dickscheid.net

Forget about hardware KVM switches - use synergy

Do you often use a desktop computer and your notebook side-by-side? Do you hate switching the keyboard and mouse only for quickly replying to an email on the notebook, or for quickly checking a logfile on the desktop computer?

There is a free and easy solution to the problem on Linux and Mac: Use Synergy. It is a small and effective TCP/IP-based client-server application that lets you share keyboard and mouse of one machine with another one, with slide transition of the control via mouse movement just as with multiple screens in cinerama mode. This is much more handy than using a KVM-switch, as it doesn't require to switch off the screen of the other computer, and even allows for sharing the clipboard!

A short and good tutorial is available at a March 2009 article on LinuxMag.

Back for download: Tutorial on opening an Acer Travelmate 613

Due to growing requests, I just put an old D.I.Y. tutorial on opening an Acer Travelmate 613 back online. The tutorial can be found here. It is written in German, but has several photos in it.

Anyway, please note before following the tutorial: I opened such a device many years ago for disconnecting the internal battery, after the notebook suddenly had a bios password enabled. While it helped resetting the bios password, it didn't solve the problem ultimately: The TM 613 had a security chipcard reader which was also randomly enabled and naturally didn't respond to the empty factory cards I had. So I ended up sending the device to the Acer people, who fixed the problem fast and for free.

A good resource for learning about espresso coffee

I recently discovered home-barista.com, a website full of information on coffee machines, coffee history, coffee making and - last but not least - coffee beans. It is a good resource if you want to find out why coffee at home is not as good as in your favourite cafe. I recommend reading through the Home Barista's Guide to Espresso if you're starting to make good espresso at home - it starts right by explaining where the word "espresso coffee" comes from.

New website online

Today a new version of my website goes online, being now more of a blog than a collection of static pages. My hope is to put interesting notes and tips arising at home and work here, hence keep it up to date but sparse. The page is powered by the neat opensource software blosxom (pronounced "blossom").