LaTeX editor

I have started using the LaTeX-editor TeXMaker to write reports for university assignments. In addition to that editor, additional software is required to make it work. For Windows, there is MiKTex, and for Linux there is TeXLive.

Removing LibreOffice from Ubuntu 11.10

As I have gone away from using locally installed Office programs, and rather rely on a mixture of Google Docs and LaTeX for my Office-related needs, I have no need to have LibreOffice installed on my computers any more.

As I have also recently upgraded my laptop with an SSD and subsequently gone away from Windows 7 to Ubuntu on said laptop, I found myself interested in removing LibreOffice.

The following command in terminal should get rid of it:

sudo apt-get --purge remove libreoffice-core 

Terminal to file

I recently found myself interested in piping some terminal output to a file, but I could not remember the proper command to do so, and it took some effort to Google my way to the right command.

command > nameoftextfile.txt --- This overwrites the textfile.

command >> nameoftextfile.txt --- This appends new entries to the textfile. 

Installing new AMD Drivers in Ubuntu 11.04

I recently installed Ubuntu 11.04 on my desktop and gave the restricted drivers coming with the install for my ATI card a shot, expecting them to work flawlessly. They did, in the regard that they kept the 4870X2 quiet, as opposed to the noisy default open-source drivers. They did not, however, have decent performance. Movies were choppy and moving any kind of window was an ugly sight.

Looking to remedy the situation, I looked towards AMD.com and found the newer 11.8 drivers and followed this walkthrough to update them.

I now enjoy both a quiet card and good performance.

Ubuntu Button Layout

For those used to Windows placement of the minimize, maximize and close buttons of a window, Ubuntu might prove a bit annoying to get used to, as it recently moved those to the opposite side.

It is, however, quite easy to move them to a more familiar position.

Press Alt+F2, type gconf-editor and hit Enter, expand Apps, metacity and general, and find the button_layout setting. Click its value and type the following to get to Windows placement:

menu:minimize,maximize,close

Update April 11th 2012:

In Ubuntu 11.10, to perform the same trick it's possible to copy and paste the following line into a terminal window:

gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/metacity/general/button_layout "menu:minimixe,maximize,close" 

Upgrading from Ubuntu 9.10 to 10.04

Encountered this wine-bug when upgrading Ubuntu 9.10 to Ubuntu 10.04 on one of my systems.

Took backup of important files and installed from scratch as all of the fixes I tried did not work.

Low FPS in StarCraft II

Ever since I set up my computer and installed the ATI Catalyst drivers, I never bothered to uncheck the box for Adaptive Anti-Aliasing, assuming it was a feature only turned on if regular Anti-Aliasing was in use. As it turns, out, it's not.

As I returned from my holiday and got to install StarCraft II on my own computer, I played a few games versus the A.I to get used to the game. One of the games I played was on the map called Twilight Fortress versus three computer A.Is, and I started out with an FPS of 20-25 (in-game FPS-counter is displayed by pressing Ctrl + Alt + F) and found that to be far too low as opposed to what my machine should be able to do, and not consistent with the experience I had on other maps.

I started to fiddle with the in-game settings and eventually found a working setup, but I couldn't get over the feeling of having a crippled computer, so I went into the Catalyst Control Center and checked out every setting under the 3D tab. When I got to the Adaptive Anti-Aliasing and disabled that, everything went alot smoother.