Software: alternative for visio

Under linux, you could use several drawing softwares to draw like: dia, kivio etc. A useful site for os alternative stuff is here.

ROOT: THStack

Using the class THStack in root, you also use the option not to stack histograms on your canvas.

hs->Draw(); //regular way
hs->Draw("nostack"); //no stack

Research: how to download references out of SFU

Happenedly I need to download references out of SFU campus. One right way I have to follow is: find the jounal where destination reference is from on SFU library web page; connect the web page of the journal by SFU link; go to the place to find your journal. This is pretty easy when you are sitting your office on campus since all offices have unlimited access to those journal web pages. If you are home, you have to follow the rountine above. One easy way I just found is: if the linke of your reference is: http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v15/i2/p964_1
without SFU access permission. What you can do is change the link above to:
http://prola.aps.org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/abstract/PRB/v15/i2/p964_1
Note: I add a new part ".proxy.lib.sfu.ca" in red. Thus you could input your SFU account and password to download the reference if SFU library bought this journal.

Research: an useful reference

Click here for an useful online lecture of Statistical Thermodynamics of Materials

Linux: seq

seq: print a sequence of numbers. Use 'man seq' to see more info.

ROOT: how to use Scan

In ROOT (http:root.cern.ch), if you wanna to open remote root file and browse its structure or data, it is very slow if using tree->Draw() method. So, you could use tree->Scan() to browse data:

 For example:
  tree->Scan("a:b:c","","colsize=30 precision=3 col=::20.10:#x:5ld");
Will print 3 columns, the first 2 columns will be 30 characters long,
the third columns will be 20 characters long.  The printing format used
for the columns (assuming they are numbers) will be respectively:
  %30.3g %30.3g %20.10g %#x %5ld

Software: group by thread

In evolution (an email client software in linux), you could use ctrl+T to group your email by thread. Sometimes you cannot find email in order of receiving time, try to close this grouping.

Latex: How to use Bibtex in latex

Bibtex is a good choice when you have lots of references needed to be cited in different publications. You could build a base using bibtex and cite it in LaTeX.

1. Build a file named as yourbibfile.bib
2. Use bibtex to compile your file
3. Then use latex to compile your article at least two times

In the *.tex file,
\nocite{*} %this means that listing all items in the bib file even though you didn't cite them.