Identification in PDFs
If you need to create a PDF with no embedded identification it may not be enough to simply refrain from typing your name. For example:
$ strings foo.pdf | egrep -i '(hans|fugal)'
/PTEX.FileName (./0_Users_fugalh_research_foo_fig1.pdf)
/Author (Hans Fugal)
/PTEX.FileName (./1_Users_fugalh_research_foo_fig2.pdf)
/Author (Hans Fugal)
/PTEX.FileName (./2_Users_fugalh_research_foo_fig3.pdf)
/Author (Hans Fugal)
/PTEX.FileName (./3_Users_fugalh_research_foo_fig4.pdf)
/Author (Hans Fugal)
/PTEX.FileName (./4_Users_fugalh_research_foo_fig5.pdf)
/Author (Hans Fugal)
The /PTEX lines are from pdftex and the /Author lines originated from gnuplot
/Title (fig1.pdf)
/Author (Hans Fugal)
/Creator (gnuplot 4.2 patchlevel 4 )
Removing the offending lines didn't hurt the PDF in this situation. So if you must anonymize a PDF (e.g. to submit a paper for blind review), be sure to check for hidden identification. Of course, most reviewers wouldn't go digging for it, but you will rest easy knowing it's truly anonymous.
LaTeX Search Path
I recently had need to put a .bst file in my LaTeX search path. This turned out to be difficult to search for. I found a lot of pages and style files telling users to put such and such file in their LaTeX search path. I began to wonder if I was the only LaTeX user on earth who had no idea what the LaTeX search path was.
With some effort I found that the global path's root is usually something like /usr/share/texmf. I'm not interested in putting it in the global path though. We have home directories for a reason here.
Finally I found the answer, with some creative googling. The answer depends on your distribution/OS. Apparently on Debian it's ~/.texmf-config (untested). The MacTeX distribution (which I have installed) looks in ~/Library/texmf. The macports build (don't ask) looks in ~/texmf, which I learned only by trial and error. My guess is that latter answer is the answer if you build by yourself, and so might be a good initial guess no matter what the distribution.
So, I did this:
mkdir -p ~/Library/texmf/bibtex/bst
ln -s ~/Library/texmf ~/texmf
mv acm-annotated.bst ~/texmf/bibtex/bst
align Environment
How I managed to get along for so long without knowing this I don't know.
The align environment in LaTeX is very nice for typesetting a series of equations, e.g. in a proof. Here is an example:
\begin{align*}
P(A)\text{ and }P(\overline A\cap B)&\text{ are mutually exclusive.}\
P(\overline A\cap B)+P(A\cap B) &= P(B)\
P(A\cup(\overline A\cap B)) &= P(A)+P(\overline A\cap B) &\because \text{Third axiom of probability}\
P(A)+P(\overline A\cap B) &\le 1 &\because \text{First axiom of probability}\
P(A)+P(\overline A\cap B)+P(A\cap B)-1 &\le P(A\cap B)\
P(A)+P(B)-1 &\le P(A\cap B)
\end{align*}
That will typeset a series of equations aligned by the &s.