Blog

How do you LaTeX?

By Rich Johnson on Published: October 15, 2007 at 8:36 am

Alrighty my fellow free software brethren. I have a few questions for you concerning the use of LaTeX when writing your educational papers. I have just recently started using LaTeX because I heard all of the cool people do, and well because, it just flat out produces a much nicer paper than using a word processor. Anyways, here are my questions to those who use LaTeX:

  • When using MLA style, what kind of setup do you use?
  • What packages do you use?
  • What document classes do you use?
  • What are your tricks when doing a works cited or bibliography page?
  • Anything else you can teach me about LaTeX, using MLA and writing great papers?

I appreciate any and all help that you may have. I have ran around Google looking for answers, and it seems I am always finding a different way to do the same thing. As it stands, for my papers I have used a layout similar to the following:

\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}
\documentclass[a4paper,12pt,final,oneside,openbib]{article}
 
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[american]{babel}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[dvips]{graphicx}
\usepackage{simplemargins}
\usepackage{setspace}   % simplemargins.sty
\usepackage{url}
 
\setallmargins{1in}     %used with simplemargins.sty
 
% typical author, date, title block
 
\begin{document}
..........
\end{document}

So, if you can help me write a better paper for school, then I will buy you a drink of your choice if we ever meet. Deal? Thanks everyone!

Posted in Personal | Tagged | 27 Responses

I want to be a MOTU, but…

By Rich Johnson on Published: October 13, 2007 at 1:59 pm

…it looks to hard

Well, I just wanted to write up a quick post here and let you know that it isn’t all that hard. If you just started using Ubuntu, or Linux in general, then yes, it might be a tad bit hard at first. If you can compile and install a tarball, then you are well on your way.

But I don’t know how to use the command line… This is a big one, especially with new users, and it seems today that most Linux distributions are trying to shy away from the command line as much as possible for new users. The one thing I always tell a new user, is not to be afraid of the command line. The command line is actually easier than a lot of people think. Sure there are plenty of confusing bits, and even I still get confused after reading a man page, but there is always Google. There are a lot of great tutorials out there for the command line. If you have a great command line tutorial you think a new user could learn from, add it in the comments please.

Once you have learned the command line a bit and are comfortable, then start downloading some tarballs and following the installation instructions. With a lot of packages you can get away with the typical

./configure
make
sudo make install

Most of the time though you will run into a tarball that doesn’t compile. Typically, if the developer did everything correctly, you will see why it didn’t compile. The main reason it didn’t compile is because you are missing a dependency. All you have to do in this case is search for the dependency or dependencies that are missing, and install them. Lucky for you, 99.9% of the time the dependencies are in the repositories, so it is usually an easy install.

Doing this will also get you familiar with the layout of Linux, such as the layout of the file system, how Linux operates behind the scenes, and more. After you have this down and are getting comfortable, then the MOTU and building Ubuntu and Debian package part will be easier. Once you are ready to look at packaging, what I did was go to KDE Apps and start downloading applications and packaging them. For you Gnome people, there is Gnome Files. All of the work that a MOTU or a packager does is located in a debian/ directory. The nice thing is there is a utility that helps you do this called dh_install that will extract the tarball and setup a default debian/ directory. From there it is up to you to get that directory up to shape, and get it to build out your package.

There are a lot of great readings to get you started with packaging. I recommend the Debian Policy Manual, the Debian Developer’s Reference, the Debian New Maintainer’s Guide, and the Ubuntu Packaging Guide. I think reading the Debian manuals first, just glancing through them to familiarize yourself with things, and then heading over to the Ubuntu guide is a good bet. There is a lot of documentation to help you get started, there is also #ubuntu-motu on IRC (Freenode) to help you out, as well as our mailing list.

I know it sounds like a lot and it still may very well seem hard to you. I have seen people with no solid knowledge, brand new with Linux, get up and running and even packaging in just a few months of playing around with their system. Some of you may know Juan Carlos Torres (Jucato) from his blog posts here on Planet Ubuntu. In less than 2 years time he has not only started to pick up packaging, but he has even started filing patches for KDE applications. 2 years may sound like a long time, but the only reason it took him that long is because he spent well over a year offering more tech support on IRC for both #kubuntu and #kde, than anyone I have ever seen. We even have/had IRC channel stats to prove nobody could touch him 🙂 If you want to learn it, and you stick with it, in no time you will pick it up, and before you know it, people around the world will be using the package that you have created or updated.

If this type of thing interests you, which I believe it does interest a lot of new users, then keep an eye on the Ubuntu OpenWeek stuff coming up. Also in the IRC room for MOTU (#ubuntu-motu), you can find out about the MOTU Classroom as well, where some of our top MOTUs offer classes to those who want to learn. A quick word of the wise though, try not to become impatient or down on yourself if you aren’t getting it. These 2 things can cause burnout, which you definitely don’t want. In the past 10 or so years, I burnt out once, and for 2 years I wouldn’t even look at Linux, heck, I didn’t even want to look at a computer. Patience will definitely take you a long way in free software.

Any questions, concerns, links, ideas, or whatever, post in the comments, especially if you have some really good information that might be of interest to new users. Thanks everyone, and sorry for taking what I wanted to be a quick post, and making it one large run on, hopefully it isn’t to darn boring.

Posted in Development, Linux | Tagged | 10 Responses

Who protects the fans?

By Rich Johnson on Published: October 3, 2007 at 8:05 am

The RIAA and some of the top recording labels are in the news again, this time going against a lady who allegedly downloaded and share more than 1,700 songs.

The Recording Industry Association of America says she is, making her liable for perhaps millions of dollars in damages in the first RIAA copyright case to go to trial.

millions of dollars in damages. OK, now this is where I really start to get pissed off. Anyone familiar with Hannah Montana? I know those of you in the US with young daughters know who I am talking about. Anyways, she is the top, and when I say top, I mean the big dog this year for young children who not only love her TV show, but love her music. It is hard for me to love her music, when her father is the one who paraded himself on TV with a nasty mullet singing “Don’t break my heart, my achy, breaky heart.” OK, well this year she is doing her big US tour and every kid that I know of wants to see this concert. In the past, when a hot children’s star came to town, it was easy to get tickets and take the kids to the show. Well not any more.

Ticket brokers have purchased all of the tickets for her venues and are selling them for insane amounts of money. For instance, you can get nose bleed seats on eBay, 4 of them, for about $900. You want the good seats, so you can actually make out Hannah and see her, well you will drop around $1,000 per ticket. So, my question is this. If the RIAA is protecting the music companies, who is protecting us? Absolutely nobody! The great thing is this, when she comes to Chicago, she isn’t going to have many fans there, which I think is awesome. On a local radio station yesterday, parents were uniting to picket her concert. Does Hannah really care though? I mean it is a sold out show, sold out to the brokers that is.

This whole music thing is getting ridiculous. Artists aren’t making their money on albums sold, they are making it with their concerts and their merchandise. A CD to an artist is nothing more than a marketing gimmick to get money flowing into the record label, and producing a spark in consumers who will go to their shows. HERE is a decent write up on how royalty fees are distributed to the artist.

I enjoy listening to music and I used to enjoy purchasing it, but I will not any longer. I will listen to what I have in my arsenal now, and listen to whatever is on the radio. I will not purchase another album, and I have no plans on downloading music either. Actually, I take that back. I will purchase Sammy Hagar albums because he isn’t all about the money. I have been to a couple of his FREE, yes FREE, concerts that he puts on every now and then, I have been down to the Cabo Wabo and watched him play for FREE. I can’t sit here any more watching the music industry go after people who they think are screwing them, while ticket brokers get off free for screwing over the fans. If the music industry really cared, they would go after the people who are really screwing them, and stop putting on acts such as Brittney Spears, the female Milli Vanilli.

Posted in Personal | 12 Responses

  • Archives

semidetached
semidetached
semidetached
semidetached