Copy files, preserve dates and permissions in unix

tar and feathers This is a way to copy files in unix and keep the same time stamps, using the tar package: tar cf – . | (cd wherever; tar -xvf -) e.g. change directory to path of USB stick and use: tar cf – . | (cd /space/BACKUP/UDISK/;tar -xvf -) kitchen rysnc This is [...]

Using GSAS and EXPGUI in debian

EXPGUI is a graphical interface for the GSAS software, allowing structural refinement using the Reitveld technique. EXPGUI/GSAS can be downloaded in binary form from http://www.ncnr.nist.gov/programs/crystallography/software/downloads.html You need to install tcl/tk and also blt all of which can be found in debian package repositories. (Or whatever for your system!) in debian: apt-get tk8.4 blt tcl/tk is [...]

Accessing Papers from University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge news feed had notified about the new use of Raven Passwords to access electronic resources. The ATHENS system of controlling access to networked services has been centrally funded as a national service for many years. That funding is being withdrawn by the JISC in favour of national Federated Access Control based [...]

Using gnuplot for programming

Here’s an example script to calculate stuff in gnuplot. gnuplot is capable of many functions of the c programming language such as sin(x) erf(x). This is easy to extend since it is possible to define functions and perform logic. Save this into a file calc.gnu and run with with command > gnuplot calc.gnu # gnuplot [...]

Light cars

Heavy cars may be good for the owners but worse for the environment. Roel Boesenkool of Corus presented a the SMEA conference. He noted that new cars are heavier despite technology being developed that could easilty make them lighter. I wrote about this in the previous post about light cars. The light ineffiecient car is [...]