AdSense + LaTeX = Fail

 

Point being: semantic analysis is hard. Simple keyword matching just doesn't cut it.

Death From Above

(Or this DFA - whichever you prefer.)

I'm writing this in the middle of an especially sluggish induction proof in CS 360. I've decided to make a few minor but hopefully positive changes in the way I approach class:

• I'll try to make it to as many of them as possible - even those pesky 8:30 am ones that have marred my attendance track record in previous terms. (Not that anyone keeps track, but still...)
• I'm keeping semi-rigorous notes for any lectures that don't have nice preformatted course slides available online.
• I'm keeping those notes...in LaTeX.
  

The idea with the latter step is that having legible notes will encourage me to revisit them, a process that lies in stark contrast with my longstanding practice of keeping sporadic write-only notes. We'll see how that one goes. In either case, I'll endeavour to make the notes publicly available, thus driving a further spike in various efforts initiated by the University of Waterloo administration to lock up our course materials.


Final note: if you are concerned about the privatization of knowledge, I strongly urge you to do the same. Keep notes, make PDFs, and distribute like crazy. Help us bridge our ingenuity gap.

Meta-Work

The birds are singing, the sun is bright, the days are getting ever-longer - and I have to write another work term report. Ugh. Fortunately, a quick Google search brought up this. It's not the cleanest bit of LaTeX code, but it gets the job done! (Yes, I know I could use Word. I'll consider it next time I want to spend 90% of my time format-tweaking to obtain a layout that I can't easily reuse and share.)\

Also: the same search unearthed this (unfortunately nascent) effort to create a public repository of work report templates! Hooray for open source.

Original Thug Life

Proof, if needed, that LaTeX is the shiv of academics worldwide. Now get outta my way before I get all Knuth on your ass.

(Oh, and bonus points if you get the reference in the comic/song.)

Safe Computing 101: Use LaTeX

I'm plunging into that dreaded final stretch of the work term, where everything is due concurrently and you suddenly realize you have approximately numeric_limits<int>::max() things to properly wrap up. Top of the end-of-term priority queue: give two presentations tomorrow morning explaining how exactly I spent the three months prior. Most people would reach for PowerPoint at this, er, juncture. I, however, am a CS student with a Tux-genuflecting, Redmond-execrating reputation to uphold, and therefore by socialization rendered immune to such manifestations of pure evil. I'm with these people on this one, and so I reach for something completely different: LaTeX with Prosper. As a result, I can nimbly sidestep the format-tweaking cruft of PowerPoint and cut to the meat of the matter - the content. Not only that, but my content becomes easily reusable if, say, I want to draft some papers. Even better, I can quickly render PDFs, PostScript, or whatever I want out of the LaTeX files, all the while remaining smugly assured that my presentation will work on pretty much any computer - for free. Try doing that with those arcane and proprietary MS formats.

Long story short: if you have an urge to use MS Office, there's usually a better way.