Category Archives: Other Software

Why I don’t like Matlab

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Working with a group of researchers can be very interesting but also very frustrating if you have to use their software tools. In my case, I have to use Matlab. If you are used to R, Python, and Gams this is more than a nightmare. This post is after a frustrating day with Matlab.

Most of my researcher colleagues use in their Matlab code matrices, so no row names or column headings. What you see are just numbers. If you want to know what the number represents, you need to look at vectors that contain the sets/row names/headers. Some of … Read the rest “Why I don’t like Matlab”

Efficient desktop environment under Windows 10 using virtual desktops and Vdesk

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You probably know the feeling: You are working in your editor and want to jump to Emacs or another program opened on your computer. You Alt-Tab your way through Chrome, Word, Tetris, and lots of other programs and then you move to fast and just click past Excel. Here is a typical desktop when I am working.

2017-05-07 16_19_35-

You could use your mouse and just click on the window showing when you press Alt-Tab or click on the small icon in the task bar. But I don’t like using the mouse and love to have everything below my finger tips.

Windows … Read the rest “Efficient desktop environment under Windows 10 using virtual desktops and Vdesk”

More on problems with HiRes screens

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In one of my previous posts, I showed how to adjust the properties of the executable of a program under Windows 10 that has a fuzzy look: Right-click on the executable and choose “”the “ Compatibility” tab where you have to activate the “Disable display scaling on high DPI settings”. This trick works fine for non-windows programs. However, Outlook or Excel still look terrible.

If you go to http://windows10_dpi_blurry_fix.xpexplorer.com/ you can download a free, small utility, where you can set your overall DPI-Settings back those from Windows 8 (which doesn’t have this problem).

2017-02-01 13_50_48-XP Explorer - Windows 10 DPI Fix

Just click on “Use Windows 8.1 DPI … Read the rest “More on problems with HiRes screens”

Generating headings for project files

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I use the free software AutoHotkey (AHK) for automation of many things. One of those things is generating headings for my project file. I developed a simple AHK-script that asks me for the project name, the topic and then inserts the heading with additional information like my name, my E-mail address and a keyword for subversion.

The script is quite simple and I have adopted it for headings for several project files (tex, R and gams). The only difference being the characters used to comment out a line.

Here is the script

… Read the rest “Generating headings for project files”

Blurry look of programs on your high display screen

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My new ThinkPad T460s is lighter (1.4kg instead of 1.8kg), thinner and has more memory (20Gb) than my previous one (T430s). It has a much better screen with 1920 x 1080 pixels. This last feature is nice, but some of my programs get a fuzzy look as they are not yet adapted to this kind of display.

For example, Evernote is not ready for scaling on high DPI settings. If you look in the discussions on this issue, for programmers this seems to be a rather daunting task. Evernote explicitly does not promise anything in that direction (and it is … Read the rest “Blurry look of programs on your high display screen”