The Home of Tom & Morven

I had a random thought on my way home today about Microsoft Office 2007. It’s great that Microsoft have adapted the XML format for Office 2007, but it’s not particularly useful when sharing with someone using Office 2003 or prior, who can’t open this new file format. I’ve read previously that the Office 2007 Word Document .docx format file can be opened with a ZIP extraction utility, and the XML file can be read within the file. However this still isn’t particularly useful.

It makes sense for me to start using these new file formats since I’m using Office 2007, but what about people I send the files to? What are they going to do?

Blow and behold, Microsoft have actually released a compatibility pack for Office 2000 onwards, which depending on the exact previous version of Office you have, allows you to open and possibly even save to .docx format.

I shall go install it on my fathers computer before he asks me how to open that .docx file I just sent him!

I haven’t updated my blog (as promised) about the new computer I’m using these days. I’ve finally got 2 x 120mm Scythe S-Flex Fluid Dynamic Bearing fans, and a Scythe Ninja CPU heat-sink in the system. It is kind of disturbing that just those parts cost $160, and they don’t do anything except make the computer more silent than it already was. I kind of justified it though by the fact that it would also cool the computer better (in particular the CPU) which is a high priority considering I’m running the Core 2 Duo CPU at 100% on each core with Prime95, and that system stability is almost just as important to me these days as cardiac stability of my body (so true, so true…).

Anyway, here are a few pics of my system (aka FlammobammoMk3) in action!

I’ve learned the majority of the ins and outs of Windows Vista now, and discovered that all the software problems I was experiencing have been due to DEP (Data Execution Prevention) which Vista by default enables this for Vista programs and services, although I had also enabled it for all other programs. Sure enough, turning it back to the default DEP setting did wonders. I’m slightly disappointed with Vista as a whole as it appears that Microsoft have realised all the weaknesses of Windows XP (compared to Linux distributions, and Mac OS X Leopard) and fixed or implemented features to produce Vista, but I would have thought that for such a long time between OS releases, and given the budget that Microsoft have, it could be much better.

One major annoyance I have is not been able to run custom services without using 3rd party software such as FireDaemon Trinity (which by the way, is absolutely awesome software for anyone wanting to run Vista as some form of server, and I highly recommend it).

Another example is for an OS that is meant to be so security focussed, I’m amazed at how unintuitive the interface for assigning permissions to specific users is. I’m also disappointed that (apart from Windows Server 2003) there is no version of Windows Vista that will allow total denial of access to a particular folder, whilst allowing access to an adjacent folder (i.e. in the same parent folder). All it does is deny access to open the folder – that is, you can actually see the folder you’re being denied access to. I can understand the algorithm of permission assignment requires significantly more processing if it is to filter out displaying of unauthorised access, but considering the resource hog that Vista already is I wouldn’t have thought a little bit more resource hogging would be a problem. The ability to do this is called ABE (Access Based Enumeration), and Microsoft have implemented this in Windows Server 2003.

Another annoyance is that when I resized my system partition, Windows Complete PC Backup no longer works, because it doesn’t recognise the fact that the partitions have changed. As far as I can tell, the only way to fix error 80780010 is to reinstall the system on exactly the same hard drive. This is completely stupid, as if I have to restore my entire computer due to a hard drive failure, of course I’m going to replace it with a new bigger, faster drive. Therefore, my verdict of Windows Complete PC Backup is: “INTO THE BIN!!!!”

I’ve now considered going back to using SyncBack which I was previously using before Vista, but now that hard drives are so cheap and my system is running so beautifully, and I know how long it takes to get everything back up and running again, I’m fully endorsing drive imaging as the optimum backup solution. I’ve tried using Paragon Drive Backup, but I’m not 100% satisfied with it due to its lack of ability to do incremental backups of the entire drive, and the fact that you can’t specify what priority of system resources it should use (such as hard drive and CPU throttling so you can use the system productively in the background). I’m going to try using Acronis instead, and will report back with my experience.

Firefox. There it is. Yes, it does everything Internet Explorer does. No, there are no drawbacks. Yes, it is true that it has difficulty displaying some web pages, but only those that use commands specific to IE - but why would you be browsing pages like those, anyway!?

These are all the ‘add-ons‘ that I currently use with Firefox:

• Auto Copy
• ChatZilla
• CustomizeGoogle
• DictionarySearch
• FlastGot
• Forecastfox
• Gmail Notifier
• Highlight Focus
• IE View (just in case!)
• Tabbrowser Preferences
• Talkback
• Web Developer

But don’t take my word for how good Firefox is, find out for yourself! I guarantee you won’t regret it. Also check out an old post about Mozilla Thunderbird.

Today I want to mention that GanttProject is a great open source alternative to Microsoft Project. It’s good because it’s free, and nowadays possible to import and export to and from Microsoft Project.

I originally wrote all this below when I was working on my phd last year and wanted to document my learnings of LaTeX2e for myself and also for my brother. I’ve decided to finally post it on my blog otherwise I’ll lose it for good.

LaTeX2e for Typesetting Long Documents

MikTeX as your LaTeX2e backend
WinEdt as your text editor
JabRef as your BibTeX frontend
InkScape for creating graphics for LaTeX2e
Tom’s tips for LaTeX2e

MikTeX

• MikTeX is the sure way of knowing you have all the possible features for LaTeX installed.

WinEdt for Text Editing

• WinEdt is a really useful document editor for stuff like LaTeX, and if you have MikTeX installed, there are lots of little icons that help you achieve tasks quickly in the LaTeX2E environment.
• Erasing the Working Files
  Sometimes it is convenient to erase your working files, such as at the end of the day, when you want to make a backup, but there’s no point backuping up something such as the pdf, and all the temp files, as it wastes space, when all you need is the core tex files, bib file, pictures, etc.
  Do this in WinEdt by clicking on the Recycle Bin in WinEdt. However with nomencl package I have noticed it is neccessary sometimes to erase the .nls and .nlo file if you stuffed up something in the nomenclature list, to help the table get unstuck. You can make the recycle bin routine do these files as well, by adding the following code to the
  “C:\Program Files\WinEdt Team\WinEdt\Exec\Erase Working Files.edt” file and possibly might have to do the “C:\Program Files\WinEdt Team\WinEdt\Bin\Erase Working Files.edt” file:

      % Added by flammobammo
      AddFileItem(1,"NLO Files","*.nlo","");
      AddFileItem(1,"NLS Files","*.nls","");

• Soft Wrapping
  I highly recommend in WinEdt, going to ‘Options’ -> ‘Configuration Wizard’ -> ‘Wrapping’, and in the ‘Conventional (soft) Wrapping’ field, add

  TeX;

  to the start of the line of text already there.

JabRef as a BibTeX Frontend

• I find it best to maintain all your literature in BibTeX format, using the advanced JabRef frontend.
• As a matter of personal preference, for the ability to be able to keep “notes” in each of my database entries, I added the “notes” section in the options somewhere, and then modified the html code for preview modes 1 & 2. Download text files by clicking on the corresponding numbers.

InkScape for creating graphics for LaTeX2e

• I find it best to create all my diagrams using InkScape graphics software. Basically, you work in the eps file format, which isn’t the inkscape default, but it is just as good as - it’s a file format that stores all the graphics information in vector format, so that way you can always edit the graphic later if you need to, after you’ve included it into your document. You want to use this code in the preamble of your latex document:

  \usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx}       % Enabling graphics
  \usepackage{epstopdf}
      \graphicspath{{graphics/}} % Specifies all graphics are in a sub-folder relative to this file.

  Then store all your graphics inside the ‘graphics’ folder, and whenever you want to include a graphic in your document, use this code:
  \begin{figure}[hbtp]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=10cm]{lit-swift-crossflow.eps}
  \caption{Thermoacoustic refrigerator showing elimination of all heat-exchangers through the use of cross-flow \citet[pg.
  195]{SwiftBible}} \label{crossflow}
  \end{figure}
  Using my method with InkScape, pdf’s of your pictures (eps files) will be created on the fly, for the exact size specified for the document, so you never have any aliasing effect associated with resized jpegs, etc.. If you recompile the document again, the pdf won’t be created again if it’s detected, so this dramatically reduces compile times, which for me is good, as I like to compile quite often, in order to minimise debugging time (I make lots of errors!) You may find you need to delete the pdf version of the graphic after editing a file.

This is where I explain to people how to do stuff with LaTeX2e

I should emphasise that I learnt all of this from Laura, Will, and James. Thanks guys!

To get setup with LaTeX2e:

1. Firstly, download the entire MikTeX package repository. It is easier to download the entire thing first, even if you’re not going to need it all, because then you can distribute it to colleagues, etc. I use the aarnet mirror. You want to download that entire directory.
2. Now install MikTeX by downloading the setup wizard. Don’t download the one for the complete system, not for the basic system. It will be about 461kb last time I looked - if you’re downloading somethign that’s 26 megs then I can’t help you anymore!
3. During the install process, select to install from your freshly downloaded, local package repository.
4. Install your text editor of choice. You can use notepad if you want to, but I’d suggest WinEdt. It is an intuitive text editor optimised for use with LaTeX2e and associated typesetting systems, and there is a feature in JabRef that you can ‘push to WinEdt’ with. An open source alternative is Texnic Center, if that’s how to spell it. I don’t like it, but that’s just my preference.

Other random tips:
Quick, ‘Mini’ Compiles
Producing a draft for yourself, or your supervisor
References, not Bibliography
Page Number Tweak
Nomenclature
BibTeX Sort Order Tweak
Hard Spaces
How to convert Microsoft Excel chart to LaTeX
Configuring MikTeX for Mathematica

1. Quick ‘Mini’ Compiles, to save time
   When you have multiple chapters, and hence multiple \include{filename} statements, try commenting out (with the % symbol) all of them except the one you’re currently working on, to make it compile faster.
2. Producing a draft for you or your supervisor
   I have changed my ‘draft’ settings in my main document, to show pictures in the draft, and make it double spacing (supervisors request):

   % DRAFT
   \documentclass[a4paper,11pt,twoside,onecolumn,openright,final]{memoir} % Sets the overall layout style
   \usepackage{watermark}\thispageheading{Draft Copy :: Confidential} % This sets the watermark used in draft mode (up top)
   \usepackage{setspace}\doublespacing
   % FINAL
   %\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,twoside,onecolumn,openright,final]{memoir} % Sets the overall layout style
   %\hypersetup{linkcolor=black, citecolor=black, filecolor=black, urlcolor=black} % WHEN PRINTING USE THIS LINE TO MAKE ALL LINKS BLACK

3. References, not Bibliography
   By supervisors request, I changed the name ‘Bibliography’ to ‘References’:

   \usepackage{natbib}         % Allows Author-Year Bibliographies, added as a section
       \renewcommand\bibname{References} % Specifies to change the name 'Bibliography' to 'References'

4. Page Number Tweak
   To get page numbering to disappear on my executive summary, and to make sure that table of contents, list of figures, list of tables, and nomenclautre all start on an odd page, and any potential blank pages on the even side don’t have either a heading or a page number (it looks like a mistake if you have a page number on a blank page) whilst maintaing the proper page number count, I have modified my code to be this:

       \end{titlingpage}
       \movetooddpage\thispagestyle{empty}
           \include{executivesummary}
       \movetooddpage[\thispagestyle{empty}]
           \tableofcontents
       \movetooddpage[\thispagestyle{empty}]
           \listoffigures
   %    \movetooddpage[\thispagestyle{empty}]
   %        \listoftables
       \movetooddpage[\thispagestyle{empty}]
           \printnomenclature
       \movetooddpage[\thispagestyle{empty}]
   \mainmatter
           \include{intro}
           \include{litreview}
           \include{propresearch}

5. Nomenclature
   To get a list of nomenclature, download this pdf manual:
   http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/nomencl/nomencl.pdf
   Here is the code I use:

   \usepackage[intoc,norefpage,norefeq]{nomencl} % Nomenclature
       \makenomenclature       % Creates the nomenclature
   ...
   ...
   ...
   ...after the list of figures or wherever:...
       \movetooddpage[\thispagestyle{empty}]
           \printnomenclature
   ...
   ...
   ...
   ...at the end of the document, you should now put in this command:...
       \write18{makeindex researchprop.nlo -s nomencl.ist -o researchprop.nls}  % note that my main tex (ltx) file is called researchprop.ltx, and you should modify this line accordingly
       \end{document}

   Then to actually add something to your nomenclature list, you should do so immediately after you introduce the variable for the first time, e.g.:

   \begin{equation}
   a=\frac{N}{A}
   \end{equation}%
   \nomenclature{$a$}{The number of angels per unit area}%
   \nomenclature{$N$}{The number of angels per needle point}%
   \nomenclature{$A$}{The area of the needle point}%
   The equation $\sigma = m a$%
   \nomenclature{$\sigma$}{The total mass of angels per unit area}%
   \nomenclature{$m$}{The mass of one angel}
   follows easily.

6. BibTeX Sort Order Tweak
   Problem: My supervisor got really nitty picky on me with this one, but I’m glad he did because otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered trying to fix this one. In my report, I had the same author, with two bibtex entries exactly the same except for the year, and bibtex sorts them by the title in the reference list. Consequently in my document, Name, YEARb was introduced before Name, YEARa.
   Solution: Big thanks to Will for his solution - refer to page #4 of btxdoc.dvi for how to force ’sort’ your bibtex database .bib file, or just simply give your articles years such as 2005a or 2005b, etc…
7. Hard Spaces
   Another thanks to one of my supervisors, Carl, for pointing this one out to me. Hard spaces - just use a ~ instead of a space when you want to make sure a new line break will not come between two words. For example, I make sure to always go Section~\ref{something} and Figure~\ref{something} instead of say, Figure \ref{something}.
8. How to convert Microsoft Excel chart to eps format for inclusion in a Latex document?
   This one is for my brother Mike - hey Mike!! To include an excel chart/graph/plot into latex, the text will go all different size, and/or grainy if you save it as a picture. To work around this, I got a tip from another website I found with Google:
   “The best way I found so far is copy the chart and paste it into a program called Paint Shop Pro . Inside Paint Shop, export the image as an EPS file. The EPS is an image file and is little bulky than usual, but it displays and prints very neat and clear in Latex generated PS file.”
   Personally I reckon you should try using open source software, such as GIMP. Otherwise, Adobe Photoshop would be another commercial alternative to Paint Shop Pro, that some people these days have access to (not 100% sure if GIMP can save as eps but I’d be suprised if it didn’t).

UPDATE: Thanks to James for this tip, apparently a better and easier way is in Excel, click on your plot, and then go File -> Page Setup -> Margins, and make all the margins equal to zero. Then print to pdf, and include the pdf in your latex document.

9. Configuring MikTeX for Mathematica
   To find out how to get Mathematica to work with MikTeX, so you can export your Mathematica work to TeX format, you are best of having a read of this URL.

I’ve started using Google Calendar today, and I’m as pleased with this calendar system as I’ve been pleased with any other system. You can import and export in both CSV and iCal standard format files, share calendars with other users on pre-defined privacy settings, have email reminders, invite other users to your appointments, and more.

This is a link to my ‘public’ iCal file. Alternatively, if you think I’d be happy for you to see my full private calendar, and you also use Google Calendar, log in to your Google account at http://google.com/calendar, search for my calendar (Tom Bammann) and lodge a request to me to gain full read-access to my calendar.

My new sound that gets played when I get a new email

It’s from Battlestar Galactica.

Before reading this post please note that I am only ranting on about my experience with Microsoft from over two years ago, and no doubt a lot has changed since then, and consequently I’ve possibly written some incorrect statements in this post. Please leave a comment below if there is anything you believe I have got wrong or left out.

In a previous post I bagged the crap out of Microsoft Outlook in regards to its lack of ability to be able to export data to a non-proprietary format. I did not include the full story, and Peeps has pointed this out to me. I will endeavour to shed some light on the limitations of Microsoft Outlook. Read the rest of this entry »

Thunderbird is a stand-alone email client that is highly configurable, and a sinch to mangage all your emails. It’s capable of some very funky stuff. It’s better than Microsoft Outlook Express and Microsoft Outlook on so many levels. In fact, it’s better than Microsoft on any level, and I maintain it is THE BEST email client there is. Read the rest of this entry »