Handy bits of code

Wiki to LaTeX+PDF extension

I hacked together a Mediawiki extension that does very crude conversion to LaTeX and subsequently PDF using pdftex. Don't, I repeat, don't use it in a critical environment until I've had more time to clean up the code. Right now it is only a "quick fix" to get wikis with lots of math to LaTeX friendly form. Include the following line near the end of your "LocalSettings.php" file: 
# Uncomment this if you don't have it already
# require_once( "includes/DefaultSettings.php" );

$wgWikiURL = "http://www.yourdomain.com";
require_once( "extensions/wikilatex/wikilatex.php" );
You will also need to create the directory extensions/wikilatex/tmp in your MediaWiki installation, and make it writable by PHP. Then download, rename to .php, and put this file in the appropriate Mediawiki directory. If there is more interest in this I'll consider putting more work into it. Tested with:
  • MediaWiki: 1.9.2
  • PHP: 5.2.1

Rewriting proxy browser button

This little bit of javascript redirect the current page you are viewing to a hard-coded rewriting proxy (in this case, the UBC library). This handy bookmark lets me quickly view pages from home for which my university has a subscription to. Normally I would have to connect to the (slow) VPN to do this.

javascript:location.href='https://rsvpn.ubc.ca/'+location.href.replace('://',%20'/');

Note that this will probably not work for you without modification. It is mainly here so I can find it easily if I need it again someday. If you need help, drop me a line. Also note that since the script requires you to be at the destination page to begin with (instead of prompting you to type it in to some box), it affords the user with absolutely no anonymity whatsoever. It just saves me time.

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