I found that the below command works well to not copy a file if it already exists and is the same / newer from a Windows NTFS folder to a SMB share:

robocopy /mir /copy:DAT /TIMFIX /R:2 /W:2 /FFT <Source Folder> <Target Share>

Science News

We all know about the discovery of the Higgs boson. However there is one question that bugs me a lot:

The LHC cost about $5bn to build, and it can attain energies up to 8TeV. This was needed to discover the Higgs boson with an energy of 126GeV. But if the Higgs was much more energetic, we would not have had the money to fund a particle accelerator that would be able to find it. How does it work that the energy of the Higgs was just right so that we could (barely) afford the $5bn for a particle accelerator that could find it? Had it been much more energetic, we might have needed a particle accelerator ten times the circumference, at a cost of perhaps $50bn, most unlikely to ever be approved?

I have a couple of clients that seem to not understand the definition of the word "revert". Here is a typical sentence how they would use it:

Please would you create a new user account, please revert once done.

Seriously? As a scientist / engineer I am very confused by the need to expend energy for a net result of nothing. If I create a new account, but then revert it once done, I have not done anything, have I?

I must confess - although I had a fairly extensive education in higher mathematics, I am by no means a mathematician. I do love maths with a passion though, so when I played some Putt-putt with my kid the other day, it was just logical that I would use it as a means to teach her some algebra and basic trigonometry.