chess diagrams on A6 cards using LaTeX - 2/2
December 4th, 2009In the first part I wrote: “put to a template in your favourite text processor”. Attached is a template (class-file) for LaTeX and an example, the explanations are below.
chess diagrams on A6 cards using LaTeX - 1/2
November 27th, 2009As a part of improvement in chess, it is often recommended to analyze positions. The idea is good, but how to find time to do it? One option is to use otherwise unproductive time: walking, in bus, queues etc. I have printed positions with me, and always can analyze something.
TexML and unicode characters for math operators
November 25th, 2009Bug (?) report: “after switching from LaTeX(pdflatex) to XeTeX(xelatex) as the PDF generator something has ceased to work. Mathematical operators given as unicode characters in math formulas do not show up in the final document.ยดยด
running Fritz&Fertig (eng: Fritz and Chesster) in the parental control mode (Mac OS X)
September 24th, 2009I purchased “Fritz und Fertig: Schach lernen und trainieren (”Fritz and Chesster: learn to play chess“, other languages also available). My opinion is simple: it’s a masterpiece and the best ever computer game for children.
Unfortunately, I got technical problems. Fortunately, solved them.
chess publishing in latex, starting
September 15th, 2009I’m experimenting with LaTeX and chess. As there is no “for dummies” information in internet, my notes (even if incorrect) could be useful for beginners.
So, the step 1. Print some game or some position.
my wrappers around “includegraphics”
July 20th, 2009To put an image to a document, LaTeX provides the command “\includegraphics“. As it often happens, due to LaTeX was designed for manual typesetting, this command is a nightmare for automatic generation. For a long time, I use a wrapper to solve 99% of the problems.
importing as module when a file has a non-identifier name
June 12th, 2009I need to reuse a function in a file. The usual way is just to import this file as a module. But what to do if the name is “bad”? The following doesn’t work:
import foo-bar as foo_bar
foo_bar.callme()
After trials and errors, the desired magic found:
sharing files from linux to windows
April 27th, 2009Yes, one installs and configures Samba. All I need is to access a big folder in the read-only mode. The quick and dirty solution is:
calling batch files with ‘exit’
February 22nd, 2009Consider ‘main.bat‘
call child1.bat
call child2.bat
What happens after ‘child1.bat‘ is finished?
extending a virtual disk in vmware
December 26th, 2008Extending a virtual disk in vmware
1. Backup!
2. Somewhere in the vmware installation directory, there is a tool named “vmware-vdiskmanager.exe“. There is a lot of options, for resize use “-x“:
vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -x 8Gb ...path.to.vm..../vm_disk.vmdk(hint: type the command manually, do not copy/paste from web. Otherwise you can get typographical spaces or minuses instead of the usual ones.)
wrong but fast fix
December 12th, 2008After a small system upgrade an application started to crash with the message:
*** glibc detected *** sylpheed: double free or corruption (out): 0x0839e818 ***
The right thing is to trace the application and submit a bug report to the author, but I found a fast workaround. Set an environment variable before running the program:
export MALLOC_CHECK_=0
upgrading a macport package
December 8th, 2008Upgrading a macports (darwinports) package is not as easy as
$ sudo port upgrade something
In many cases I need the following command:
chess tournament checklist
December 8th, 2008In addition to the conference checklist, I now need a checklist for local chess tournaments.
rsync server on mac os x
November 11th, 2008For development purposes, I’d like to run a rsync server on a Mac.
People in forums recommend to avoid the default system rsync, which is accused of being buggy. Instead, they recommend RSyncX.
local macports (darwinports) repository, granting a network access
November 11th, 2008It’s quite easy to create a local MacPorts repository. Unfortunately, the documentation doesn’t say how to share the repository with others. After trials, errors and reading the source code, I’ve found the answer: the only way is rsync.
XeLaTeX: change font for headers and footers
October 24th, 2008I’ve noticed that headers and footers of the documents, generated by XeLaTeX, use some other font instead of Helvetica. After digging into the LaTeX code, the problem is solved.
escape a TeX string in Python
October 17th, 2008Do you generate [La]TeX files using Python? If yes, do you escape the special characters. Haven’t you forgotten to escape also empty strings?
To avoid reinventing the wheel, I tried to use TeXML libraries. This is the right choice, but one has to use a little trick.
multimedia over network III: any ALSA-enabled application
September 30th, 2008ALSA is the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture. The system can forward ALSA sound to PulseAudio.
multimedia over network II: pulseaudio
September 27th, 2008PulseAudio is a sound server. Applications feed music to PulseAudio, and PulseAudio decides what to do with it. For example, it can send the sound over network.
When I tried to use this feature for the first time, I failed. Therefore, I experimented with a more user friendly software (see multimedia over network I, and the second attempt was successful.
python, win32, odbc, unicode, ascii, I hate it
September 26th, 2008I need to get utf-8 (unicode) data instead of 8-bit from a Microsoft Access database (ODBC connection). It seems I’ve finally found the answer:
It’s impossible.
