demod.org

Task Management

demod — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:44:27 +0100

A while ago I switched from my only semi-functional pin board and cellphone based task management system to using a pocketbook. Because of this I also started talking with others about how they are managing their tasks as well as looking around the net and was surprised how many people I know used pocketbooks (Moleskines in particular) or had no real system at all.

Tools: unpaper

demod — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:42:18 +0100

Recently I wanted to print a few scanned pages. However, due to the low quality of the source material (see below) reducing the pages to black&white didn't exactly improve them. Enter unpaper. While unpaper is a rather unknown tool it's also extremely useful because it allows diverse image modifications to improve scanned pages, e.g.:

pdfgrep.sh

demod — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:05:26 +0100

Spot what's wrong

demod — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:46:18 +0100

Bad News * The cpu cooler retention module of my workstation (aka straylight) broke yesterday without warning but made a loud CLANG in compensation when hitting my graphic card * The board with which the retention module came was an abit KN9 Ultra which means that I can't even threaten to never buy abit again since they don't even really exist any more (btw. the cooler's weight was well within the spec iirc)

deRSS

demod — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:53:35 +0100

Description deRSS parses RSS 2.0 feeds and downloads files referenced in or (if not present) elements. To avoid downloading files twice deRSS stores the publication date of the newest downloaded file. deRSS works nicely with cron.

start

demod — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:30:29 +0100

* Blog * Linux * on Laptops: IBM Thinkpad x41 * Tools * deRSS parses RSS 2.0 feeds and downloads files referenced in them * doxypy is an input filter for doxygen that allows the use of doxygen commands inside python docstrings * colorname tries to assign names to colors

Scratching an itch with groovy

demod — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:18:24 +0100

As I've been working a lot with Java over the past few semesters and will most likely end up developing Java apps once I've got my MSc I've started looking at other, more dynamic languages available for the JVM. To make a long story short: I picked groovy and to learn groovy I need to write code in it. This led me to write deRSS over the last couple of days which scratches an itch of mine just right and therefore might be useful to others as well.

xubuntu - created

demod — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:05:11 +0100

After neglecting this blog for so long I figured that I should at least announce that after 10 years of almost exclusively using debian I switched to xubuntu and kinda like it so far ,) linux, ubuntu, debian, xfce

Mini-Review: Nokia E71

demod — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:36:14 +0100

A while ago I finally got tired of my old cellphone and bought a proper one, a Nokia E71. This is a short mini review of it. Hardware [Image source: http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_e71-pictures-2425.php] The phone itself measures at just 114x57x10mm, weights 127g and is enclosed in a very, very solid feeling steel casing. Besides its keyboard, a 2.4” 320×240 screen and a 1,500 mAh battery it also got a fast 369 MHz ARM11 CPU, includes a GPS receiver, a 3.2MP camera, a micro USB port, a micro S…

Bunny

demod — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:44:37 +0100

As you might have noticed quite a few people are currently drawing pictures of bunny as a part of the Draw a Bunny Campaign which I was invited to by chimeric. This campaign has the following simple rules and is open to everyone: * Draw a Bunny (or more) * Post it to your blog with the rules * Name three other bloggers that should draw a bunny

I've got mail

demod — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:10:13 +0100

Array The yes men got a nice way of saying thanks for donations -- especially regarding the $3.75 postage from NY to germany :-D yes men, donation

Google's Testing Blog

demod — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:09:49 +0100

I just finished reading through the 20ish posts of Google's Testing Blog that accumulated in my RSS reader during the end of the last semester and just wanted to say that that blog is actually pretty awesome (assuming you care for software engineering ;-)).

demod's guide to gaming consoles (part 2 of 2)

demod — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:51:50 +0100

In this part I will take a look at the games available for each system -- lets start with some statistics. Statistics The following statistics are based upon data I extracted from metacritic.com using Python and Beautiful Soup -- to be more specific from the “All Games by Score”-Pages of each console: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii and PC. However, due to the overwhelming amount of low quality games I decided to only list games with an average score of 80% or higher.

Simple Improvements for Simple Scripts

demod — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:40:57 +0100

Did you ever suddenly notice that something simple you've been doing for years could be vastly improved with just a little bit of tweaking? I did yesterday concerning the transfer of files with netcat (e.g. when nobody got sendfile installed and standard paranoia forbids simply using scp instead) and figured I should share my sudden “enlightenment” ;-)

I got tagged

demod — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:40:37 +0100

Splitbrain just tagged me and so I guess I've got to list my “favorite desktop Linux software”. Here are the rules: * blog a list with your favorite destktop Linux software (as many or few you want) * add links to the software project's websites * post these rules * tag three other Linux using bloggers

Staying Sane with RSI

demod — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:40:10 +0100

Some time ago I suffered from a bad case of wp>Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) which german doctors usually diagnose as wpde>Sehnenscheidenentzündung or Tendovaginitis/Tenosynovitis. Not being able to normally use a computer or my hands for a prolonged period of time gave me plenty of opportunity to think about how to improve my situation (and how to stay sane). After going through this I figured I might as well share which tools I bought as a result of that thought process.

Ever wanted to shutdown your workstation and...

demod — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:39:59 +0100

Ever wanted to shutdown your workstation and confused some random $xterm with an ssh-session and one with a local shell? Still want to use your pretty shell color scheme on all your accounts anyway? Look no further. After managing to shutdown the wrong machine once or twice a year I finally took the time to build some visual safeguards into my ZSH.

Heap smashing thesis-code

demod — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:39:22 +0100

Today I stumbled across a piece of C code I wrote to illustrate some properties of the glibc's dynamic memory allocator in my (german) [bachelor thesis] and figured that the code might actually turn out to be interesting for people seeking to understand or to toy with their heap. If you've never tried to understand your dynamic memory manager this code alone probably won't explain much; however, toying with something you don't understand might not be the worst starting point to change that ,)

demod's guide to gaming consoles (part 1 of 2)

demod — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:38:54 +0100

My GF and I recently bought a Playstation 3 and this was supposed to become a small review of it; however, a review by itself is often pretty useless if its subject is not directly compared to its competitors. Therefore I've added information about the other consoles on the market which is more or less the same set of knowledge that we used to base our decision on.

blog

demod — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:38:31 +0100