Fullscreen for Linux guest OS on VirtualBox

There is a common problem that happens while running Linux guest OS on VirtualBox3.1.6 using Mac OS. The problem is: the Linux guest OS is not full screened on PC. To solve this problem, you need to download guest-additions on VirtualBox website. Download the guest-additions given your version of VirtualBox from this link:

download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox

Install the iso file on the Linux guest OS and restart your guest OS after the installation. Once restarted, go to System->Preferences->Monitors. Change the monitor to 9:16. The guest screen now is full sized.

How to disable CheckboxField

Lately, I came across the question: How to disable CheckboxField in BlackBerry JDE. Here is the solution:

Package net.rim.device.api.ui.component

CheckboxField.setEditable(false)!!

There we go~

Weird Problem of Hyperref and Includegraphics

Lately, I came across a weird problem when writing my master thesis, which is the use of hyperref and \includegraphics.

The problem is described as followings:
When I use the package of hyperref and include .eps figures in my sub-files under the master.tex file, Latex gives me the error: File "filename" not found. Apparently, the .eps files I included are under the same directory as master.tex. So that won't be the reason why Latex could not find .eps.

The reason is that pdftex won't recognize .eps. The solution is the usage of package "epstopdf". Download the package (.zip file) from http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/epstopdf/

Unzip it and run in terminal "epstopdf filename.eps" under the directory of .eps files and the corresponding .pdf files will be generated. In your sub-file, instead of include .eps files, include .pdf files. The latex will then run perfectly.

Hope this helps!

A Useful Spell-Check Tool: Ispell

Ispell is a spell-checking program available for many Unix implementations. I use this program for spell-checking my Master thesis. Now I will show you how to install ispell in Unix/Linux and how to use it, more importantly, how useful it is.

Installation:
Step 1: Download Ispell from http://www.lasr.cs.ucla.edu/geoff/ispell.html
Step 2: gunzip ispell-3.3.xx.tar.gz
Step 3: tar -xvf ispell-3.3.xx.tar
Step 4: cd ispell-3.3.xx
Step 5: Copy one of the sample local.h files to local.h:
cp local.h.bsd local.h
cp local.h.cygwin local.h
cp local.h.linux local.h
cp local.h.macos local.h
cp local.h.solaris local.h
or
cp local.h.generic local.h
Step 6:
If you used the generic local.h file and are using a
USG-style system (Linux, IRIX, HP-UX, Solaris, etc):
Edit local.h and change:
#undef USG
to:
#define USG
Step 7: make all
If you get compile errors in term.c, do step 6 (or undo it
if you already did it).
Step 8: make install

Note:
1. Before installation, you may need to install the compiling tools. If you get the error at Step 7 as: 'make: yacc: Command not found', you will need to install bison, which is a parser generator for GNU Project. Write command like: apt-get install bison
2. Since local.h is a system Read-Only file. You may need to change the permission of local.h in order to edit the file at Step 6. The command for changing permission is:

chmod a=rwx file

(turns on read, write, and execute permissions, and turns off the hidden, archive, and system attributes.)

How to use ispell after Installation?

To use it, at your Unix/Linux shell prompt, enter: ispell filename

Replace filename with the name of the file you wish to check.

For my case, I use .tex file for spell-checking and it works perfectly! It saves a lot of time on the writing! Enjoy!