Windows 8.1 First impressions and first problems with freezing touchpad on Dell Inspiron 17 7000

Unpacking my brand new Dell Inspiron 17 7000 I was keen on test-driving this new touchy, feely stuff for the first time.
Acutally I was prepared for the worst and went out really impressed!
I, for myself, am using this machine as it would be with Win7, just nicer.
Hit the Start (Keyboard) button like before and the instant search returns your applications, files and more stuff just like before. With the metro area you have now even more space to arrange the most-often-used applications and give them a little bit of grouping and prioritizing by having larger or smaller icons.

Still, I need some time to get a grasp on full-screen apps and how to switch between full and desktop mode.
Alltogether,  I cannot comprehend why everybody is having problems with this new kind of design and paradigm.

Now comes the bad news. Win 8 and Win 8.1 is still having a lot of pitfalls. I for myself had to disable hibernation or the new windows stand-by mode because my laptop kept freezing after the second or third resume. Furthermore, eventually after switching users or returning from stand-by, the mouse is unresponsive to left-click but everything else works just find.
For my type of laptop this can be solved by double-finger scrolling once, which rips the touchpad driver out of its misery and everything is back to normal again.

Managing private Data in the Cloud

We all Dropbox.
However with the latest NSA scandal, Dropbox is not a good place to store sensitive or privat or perhaps just any Data.
I stumbled across the alternative called WUALA some years ago which is encrypted on the client.

Just recently I got aware of a nice home mounted,  decentralized cloud like storage tool:
Torrent Sync

Winterzeit / Heizungszeit wolf-cgb-k-20

Vor kurzem haben wir unser neues Domizil bezogen und neben den Vorteilen die Kontrolle über die eigene Heizung zu haben, hat man gleichzeitig auch die Pflicht sich darum zu kümmern.
Mein Wissen über eine 30 Jahre alte Ölheizungssteuerung war leider nicht allzu hilfreich um eine moderne Gasbrennwerttherme richtig einzustellen.

Die Hersteller geben hier leider wenig Hilfestellung, da die Einstellungen entweder nicht erklärt sind, oder aber so beschränkt, dass man damit nichts anfangen kann. Kurzum, man benötigt einen Fachmann.

Ich hatte Glück und eine Anleitung für genau meine Gasbrennwerttherme gefunden:

http://patrick-wessel.de/allgemein/optimierung-einer-wolf-cgb-k-20-gasbrennwerttherme-mit-bedienmodul/

Latex: Reference to subfigure or subfloat but only with letter

You got a subfloat in latex and want a reference to it without printing e.g. "1.1a" but only "a".
Simply use \subref instead of \ref.

If you want to use this in a caption itself, try the \protect\subref{} command!

Latex: Okular not showing figures in DVI file on Windows

If Okular does not show you the embedded EPS files of your compiled latex document it might be, that ghostscript is missing or is not found.
Install ghostscript (simple google search) and add <ghostscriptinstallpath>/bin to your system or user path.

Next time you open Okular it should display your images within DVI

LATEX: Texniccenter and Okular forward and reverse search

Prerequsites:
Proper configured Texniccenter for dvi , dvi > ps and dvi > ps > pdf output.
Kde for Windows with Okular.

Latex->DVI profile,

• Latex ribbon, Arguments for compiler:
  --src -interaction=nonstopmode "%Wm" -synctex=-1
• Viewer ribbon:
  Application path > C:\ProgramData\KDE\bin\okular.exe
  Command Line Arguments: '%bm.dvi#src:%l %Dc/%nc' --unique
  Search in output: '%bm.dvi#src:%l %Dc/%nc' --unique
  Do not close

Extension to PS and PDF should be straightforward.

Okular reverse search:

Setting > Configure Okular > Editor:

• Dropdown box: Custom Text Editor
• Command:"C:\Program Files (x86)\TeXnicCenter\TEXCNTR.exe" /ddecmd "[goto('%f', '%l')]"

Note that you have to adjust the paths, e.g. "c:\..." to your custom installation.

LATEX: Automated Pagecounter between two labels

To have an automated and updated counter of your pages between two labels you can use the following commands/packages:

Place in main document:

\usepackage{refcount}
\newcommand{\pagedifference}[2]{%
 \COMMENT{ \number\numexpr\getpagerefnumber{#2}-\getpagerefnumber{#1}\relax}}

To print a page difference:
\pagedifference{chap:start}{chap:end}

LATEX: Hide column in table

Very nice. I forgot where I found it:

\def\ignore#1\endignore{}
\newcolumntype{I}{@{}>{\ignore}l<{\endignore}} %% blind out some colums


Now a table column with the letter "I" instead of c,r,l  will be hidden.
Of course there is a little extra space left

Needs the package:

\usepackage{array} 

EXCEL: excel to latex

http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/excel2latex/

KILE: Workaround for forward search in Windows

The KILE builtin functionality currently adds as space and "./" to the source file when clicking ForwardDVI under windows with the current KDE Windows release. I do not have this behavior in Linux Ubuntu 10.04 with latest patches installed.
Still, this annoys  me and I came up with a workaround for Windows:

You need:

• Cygwin with sed installed
• Okular (any other dvi viewer should do fine)

Generate a build command in Kile-> Settings -> Configure Kile --> Build which is exactly the same as ForwardDVI.
Than change this new command to the following:

Command: cmd
Options: /c open_okular.bat '%target'

This should call the batch file open_okular.bat within the DOS CMD shell and pass along the string containing everything you need for doing forward search.

Now place the following DOS CMD script in your TEX Project Root folder:
FILE open_okular.bat


echo "Start"
set PATH=%PATH%;c:\programdata\kde\bin\;c:\cygwin\bin\;c:\Users\<username>\kderoot\bin\
echo  %INPUT%
for /f %%a in ('echo %1 ^| sed.exe -e"s/ \.\///"') do set OUTPUT=%%a
@echo %OUTPUT%
okular.exe %OUTPUT% --unique
echo "End"

What the script does:
Line 2 updates your path so that okular.exe and sed.exe are known. Adjust paths appropriatley
Line 4 removes the " ./" in words: space dot slash; from the string and stores it in OUTPUT
Line 6 calls okular with the new string.


This should give you the forward search for Kile and Okular in Windows.
Adoptions to any other DVI viewer should be straight forward.
Adoptions to Linux should be easy as string manipulation is usually a lot easier.