Save some time with Textexpander

Let me introduce Textexpander. Formerly known as Textpander this small piece of software has made my life behind the computer screen much easier. With Textexpander the days of writing the same sh*t over and over is over. This is how it works: Textexpander adds a new pref.pane to your pref.panes (yes, that’s right). In here you define an identifier (a simple unique abbreviation) for a larger block of text that you also input (for the last time in your life). Now, with Textexpander activated you can insert any block of text anywhere by simply inputting the associated abbreviation.

Obviously things like “With best regards, Name Namerson” abbriviated for instance by “wwbr” is a blockbuster. However, it is possible to be more creative: For example as a frequent LaTeX user I find it very helpful to store the snippet

\begin{equation}
%|
\end{equation}


abbreviated simply by \eq. The %| code tells Textexpander where to place the cursor after the text has been expanded into your document. Also if you find yourself always making the same silly splelling miskate simply make an entry with the right spelling abbreviated by the wrong spelling. Get it?

Linux on a MacBook Pro. Worth the trouble?

I recently installed Linux on my Macbook Pro in a dual-boot configuration side-by-side with Mac OS X using the boot menu software rEFIt. I tried the following Linux variants: Open Suse 10.2, Kubuntu Linux and Debian interfaced by FVWM, KDE and Gnome. The internet contains a lot of information on how to do so, so let me just quickly conclude on my experience:

Non of the distributions supported (out-of-the-box) important functions such as sleep (suspend to RAM), WLAN, sound, decent CPU administration, touch pad features apart from actual pointing, CD eject key, back-light keys. Some of these functions can be activated by (a lot of) fiddling in the Terminal and (a lot of) Google. For me the only real advantage by running Linux is MATLAB running twice(!) as fast as compared to the Mac OS X implementation on the same machine.

It is interesting to try out, and maybe you will find yourself being more productive in a Linux environment. I definitely see myself moving to Linux some day as the concept of open source appeals to me, but for the time being the hardware support for my laptop configuration is just not good enough.

Macbook Pro noise? Not here (anymore)

My 1. generation Macbook Pro made, as any other Macbook Pro from the first series, a lot of noise i.e. a high pitched whining, especially with the power plug unplugged. I’ve seen many solutions to this problem, however practically all solutions rested on the same basic concept: keep both processors busy by having a program running in the background (e.g. photo booth) or write a simple C program adding 1 and 1 for an eternity. All these solutions are suboptimal because they claim CPU resources and drain your battery.

The real solution is: Go to your Apple dealer and get your Mac fixed. The problem is hardware based and the main logic board needs to be changed. This will be done under guarantee. Problem solved!

BibDesk: Organizer for your references with TeX features

Writing my thesis, I finally realized the great potential of BibDesk (Mac only). The program is used to keep track of your references and offers great TeX integration. With BibDesk you can prepare your bibliography file automatically. BidDesk imports the RIS files you often find when you look up a reference on the net. The RIS file contains all information about the reference and is automatically loaded into the right text fields in BibDesk when you import the RIS. BibDesk is free and you find it here. It is already included in the MacTeX package which is all you need to typeset and compile TeX code.

A simple way to speed up your MATLAB code

Probably the one thing that makes your MATLAB code run faster is the use of matrix operations instead of for-loops. Even for small programs the use of the former has an evident positive impact on the execution time of your m-file. Here is how it works: A normal simple setting using a for-loop structure could look something like this with, say, n = 1000.

x = 1:n;
y = 1:n;
for i = 1:n
z(i) = x(i)*y(i);
end

To obtain the same result using matrix operations do the following

x = 1:n;
y = 1:n;
z = x.*y;

where the .* operator has the meaning element-wise multiplication. Not only is the direct matrix operation simpler in terms of code, it also runs remarkably faster. Of course increasing n makes the difference more noticeable. Try running the two different methods using the Profiler tool in MATLAB.

Getting started with LaTeX?

The common answer to all questions that can be derived from “How do I get stated with LaTeX?” is: Download the famous LaTeX introduction paper The Not So Short Introduction To LaTeX.

This document is an easy-to-understand answer to 99% of all questions you may have in regard to TeX, and it is an indispensable reference for later use when you are past the basics. Download it directly from here.

High quality Firefox themes for Mac

I’m a big fan of Annorex’s Firefox Themes. They imitate the looks of Safari in terms of buttons, but without the metal look. The themes come in three variants. Check them out and download them from here.

Jazz up the looks of your Mac folder icons

I personally think the looks of folders and documents in the current version of Mac OS X (Tiger) are rather outdated (dare I use the phrase out of fashion) and not really a match for everything else in the GUI. A satisfying solution for me was to adopt some of the icons found at InterfaceLIFT here. If you sort the icons by highest rated or most downloaded, you will quickly find free icon-sets of very high quality for every taste.

I used the somewhat tedious (though free-of-charge) method of get info (command-i) on the icons and then copy-paste from the individual icons in the icon sets, however Candybar is a commercial program that may ease this process if you like.

PDFView full screen .pdf viewer and pdfsync for LaTeX

A good and free alternative to Apple’s Preview is PDFView. You can use it exactly as Preview, however it offers a few other useful features: The first one is full screen view of your document. The second is the ability to synchronize with LaTeX using pdfsync. This feature makes it possible to jump directly to any line in your TeX document simply by clicking on the corresponding line in the TeX generated pdf-document. Download PDFView here.

Textwrangler: Free text and code editor for Mac (universal binary)

I have been looking for a multipurpose text editor, and I found a very promising candidate namely Bare Bones Software’s Textwrangler. It is a scaled down version of BBEdit and its free. It has great editing features, and it offers syntax coloring for almost all programming languages including TeX and Matlab. Download Textwrangler here. In the case of Matlab syntax coloring, you need to download this language plug-in.