Earlier today, I went to a local copy shop and had my diploma thesis printed. This afternoon, I will hand it in. The title is
Loop subgroups of Fr and the images of their stabilizer subgroups in GLr( ) and discusses a group-theoretical result. I assume that very few readers care about the content of the thesis, but maybe some are interested in a few assorted LaTeX hints. I m also publishing the
full TeX source code, maybe someone can make use of it.
Less chatty varioref
I m using the
varioref package, in conjunction with the
cleveref package. This provides a command
\vref fig:S3S4l which will expand to, for example, to Figure 1 on page 11 . But if the referenced figure is actually on the current page, the next page, the previous page or the facing page (in two-side layouts), it will say so: Figure 1 on this page.
This is very nice, but I assume that the reader of my thesis is able to find Figure 1 when it is visible, i.e. on the current or facing page. One can remove the referencing texts with the commands
\def\reftextfaceafter ,
\def\reftextfacebefore and
\def\reftextcurrent . But because
varioref puts a space between Figure 1 and this text, we will get a superfluous space even before punctuation.
The remedy is the command
\unskip, which removes this space again. So I use in my preamble:
\def\reftextfaceafter \unskip %
\def\reftextfacebefore \unskip %
\def\reftextcurrent \unskip %
Palatino and extra leading
I chose the Palatino font for my thesis, using the
mathpazo package. Various sources (such as the
KOMA-Script manual) suggest to use 5% extra leading:
\linespread 1.05
Counting figures independently from chapters
I don t have too many figures and tables in my thesis, and I want them to be numbered simple 1, 2, ... By default, LaTeX would say 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, ... This can be fixed using the
remreset package and these commands:
\makeatletter
\@removefromreset figure chapter
\renewcommand \thefigure \arabic figure
\@removefromreset table chapter
\renewcommand \thetable \arabic table
\makeatother
No widows and club lines
LaTeX already avoids these, but I wanted to get rid of them completely. This can be done with:
% Disable single lines at the start of a paragraph (Schusterjungen)
\clubpenalty = 10000
% Disable single lines at the end of a paragraph (Hurenkinder)
\widowpenalty = 10000 \displaywidowpenalty = 1000
Struck table lines
I had to typeset tables with some lines struck, and I could not find a ready command for that. I used the following definition, based on the code for
\hline. Note that it probably does not adjust well to other font sizes and needs to be adjusted manually:
\makeatletter
\def\stline %
\noalign \vskip-.7em\vskip-\arrayrulewidth\hrule \@height \arrayrulewidth\vskip.7em
\makeatother
Title page in one-sided layout
According to the KOMA manual, the title page as set by LaTeX is not meant to be the cover of a publication, and therefore has to be set with the margins of a right page i.e. a larger right margin and a smaller left margin. But when printing cheaply, one often just put a transparent sheet on top of the print, so the title page
is the cover. You can convince KOMA that you are right by using
\KOMAoptions twoside=false
\begin titlepage
...
\end titlepage
\KOMAoptions twoside=true
Not flushing the page for chapter heads
LaTeX would put the list of algorithms on a new right page. I found this a waste of paper for my few algorithms, and preferred to put the list right after the table of contents. You can override the LaTeX behavior using:
\tableofcontents
\let\cleardoublepage\relax % book
\let\clearpage\relax % report
\let\chapter\section
\listofalgorithms
This code also reduces the size of the heading to that of a section. The same trick also works with
\chapter.
Math in headings vs. PDF bookmarks
LaTeX with the
hyperref package creates nice PDF bookmarks from your chapter and section titles. Unfortunately, PDF bookmark names can only be plain strings, while the titles in the document might contain some math symbols. You can make both happy with
\texorpdfstring:
\section Stabilizer subgroups in \texorpdfstring $\GL_r(\Z/2\Z)$ GL\_r(Z/2Z)
Setting lines for the signature
The diploma thesis contains a small note which I have to sign, saying that I created it on my own etc. Below that, I put two labeled lines for date and signature, using the tabbing environment:
\begin tabbing
\rule 4cm .4pt \hspace 1cm \= \rule 7cm .4pt \\
Ort, Datum \> Unterschrift
\end tabbing
Sarah got a call from the contractor on the weekend, saying he wanted to
make a start on the kitchen demolition on Wednesday. So we've moved
everything from the kitchen into the living room (fridge and stove
included), and they started work today.
Boy, did they start!
It's all gone already. All of the cabinets, and the existing lighting, and
the fan.
Here's how it looked last night:
Unfortunately there's no working lights any more, so I couldn't take photos
of how things look tonight. I'll have to try and get some in the morning
before the contractor gets here.
It's sounding like it's going to take longer than one and a half weeks, so
we're going to be eating out for a while (or cooking with the microwave in
the living room). Conveniently (depending on how you want to look at it
given the temperature there) I have a work trip to New York next week, and
Sarah's going to come along for a few days as well, so that'll help kill
some time.
I think our next immediate need is to decide on what colour to paint the
walls. Some light shade of green is a current contender.
The recent development of the situation in 
Dear lazyweb: I am in search of a mailing list for discussion on
matters related to digital identity and privacy in the information
age. Unfortunately, my (limited) searching has not unveiled
results, mostly because many mailing lists have privacy
agreements or somesuch, polluting the results with pointers to
those.
If you know such a list, or you don t but you are interested in
the topic, don t hesitate to 
After some stability problems and an unresolvable PCI IRQ problem with my 
Everyone knows that exercise can heal the body. But why only a few people who routinely perform the activity? Ask yourself.
The answer is, maybe you less motivated to do so. A survey ever conducted to find out why people rarely do sports.
The survey involving 15,000 women from 25 countries showed that although nearly half of them know that exercise is very important for health, but less than 25 percent of it done. Why?
More than two-thirds of respondents said that they would exercise more often if the gym was fun. So far, they consider it as a routine or demand to stay healthy so feel burdened.
Although the facts say so, but it is unfortunate if people take sport as a less desirable activity.
If you are not motivated to do the morning run, bike or fitness, try these few tips that may improve your mood for a workout without having to feel it as a demand or load.
1. Participate In A Club
Should universities switch away from hosting their own email and join the Google bandwagon?
Want a sound card? Want a cleared sound that is not contaminated by electromagnetic interference in you computer s case? Want that all to work in Linux?
I did. So I got me one of 
And it works with Linux. Just plug and play. PulseAudio makes it all trivial. The device ID as reported by lsusb is 0c76:1607 JMTek, LLC. The text on the back of the device says Model HY544 USB 3D Sound Pnp FC CE Made in China .
File Under: Stuff I'm guaranteed to forget if I don't write it down
I just went a bit wild and decided to get myself some mobile broadband love
-- I'm finding that I crave a bit of light 'net when I'm out and about, and
an impending change in circumstances will mean that I'm out and about a lot
more than I am currently.
I have: