Attending the DANTE Tagung in Karlsruhe

Much to my surprise, the DANTE Tagung took place in Karlsruhe, Germany. It appears to be the main gathering of the LaTeX (and related) community.

Besides pub-based events in the evenings, they also had talks. I knew some people on the program by name and was eager to finally see them IRL. One of those was Markus Kohm, from the KOMAScript fame. He went on to present new or less used features. One of those was scrlayer which is capable of adding layers to a page, i.e. background or foreground layers. So you can add, e.g. a logo or a document version to every page, more or less like this:

DeclareNewLayer[{
    background,
    topmargin,
    contents={\hfill
        \includegraphics[width=3cm, heigth=2cm]
                                  {example-image}
}%
}[{Logo}
\AddLayersToPageStyle{@everystyle@}{Logo}

You could do that with fancyhead, but then you’d only get the logo depending on your page style. The scrlayer solution will be applied always. And it’s more KOMAesque, I guess.

The next talk I attended was given by Uwe Ziegenhagen on new or exciting CTAN packages.
Among the packages he presented was ctable. It can be used to type-set tables and figures. It uses a favourite package of mine, tabularx. The main advantage seems to be to be able to use footnotes which is otherwise hard to achieve.

He also presented easy-todo which provides “to-do notes through­out a doc­u­ment, and will pro­vide an in­dex of things to do”. I usually use todonotes which seems similar enough so I don’t really plan on changing that. The differences seem to be that easy-todo offer more fine grained control over what goes into a list of todos to be printed out.

The flowchart package seems to allow drawing flowcharts with TikZ more easily, especially following “IBM Flowcharting Template”. The flowcharts I drew so far were easy enough and I don’t think this package would have helped me, but it is certain that the whole process of drawing with TikZ needs to be made much easier…

Herbert Voß went on to talk about ConTeXt, which I had already discovered, but was pleased by. From my naïve understanding, it is a “different” macro set for the TeX engine. So it’s not PDFTeX, LuaLaTeX, or XeTeX, but ConTeXt. It is distributed with your favourite TeXLive distribution, so it should be deployed on quite a few installations. However, the best way to get ConTeXt, he said, was to fire up the following command:

rsync -rlpt rsync://contextgarden.net/minimals/setup/.../bin .

wow. rsync. For binary software distribution. Is that the pinnacle of apps? In 2014? Rsync?! What is this? 1997? Quite an effective method, but I doubt it’s the most efficient. Let alone security wise.

Overall, ConTeXt is described as being a bit of an alien in the TeX world. The relationship with TeXLive is complicated, at best, and conventions are not congruent which causes a multitude of complications when trying to install, run, extend, or maintain both LaTeX and ConTeXt.


The next gathering will take place in the very north of Germany. A lovely place, but I doubt that I’ll be attending. The crowd is nice, but it probably won’t be interesting for me, talk-wise. I attribute that party to my inability to enjoy coding TeX or LaTeX, but also to the arrogance I felt from the community. For example, people were mocking use cases people had, disregarding them as being irrelevant. So you might not be able to talk TeX with those people, but they are nice, anyway.

Updating Bylaws of the GNOME Foundation

The GNOME Foundation Bylaws are currently in an ugly PDF which you can see here or from our website here.

I’ve just sent a mail to foundation-list asking for feedback on our proposed changes.

I want to explain the changes we made to hopefully clear some points up that might arise. So let’s walk through the diff, hunk by hunk.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -1,10 +1,60 @@
+.. comment:
 
+        You can compile this document using Python's docutils like this:
+        
+                rst2latex --documentclass=scrartcl --documentoptions=a4paper,10pt,bigheading   --no-section-numbering bylaws-simple.rst > bylaws.tex
+          
+        Then you'll get a .tex file which you can compile using pdflatex. You probably need to have a couple of packages installed.
+        If it complains about a missing .sty file, you can install it using yum:
+        
+                yum install -y 'tex(pdfcomment.sty)'
+
+
+
+        The HTML version compiles similarly:
+        
+                rst2html --no-section-numbering --stylesheet=bylaws.css bylaws-simple.rst > bylaws.html
+
+
+.. role:: raw-html(raw)
+        :format: html
+
+.. role:: raw-latex(raw)
+        :format: latex
+
+.. role:: comment
+.. role:: huge
+.. role:: uppercase
+.. role:: hugeuppercase (huge)
+
+
+.. To turn off the comment function, uncomment (remove the first two leading dots and the white space) the following
+
+.. :raw-latex:`\renewcommand{\DUrolecomment}[1]{}`
+
+.. this sets the title
+
+        =============================
+        Bylaws of GNOME Foundation
+        =============================
+
+.. contents::
+
+        
+-----------------------
+
+.. for some weird reason, the order of the classes is important. Maybe fix it anyway, by patching \maketitle
 .. class:: centered
         
         :hugeuppercase:`Bylaws of GNOME Foundation`
         :raw-latex:`}\\% There's weird behaviour in docutils, i.e. every paragraph would get centered on its own`
         Initially Adopted on March 16, 2001.
         As Amended on April 5, 2002.
+        As Amended on November 11, 2005.
+        As Amended on October 22, 2007.
+        As Amended on [October 30, 2012.]
+        
+
 

So this is just some commentary to enable you to make a nice looking document from that .rst file.

Well, the filename in the comment will most likely be different. But that’s a very minor change. And the date indicated in square brackets is preliminary. So that will be replaced with a proper date once it’s set.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -12,7 +62,7 @@
 ==================================================================
 
 
-The name of the Corporation shall be Gnome Foundation (the "**Corporation**"), a California
+The name of the Corporation shall be GNOME Foundation (the "**Corporation**"), a California
 Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation.
 
 

Since we use GNOME all over the place, we should not propagate “Gnome” any further.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -107,15 +164,17 @@
 Other Classes of Membership 
 -----------------------------------------
 
-. The Board may, from time to time, establish another class or classes of members, with or
+The Board may, from time to time, establish another class or classes of members, with or
 without voting rights. The privileges, rights and duties of such other class or classes of members
 shall be as provided by the Board, subject to the terms of the Bylaws, as amended from time to time.
 The Board may thereby confer some or all of the rights of the members upon any person or persons.
-If such person or persons do not have the right to vote for either: (i) the election of a Director or
-Directors, on a disposition of all or substantially all of the assets of this corporation, on a merger, on
-a dissolution or (ii) the selection of delegates who possess any such voting rights or (iii) changes to
-the corporation's Articles of Incorporation or Bylaws, such person shall not be a member within the
-meaning of Section 5056 of the Nonprofit Corporation Law of the State of California.
+If such person or persons do not have the right to vote for either:
+
+1. the election of a Director or Directors, on a disposition of all or substantially all of the assets of this corporation, on a merger, on a dissolution or
+
+2. the selection of delegates who possess any such voting rights or
+
+3. changes to the corporation's Articles of Incorporation or Bylaws, such person shall not be a member within the meaning of Section 5056 of the Nonprofit Corporation Law of the State of California.
 
 
 

The first change is just a whitespace.

The other changes should just be a conversion of the format. That is, the list is now a proper list as opposed to the inline notation.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -141,7 +198,7 @@
 Admission and Removal 
 -----------------------------------------
 
-Admission or removal from membership shall be by the vote of a majority of the number of
+Admission or removal from membership shall be by the vote of a majority of the 
 Directors then in office.
 

This is meant to be a minor language cleanup. I was confused of the double speak with the “number of”.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -171,20 +226,18 @@
         that the member no longer meets the qualification requirements for membership in the
         Corporation.
 
-
 #.      **Removal or Suspension**.  Membership shall terminate upon the determination of the Board
-        or Membership Committee after a hearing duly held in accordance with this Section 6(c), that
+        or Membership Committee after a hearing duly held in accordance with this Section 6.7.3, that
         the member has failed in a material respect to observe the rules of conduct promulgated from
         time to time by the Board and applicable to members, or otherwise has failed in some
         material respect to merit continued membership privileges in the Corporation. In the event of
         a removal or suspension of a member, the following procedures shall be implemented:
 
-        a)      A notice shall be sent by prepaid, first-class, certified or registered mail to the most recent
-                address of the member as shown on the Corporation's records, setting forth the removal or
-                suspension and the reason therefore. Such notice shall be sent at least fifteen (15) days
+        a)      A notice shall be sent by electronic mail and prepaid, first-class, certified or registered mail to the most recent
+                address of the member, if known to the Corporation, setting forth the removal or
+                suspension and the relevant reason. Such notice shall be sent at least fifteen (15) days
                 before the proposed effective date of the removal or suspension.
 
-
         #)      The member being expelled or suspended shall be given an opportunity to be heard, either
                 orally or in writing, at a hearing to be held no fewer than five (5) days before the removal.
                 The hearing shall be held by the Board or Membership Committee. Any such hearing may

The section 6(c) is wrongly referenced.

We first require an email to be sent. On top, we clarify the requrement of a snail mail to the point that we have to sent a regular mail if we do know the address. So far, we do not really collect address data (well, the travel committee does and the Friends of GNOME programme generates address data, too). And I don’t think we want to. Hence we specify that we need to know the address in first place.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -192,10 +245,9 @@
                 participants in the hearing can hear one another. The notice to the member of his or her
                 proposed removal or suspension shall state that such member is entitled, upon request, to
                 such hearing, shall state that a date, time and place of hearing will be established upon receipt
-                of request therefor, and shall state, that in the absence of such request, the effective date of
+                of such a request, and shall state, that in the absence of such request, the effective date of
                 the proposed suspension or removal.
 
-            
         #)      Following the hearing, the Board, or Membership committee, as the case may be, shall
                 decide whether the member should in fact be expelled, suspended, or sanctioned in some
                 other way. The decision of the Board or Membership Committee, as the case may be, shall

The “therefor” was quite confusing to me, so I got rid of it everywhere. There will be more changes with either a “therefore” or a “therefor”.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -199,11 +251,10 @@
         #)      Following the hearing, the Board, or Membership committee, as the case may be, shall
                 decide whether the member should in fact be expelled, suspended, or sanctioned in some
                 other way. The decision of the Board or Membership Committee, as the case may be, shall
-                be final.
-
+                be final, subject to any challenge brought pursuant to this section.
 
-        #)      Any action challenging a removal or suspension of membership, including any claim
-                alleging defective notice, must be commenced within one year after the date of the removal
+        #)      A member may bring an action challenging a removal or suspension of membership, including any claim
+                alleging defective notice, within one year after the date of the removal
                 or suspension.
 
 

I pushed for that change, because it was contradictory to me, that the decision shall be final but can then be challenged. By now, I understand the spirit and the reasoning very well, but nonetheless, I wanted to make it simpler for others (and potentially for me, in a few month) to read. The bylaws simply want to enable someone to claim a defective notice. And it makes perfect sense to me in such a serious cirumstance as a removal. So all the change wants to achieve is to clarify that the decision shall be final, only if there is no defective notice to be claimed.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -252,13 +301,11 @@
 of the Corporation.
 
 
-
-Annual Meetings and Election of Directors
+Annual Meetings
 -----------------------------------------
 
-The annual meetings of members of the Corporation shall be held on the second Saturday
-in November of each year at 10:00 a.m., or at any other time and place determined by the resolution
-of the Board. Directors shall be elected and other proper business may be transacted at the annual
+The annual meetings of members of the Corporation shall be held at any time and place determined by the resolution
+of the Board. Directors may be elected and other proper business may be transacted at the annual
 meeting of members.
 
 

This biggie simply reflects our currect way of working. I actually like the idea of a fixed annual meeting mentioned in the bylaws, but well, reality shows us that what we really do is to meet each year at GUADEC.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -269,7 +315,9 @@
 Special meetings of members, for any lawful purpose, may be called at any time by the
 President or by the Board. Furthermore, special meetings of the members for any lawful purpose
 may be called by, upon request in writing by at least ten percent of the membership, or at least five
-percent of the membership in accordancw with Article XVI, stating the business to be transacted at
+percent of the membership in accordance with
+Article XVI,
+stating the business to be transacted at
 the special meeting, mailed to the principal office of the Corporation, or delivered to the chairman of
 the Board, the President, the Vice President or Secretary. It shall be the duty of the President to
 cause notice to be given, within seven (7) days from receipt of such a request, to be held no more

Accordance was a typo in the original

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -280,12 +328,9 @@
 Notice of Meetings 
 -----------------------------------------
 
-A notice of each annual meeting, written ballot for election of Directors or otherwise, if
-any, and special meeting shall be given by the President or, in case of his or her failure or refusal, by
+A notice of each annual meeting, and special meeting shall be given by the President or, in case of his or her failure or refusal, by
 any other officer or any Director; shall specify the place, time, day and hour of the meeting or the
-date on which the ballot shall be returned, if applicable; in the case of an annual meeting at which
-Directors shall be elected, shall specify the names of all those who are candidates for election of
-Directors at the time the notice is given, and in the case of special meetings, the nature of the
+date on which the ballot shall be returned, if applicable; and in the case of special meetings, the nature of the
 business to be transacted thereat. Such notice shall be given in writing to every member of the
 Corporation who, on the record date for notice of the meeting, is entitled to vote thereat. Such notice
 shall be given either personally or by sending a copy thereof by first-class mail or by telephone

The president was supposed to send the ballots for elections. But we don’t do that anymore. And I do think it makes sense to not require the president to do it. Currently, it is tighly coupled with the rest of the elections, effectively requiring the president to do the elections.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -297,6 +342,13 @@
 all other meetings.
 
 
+Election of Directors
+-----------------------------------------
+
+Directors may be elected at the annual meeting as described herein or otherwise by eletronic mail and electronic voting. Notice of such electronic mail or electronic voting shall be given by the President or
+by anyone duly appointed with the authority to do so by the Directors in accordance with Section 8.3.
+Such notice shall be sent promptly to the membership at least thirty (30) days prior to the last day on which votes may be submitted.
+
 
 Adjourned Meetings 
 -----------------------------------------

And to clarify, that we do our elections via electronic voting (as opposed to the AGM). It might actually be beneficial to the AGM if the directors were elected there, but then again, that would reduce the people being able to vote drastically. But maybe that’s something for the future, i.e. find a mix between e-voting and voting at the AGM.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -341,6 +393,14 @@
 
 
 
+
+
+Quorum for Referenda  
+-----------------------------------------
+
+Any member of the Corporation may propose a referendum. Such request for a referendum must be endorsed by 10\% of the Membership. The overall referendum process shall be conducted by the Membership and Elections Committee, as authorized by the Directors pursuant to Article IX.
+
+
 Record Date 
 -----------------------------------------
 

This is a change just reflects our way of working with referenda since at least 2004. I don’t know the origin and it’d be interesting to know where it came from. In fact, I was hesitating to make that change, but we lived with that rule for so long now, it should be written down then.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -438,7 +499,7 @@
 
 2.      A Director shall be a Member.
 
-3.      The initial number of Directors shall be eleven (11).
+3.      The number of Directors on [October 31, 2012] is seven (7).
 
 4.      No organization, corporation or similar entity, or any affiliate thereof, shall hold, directly or
         indirectly, more than 40\% of the Board seats, regardless of election results. In the event that

As per a referendum, we reduced the number of directors. I’m not really in favour of changing the spirit of the bylaws at this point. But it’s not very intrusive and hopefully removes potential confusion for people reading the bylaws and who wonder why we have 7 and not 11 directors.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -458,7 +519,7 @@
 Election and Term of Office of Directors 
 -----------------------------------------
 
-1.      Each of the directors shall hold office for one (1) year.
+1.      Each of the directors shall hold office for one (1) year, or a period of up to two (2) years as determined by the Board and announced prior to an election being called.
 
 2.      Directors shall be elected by the membership in accordance with the rules set forth on
         http://foundation.gnome.org/electionrules.html.

This is another change to the bylaws from a referendum in 2007.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -495,19 +556,18 @@
 3.      **Removals**. A Director may be removed for cause. In the event such removal, the following
         procedures shall be implemented:
 
-        a)      A notice shall be sent by mail by prepaid, first-class, certified or registered mail to the
-                most recent address of the member as shown on the Corporation's records, setting forth the
-                removal and the reason therefore. Such notice shall be sent at least seven (7) days before the
+        a)      A notice shall be sent by electronic mail and by prepaid, first-class, certified or registered mail to the
+                most recent address of the member, if known by the Corporation, setting forth the
+                removal and the relevant reason. Such notice shall be sent at least seven (7) days before the
                 proposed effective date of the removal.
 
         #)      The Director being removed shall be given an opportunity to be heard, either orally or in
                 writing, at a hearing to be held no fewer than five (5) days before the removal. The hearing
                 shall be held by the Board. The notice to the Director of his or her proposed removal shall
                 state that such member is entitled, upon request, to such hearing, shall state that a date, time
-                and place of hearing will be established upon receipt of request therefor, and shall state, that
+                and place of hearing will be established upon receipt of such a request, and shall state, that
                 in the absence of such request, the effective date of the proposed removal.
 
-
         #)      Following the hearing, the Board shall decide whether the Director should in fact be
                 expelled, suspended, or sanctioned in some other way. The decision of the Board shall be
                 final.

Again, email and snail mail, if possible.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -547,11 +606,11 @@
 executive office of the Corporation. Special meetings of the Board shall be held at any place within
 or outside the State of California that has been designated in the notice of the meeting or, if not
 stated in the notice, or if there is no notice, at the principal executive office of the Corporation.
-Notwithstanding the above provisions of this Section 5, a regular or special meeting of the Board
+Notwithstanding the above provisions of this Section  8.5, a regular or special meeting of the Board
 may be held at any place consented to in writing by all the Board members, either before or after the
 meeting. If consents are given, they shall be filed with the minutes of the meeting. Any meeting,
 regular or special, may be held by conference telephone or similar communication equipment, so
-long as all Directors participating in the meeting can hear one another, and all such Directors shall be
+long as all Directors participating in the meeting can communicate with one another, and all such Directors shall be
 deemed to be present in person at such meeting.
 
 

The first change is purely cosmetic.

The second change is about hearing one another. While I do think it is import to actually hear, some people simply cannot. Apparently for US legal reasons, those kind of provisions need to be adapted for the impaired. It has also a benefit of allowing things like IRC meetings.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -578,7 +638,7 @@
         a)      **Manner of giving**. Notice of the time and place of special meetings shall be given to each
                 Director by one of the following methods:
                 
-                i. by personal delivery or written notice;
+                i. by personal delivery;
                 #. by first-class mail, postage prepaid;
                 #. by telephone communication, including a voice
                    messaging system or other system or technology designed to record and communicate

The written notice is redundant information, as there is snail mail mentioned (and email FWIW).

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -623,6 +683,10 @@
 any action taken is approved by at least a majority of the required quorum for that meeting.
 
 
+.. _Section Adjournment: `Adjournment`_
+.. _Article Directors: `Directors`_
+
+
 Waiver of Notice 
 -----------------------------------------
 

This is a technicality for the current reStructuredText parser :-\ The problem is, that there are more than one headings with the same name.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -682,7 +744,7 @@
 Directors as such shall not receive any compensation for their services, but by resolution of
 the Board, expenses of attendance, if any, may be allowed for attendance at regular or special
 meetings of the Board; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to preclude any Director
-from serving the Corporation in any other capacity and receiving compensation therefor.
+from serving the Corporation in any other capacity and receiving compensation for this. 

Another therefor removed.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -697,7 +759,7 @@
 -----------------------------------------
 
 The Board, by resolution adopted by a majority of the Directors then in office, provided a
-quorum is present, may create one or more committees, to serve at the pleasure of the Board.
+quorum is present, may create or remove one or more committees, to serve at the pleasure of the Board.
 Appointments to committees of the Board shall be by majority vote of the Directors then in office.
 The Board may appoint one or more alternate members of any such committee, who may replace
 any absent member at any meeting of the committee.

This is just a clarification as serving “at the pleasure of the board” apparently means to not serve anymore if the board does not want to. But to make it more explicit, we incorporate “remove”.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -777,6 +839,10 @@
 
 
 
+.. The following incoming anchor needs to be defined because reST doesn't like the section and the subsection being named Officers
+
+.. _sec\:officers:
+
 Officers 
 ==================================================================
 

Again, a technical change for reST.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -796,14 +863,20 @@
 Election and Term of Office 
 -----------------------------------------
 
-The officers of the Corporation, except such officers as may be appointed in accordance with
-the provisions of Section 3 or Section 5 of this Article X, shall be chosen annually by the Board, and
-each shall hold his or her office until he or she shall resign or shall be removed or otherwise
+
+The officers of the Corporation, except such officers as may be appointed in accordance
+with the provisions of Section 10.3 or Section 10.5 of this Article X, shall be chosen
+annually by the Board, and each shall hold his or her office until he or she shall resign
+or shall be removed or otherwise
 disqualified to serve, or his or her successor shall be elected and qualified, subject to the rights, if
 any, of an officer under any contract of employment. New offices may be created and filled at any
 meeting of the Board. Each officer shall hold office until that officer's successor shall have been
 duly elected and shall have qualified.
 
+.. _Section Subordinate Officers: `Subordinate Officers`_
+.. _Section Vacancies: `sec\:vacancies`_
+.. _Article Officers: `sec\:officers`_
+
 
 Subordinate Officers 
 -----------------------------------------

Just cosmetic and technical changes to include the section number.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -821,16 +893,16 @@
 1.      **Removal**. Any officer, other than the President, may be removed with or without cause. In
         the event such removal, the following procedures shall be implemented:
         
-        a)      A notice shall be sent by mail by prepaid, first-class, certified or registered mail to the
-                most recent address of the officer as shown on the Corporation's records, setting forth the
-                removal and the reason therefore. Such notice shall be sent at least seven (7) days before the
+        a)      A notice shall be sent by electronic mail and by prepaid, first-class, certified or registered mail to the
+                most recent address of the officer if known by the Corporation, setting forth the
+                removal and the relevant reason. Such notice shall be sent at least seven (7) days before the
                 proposed effective date of the removal.
 
         #)      The officer being removed shall be given an opportunity to be heard, either orally or in
                 writing, at a hearing to be held no fewer than five (5) days before the removal. The hearing
                 shall be held by the Board. The notice to the Officer of his or her proposed removal shall
                 state that such member is entitled, upon request, to such hearing, shall state that a date, time
-                and place of hearing will be established upon receipt of request therefor, and shall state, that
+                and place of hearing will be established upon receipt of such a request, and shall state, that
                 in the absence of such request, the effective date of the proposed removal.
 
         #)      Following the hearing, the Board shall decide whether the Officer should in fact be

Again a therefor, email and snail mail issue.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -845,7 +916,9 @@
         it effective. Any resignation shall be without prejudice to the rights, if any, of the
         Corporation under any contract to which the officer is a party.
 
+.. Again, this reference needs to be explicitely given because there is another "Vacancies" section.
 
+.. _sec\:vacancies:
 
 Vacancies 
 -----------------------------------------

Technical.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 14:16:50.849271582 +0300
@@ -864,8 +937,12 @@
 President 
 -----------------------------------------
 
-The President shall be the chief executive officer of the Corporation and shall in general
-supervise and control all of the business and affairs of the Corporation. The President may sign,
+The President shall act as the chief executive officer of the Corporation
+if no chief executive officer or executive director has been appointed by
+the Board and shall in general supervise and control all of the business
+and affairs of the Corporation. The President shall also act as the
+Chairman if none has been appointed.
+The President may sign,
 with the secretary or any other proper officer of the Corporation authorized by the Board, any deeds,
 mortgages, bonds, contracts or other instruments that the Board of Directors has authorized to be
 executed, except in cases where the signing and execution thereof shall be specially designated by

We do have our own, paid, CEO. I do like the fact though, that we intend the President to be the CEO. It makes a great deal of sense to me to have these kind of priviledges attached to the President. It is also nice, though, to be able to appoint that position. To then fill the role of the President with something, we make it the chairman.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -943,7 +1016,8 @@
 Definitions 
 -----------------------------------------
 
-For the purpose of this Article I:
+
+For the purpose of this Article XI:
 
 1.      "agent" means any person who is or was a Director, officer, employee, committee member
         or other agent of the Corporation; or is or was serving at the request of the Corporation as a

The original probably meant to reference Article XI, not I. Article I is the name of the Corporation. That wouldn’t make much sense.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -977,7 +1053,7 @@
 Actions Brought by Persons Other than the Corporation 
 ---------------------------------------------------------
 
-Subject to the required findings to be made pursuant to Section 5 below, the Corporation
+Subject to the required findings to be made pursuant to Section 11.5 below, the Corporation
 shall indemnify any person who was or is a party, or is threatened to be made a party, to any
 proceeding, other than an action brought by, or on behalf of, the Corporation, or by an officer,
 Director or person granted related status by the Attorney General, or by the Attorney General on the

Cosmetic.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -1051,8 +1130,9 @@
 Limitations 
 -----------------------------------------
 
-No indemnification or advance shall be made under this Article XI, except as provided in
-Section 2 or 5(b) above, in. any circumstance when it appears:
+
+No indemnification or advance shall be made under this Article XI,
+except as provided in Section 11.2 or 11.5.2 above, in any circumstance when it appears:
 
 1.      That the indemnification or advance would be inconsistent with a provision of the Articles
         of Incorporation, a resolution of the Board or an agreement in effect at the time of the accrual

Cosmetic.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -1099,9 +1179,10 @@
 Fiduciaries of Corporate Employee Benefit Plan 
 -------------------------------------------------
 
-This Article XI does not apply to any proceeding against any trustee, investment manager or
+This Article XI
+does not apply to any proceeding against any trustee, investment manager or
 other fiduciary of an employee benefit plan in that person's capacity as such, even though that person
-may also be an agent of the Corporation as defined in Section la of this Article XI. Nothing
+may also be an agent of the Corporation as defined in Section 11.1.1 of this Article XI. Nothing
 contained in this Article XI shall limit any right to indemnification to which such a trustee,
 investment manager or other fiduciary may be entitled by contract or otherwise, which shall be
 enforceable to the extent permitted by applicable law.

Section “la” (lower case L, a) doesn’t make much sense. That must have been a typo.

--- bylaws-2002.rst	2012-08-25 14:04:42.243447405 +0300
+++ bylaws-2012.rst	2012-08-31 03:28:50.518455409 +0300
@@ -1224,20 +1308,20 @@
 Amendments 
 ==================================================================
 
-Bylaws may be adopted, amended or repealed by the membership. In the event of such
-adoption, amendment or repeal, the following procedures shall be implemented:
 
-1.      Any proposal relating to the adoption, amendment or repeal of the Bylaws shall be posted
-        on http://foundation.gnome.org by the Board for a period of twenty one (21) days;
+Any member can propose the adoption, amendment or repealing of the Bylaws.
+In the event of such a proposal, the following procedures shall be implemented:
+
+1.      The members shall be provided with the reasonable means to comment upon and/or object
+        to any such proposal for twenty one (21) days
 
-2.      The members shall be provided with the reasonable means to comment upon and/or object
-        to any such proposal;
+#.	The proposal shall be sent to the membership and shall be posted on http://foundation.gnome.org by the Board
 
-3.      In the event that five percent or more of the members objects to the proposal, a special
+#.      In the event that five percent or more of the members object to the proposal, a special
         meeting of the members shall be convened in accordance with the provisions of Article VII,
-        and the proposal shall be voted upon;
+        and the proposal shall be voted upon
 
-4.      In the event that five percent or more of the members do not object to the proposal, then
+#.      In the event that five percent or more of the members do not object to the proposal, then
         the proposal shall be adopted by the Board to the extent permitted by CNPBCL Section
         5150(a).

The main change here is to make explicit that any member can propose a change. Any member means any member. Including those who cannot vote or do not have any other rights. They may not necessarily vote on the proposed amendments, but they may propose some.

I was thinking long about this, actually. As a security person, my thinking was that we should rather be protective against people proposing changes to the bylaws, because more or less external people could propose amendments and that’s rather expensive in terms of organisational costs. And we don’t necessarily want some malicious member to create a lot of costs. But then I thought that with a rather easy way of changing the bylaws, we can easily fix this issue if if indeed arises. And then I thought that it is way better to not prematurely optimise, but rather enjoy that kind of freedom we have. Let’s hope it lasts long 🙂

You can have a look at the full new bylaws here as HTML or rendered as PDF

My new book: Lorem Ipsum

Lenny already posted the news, so it’s about time and a real pleasure for me to present my new book: Lorem Ipsum.

It was a long ride for me and I want to thank all my supporters for allowing me to work through nights and weekends, potentially neglecting my friends and family for a while. But now it’s finally done and I’m very happy for the book to hit the (electronic and real-life-bookstore) bookshelves.

Amazon.com or if you prefer on Amazon.de. But you get more discount if you buy Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.here. So get it while it’s hot!

Product Details

ISBN 978-1-257-04887-8
Copyright Tobias Mueller
Published April 19, 2011
Language Latin
Pages 112
Binding Hardcover (casewrap)
Interior Ink Black & white
Dimensions (cm) 15.2 wide × 22.9 tall

Since the exterior contributes a lot to a proper reading experience, care was taken about nice lookings and well proportioned dimensions. Obviously, it’s a hard cover as well and no cheap paper back. So don’t only judge by the content, but also by the lookings. Also, if you look close enough, you will notice a few easter eggs, that I’ve hidden in the book.

So have a lot of fun enjoying the book 🙂

As a courtesy, I’ll provide the table of contents and a first page for reading.

An audio book is almost produced as well, you can have a peak at half of the first chapter here.

Your browser does not support the audio element. Or this stupid wordpress instance filters out the audio tags :-\

Perfectly scale an image to the rest of a page with LaTeX

I had the following problem for a long time: I wanted to embed a picture into a page and automatically have it scaled to the maximum size that possibly fits the page, but not more. Obviously, simply doing a

\includeimage[width=\textwidth]{myimage}

wouldn’t do the job, because if the image is more tall than wide, the image would grow beyond the page. One could use the information from the \textheigth register, i.e. like

\includeimage[width=\textwidth,height=\textheight,keepaspectration=true]{myimage}

But that doesn’t take already existing text into account, i.e. some description above the image that you definitely want to have on the same page.

So Simon cooked up a macro that would allow me to do exactly what I wanted by creating a new box, getting its height and subtracting that from \textheight. Lovely. Here’s the code:

\newlength{\textundbildtextheight}
 
\newcommand{\textundbild}[2]{
\settototalheight\textundbildtextheight{\vbox{#1}}
#1
\vfill
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth,keepaspectratio=true,height=\textheight-\the\textundbildtextheight]{#2}
\end{center}
\vfill
}

I’m sure it’s not very correct and it’s possible to make it not work properly, but it does the job very well for me as you can see on the following rendered pages:


DIN A4 Page
DIN A5 Page
DIN A6 Page

And well, the contents of the image is a bit ugly, too, but if you know a nice bullshit bingo generator, let me know.

LaTeX leaftlet and background colours

I was playing around with the LaTeX’s leaflet class to produce brochures, leaflets or flyers, however you’d like to call them. Basically a DIN A4 in portrait mode and three “columns” which I wanted to feel like pages. The backside needs to be upside down and the “pages” need to be properly ordered in order for the whole thing to be printed and folded properly.

So I had a look at the manual and noticed, that it uses background colour for pages. I wanted that, too.

As the manual reads, you can use \AddToBackground to add stuff to the background. But what is to add if you want a page to have background colour? Well, Wikibooks says to use \pagecolor. But that colours the whole DIN A4 paper and not just one virtual page in a column on the DIN A4 sheet.

I browsed around and didn’t find any real explanation but an example. At least the code uses different colours for different virtual pages and it just works. Nice.


So whenever you want to have a background colour on a single column with the leaflet class, use

\usepackage[usenames,dvipsnames]{color}
 
\AddToBackground{1}{
    \put(0,0){\textcolor{green}{\rule{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}}}
\AddToBackground{2}{
    \put(0,0){\textcolor{red}{\rule{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}}}
\AddToBackground{3}{
    \put(0,0){\textcolor{blue}{\rule{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}}}
\AddToBackground{4}{
    \put(0,0){\textcolor{Magenta}{\rule{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}}}
\AddToBackground{5}{
    \put(0,0){\textcolor{Orange}{\rule{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}}}
\AddToBackground{6}{
    \put(0,0){\textcolor{Fuchsia}{\rule{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}}}

It doesn’t seem to be possible to have coloured virtual pages *and* a background picture spanning over the whole DIN A4 page. I tried several things, including playing around with the wallpaper package, but I didn’t have any success so far. One could split the background up in three pieces and include one of those on each page, but that’s really ugly and hacky. I don’t like that.

I kinda got it working using eso-pic and transparent, but the result is messy, because the image, which is supposed to be in the background, is in foreground. And even with transparency, it looks bad. Just like a stamp, not a watermark.

I also tried to make the pages background colour transparent but putting the background image is very idiotic: I would have to place \AddToShipoutPicture to the very correct place in the TeX file instead of defining it in the headers somewhere *sigh*
But anyway, it still wouldn’t work correctly as the image, which is supposed to be in the background, would be rendered *on top* of the first virtual page on each physical page, making the colours look very weird:

So I stepped back and didn’t really want to use LaTeX anymore. So I had a look at pdftk. It is able to put a watermark behind a given PDF once the PDF has transparent background colours. I changed my Makefile to read like that (which is not necessarily beautiful but I still want to share my experience):

Logo390BG-DINA4-180.pdf: Logo390BG-DINA4.pdf
        # Expand background to two pages and rotate second page by 180 deg
        pdftk I=$< cat I1 I1D output $@
 
broschuere-print.pdf: broschuere.pdf Logo390BG-DINA4-180.pdf *.tex
        # Doesn't work with pdftk 1.41, but with pdftk 1.44.
        pdftk broschuere.pdf multibackground Logo390BG-DINA4-180.pdf output $@

That worked quite well:
That's how it's supposed to be

But I wasn't quite happy having to use external tools. I want my LaTeX to do as much as possible to not have to rely on external circumstances. Also, my Fedora doesn't ship a pdftk version that is able to do the multibackground. So I had another look and by now it is almost obvious. Just put the background picture at (0,0), and *then* draw the background. Note that virtual pages 2 and 5 make the first column on a physical page. Hence, we draw the background picture there and scale it by three, to make it spawn across the physical page.

\AddToBackground{1}{
    \put(0,0){\transparent{0.5}{\textcolor{green}{\rule{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}}}
}
\AddToBackground{2}{
    \put(0,0){
        \includegraphics[width=3\paperwidth]{Logo390BG}%
    }
    \put(0,0){%
        \transparent{0.5}{\textcolor{red}{\rule{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}}}
}
\AddToBackground{3}{
    \put(0,0){\transparent{0.5}{\textcolor{blue}{\rule{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}}}}
\AddToBackground{4}{
    \put(0,0){\transparent{0.5}{\textcolor{Magenta}{\rule{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}}}%
}
\AddToBackground{5}{
    \put(0,0){
        \includegraphics[width=3\paperwidth]{Logo390BG}%
    }
    \put(0,0){%
        \transparent{0.5}{\textcolor{Orange}{\rule{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}}
    }
}
\AddToBackground{6}{
    \put(0,0){\transparent{0.5}{\textcolor{Fuchsia}{\rule{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}}}}

Digital Divide

Als Student kommt es hin und wieder vor, dass ich eine Hausarbeit schreiben muss. Da ich fest davon ueberzeugt, dass Uni, Wissenschaft und Wissen so frei wie moeglich sein sollten, und jedermensch auch noch durch Zahlung von Steuern potentiell das Studieren finanziert, denke ich, hat jedermensch das Recht mindestens zu sehen was ich so eigentlich den lieben langen Tag so mache.

Internet sei dank ist es heutzutage eher einfach, Dinge zu publizieren und Wissen fortzutragen. Deswegen gibt es hier nun eine Hausarbeit, die ich im letzten Semester in Gender Studies geschrieben habe.

Alien Toilet Sign
Alien Toilet Sign

Das Paper traegt den Namen “Weiblicher Zugang zu Technik und feministische Politiken” und das Abstract liesst sich wiefolgt:

Die Gründe, die zum Digital Divide, der digitalen Kluft, führen, sind vielfältig und Geschlecht ist einer davon.
Auch weibliche Gruppierungen haben das Ziel, den Anteil weiblicher Teilnehmer im Digitalen zu erhöhen.
Die Arbeit analysiert, wie dieses Ziel erreicht werden soll, warum das nicht gelingt und wie es eventuell doch erreicht werden kann.

Das PDF gibt es hier und ist als “Namensnennung-Keine kommerzielle Nutzung-Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 3.0 Deutschland” fuer jedermensch lizensiert. Das heisst aber nicht, dass ich es auf Anfrage anders lizensieren kann.

Die Arbeit liesst sich an einigen Stellen etwas ruckelig, was der Entstehungsgeschichte geschuldet ist. Im Prinzip sind aus 2.5 Arbeiten eine geworden. Ich hoffe, es ist dennoch nicht so schlimm.

Sollte das PDF inhaltlich nicht so spannend sein, lohnt es sich doch auf die technischen Details zu achten. So weiss das PDF, wie dessen Inhalt lizensiert ist. Dazu benutzt es XMP streams, die in das PDF eingebetted wurden. Die sind mit dem Paket hyperxmp ueber LaTeX in das PDF gekommen. Offiziell wird noch xmpincl empfohlen, aber das ist wirklich fies zu benutzen, weil mensch den XMP stream selbst erstellen muss.

\usepackage{hyperxmp}         % To be have an XMP Data Stream f.e. to include the license
[...]
\hypersetup{
        pdftitle={Weiblicher Zugang zu Technik und feministische Politiken},
        pdfauthor={Tobias Mueller},
        [...]
        pdfcopyright={This work is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Germany License.},
        pdflicenseurl={http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/de/}
}

Mein Evince 2.29.1 (mit JHBuild gebaut) zeigt die Lizenzinformation froehlich an, Okular 0.9.2 nicht. Wie es sonst moeglich ist, in PDF eingebettete XMP Daten anzusehen, weiss ich nicht. Es waere fuer eine automatisierte Verarbeitung sicherlich interessant.

Vielen Dank and Chillum und Sourci, die mir beratend und patchend zur Seite standen und denen der Text wahrscheinlich zu den Ohren wieder herauskommt 😉

Fuer eine inhaltliche Diskussion ist die Kommentarfunktion wohl eher schlecht geeignet aber in Ermangelung an Alternativen steht sie dazu zur Verfuegung. Ich mag die Loesung, die das Djangobook benutzt. Am Rand von jedem Absatz gibt es eine Kommentarfunktion die sehr gut funktioniert.

Adding Linux Syscall

In a course (CA644) we were asked to add a new syscall to the Linux kernel.Linux Oxi Power!

As I believe that knowledge should be as free and as accessible as possible, I thought I have to at least publish our results. Another (though minor) reason is that the society -to some extend- pays for me doing science so I believe that the society deserves to at least see the results.

The need to actually publish that is not very big since a lot of information on how to do that exists already. However, that is mostly outdated. A good article is from macboy but it misses to mention a minor fact: The syscall() function is variadic so that it takes as many arguments as you give it.

So the abstract of the paper, that I’ve written together with Nosmo, reads:

This paper shows how to build a recent Linux kernel from scratch, how to add a new system call to it and how to implement new functionality easily.
The chosen functionality is to retrieve the stack protecting canary so that mitigation of buffer overflow attacks can be circumvented.

And you can download the PDF here.

If it’s not interesting for you content wise, it might be interesting from a technical point of view: The PDF has files attached, so that you don’t need to do the boring stuff yourself but rather save working files and modify them. That is achieved using the embedfile package.

\usepackage{embedfile}        % Provides \embedfile[filename=foo, desc={bar}]{file}
[...]
\embedfile[filespec=writetest.c, mimetype=text/x-c,desc={Program which uses the new systemcall}]{../code/userland/writetest.c}%

If your PDF client doesn’t allow you save the files (Evince does 🙂 ), you might want to use pdftk $PDF unpack_files in some empty directory.

Replace LaTeX Itemize Icon with Foot

If you use the LaTeX Beamer package for your presentation and you want to replace your itemize bullets with something more fancy, you might be interested in the following commands:

\setbeamertemplate{itemize item}{\includegraphics[height=1em]{bin/gnome-foot}}
\setbeamertemplate{itemize subitem}{\includegraphics[height=0.8em]{bin/gnome-foot}}

These will set your bullets to anything you want 🙂  A plain LaTeX solution, which won’t work with Beamer, is to  use \labelitem:

\renewcommand{\labelitemi}{\includegraphics{foo}}
\renewcommand{\labelitemii}{\includegraphics{bar}}

Hope this helps 🙂

LaTeX Transcript of Records

As I want to go to Dublin this year and I have to apply at the DCU. I have to list everything I did so far in my university and I asked our secretary whether we have english transcripts, because having them officially  translated is really expensive. She sent me a Word document which I was supposed to fill out. Of course, I was not satisfied at all, because the document looked terrible.

So I decided to write an equivalent in LaTeX (compiled PDF). I learned a lot about multipage tables and multirow cells 😉  Because I want to share my knowledge and don’t want you to spend two days on that as I did, you may feel free to use it for whatever you like 🙂

page-001

page-002

page-003

Update: New link to Transcript (with embedded TeX Source).

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
This work by Muelli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.