I think this is my worst nightmare: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081203.html LA. Not the smiley.
Screen cont'd
Guide to screen Particularly useful features: Scrollback: ctrl-a [[scroll keys] Switch to a numbered screen (doesn't work for me so far): ctrl-a [number]
Screen, nohup, ssh, scp
I learned a lot about the above in the past day, but I didn't keep track of the links. First, screen is very useful: it allows you to run any task, detach the screen, and let it run in the background. You can resume it later. Example: screenipython run_fitter.py<ctrl-a> dscreen -r Second, it's a huge pain to type a password every time I use scp and ssh. The solution is to make a key on your computer and put it in the authorized_keys file. ssh-keygen -t rsascp ~/.ssh/id_rsa ginsbura@milkyway.colorado.edu:.ssh ginsbura@milkyway.colorado.educat id_rsa >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keysssh -v ginsbura@milkyway.colorado.edu Use ssh -v to figure out why it fails if it still asks you for a password. In one case, this happened because the computer I was using expected the id to be in ~/.ssh/identity instead of ~/.ssh/id_rsa. There may also be permissions issues (i.e. you want restrictive permissions on your ssh keys). With the latter, you can still use nohup, which is helpful if you want to pipe your output to a log file.
SETI
I read a paper on ArXiv today about SETI, and talked to Jeremy Darling about water masers. This got me thinking: the best way to signal your presence to the universe as an intelligent civilization is to take advantage of natural amplification. So, say, you go find a big cloud of water molecules in the right state to start masing, and blast them with some of the right frequency radio emission: you get a strongly enhanced isotropic emitter. Maybe SETI should look for those, then search for nearby coherent sources.... EDIT: Isotropic? No.
skill set
is it a marketable skill that I can bring down almost any computer system I'm given access too entirely unintentionally?
Skim: a PDF reader that allows annotations
from Sam: http://skim-app.sourceforge.net/ neat
some comics
http://ableandbaker.net/index.php?comic=198 http://ableandbaker.net/index.php?comic=222 http://ableandbaker.net/index.php?comic=357 http://ableandbaker.net/index.php?comic=396 http://ableandbaker.net/index.php?comic=471 545 "Put on your snuggle trunks and jump in the cuddle pool." http://ableandbaker.net/index.php?comic=905 http://ableandbaker.net/index.php?comic=922
specanpy
AG There are now 2 clones of PySpecKit: sPecAnPy Spectroscopic Toolkit (Astronomy)
SSH
Learned something knew about ssh... keys are stored in ~/.ssh/known_hosts. If a remote key changes, you may be denied access if your saved key is wrong.
Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Stout
Tried this 9.2% bomber last night, and even drinking it over the course of an hour and a half I could feel my nose not feeling afterwards. The pour was probably the most exciting part of this beer. It came out an extremely dark, rich, thick motor-oil looking thing with nearly no head. The flavor, though, is of a very bitter and very dry imperial stout. I didn't get much of the chocolate tone, because I only taste chocolate when it is sweetened - bakers chocolate doesn't taste like chocolate to me. I think this beer would have been better if kept a little bit sweeter, much unlike the other Imperial stouts I've tried lately.