"Useful" Tips and Tricks
from my experience as a computer user
on the perpetual learning curve
I have been greatly helped by the magnitude of useful comments and
content found on the web regarding computer and software
utilization. This simple webpage starts my contribution back to
the knowledge pool. You can contact me with constructive comments
and critiques via email.
- Latex - There is more than enough web documentation on this
topic, sorting through it is the challenge
- Converting MS (Powerpoint, Excel, Word, etc...) graphs charts and
images to .eps (encapsulated postscripts) for Latex publication
Four options follow...
- Cut and paste the windows metafile (wmf) from the MS
application into a converter like wmf2eps
- You can cut and paste the windows metafile (wmf) from the MS
application into an image editor like Photoshop and save it in a .eps
format
- You can try to export the graph in an image or .eps format from
the MS application with either built in or third party add-on utilities
but my experience has been that this method gives the poorest
resolution quality and often the largest file size.
- I have been most successful by printing out the chart from the
MS application to .pdf (using adobe acrobat or a free utility such as
CutePDF) then opening the document in acrobat, cropping any unwanted
material, and then saving the graph/image as an .eps. This has
provided me with both the smallest file size and the highest resolution
in the final processes Latex document.
- XMMS and RedHat
- I wanted a Linux application for streaming audio. I was
pointed to XMMS which I was happy to find preinstalled on my RedHat
Enterprise edition of Linux. Unfortunately I soon found that MP3s
were not supported and the skins looked horrible. After much
searching I seem to have two options
- Install an XMMS rpm that will play MP3s, unfortunately this
will not fix the poor skin resolution
- staff.xmms.org/priv/redhat8
- Compile XMMS from source, unfortunately this will take some
time because the location of glib-config and glib files are not
found. It is also likely that your library path may not be set to
properly source the usr lib folders.
- Check your library path
- Get the rpms to fix the glib
http://www.redhat.com/archives/redhat-install-list/2002-April/msg00552.html
- Then compile XMMS from source