Looking up...

I really don't post on this blog as often as I should.  Life is looking up, and things seem to be falling into alignment.  Huzzah.

LyX: LaTeX made easy

I have to admit, that when it comes down to it, I'm pretty lazy.  I hate having to do work that I don't really need to do, and will take the easy way out.  Unfortunately, that doesn't quite merge with LaTeX (for the uninformed, that's pronounced "Lay-Tech," not like the plastic-y stuff).
One day I stumbled upon a very nice application that merges the lazy approach of a typical word processor with the good-looking output of a LaTeX document: LyX (which is pronounced "licks").  Its a classic example of a program that does one thing and does it great.

Main window (and this blog post!)

That said, it isn't perfect.  Some common actions require some pretty arcane key shortcuts (Command-M puts you into math mode).  Math mode still uses standard LaTeX "\" macros, so new users of LyX should have such a document nearby (I'll post a few at a later time).  The given interface for some of the common symbols is pretty awful, as well.  Just take a peek:

Ugly toolbars

Also, it looks like it uses the GTK+ toolkit, which is pretty renowned for giving pretty poor results across all platforms.  It also rigidly enforces structured document formatting, as the back-end processor will handle everything.  Then again, this last point is one of the appeals of LaTeX.

That said, even with these issues, LyX is a great entry point for technical papers.  I've been using it for all my notes this semester, and it has performed admirably.  It provides a good range of export options, from plain-text to PDF, that make distributing/sharing documents easier.  "Easier," not easy, since collaboration is impossible without everyone using LyX, as its save files are plain-text and very similar to TeX source files.  It also has some pretty awesome-looking output:

LaTeX output

LyX, ultimately, is a great program for math and science documents, but enforces too many restrictions for casual users.

Oof

Oof.  Yet again, I've waited too long to add a new post.  I am writing one, and it is coming along quite nicely.

I lied.  I'm writing two.  One on LyX, an excellent LaTeX based word processor, and another on the dorm room workspace and some changes I've made (no new materials!).

It's gotten worse...

...China may have cheated at gymnastics by using underage competitors.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/gymnastics/news/story?id=3534544

China's Opening Ceremony Gaffes

Faked singer: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7556058.stm
Faked footsteps: http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/11/1541249
BSoD: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/08/12/olympics_experienced_blue_screen_of_death.html

More to come, with some commentary later.

Website Redesigns

Facebook and Google recently announced major overhauls of their interactive homepages, and Google's page comes out with the better result.

Facebook's new site is available to the general public at http://www.new.facebook.com/, and once you visit the link the entire site overhaul is available, along with a link to revert back to the previous version of the site. The redesign doesn't add much in terms of raw features, but I did notice a "Comment" link available for a status change. Facebook Chat is still integrated, and continues to maintain any current chats between tabs and while navigating around the site. Unfortunately, my sidebar Facebook Chat bookmark broke, and I haven't yet found a way to fix it.

While the reorganization is nice, and the AJAX-ification makes life easier for navigating the site. Applications, which quickly crowded profiles and made navigation messy, are now on their own "tab" of the profile page, and the rarely used "About Me" information also receives its own tab. While the re-organization is nice, I did have a few issues switching between tabs.

The worst, though, is that there is a large amount of wasted space on larger monitors. With the new wider layout, Facbeook is no longer limited to the center of the screen, but the wider layout doesn't contract as the window is narrowed. As a result, there's a gap in the middle that makes the site unweildy.

Google's interactive homepage, iGoogle, was also throughly redone, and now features a more intelligent integration of Google's technologies. Chat is available both in a tab and in a bar along the bottom, so quick conversations are always at hand. Also, GTalk is still accessible from Google's own desktop client and third party clients, so the chat interface is redundant if you choose to make it so. The tabs also now list all their content, and when the title is clicked on in the left navigation bar, it brings up the box with expanded information and filling the full screen. As an example, GMail lists only a few messages from the inbox while on the page view, but when in fullscreen view the standard GMail is available inside of iGoogle. RSS feeds come up in a view very similar to Google Reader, and the Weather view goes on steroids.

iGoogle is a great update, but its not fully available to the public, and still has a few issues. Some RSS feeds don't come up properly (missing some links, feed titles, etc.), and sometimes are handled by the box view instead of the Google Reader view when in full page view. Also, a few issues exist when moving boxes between columns.

The new Facebook and the new iGoogle are both welcome redesigns, but neither is quite ready for prime time. iGoogle has some bigger issues, but is still in a closed beta (a signup is required, and is really designed for developers). Also, its the better redesign. Facebook is in open beta, and only has a few niggling issues until everything is ready for public release.

My Home Workspace

After my last post (and the significant gap between it and now) on a home dorm room workspace, I thought a good start would be to evaulate my home workspace.



For starters, here's my (admittedly messy) desk at home. 

To be honest, it's not even a very good picture.  I have a nice, high-back desk chair, a widescreen LCD at hte center of my desk, a full keyboard, and my Mac to the right, on top of my unused printer.  Out of frame to the left is my tower desktop, for when I need Windows or blow off some steam (and take out some Team Fortress 2 punks).  The desk itself is rather small, and the room is in pretty good shape beyond the desk area.



I'm comfortable with this style and layout, although it is a little cramped, but it provides a good basis for a dorm room layout because it is compact and because I can't make any permanent changes without angering my parents during my summers at home.

•  Keeping the tower to the left of the desk keeps it both out of the way and easily accessible.  As a bonus, its flat top is a nice place to keep blank CDs, headphones, and the power adapter for the Mac.  Here's a photo:
  
  
  
  
  
  Tower, with some stuff on top of it.
  
  


• The laptop can't stay where it is.  I don't use the printer over the summer, but for school I'll be generating a decent amount of paper with all the fun papers and source code I'll be writing.


• The plastic drawer and cabinet come through once again.  I don't know where I'd be without those two bits of storage.  They're dirt cheap, reasonably durable, and easy to find.  Staples has a good collection of plastic storage boxes here, in their online store.  

So there's my starting point.  Next I'll start to finalize a plan, followed by a suggested parts list.