Algorithms and muffins... (a.k.a. programming gym)
At the SIE we have decided to start the new year with a new project, a
"sort of" programming course. The goal of the course is not to
learn a particular programming language, but rather to become familiar with
common programming techniques, algorithms, etc. Given the different skill
levels and programming languages used throughout the IAC, we thought that an
interesting format for the course would be a weekly problem, which each one
can attempt to solve in their own time and with their own tools, followed by
a discussion of the different methods used to solve it. The idea is to do it
mostly online, with problems being independent of each other so anyone can
join at anytime, and keep it running continously so far as there is people
interested. The nature and difficulty of the problems will vary, but they
will be presented in a similar way to, for example,
http://projecteuler.net/index.php?section=problems&id=18.
If you are interested, please reply to the SIEForum thread (
http://venus/SIE/forum/viewtopic.php?p=460#460) and we will start
right after the holiday season.
Chimera news
Our small (
Chimera
Cluster) went through some changes in the last weeks. The most important
one (which happened at the end of July, just as Angel was getting ready to
leave, so the news could not make it for our last SIENews) is that 48 new
processors were added (going from the previous 64 CPUs to the current 112
CPUs). These new machines were bought by individual projects, so they have
higher priority, but everyone can use them. As a smaller note, we had to
implement automatic deletion of files in one of the file systems of the
cluster (the /scratch partition) because it was getting full (information
about it was duly sent to all the users of the cluster, so nobody lost any
information).
Webtools for research projects sites
To allow research projects to create, modify and maintain their websites with
minimal effort, we have developed a simple template based on the WebSiteBaker
CMS, the same one we also use for workshops and conferences
(examples: the
EST
project, or the "
Cosmology
Across Cultures" Conference). It permits to create basic websites very
quickly, but at the same time it also allows users with a more enterprising
attitude to develop richer, more structured sites. If this appeals to you, please
get in touch with us to learn more about it and get started.
Software updates
In the last few months not much software update activity has been going on.
Perhaps the most important update has been IRAF, now version 2.14.1 (see
https://research.iac.es/sieinvens/SINFIN/Linux/Iraf_upgrade_2141.php
for details). The upgrading of other important packages, such as python,
starlink, HEAsoft and PyRAF, is being held on as it's not straightforward to
install and configure them to work both in RHEL 4 and Fedora 8 (the present
mix of O.S. at the IAC), so we prefer to wait until all the Linux PCs have
been migrated to Fedora 8. However, if you do need a higher version of some
software package, please let us know and we'll do our best to accomodate your
request. We also remind that all the software package updates (with the
possible exception of some specialized packages of very limited scope and
interest) are duly listed in our Website:
https://research.iac.es/sieinvens/SINFIN/Main/index.php
Perl script to check unused references in LaTeX
Papers for ApJ, AJ and other journals using the AASTEX package make use of
the \bibitem-\cite scheme to handle references and citations in the text.
While LaTeX will warn you if you try to cite a paper not in the bibliography
list, there is no easy way to check what papers in the bibliography are never
cited in the text. Do you have the same problem, and want to know how to
solve it? Then please read our latest SIEpedia article:
https://research.iac.es/sieinvens/siepedia/pmwiki.php?n=HOWTOs.CheckLatexBibliography.