Gcal with time in Rainmeter

Jan 18, 2011

I have been using Rainmeter for some time & have started liking it. But the default Google Calendar reader do not show any information about starting time and ending time of the events. So I modified the default .ini file according to my needs. The difference can be seen in attached pictures.

Notice the time in 3rd row from last. Its NOT perfect. This script fails whenever the event description reads like “Thu Jan 20, 2011 3pm to Thu Jan 20, 2011 5pm PST” instead of “Thu Jan 20, 2011 3pm to 5pm PST”. It is a problem of regular expression. But I guess its sufficient for me. Let me know if you can fix it. The script can be downloaded from here. Copy the file to Gcal folder in Rainmeter skins folder.

Read more ...

Matlab Font(s) - Windows

Jan 14, 2011
I do not find Matlab default font to be soothing to eyes, specially the fonts in figure windows. See more about fonts here. So, here are the instructions to change the fonts in matlab. Make sure that you have installed the font of your choice.
  • For editor, main window, GUI
    Navigate to File->Preference. Select "Fonts" in the left panel. Then follow the instructions over there. You can also check the 'Custom' tab for advanced settings.
  • For figure window
    Add following lines to your startup.m. See next section for details. set(0,'DefaultAxesFontName','DejaVu Sans'); set(0,'DefaultAxesFontSize',10); set(0,'DefaultAxesFontWeight','Bold'); set(0,'DefaultTextFontName','DejaVu Sans'); set(0,'DefaultTextFontSize',10); set(0,'DefaultTextFontWeight','Bold'); Change the font-name & size according your choice. You can find a list of installed fonts by typing following command at matlab prompt. listfonts
startup.m
Each time matlab is started, it searches all the matlab path for this file. The most common place to keep this file is: C:\Users\<user-name>\Documents\MATLAB\ This is good place to put/over-ride settings. Create this file, if it is not present.

I am having hard-time  to configure the same thing in Ubuntu. I will be posting the same, if I get some success.
Update: I was not able to get anti-aliased fonts in linux. But, I found a font called 'Andale Mono', which gives good result with aliased fonts. This link might help in some cases.
Read more ...

Programmer's fonts comparison

Jan 1, 2011
In my opinion every programmer should be very selective about fonts, as bad fonts can not only decrease efficiency but also bless you with eye problems and headaches. Here is my own comparison of fonts. You can also find other font comparisons on many websites or just google 'programmer fonts'. I have listed the fonts in order of my preference. All the fonts shown below are anti-aliased. If you are forced to use aliased fonts, you can try Andale Mono, I find it good even at bigger font size and bold font weight. This blog uses Droid Sans Mono from Google web fonts for all the code sections.

1. DejaVu Sans Mono, 11 pt



2. Inconsolata-dz, 12 pt



3. Consolas, 11 pt



4. Anonymous, 11 pt



5. Courier-New, 11 pt



6. Lucida Console, 11 pt



7. Verdana, 11 pt;



8. Segoe UI, 11 pt

Read more ...