Useful Links and Some Tips (Ted's Home Page)

This page gets a lot of LaTeX text editor hits. Click here to go directly to the LaTeX section of this page. There you'll not only find links to good LaTeX editors, but also links to tips and tricks for using them with LaTeX.

Web, E-mail, and RSS Resources

Mozilla Firefox Web Browser (and RSS client)
Mozilla Thunderbird E-mail (and RSS client)
Spread Firefox - Igniting the web (Firefox and Thunderbird)
All Mozilla Products

Just Good General References

Useful and Informative Mailing Lists

US-CERT: National Cybert Alert System Mailing Lists
NASA Press Releases (I subscribe to NASA HQ releases)

Some News Resources

Other Educational Sites

Anti-Spam Tools

NOTE: Before I moved almost exclusively to GMail, these first two tools would catch literally thousands of spam a week to me. None of them would hit my inbox, but Thunderbird made it easy to find false positives if and when they did occur.
SpamBouncer Procmail Filter (only valid for UNIX users with access to procmail)
Thunderbird E-mail Client (has many easy to use spam-fighting features)
Spam.Abuse.Net
unspam | crafting effective anti-spam laws
SpamCon Foundation: to reduce spam (junk email)
SpamHelp
Harvester Killer (for web developers (only a link required))
The Harvester Project (for web developers with scripting access (very easy))
Project Honey Pot: Distributed Spam Harvester Tracking Network (for web developers with scripting access)
Defending Against Email Harvesters and Leechers (for website developers with scripting access)
Stopping Spambots: A Spambot Trap (for website developers with access to routing tables)

Programming Resources and References

General
- Successful Strategies for Commenting Your Code
C++
- C++ Annotations
- SGI's Standard Template Library Programmer's Guide
Perl
PHP
- PHP.net
Java
- java.sun.com: The Source for Java Technology
Lisp
- PaulGraham.com
- The Association of Lisp Users
LabVIEW

Very Useful Applications and Utilities

Important Engineering Applications
Great Editors
- VIM & GVIM (the only text editor anyone using any OS ever needs)
  - RCS (GNU RCS, not CS-RCS) Menu for VIM
    - I've modified this script to support spaces in filenames and directories. My modified rcs-menu.vim is available here. Place it in your plugins directory.
  - CVS Menu for VIM
- UltraEdit (Good Text/HTML/HEX/etc. Editor)
  - CS-RCS Integration with UltraEdit
- TextPad (Wonderful Replacement for Notepad; Almost Rivals UltraEdit)
- WinEdt
  - WinEdt.org -- The Home of WinEdt's Community
  - WordWeb Add-On
    - WinEdt Add-ons (see WordWeb Add-on)
    - WordWeb
- HomeSite (HTML Editor)
- OpenOffice.org (it deserves a link somewhere!)
LaTeX: The Beautiful Typsetting Package
- The LaTeX project's homepage
- A Beginner's Introduction to Typesetting with LaTeX
- The TeX Users Group (TUG.org)
- TeX Resources on the Web
- Searchable TeX Frequently Asked Questions
- The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN)
- The TeX Online Catalog
- The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2e (2.16 MB)
- References for TeX and Friends (HTML version of document)
- Typesetting with TeX / LaTeX (very good reference by Frank Langbein)
- TTH: The TeX to HTML Translator
  - The TTH Manual
- Using LaTeX to Create Quality PDF Documents
  - (PDF paper format)
  - (PDF slideshow format)
- MiKTeX
  (Windows LaTeX Implementation)
- WinEdt Shell
  (WinEdt has LOTS of built in LaTeX support - TRY THIS EDITOR!)
  - WinEdt.org -- The Home of WinEdt's Community
  - WordWeb Add-On
    - WinEdt Add-ons (see WordWeb Add-on)
    - WordWeb
- VIM & GVIM
  - VIM-LaTeX TeX Suite
- UltraEdit
  - Allegheny College: Computing: Configuring UltraEdit
    Personally, I use the Allegheny procedure with the settings from the TextPad LaTeX tips (i.e., using texify and yap).
  - UltraEdit Syntax Highlighting Wordfiles (includes LaTeX and BibTeX)
    - I recommend using my latex_bibtex_wordfile.txt. I've made some edits. It allows for LaTeX and BibTeX highlighting and in most cases simply adding it to the end of your wordfile.txt will be all you need to do.
- TextPad
  - TextPad Tips: TextPad and LaTeX
  - TextPad Syntax Definition Files H-M (for LaTeX)
    - LaTeX Syntax Definitions (ZIP file)
  - TextPad Syntax Definition Files A-G (for BibTeX)
    - BibTeX Syntax Definitions (ZIP file)
Unix Utilities for Windows
- UnxUtils Native Win32 Ports of Some GNU Utilities
  - UnxUtils.zip (the base package)
  - UnxUpdates.zip (updates to the base package)
  - These include grep, diffutils, and many other quality GNU applications
  - I recommend putting these applications in your PATH
Revision Control Systems
- Mercurial (hg) – My first choice in revision control systems
- Git – My second choice in revision control systems
- GNU RCS Project
  - Official RCS Homepage
  - RCS Menu for VIM
    - I've modified this script to support spaces in filenames and directories. My modified rcs-menu.vim is available here. Place it in your plugins directory.
  - My recommended GNU RCS settings for Windows:
    - Put Win32 binaries in C:\RCS\bin (or some other choice)
    - Add C:\RCS\bin (or whatever your choice is) to PATH environment variable
    - Globally set environment variable RCS_LF_ONLY=1
    - Globally set environment variable RCSINIT=-x,v/
    - Globally set environment variable TZ=EST5EDT (or whatever your local timezone is)
    - Set user environment variable USER=tpavlic (or whatever your user name is) (not needed in most cases)
    - Set user environment variable LOGNAME=tpavlic (or whatever your user name is) (not needed in most cases)
    - Store RCS history files in an RCS subdirectory
      (i.e., create an RCS subdirectory everywhere you use RCS)
    - Always check out and check in with -u unlock option
    - Transferring RCS directory
      - Equivalent to transferring every file with its history
      - Others can download it to contribute their own changes
    - Also install CS-RCS (see below) for easy RCS integration into other apps
      - If possible, never "maintain locks" (may have to use a command-line tool to help with this)
      - Use free single user mode
        (open source mode is read-only, but has more multi-user project features)
      - CS-RCS will provide a nice GUI that works well in parallel with GNU RCS
      - Application Integration:
        
        Some applications integrate easily with CS-RCS (e.g. Word, Excel, Textpad, Ultraedit)
        
        Some applications integrate easily with GNU RCS (e.g. VIM, command line)
        
        Does not hurt to use both
- ComponentSoftware RCS (CS-RCS)
  (free for single users and open source users) (supports RCS repositories over FTP)
  - CS-RCS Command-line Administration Utility (the rcs command)
  - CS-RCS Integration (lots of programs listed)
  - (CS-)RCS Menu for WinEdt
  - CS-RCS Integration with UltraEdit
  - CS-RCS Menu for TextPad
  - Some recommended settings:
    - If you have a registered version, use Normal mode. Otherwise, use free single user mode (open source mode is read-only, but has more features)
    - When installing, choose default "Central RCS Repository" option. This will enable the "Project" features of the program. When setting up a new "Project," choose to use an "Alternate RCS Repository" and put the RCS repository for this project inside an RCS subdirectory under the project's work directory. You may also select "CS-RCS Repository on FTP Server" if that option suits you better.
    - If working locally (i.e., not on FTP), store RCS history files in an RCS subdirectory of your working directory
      (i.e., create an RCS subdirectory everywhere you use RCS and use the "Alternate RCS Repository" option mentioned above)
    - When setting up repositories, use "Exclusive Locks" work mode.
    - I am the only one working on many of my projects, so I rarely ever lock anything. I'm happier leaving things unlocked as it makes it easier to manage the repository if I move to a machine where I am logged on with a different name.
    - Also install GNU RCS (see above)
    - CS-RCS will provide a nice GUI (Document Explorer) that works well in parallel with GNU RCS
    - On larger projects, consider using CVS (or Subversion) instead. I would use CVS all the time, but vanilla RCS is simple to use and almost identical for most of what I do. Additionally, I can have FTP repositories with RCS.
    - Application Integration:
      - Some applications integrate easily with CS-RCS (e.g. Word, Excel, Textpad, Ultraedit)
      - Some applications integrate easily with GNU RCS (e.g. VIM, command line)
      - Does not hurt to use both
- CVSNT (free)
Quality Secure Shell Programs for Windows
- SSH Tectia(TM) Client (formerly SSH Secure Shell for Workstations)
- SecureCRT

Book Resources

TWiki: An Interesting Collaboration Tool

TWiki.org
TWiki Sites With Some Relation to Ted
- OSU FIRST TWiki Web
- OSU FEH TWiki Experiment

Official Internet Related Resources and Authorities

Other Sites Relevant to Ted

National Instruments
IEEE (Institute for Electronics and Electrical Engineers)
Price Watch - Street Price Search Engine
eDealinfo.com - Catalog of the Cheapest Limited Time Deals
The Ohio State University (OSU)
OSU Electrical Engineering Department
OSU College of Engineering
OSU Fundamentals of Engineering Honors Program
OSU Computer Science and Engineering Department
GoDaddy - Buy Domains Here for Cheap
OCS Solutions - Ted's Hosting Provider
Linux
Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors Program (a reason for young pre-engineers to come to OSU)
FIRST (to promote science and technology at a high school level through healthy competition and interaction)
Blogger
Ted's Phase Portrait Blog
Audioscrobbler
My Audioscrobbler Profile

Some Useful Links and Some Tips