Donna

pdfsync and Skim rock my world

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:26:12 GMT

That's all.

LaTeX thesis tip

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:29:12 GMT

Compiling each chapter of the thesis individually:

The problem with making individual documents for each chapter of the thesis is that cross-references between chapters won't work. Turns out there's a package that will help out here, xr.

Suppose Chapter 2 references Chapter 1, and you have created individual tex files for each (chapter1_alone.tex and chapter2_alone.tex).

In the preamble of chapter2_alone.tex, simply include:

\usepackage{xr}
\externaldocument{chapter1_alone}

Then xr will use chapter1_alone.aux to get the external references. Of course, you need to make sure that chapter1_alone is up to date, but that's easy to do.

If you are using pdflatex and the hyperref package, you will get some complaints from pdftex that some references don't actually exist, but that just means that these imported references won't be true hyperlinks:

pdfTeX warning (dest): name{subsection.2.2.4} has been referenced but does not exist, replaced by a fixed one

I suspect there is some latex trickery that will handle this, but you should probably be working on your thesis rather than figuring that out.

Manual fixpoint

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:27:01 GMT

Don't you just love running and re-running latex until you reach a fixpoint? Undefined references. rereun latex. ooops some page numbers changed. rerun latex. they need some sort of incremental algorithm.

Shocking -- good wireless customer service!

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:57:58 GMT

Everyone always complains about customer service (including me), but shockingly enough, I randomly got an AT&T rep who knew what she was talking about, and was friendly and helpful! Turns out if you move to somewhere outside the AT&T coverage area (including Switzerland), they will refund the Early Termination Fee. Last guy told me two false things: a) I qualified for a pro-rated fee, $5 for each month of service (I don't, that started in summer 2008, probably with the 3G), and b) that moving to a non-covered area does not get me out of the fee.

I was so impressed that I asked to be connected to her managers voicemail and gave her a thumbs up.

ETA: this was on the heels of listening to the Verizon Math phone call, so it's especially appreciated.

Twitter

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:23:01 GMT

Does anyone who read my blog know someone who works at Twitter? I've applied for a job there, and I'd like to make sure my application goes to an actual human.

Thesis title

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:55:34 GMT

My current thesis title: "Coding Without Your Crystal Ball: Unanticipated Object-Oriented Reuse." :) Thoughts/comments/suggestions?

Edited to add: perhaps I could use this picture on the cover? http://paulocoelhoblog.com/images/image-of-the-day/spheremedium.jpg

Update #2: I think this will be much nicer: http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/objects-equipment/household-objects-equipment/8602184-four-clear-marbles.php?id=8602184

Can you spot the errors in the review?

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:42:56 GMT

I recently had a paper rejected from ECOOP '09. It sounds like it was close to getting in, and it's possible that the review summarized below tipped the balance. I've paraphrased most comments to protect the guilty. A running total of the error count is displayed in parens.

> "This paper appears to be very carefully worked out. However I have difficulty finding anything here that is especially novel or exciting." (-)

Must I be penalized for your lack of imagination? ;)

> The proposal is less expressive than traits (1), is more complex, and does not solve any problem that traits don't solve. (2)

In fact, it is strictly more expressive, its complexity relative to traits is subjective, and solves the problem of multiple inheritance with state, which traits don't solve. But, yes, other than that, the comment is accurate.

> I can translate most of the proposed language to language X. (3)

Um, yeah, except for the small matter of, oh, information hiding, and modular external methods. Is the rest "most"?

> External methods would not be available to instances created by existing classes that only know about the original class. (4)

False.

> For this reason either extension classes or aspects are needed so that the existing class can be extended. (5)

False. External methods will do it, and they are modular.

> The work on Y seems relevant here. (6)

The problem they are solving is actually orthogonal.

____

Now, ECOOP does include a rebuttal phase, where authors can correct factual errors in reviews. However, this review was done *after* the rebuttal phase, probably to figure out what to do with a paper with such conflicting reviews.

This is why some people sign their reviews--they want to be held accountable. Clearly this reviewer was not an expert in the area, or was too biased about the holy nature of traits.

Stress!

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:04:32 GMT

Thesis must be submitted to my committee members by March 1st to ensure on-time graduation. Stress!!!! How does one write a PhD thesis? I've never even written a master's thesis or an honors thesis, so I'm a bit lost. Maybe step 1 is to read other people's theses in more depth.

I've commented to some that it's difficult to have the motivation to write something that will not be read by anyone outside my committee, but I've been told "you'd be surprised." I blame James for putting this thought in my head in the first place.

Word is horrible, or PDF on Mac is horrible

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:28:53 GMT

I have a very small Word document. It is 4 pages long. The file is only about 300kb. On the mac, when I print to PDF, it produces a file that is 5.4 MB. I'm not exaggerating.

I'm considering re-doing the whole thing in LaTeX, I'm at my wit's end.

I don't know if this is microsoft's fault or apple's fault, but boy am I mad.

LaTeX is so horrible

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:47:30 GMT

So, I was using a package that was apparently incompatible with the LNCS template, but since TextMate was running pdflatex in batch mode, it just ignored the error and continued (and the TextMate output window didn't say anything!). Turns out the conference needs the file to compile with no errors (go figure), and so I had to scramble to fix it. The resulting file has oddly-placed whitespace and has some orphans (but no widows, which I think look worse), so yeah right LaTeX is so hot. Why are we using 20 year old software?

blah

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:39:19 GMT

Submitted a camera-ready paper, the last for a while... but still can't take a break! At least I got an extra page, dunno what I would've done without it.

citation counts are ever increasing

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:48:59 GMT

I was just looking at a paper from 1988, that had a grand total of 9 citations. One 2005 paper that referenced this paper had 65 citations. 65! I've never even come close! I wish there weren't so much related work these days, particularly the "related work" that people make you cite.

Selling My Jewelry on Saturday

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:00:38 GMT

Come to the Union Project (Highland Park, corner of Stanton Ave & Negley) from 12-5pm on Saturday Dec. 6 to check out my jewelry table, plus crafts from over 50 local artists. 10% discount to people I know. :)

Check out www.imadeitpgh.com/ for more info, and please help spread the word!

Using "its" as a third-person pronoun

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:53:57 GMT

I got the following Facebook notification: "Somebody has just compared you to *its* other friends." (emphasis added). I'm on board with using "their" even though there's technically a singular/plural mismatch, but "its"!? My Facebook friends aren't, like, animals! (for the most part ;))

I hate all dentists

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:40:41 GMT

I just can't get a break.

First I see Dr. Horrible, a.k.a Dr. Hart at Exceptional Smiles (on S. Craig St.)---DO NOT EVER SEE THIS DENTIST. He will do unnecessary dental work, and claim that you really needed it. Now I have a terrible pain in my jaw every time I eat something cold probably because he drilled into a healthy tooth.

So I go see Dr. Schmeler (a.k.a Shadyside Smiles) on Copeland St., and she tells me I need only 2 additional fillings, as opposed to 5. Which is great news. But then they make me pay in full, even though I have dental insurance. They say they will issue a refund once the insurance company pays, because they think the insurance company might not pay.

But then I notice that they never filed a claim. I call, and they say the problem is that they need x-rays from the other dentist. I have the other office send the x-rays AGAIN, and I forget to call them back to follow up. Now, 2 months later, I remember that still nothing has been filed, and call up Dr. Schmeler's office.

This is what they tell me: since my insurance company does not pay based on the price of white fillings (they pay 80% of the cheapest possible way to fill the tooth, an amalgam filling), it would be *insurance fraud* for them to file a claim with the company. First they say that the company changes the procedure code, then when I explained that they do not, they made some other excuse.

I've since called my insurance company who says there is nothing fraudulent about such a claim, and they are going to follow up with me.

I am PISSED. One dentist sucks, but files claims correctly; the other dentist seems good, but won't file my claim! I wonder if I can file myself, since I did pay in full.

UPDATE: The insurance company called the dentist's office, and get this: they say they filed the claim in July and it got lost by the insurance company, and now since 30 days have passed and they received payment in full, they have no obligation to send the claim again. They are going to send me the claim form and I'm supposed to call the insurance company once I get it. Apparently the insurance rep asked the woman at the office about the insurance fraud issue, and she just ignored the question. I think I want to write a letter of complaint to the dentist, and hope that the claims person isn't the one that reads that letter...

UPDATE #2: I need a new dentist; anyone have any recommendations?

Photos updated on etsy shop

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:48:08 GMT

More jewelry for sale

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:46:24 GMT

I've just listed some new items in my etsy shop. Check it out, tell me what you think. Purchases are always welcome! ;)

I want higher-order functions, dammit!

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:45:02 GMT

Even delegates would help.

I'm having to write like 10 instances of this code:

refine LookupVariable eq ClassDecl.superFieldsIterator() {
    return superIteratorWrapper(new Lambda<ClassDecl, Iterator>() {
        public Iterator apply(ClassDecl decl) {
            return decl.fieldsIterator();
        }
    });
}

New items listed in etsy store

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:06:22 GMT

I've listed 5 new items in my etsy shop. Stop by, and if you like, buy something! :)

Hair dying woes

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:35:39 GMT

Those of you in Pittsburgh will soon see me with a different hair color--blue, instead of purple. That's because EVERY SINGLE WEBSITE that sells my favorite color, Special Effects Deep Purple, is out of stock on it. Same goes for a local store that sells the dye.

I'm really upset about this--I want my hair to be purple, dammit! But it's fading fast, so I think I have to suck it up and re-dye it blue. :(

More jewelry for sale

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 03:42:02 GMT

I've put up 9 more items in my etsy shop, so take a look!

Etsy store launched

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:28:13 GMT

Just one item so far, but more to come soon! Photos courtesy tom7.

ical

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:30:20 GMT

iCal's month view too small for you to read? (it is for me!). You can set a zoom factor for it by typing the following in the terminal

defaults write com.apple.iCal AppleDisplayScaleFactor 1.10

That'll scale it up by 10%. It's not super-pretty, but for me it was worth it.

I like Apple products

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:51:07 GMT

They're just so well designed!

Battle of the New Atheism

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 16:59:44 GMT

There was an interesting article in Wired magazine this month, and it's available online. It's about so-called "New Atheism," which is essentially evangelical atheism. Yes, that sounds to me like a contradiction in terms, too. Anyway, the article is a fascinating read; it covers Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennet.

I don't know if anyone reads my blog anymore, but I'm interested to get your thoughts.