Creating Letters in Latex with Letterhead and Scanned Signature

With graduation nearing and my fervent attempts at applying for Post Doc positions, I am required to sometimes write a cover letter and include my signature. I feel that using Adobe PDF writer to make a stamp of my scanned signature is cumbersome, as I need to rely on using a Windows machine for that step or install Adobe PDF Writer on my Mac.

So I searched and came to this solution. One awesome reference is from Dr. Balkrishna@WSU He has generously uploaded his templates here. I have modified them slightly to include my scanned signature.

Another option is to use the example by Robert McNees here.

My final PDF looks like this. Source file for generating your own letter: VT_letter.zip

The original newlfm package manual can be browsed here.

Note: Using the VT Logo is at your own responsibility. I have used it for illustrative purposes.

Background backups-way of Life

I was in Blacksburg last week and my laptop hard disk crashed after meeting my advisor. Karma :( Anyways, I was there stuck in Blacksburg with my Time Machine backup at home (in MD). My code was backed up regularly (not out of choice) only because my code needs to run on another machine for benchmarking. I lost a day installing everything on a spare laptop and then spent time figuring out everything I worked on before meeting my advisor. I had not obviously backed up before meeting him.

That made me look for a better solution. As usual, Manas had a better solution. His quote "Backup should be a background process. You shouldn't think of backing up. It has to be integrated in your work flow."I think I should I have an archive for his quotes that always seem to be apt for the situation. [:P]

I eventually got my Hard disk replaced at the local Apple store and restored everything from Time Machine. Manas suggested this solution, which IMHO is the best.

Step 1: Get yourself a Dropbox account (available for Mac, Linux and Windoze)

Step 2: Link your laptop to your account. You will see a Dropbox folder.

Step 3: On Linux and Macs: create a symbolic link to your folders you want to backup and place it in your Dropbox folder.

cd YourDropboxfolder

ln -s $HOME/Documents

ls -la

Documents -> $HOME/Documents

Sit back and relax. Everything gets backed up automatically.

Bonus point: refer your friend and get extra 250MB. Contact me if you want a referral.

Software necessary for a Grad student

I usually come across so many friends who have questions about what software they need for their laptop. My conversations always end up in a demo showing how to make their laptop use more productive. So I thought of writing a blog to address the question:

"What software do I need on my laptop to make my Grad life more productive?"

(a) Bibliography Manager: First of all as a Graduate student, we are exposed to scientific conference papers/journals. It's always good to come up with a filing system to access all the papers you have read or intend to read at some other time. Most of the times it's all about filing intelligently, so that the next time you don't waste time searching for the correct reference. For Mac OSX, I recommend installing BibDesk. This is a free application and is the best bibliography software on Macs. For Linux or Windows, use JabRef. I will not mention EndNote for Windows, as it relies on proprietary formats.

(b) Typesetting documents: Though MS Word is the most commonly used format to typeset documents, it is not the preferred work flow in most academic institutions. Use Latex to typeset all your documents.

For Mac OSX, keep track of the latest Latex software packages from MacTeX. The MacTeX package includes the Latex distribution, BibDesk, Equation editor, Excalibur (spell checker) and TeXShop (front end). As a side note, I recommend TextMate for advanced Latex users.

You can install Latex on Windows using MiKTeX. The front end TeXnicCenter is very useful and integrates well with Windows. This way you can avoid installing Cygwin on your Windows laptop for Latex.

Latex is inbuilt on all Linux distros. I have used Kile on a FC/Ubuntu box and have enjoyed the experience.

(c) Diagrams: I use OmniGraffle for making all diagrams on Mac OSX. I have used Dia on Linux machines and found it to be a very good application. Visio may count as a good alternative on Windows machines, though I don't use it.

I will keep updating this blog as and when I find interesting software that's a must for Grad students. Hope someone finds this blog useful. Thanks to MT for his guidance :)

Multi-protocol IM on iphone

So the iphone was lacking a Jabber client, through which one can login to all the different IM services such as AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Gtalk, (Office IM server). Finally I found about Palringo for the iphone. Palringo is available from the App Store and is a swell application. I think that this app should show up on the Top 50 list soon !! Have fun chatting using Palringo !!!

Apple adda

Don't be mistaken by the title: I am not selling fruits and I am neither inclined in selling apples. This weekend we (meaning my roomies) have decided to extend their love for Apple products and so we have two new shiny Apple MacBooks. So I decided to count the number of electronic gadgets we have in our house:
1. MT's Apple Mac mini
2. MT's 12" Apple PowerBook (extinct now--and planning to upgrade to a shiny MacBook Air(MBA))
3. My Apple MacBook
4. My Dell Dimension 5150 desktop (Windoze now, may install a Linux distro)
5. BRP's IBM Thinkpad (Windoze)
6. HN's Apple Mac mini
7. HN's Dell Inspiron(or something) Laptop (Windoze)
8. HN's new and shiny 1 day old Apple MacBook
9. NG's Dell Inspiron(or something) Laptop (windoze + Ubuntu)
10. NG's new and shiny 1 day old Apple MacBook
In addition to these 10 computers, we have a seldom used IBM laptop with Ubuntu for displaying movies on TV thru S-video (thanks to RM)
OOh, we also have 3 iphones, 2 ipods, 2 ipod touches, 1 ipod nano, 5 printers..!!!
Though some of these will appear as ads on the local groups as items for sale, I can't help noticing the fact the amount of computing power available at my place..(no mention of the actual computing potential due to 5 intelligent and brainy roomies--self praise) LOL..Hahaha...!!!

Wow...Excellent stuff for iphone

I am working on the evaluation perspective of my proposal due in a long time. This has driven me to do some more MPI parallel programming to produce my benchmark values that can be compared with my final values later (after about 6 months). So I take a 10 min break between 1-2 hours and read up on the Mac sites such as TUAW, hints, rumors, etc. I know, I know..what a fanatic...heard that before too...
Today's news caught my eye, VOIP over iphone brought to you by Fring. What is Fring? So Fring is an app that can be installed on jailbroken iphones and this allows you to voice chat on Skype, Gtalk, AIM, wow. Surprisingly this is a pre-release version and is kind of slow. Erica from TUAW had these problems as per her LiveBlog. I waited till the end of the day to test this app. My guinea pig..oops test case was Neeraj (he regularly uses a bluetooth headset to chat with folks on Gtalk, and therefore he qualifies as the perfect test case. No harm Neeraj [:P]). I did talk to him on Gtalk and Skype. I have to mention that the voice quality was perfect. Only the thing that needs to be rectified is : if you click on Communities and click on any of the services with a tick, you get unsubscribed and then you have to enter your id and password all over again.
Overall an excellent application...Cheers to Fring and iPhone.

Converted one more from Windoze to Mac

So yeah...as the title suggests, I converted one more person in the family from the dark side a.k.a Windows to the good side a.k.a Mac OSX. Apparently it all started with my SIL's emails asking me for an opinion about the HP laptop selections made by her brother.

Now that's one of the perks for being the "in house-techie" (that's better than being called a nerdie). Pros: you get to wag your tongue on all the pros and cons and then conveniently force your selection on the unsuspecting audience. Cons: If the gadget goes bad, you get flak for suggesting the product, everyone loses trust in your reviews and also stand a chance of losing your coveted position as the "Mr./Ms. Tech-Reviewer". OK that's a nightmare and I don't want to go that path.

So I looked at the not so attractive bulky HP laptops and then told my SIL's bro abt my perspective on the sleek and efficient MacBook. Apparently Mac users qualify among 10% of OSes used worldwide. Getting people over is a huge task but then the crossover is alluring due to programs such as Parallels, VMWare, etc.

All the MS Office programs are available on Macs excluding Visio and MS Project. Alternatives include OmniGraffle and OmniPlan (I use both and like their excellent User Interface). Quick note: I installed Office 2008 on my Macs and I was prompted for updates and security fixes the next minute. Typical Windows Application behavior.

Climax scene: SIL's bro has successfully migrated to the good side. My faltu ka prediction: He will become more efficient and his productivity will increase exponentially.

Moral of story: I am the official Mac/Apple preacher/Minister. LOL

Modding my iphone

So finally I decided to go one more step and completely unlocked my iphone. First of all, AT&T does not have a clue about the iphone and secondly if you are smart, you can find lot of loopholes with the iphone contract liability. This gives rise to the following case:
1. You can insert your old AT&T SIM in you iphone and go on with your life. AT the same time benefit from having all the previous discounts and to top off a cool phone..!!!!
assumptions: You have unlocked your iphone completely and your SIM is locked to your old phone. This also implies that your SIM has the old instrument's IMEI locked. You may or may not choose to take the $20 Data plan. No 2 year contract as well. No visual voicemail in any case.
consequences: I don't know. My investigation on forums revealed that no one had a clue about what would happen. IMHO it is a high risk situation.
2. You can only unlock the filesystem and use the iphone with your official carrier. This way you have all the cool apps on your iphone.
assumptions: You have accepted a two year agreement with AT&T and at the same time lost any discounts on your account...duh!!! wat a bummer..!!!!
consequences: you are within AT&T liability and no one can harm a hair on your body.
And be careful before upgrading to Apple's new firmwares.

I guess I have used a very nice reasoning style for my choices. If I cud only translate this in my proposal as well...!!!
this is how my iphone screen looks like now...I have used the 'summerboard package' and installed the Leopard theme.

iphone club--Yippppeeeeyayyyyyyyyyy

so after a very very busy Feb, I am back to blogging again...It's Spring break and I decided to visit MG@NJ. my I scheduled an appointment at the Apple store (Bridgewater location) to repair Macbook (MB). Apparently, there's an inherent flaw with the MB design, if you close the lid with some force you can crack the case near the touch pad due to the protrusions on the inner side of the lid(near the screen). Remember that there's a magnet on the lid, so next time apply less force while closing your MB. Neways, my trip to the Apple store resulted in another hole in my pocket. I think Apple has to stop making expensive stuff...duh. I ended up buying a 8GB iphone. Got it home activated it. Initial observations: Awesome UI..Apple rocks...!!! the software is completely blended into the hardware and that's so good. I think this is something BREW-enabled phones have not achieved. I am for Linux-enabled phones as well for eg. Nokia N810 --has Skype running on Wi-Fi.
My car had a breakdown on I-81 while traveling to DC and the iphone was of great help. I was able to pinpoint my location using Maps and give that info to the towing agency. I was also able to locate car repair places and was able to ask the towing guy to tow my car to a better place.

I also kinda jumped the loop and did a 'Jailbreak' on my iphone. I followed the instructions @iphoneatlas Also some more tweaks: do install the repo from Navizon to enable it. The IM clients are not very robust. Remove the Conceited apps software from your 'sources' and then reinstall the 'Community sources' again. This enables the installation of the 'Terminal'.
Also install the 'SUID Lib Fix' and 'BSD Subsystem 2.0 Termfix' from the 'tweaks' section. This enables you to login as root with pswd alpine and gives you backspace functionality respectively.
In a nutshell the price you pay is for the 'World' in your pocket--a very seamless integration of phone & internet.

Problems installing MS Office 2004 on Mac OSX

I had a very harrowing time trying to install MS Office 2004 on my Mac. MS Office is not a necessary app but cannot compare to Neo because of formatting differences. I am not a proponent of MS Office apps but I need to use them when someone sends an Excel sheet/PPT file/.doc file. Google has still given us some choices such as Google Docs
I think I am going to advocate usage of LaTeX over any word processing app. LaTeX is not actually WYSIWYG in the literal sense, but in all practicality my LaTeX-ed document is WYSIWYW(What You See Is What You Write). No more headaches over formatting figures and filling up spaces.
On top of all this, I had to install more than 6 updates for Office 2004 to protect against vulnerabilities against hackers.

Front row on Apple

I upgraded to Leopard last week and while playing with the remote on my Macbook, I was introduced to the Apple TV interface on the Front Row. The upgraded interface allows the user to directly see new movie trailers, view TV shows. I was impressed with the very less buffering time and the excellent quality of the trailers. No more Yahoo! movie trailers for me when I can easily access the latest trailers on my Mac without browsing on a website.

Migrating to the Big Cat

Yup...I finally migrated to Leopard. I haven't been a Mac user for a long time and I did not know how the upgrade process would work out. I am more proficient with Linux distros and Windoze. Neways after reading about the numerous blogs abt backing up using SuperDuper! and iBackup, I was very confused. Manas suggested a very simple technique:
1. Back up all your data. (I used an external hard disk)
2. Back up the ~/User/Library and the ~/Library.
3. Copy all the Applications from the ~/Applications folder

Format your precious Mac and after the 30 minute installation just drag all your applications and their respective folders from your archived copy on the hard disk.

That's it and you are back to working from where you left off. In fact all the Firefox tabs opened up the way it was before I had quitted. Anyways, I did a separate installation of iWork and iLife. Caution: make sure have 20GB of free space on your external disk for your libraries and apps before attempting this.

At night, I had to help out a frnd with Windoze installation on his Dell laptop. The user interface is so bad that you don't know if a check mark indicates an installed driver or device status. Deteriorating status of Windoze installations continues as usual.

New Mac software--WOW...!!!

I have noticed that trivial and very random discussions with my roomies lead to very definite destinations. Thanks to my roomie..the "Mac-man-as-ten-Garu" (I am not very sure if this is a very clever misnomer for him--MT for short), I ended up on the rite side of the world when I bought a Mac after a disastrous stint with my dual boot Windows and Fedora Compaq lappy.
I feel so complete using one machine for all my programming, writing reports, thesis, etc. and ya it's such a cool machine. So on one random dinner time, MT mentioned the usage of a better PDF viewer--Skim. Skim is such a lightweight PDF reader and is based on the fact that you can make your comments while reading papers, post stickies, etc. I think coming from the creators of Bibdesk, this is a very handy utility for all graduate students (Sorry for the bias towards graduate students). Neways I was also introduced to TextMate and what can I say about it?? This is truly the best app that can take care of all your text writing tasks such as programming in a host of languages, Latex (this is my fav), etc. Although it's not free you can always try it out for a month and then buy the product for about 30 bucks or so. And ya it's worth the investment. BTW I am not the DEVELOPER of these products and I am NOT in anyway connected to them. After using them both, I am like a kid playing with newly found toys(oops software on my Macbook)
So what are you Mac users waiting for?? Go ahead and try them out..!!!!