Roo’s Ramblings

Last year I wrote a bunch of articles for OSNews. The majority were on Java, but one was for Arch Linux, and the other was about LaTeX. My article, LaTeX isn’t for everyone but it could be for you went down very well, and I was pleased when the editor of the online journal, PracTeX contacted me to include it in their next issue.

It wasn’t just the article, though. I thought that the cool thing the editor did here was to plough through the 120+ comments that were left that vent some of the problems that people have with LaTeX in the real world. Quite interesting, I think.

The latest issue has just been released, and a PDF version is due in the near future, I understand.

Oh, and I’ve just received my copy of the LaTeX Companion, 2nd Ed.  Fortunately, I’m employed by Pearson, of which Addison-Wesley is an imprint, so I got it 1/2 price It’s a darn cool book if you use LaTeX on a regular basis and need to get to grips with some of the finer points of the package.

One of the annoyances of using someone else’s PC is that you often don’t have access to all the software that you have become accustomed, if not reliant on. This is even worse on machines in net cafes or work PCs that are restricted.

I recently wanted to get access to an IM client at work that could cope with multiple protocols. I could have installed GAIM, but the truth be known, I shouldn’t install anything on my work PC, and if I do, and get work, there has to be a damn good reason (i.e., it’s essential for my work!)

So, I’ve turned to the AJAX revolutionaries for help, and wasn’t disappointed when I found a site called Meebo. It’s a cool little site that bulges with AJAX goodliness. You get a pretty reasonable IM client all within your web browser, without all the Flash and Java applet complications. It just works! Sometimes I forget that this is all HTML+AJAX (and some nice graphic design). Very clever stuff, I thought.

You can just specify the login details for the IM network(s) of choice and it logs in for you. If you wish, you can create a Meebo account, which saves all the IM details, and so you can login to your usual accounts with a single username. Handy.

There is still some work to do with Meebo. I personally don’t like having lots of individual chat windows opened, but rather a tabbed interface that I can switch between (which is how I normally have my IM client open). You can’t do anything other that basic chatting, like web cams, file transfers, etc. Although, I quite like its simplicity, it’s refreshing.

Give it a whirl if you get caught out without your favourite IM app.

Blimey, long time, no post. Moved house recently and so it took up lots of time and had all the hassle of getting my broadband connection up-and-running once again. Anyway…

For many years now, Kmail has been my favourite email client. Recently, I’ve been using Windows more than I normally do (for a bit of win32 programming) and so I installed Thunderbird. It’s pretty darn good and has improved a lot since I last used it. However, for me at least, it highlighted three small details that keep me hooked on kmail.

1. Keyboard navigation. I think the majority of people I reckon, they will have the message list with a preview pane below - it’s true for me at least. As I’m reluctant to use the mouse, I want to be able to move between messages easily, and then scroll through a message in the preview pane if it is of interest. Kmail solves this thus: LEFT = previous message; RIGHT = next message; DOWN = scroll down current message; UP = scroll up. I think this is nice. I can navigate quickly using the cursor keys. As far as I can tell in Thunderbird, UP and DOWN moves between messages. To scroll in the preview pane, you can hit SPACE, which is like a PGDOWN. Not quite as elegant for me.
2. Missing attachments. Prior to Kmail, about 8/10 emails that were supposed to have an attachment (and directly referred to them) left my outbox rather more lighter than intended. Thankfully Kmail includes a handy check feature: when you click “Send”, it searches for terms like ‘attached’ or ‘attachment’ (this list is customisable) and if there is a match but no actual attachment, it’ll flag this up. Nice
3. Tray notification. Thunderbird will put an icon in your system tray upon arrival of new messages. However, and this is extremely petty and subjective, kmail outdoes Thunderbird here. Not only do you get the Kmail icon, but it is overlaid with an actual message count. It means that you can see exactly how many unread messages you have even before you restore the application. As I say, it’s a rather small detail, one that 99.9% of people could care less about: what’s the difference between 1 or 10 messages - all you need to know is that you have new messages. Well, I can’t answer that other than to say, I just prefer it!

To be honest, I think Kmail is not always given due credit. It’s extremely well featured, responsive, robust and has plenty of nice touches. And if you want the extra groupware functionality, Kmail is properly integrated to Kontact (KDE’s Outlook/Evolution equiv).