV, OpenExplorer and the Future of
      Connected Exploration (David Lang)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Making in Norway (Haakon Karlsen Jr., Graham Hayward and Jens
      Dyvik)&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;The Impact of the Maker Movement (Mike Senese)&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Part of the reason this took so long was that the scripts NUUG had
to prepare a recording for publication were five years old and no
longer worked with the current video processing tools (command line
argument changes).  In addition, we needed better audio normalization,
which sent me on a detour to
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Measuring_and_adjusting_the_loudness_of_a_TV_channel_using_bs1770gain.html&quot;&gt;package
bs1770gain for Debian&lt;/a&gt;.  Now this is in place and it became a lot
easier to publish NUUG videos on Frikanalen.&lt;/p&gt;
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