January 2009 archive

tar up directories only

To create a tar file containing only a dir structure in GNU/Linux, this seems to work nicely:
tar -cvf filename.tar --after-date YYMMDD *
Where YYMMDD is a date newer than all files in the dir(s) being tarred up. Picking a date in the future should do the job. Tar will include all the directories and none [...]

Preparedness

Scott Burns writes:

Train yourself in self-reliance. Most Americans would be endangered if they lost their income for a month, their electricity for a week or their access to a supermarket or gas station for a few days. We rediscover this in every major snowstorm or hurricane. We simply don't think about sustaining ourselves in our [...]