too many files open... error

Today, while I was saving one chapter of my thesis, I got this 'venerable' error:

Too many open files.

As consequence, the last modifications were not possible to be saved. Promptly, I looked for an answer and I found two links that you can visit here and here. The former link talks about 'confluence' application, that my Linux box doesn't run, but provided a useful hint, confirmed later in the second link.

The solution for my FC10 Linux box was append the following lines:

josanabr soft nofile 2048
josanabr hard nofile 2048

to my  '/etc/security/limits.conf' file. In fact, my user had a limit equals 1024.

Now, I'm in the game, again :-D

Installing hfbright - error 'cannot open type 1 font hfbr10'

Recently, I installed FC10 distribution in my new laptop. I employed the live CD available from the Fedora site.
One benefit of installing Linux from a live CD distro is that it does a minimum installation, different from DVD-distros that install you a lot of packages that you will never use.
However, many times you require some exotic packages that don't come in compact distros.
For instance, I write my documents in LaTeX and compile them with pdflatex.
Now, when I tried to compile my source files to include special mathematical symbols, an error message containing words like 'cannot open type 1 font' and 'hfbr10' appears in my Kile's log message window.
I solved this problem following the manual installation procedure defined in this readme file.
Then, I downloaded all the pfb files located in the pfb web directory, and copy these files in my /usr/share/texmf/fonts/type1/public/hfbright/pfb/ directory.
The following files config.hfbright and hfbright.map were copied to the /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/. Theser were downloaded from the dvips web directory.
Finally, the updmap program was executed and my error messages were blowed out :-D.

Advice for buying a laptop

Nowadays it is possible to find diverse price reductions in multiple articles, due to the current economic crisis.
Technological gadgets don't scape from this kind of discounts and you can find a lot of these discounts via Internet or in a mall store.
My favorite sites is compusa.com, in particular I'm subscribed to its RSS.

OK, I'm highly interested in update my four years-old laptop. It is a Compaq Presario R3000. I don't have any complains again it but new software products demand edge technology (I'm not talking about games, I'm talking about compilers and virtualization tools, :-P).
So, I started to look into computer manufacturers web sites such as HP, Sony, and Dell (I did not consider Lenovo but you can ;-) ).

From these sites, I liked HP and Dell because they allow me to configure my laptop according to my needs. However, I have an additional requirement, the new laptop needs to be sent to Puerto Rico (does mean, America Latina).
Although, HP sells laptops to America Latina, it does not allow laptop customization for America Latina, instead, you have to choose from one of the predetermined models for the zone.
Then, I began my purchase process with Dell.

Dell has a free telephone line in which you can contact to a sales representative and you can star to customize your computer. There is support on English as well as Spanish.
It was great, though it took more time that I expected, however, the process worth that amount of time.
(Note aside: Dell offers three years of guarantee for $75. Very cheap ;-).)

A final tip, due to my computational requirements I found very useful this site processorfinder.intel.com. There, Intel provides a friendly interface where is possible to select the processor family that you require. Then, a new page containing multiple characteristics associated with the family processor that you selected will appear. Again, you'll select the characteristics that you wish in your new processor, press the 'filter' button and 'voila', you will get a list of processors with their corresponding code names to satisfy the search criteria.
Excellent page!

An non-required advice, create in your mind the kind of computer that you'll need for the next three or four years, look around, compare prices, don't be rush in your buy, consider this buy as an investment then you need to think very well what is the purpose of this buy and try to balance the relation cost vs benefit. Then, go ahead, buy your selected item and enjoy it.