pdftotext

recently i needed to rip the text out of a pdf file so i could read it on my pda. (it doesn't have a pdf reader right now, and even if i got one it would take forever to render all the images.) here's a command that works pretty well, even preserving the layout with pretty good accuracy: pdftotext -layout -enc ASCII7 -nopgbrk file.pdf file.txt

gmplayer with .m3u

i found a good way to use gmplayer with .m3u files from my streaming music server (using ampache). i made a little bash script: #!/bin/bash # cache up to 16MB, so it won't get cut off if paused # since the cache is so big, only cache 1% before starting #echo Opening "$1" # for firefox #gmplayer -cache 16384 -cache-min 1 -playlist $@ # for opera (it makes filenames like "playlist (3).m3u", and it waits for this script to finish) gmplayer -cache 16384 -cache-min 1 -playlist "$1" & then i set up my browser to run this with the downloaded .m3u as the argument.

plplot

i just tried out plplot, in my eternal saga to find a good publication-quality 3d plotting package for python. looks pretty good and the interface isn't too bad. it looks like it will only spit out hardcopies; i can't find an interactive mode. fine for publication, a little inconvenient for debugging/prototyping. also, the only really standard vector formats are b+w and color postscript. but i could ps2pdf with no problems and tremendously improved compression. i tried the /usr/share/plplot/examples/python/xw08.py example from the admittedly old 5.5.2 for a surface contour. i did need to put in plinit() after the import plplot line for it to work. i also used plscolbg(255,255,255) to make a white background, with decent results.

rubber and sam2p

i'm always on the lookout for packages that combine my two loves: python and tex. looks like rubber will allow me to drive latex from python (even though it was made to have a cli). i'm not sure if it's still maintained, but it has a great way to add functionality based on modules. i've also just tried out sam2p for converting rasters to eps and pdf. it does indeed result in _much_ smaller files than imagemagick's convert, especially for eps. i did have to download, build, and install tif22pnm for sam2p to work with pngs. the link was buried in a huge readme, which was less than convenient, but it works now. EDIT: this might be a smaller, simpler alternative to rubber. might be pre-alpha, though. here's another one that is small and simple and probably will work.

and plastex converts latex to html.

installing tex packages

it had been a while since i'd installed latex packages, but it was easy once i remembered how. just put the stuff in a searched directory (such as /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/) and run mktexlsr. some packages come as .dtx files; run tex (not latex) on these first to generate the files you need.

interesting books

i ran across a couple of books that look interesting. the first is 'Impossible?: Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums' by julian havil. a great way to challenge students and keep the puzzler sharp. the second book is 'How Round Is Your Circle?: Where Engineering and Mathematics Meet'. i was thinking this might help people who struggle with the traditional approach to mathematics instruction to develop a more physical intuition.

kindle

amazon is selling a device called the kindle. it's an ebook reader that looks like it uses electronic ink. looks like a very high-quality display and has a long battery life. built-in qwerty, too. i wonder how hackable? if there's a way for me to break off amazon's manacles, this might be my zaurus replacement.... UPDATE: apparently the kindle runs linux and a number of other os packages. amazon has released source of their changes, as they are obligated to do. maybe this thing is hackable, after all. i'm guessing amazon will not be forthcoming with hardware specs, though.