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Hosting indexed split PDF files of Lenovo product reference on a public website

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zerotetration
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Hosting indexed split PDF files of Lenovo product reference on a public website

#1 Post by zerotetration » Thu Mar 22, 2018 9:53 pm

I recently found the Lenovo Withdrawn Products Reference book on their website covering models before, I think, 2013. Unfortunately it is a giant (700+ page) monolithic PDF that is very difficult to work with in any form; you got to question what the heck the people who assemble these books are thinking. It does not even seem to have a table of contents or index, unless I missed it somehow. In any case I have split the pdf up into individual pages for personal use. I would like to index and host these pages on a publicly accessible website for people to reference but I don't want to run afoul of Lenovo by doing so. I think the chances of that happening are very low because these are withdrawn products and Lenovo does not make money by selling its hardware references and they are publicly available as it is (albeit in very clunky form ) anyway. I would give credit to Lenovo for the source material. I think that hosting it on a website would be considered fair use. I am interested in what the community here thinks. I suppose I could seek advice from a lawyer (which I may do...legal opinions are pretty cheap). I could also contact Lenovo but I suspect I would get a run around from their corporate bureaucracy.

If this works out I may also consider hosting reference material for current products.

Thanks for your input.

RealBlackStuff
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Re: Hosting indexed split PDF files of Lenovo product reference on a public website

#2 Post by RealBlackStuff » Fri Mar 23, 2018 6:12 am

Are you talking about PSREF?
If so you need to be a lot more specific, see this: http://psref.lenovo.com/WithdrawnBook
They are all only a bunch of very small files!
And even the bigger files have a proper index, you might just use the wrong PDF program!

I use an older Foxit Reader 7.28.1124, which I have blocked from updating, as that version had a great (classic style) interface.
You can still get it here: http://www.filepuma.com/download/foxit_ ... 124-10242/

zerotetration
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Re: Hosting indexed split PDF files of Lenovo product reference on a public website

#3 Post by zerotetration » Fri Mar 23, 2018 11:22 pm

Yes, I meant the PSREF found here http://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF ... k_2013.pdf It is 709 pages.

To derail my own thread...

I actually run OpenBSD. I use an X61 with 4 GB of RAM (notebook not tablet) as my daily driver. It is fast enough to do anything I need. If I need additional CPU power I have access to VPS/cloud resources. I usually use it in 800 mhz dual core mode too...it is a 2.0 ghz machine....to reduce heat and hopefully prolong the life of the machine. I understand that this is a 10 year old machine. I got it for about $10-15 effective price in a large lot of "for parts" machines from eBay and found there was not much wrong with it.

I have not used Windows on my personal machines in about a decade.

If you use your computer for office applications, programming, or server administration, or just web access / browsing and do not require special Windows software, I highly recommend OpenBSD. OpenBSD has excellent support for older Thinkpads. Virtually all hardware is supported fully except possibly the fingerprint reader. I have not looked into that. Stability is excellent. I very rarely reboot; just go to hibernate or sleep. The configuration for OpenBSD, like Linux can have a steep learning curve...but once configured everything works right at least on Thinkpads...unlike my past experience with Linux...although I have not used Linux for years either.

In any case I don't usually have problems viewing pdfs. I am running Firefox 58 (the most recent FF version unless 59 has come out by now). Using the built in viewer in my Firefox I don't see any index or table of contents in this PDF. Also using a program called xpdf I don't see one. Maybe my viewer is not compatible with it or I missed it.

Navigating this pdf is pretty difficult--i.e. slow--on my machine...I don't usually have difficulty with large graphics files and can view HD online videos...

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Re: Hosting indexed split PDF files of Lenovo product reference on a public website

#4 Post by dr_st » Sat Mar 24, 2018 2:39 am

Sounds like you just don't know how to use the tools you're using... This PDF has bookmarks, which are easily accessible from the sidebar using any PDF program I tried, including the built-in reader in Firefox. I'd much rather use this huge monolithic PDF than the individual pages you're suggesting, and I think everyone else who knows how to use their PDF tools would prefer the same. Who in their right mind would rather deal with 709 one-page PDF files than one 709-page file with a proper index / set of bookmarks for easy navigation?
Thinkpad 25 (20K7), T490 (20N3), Yoga 14 (20FY), T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X220 4291-4BG
X61 7673-V2V, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X32 (IPS Screen), A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad

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Re: Hosting indexed split PDF files of Lenovo product reference on a public website

#5 Post by RealBlackStuff » Sat Mar 24, 2018 5:54 am

If you are using a crappy PDF-reader such as Mupdf http://www.techyard.net/mupdf-lightweig ... df-reader/ I understand why you are frustrated.
Get something like Xpdf: https://www.xpdfreader.com/ or even good old (or rather bloat-old) Adobe Reader.
They also have indexes.

smclt30p
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Re: Hosting indexed split PDF files of Lenovo product reference on a public website

#6 Post by smclt30p » Mon Mar 26, 2018 5:10 am

I think I could write a scraper for that PDF file and host it on thinkpads.org alongside thinkpads.org/fru.
I'll keep you updated.

zerotetration
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Re: Hosting indexed split PDF files of Lenovo product reference on a public website

#7 Post by zerotetration » Mon Apr 09, 2018 3:16 am

RealBlackStuff wrote:
Sat Mar 24, 2018 5:54 am
If you are using a crappy PDF-reader such as Mupdf http://www.techyard.net/mupdf-lightweig ... df-reader/ I understand why you are frustrated.
Get something like Xpdf: https://www.xpdfreader.com/ or even good old (or rather bloat-old) Adobe Reader.
They also have indexes.
I thought I mentioned in my post that I do use xpdf offline. mupdf is integrated with Firefox 58 on OpenBSD but when I view PDFs outside the browser I do use xpdf.

zerotetration
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Re: Hosting indexed split PDF files of Lenovo product reference on a public website

#8 Post by zerotetration » Mon Apr 09, 2018 3:21 am

smclt30p wrote:
Mon Mar 26, 2018 5:10 am
I think I could write a scraper for that PDF file and host it on thinkpads.org alongside thinkpads.org/fru.
I'll keep you updated.
Hello,

I already did that. I used pdftk and wrote a simple shell script to control it. I am pretty happy with the output. I have not uploaded and indexed the text / html files to my domain yet because I have had higher priorities to work on over the past several weeks. Probably by the end of April the files will be hosted on my domain which I may reveal here at that time.

zerotetration
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Location: Rochester, New York

Re: Hosting indexed split PDF files of Lenovo product reference on a public website

#9 Post by zerotetration » Mon Apr 09, 2018 3:26 am

dr_st wrote:
Sat Mar 24, 2018 2:39 am
Sounds like you just don't know how to use the tools you're using... This PDF has bookmarks, which are easily accessible from the sidebar using any PDF program I tried, including the built-in reader in Firefox. I'd much rather use this huge monolithic PDF than the individual pages you're suggesting, and I think everyone else who knows how to use their PDF tools would prefer the same. Who in their right mind would rather deal with 709 one-page PDF files than one 709-page file with a proper index / set of bookmarks for easy navigation?
Can you get me the link to the PDF book that you use because mine does not appear to have bookmarks? With other PDFs I am able to view sidebar bookmarks just fine. So maybe it is the file I am using rather than my PDF viewer software.

Who doesn't know how to use a PDF reader? Seems like it would be pretty intuitive...

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Re: Hosting indexed split PDF files of Lenovo product reference on a public website

#10 Post by dr_st » Mon Apr 09, 2018 3:49 am

zerotetration wrote:
Mon Apr 09, 2018 3:26 am
Can you get me the link to the PDF book that you use because mine does not appear to have bookmarks? With other PDFs I am able to view sidebar bookmarks just fine. So maybe it is the file I am using rather than my PDF viewer software.
http://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/withdrawnbook/ltwbook_2013.pdf

This is the 709-page book for Lenovo Thinkpads withdrawn between 2005 and 2013. I just opened it online (Firefox/Basilisk built-in PDF reader), clicked the sidebar, and found the bookmarks there (there are also thumbnails).
Thinkpad 25 (20K7), T490 (20N3), Yoga 14 (20FY), T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X220 4291-4BG
X61 7673-V2V, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X32 (IPS Screen), A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad

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