I was getting the error ./cv.tex:11: LaTeX Error: File `layaureo.sty' not found. when trying to compile an old tex document of mine.

It seems layaureo is missing from TexLive 2009, the default on Debian at the moment (even though it’s 2012 now!). So I had to install TexLive 2011 from Debian Unstable using Apt Pinning to fix this problem.

Once TexLive 2011 is installed apt-get install -t unstable texlive-lang-italian to bring in the layaureo package.

I also encountered the following problems that was easier to resolve:

LaTeX Error: File `marvosym.sty' not found. solution: apt-get install texlive-fonts-recommended
LaTeX Error: File `fullpage.sty' not found. solution: apt-get install texlive-latex-extra
LaTeX Error: File `multibib.sty' not found. solution: apt-get install texlive-bibtex-extra
LaTeX Error: File `algorithm.sty' not found. solution: apt-get install texlive-science

I recently found this blog which shows a business card with a QR card. I thought I’d create a business card with LaTeX with a similar QR code. I took a LaTeX template from here, found out about the pst-barcode pacakge, learnt the MECARD format, and combined them to make this:

I doubt I’ll print this card, but just in case you want to make a similar one, here is the LaTeX source:

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{memoir}

\setstocksize{55mm}{85mm} % UK Stock size
\setpagecc{55mm}{85mm}{*}
\settypeblocksize{45mm}{75mm}{*}
\setulmargins{5mm}{*}{*}
\setlrmargins{5mm}{*}{*}

\setheadfoot{0.1pt}{0.1pt}
\setheaderspaces{1pt}{*}{*}
\checkandfixthelayout[fixed]

\pagestyle{empty}

\usepackage{pstricks}
\usepackage{pst-barcode}

\begin{document}
    %\pagecolor[cmyk]{.22,.36,.51,.08}%
    \begin{Spacing}{0.75}%
    \noindent
    \textbf{Andrew~Brampton~Ph.D.}\\
    \rule{75mm}{1mm}\\
    \begin{minipage}[t]{30mm}
        \vspace{-1mm}%
        \begin{pspicture}(30mm,30mm)
            % The MECARD format is used to exchange contact information. More information at:
            % http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/service/imode/make/content/barcode/function/application/addressbook/index.html
            \psbarcode{MECARD:N:Brampton,Andrew;EMAIL:a.bramptonATlancs.ac.uk;URL:http://bramp.net;;}{eclevel=L width=1.181 height=1.181}{qrcode}
        \end{pspicture}
    \end{minipage}
    \hspace{1mm}
    \begin{minipage}[t]{42mm}
        \vspace{-1mm}%
        \begin{flushright}
        {\scriptsize
            \begin{Spacing}{1.5}%
%           \textbf{Research Associate}\\
            \textbf{Network Researcher}\\
            Computing Department\\
            Lancaster University\vspace{9mm}\\
            \end{Spacing}
        }
        {\tiny
            \textbf{email:} a.brampton AT lancs.ac.uk\\
            \textbf{web:} http://bramp.net/\\
            \vspace*{2mm}
        }
        \end{flushright}
    \end{minipage}
    \rule{75mm}{1mm}
    \end{Spacing}
\end{document}

I finished my corrections a while ago now but I just hadn’t gotten around to putting my final thesis on-line.

So here it is pdf and tex sources.

The Impact of Highly Interactive Workloads on Video-on-Demand Systems

Abstract

The traditional start-to-finish playback model is not suitable for all modern interactive video streams. Users expect support for higher levels of interactivity such as fast forward and rewind or the ability to arbitrary seek within their media quickly and efficiently. By conducting user studies we have observed start-to-finish is not applicable to many genres of video, and that different playback models fit better. We discuss how existing delivery techniques are impacted by these new observations.

Novel interactive controls such as bookmarks have also highly impacted user behaviour. This has lead to the segments within the media being accessed in a uneven fashion, causing hotspots of interest to form; areas with orders of magnitudes more viewers than others. These hotspots typically began at the beginning of a bookmark, however not always, which lead us to design a dynamic bookmark positioning algorithm. As well as their position, determining the hotspot’s length can be beneficial. This aids in autonomic techniques such as replication and pre-fetching as well as allowing the users to find what they want quicker.

Under high level of interactivity, delivery techniques are less efficient due to the unpredictability of the users. We however developed techniques which restore some of this predictability, allowing clients or servers to predict future actions based on past user actions. These technique proves exceeding useful for pre-fetching which reduces seek latencies for client and can reduce load on servers. However knowledge of past user activities need to be gathered from network, thus we develop techniques to do this in a distributed manner.

While compiling my LaTeX document I received a message which made me chuckle:

**** This file had errors that were repaired or ignored.
**** The file was produced by: 
**** >>>> Microsoft® Office Visio® 2007 <<<<
**** Please notify the author of the software that produced this
**** file that it does not conform to Adobe's published PDF
**** specification.

This is printed because Visio is not embedding fonts which LaTeX needs.

So Microsoft, I hereby inform you that your software does not produce PDFs which conform to Adobe’s specifications.

Until you fix your products I have to open and save the PDFs with Adobe Acrobat. This actually reduces the file size in most cases, so I might have done this anyway.