Next week I’m starting a new daily tip Twitter account: @SciPyTip.
This account will post on things related to scientific computing in Python, including the SciPy library, related software, and scientific computing in general.
Keyboard shortcuts for Mac, Linux, and Windows
As many of you know, I have a Twitter account @SansMouse that posts one Windows keyboard shortcut per day. I’m starting to experiment with adding Mac and Linux keyboard shortcuts as well. For Linux, I’ll stick to Ubuntu with the default GNOME window manager.
SansMouse will continue to post one Windows shortcut each weekday. I’ll add a #windows hash tag to these, and I’ll also start adding #mac and #ubuntu tags to tips that also work on these platforms. Over time I’ll add some tips specific to Mac and Ubuntu.
Ben Jaffe had a Twitter account @commandtab for Mac keyboard shortcuts. Ben has stopped posting to that account but he has said I could reuse his content, so I plan to fold his tweets into SansMouse.
Update (15 February 2011): Windows and Ubuntu shortcuts are quite similar, but Mac is too different. I’ve decided to drop Mac shortcuts.
Related links:
Twitter accounts
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Daily tips update
RegexTip, a Twitter account for learning regular expressions, starts over today with basics and will progress to more advanced properties over time.
SansMouse, an account for Windows keyboard shortcuts, started over with basics two weeks ago.
Both RegexTip and SansMouse are in a loop, progressing from most basic to more advanced features. (Or perhaps I should say progressing from most familiar to less familiar. Calling some features “basic” and others “advanced” isn’t quite right, especially for keyboard shortcuts.)
The other daily tip accounts don’t post in any particular sequence. I try to alternate elementary and advanced content to some extent, but other than that there’s no order.
Six weeks ago I started two new accounts: CompSciFact and StatFact. In a few days CompSciFact will be the most popular of the daily tip accounts if the current trend continues.
Here are all the accounts:
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I use Hoot Suite to schedule these accounts. I use the paid version because I have too many accounts for the free version and because the paid version has an API that lets me upload files to schedule tips in bulk. (Hoot Suite has an affiliate program, so I make a little money if you sign up through this link.)
If you have suggestions for tweets, please contact me.
The solar system in a glass of wine
William Blake’s poem Auguries of Innocence opens with these famous lines:
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
This poem came to mind when I saw @mathematicsprof post the following on Twitter:
At your next holiday party, look straight down into your glass of wine and tilt the glass one degree. You will see the elliptic orbit of the earth.
If you tilt your glass 12 degrees you’ll see the orbit of Mercury. In general, if you tilt your glass θ degrees you’ll see an ellipse with eccentricity sin(θ).
(I’ve taken the liberty of editing the original tweets to take advantage of the extra breathing room outside of Twitter. Original tweets here and here.)
I like this for two reasons: it’s a great astronomy illustration, and it’s an example of how much information you can get into two 140-character messages.
New Twitter account: CompSciFact
Next week I’m starting @CompSciFact. This Twitter account will post one fact from computer science per day, Monday through Friday. I’ll also have a few unscheduled posts from time to time. (I announced @StatFact earlier today. There are no more announcements coming! I don’t plan to start any more Twitter accounts any time soon.)
The account may change over time in response to your feedback, but what I have in mind for now is keeping the scheduled facts theoretical: analysis of algorithms, grammars, computability, etc. The unscheduled posts may be less theoretical but at least somewhat related to computer science.
I’m using a “big-Oh” symbol as the image for CompSciFact since a big part of computer science is determining the asymptotic order of the runtime of an algorithm.
I have several other daily tip accounts. @RegexTip and @TeXtip are the ones most closely related to computer science. I also have several mathematical accounts: @AlgebraFact, @AnalysisFact, @ProbFact, @TopologyFact, and also starting next week, @StatFact. For more details about these accounts, please see the FAQ.
New Twitter account: StatFact
I’m starting a new daily tip account on Twitter. @StatFact will post one statement from statistics per day, drawing from Bayesian and frequentist statistics. Like my other daily tip accounts, StatFact will post Monday through Friday on a regular schedule with a few unscheduled tweets sprinkled in occasionally.
I’m using a product sign as the symbol for StatFact.
I thought the product sign might suggest a likelihood function. The most obvious symbol for a statistics account would be a bell curve, but that’s been overused.
If you’re interested in StatFact, here are some things you could do.
- Follow StatFact on Twitter.
- Tell friends about StatFact.
- Suggest topics, or even better, specific tweets.
- Propose a better icon.
- Let me know if I say anything ambiguous or wrong.
To find out about my other daily tip accounts, please see the FAQ post.
We have a winner
Gary Collard was the winner of the Twitter daily tip giveaway.
Many thanks to everyone who participated.
Daily tip Twitter account FAQ
This post answers some frequently asked questions regarding my daily tip accounts on Twitter.
How many followers do you have?
About 2800 people are following at least one of these accounts at the time of writing, each following between 2 and 3 accounts on average for a total of about 5900 follows combining all accounts.
How do you schedule your posts?
I schedule the tips a week to a month in advance using HootSuite. Each account posts at the same time each week day starting with SansMouse at 9:30 AM and ending with AlgebraFact at 1:30 PM (US Central Time). Once in a while a tip will go out late due to a Twitter API failure. I occasionally sprinkle in a few unscheduled tweets but I keep the volume low.
What if I don’t use Twitter?
You can subscribe to a Twitter feed via RSS just as you would a blog. For example, you could follow Twitter accounts via Google Reader.
How advanced are these tips?
The SansMouse and RegexTip are in a cycle that starts with the most familiar tips and then moves on to less familiar ones. I mix elementary and advanced material in the mathematical accounts, though there’s a greater range in some accounts. If a tip is more elementary or more advanced than you’d like, you may find something more to your liking in a day or two.
Do you take suggestions? Questions?
I welcome corrections as well as suggestions for new tips. General suggestions are helpful, but I especially appreciate specific tweets.
I like to answer questions when I can, though I can’t respond to every question.
Any plans for new accounts?
I have a couple ideas I’m considering. If you have a suggestion for another daily tip account, let me know.
What about questions about specific accounts?
The following isn’t Q&A format, but it answers some common questions.
SansMouse is my oldest daily tip account. It gives one Windows keyboard shortcut each day. Most tips apply across all applications, but some tips are specific to popular software packages. Ben Jaffe has an analogous Twitter account commandtab for Mac OS.
RegexTip is currently the second most popular daily tip account with 1025 followers at the time of writing. This account gives tips for writing regular expressions as well as tips for how regular expressions are used in different environments. I mostly stick to the regular expression syntax supported by Perl 5, Microsoft’s .NET languages, JavaScript, etc.
TeXtip gives tips for typesetting in TeX and LaTeX. Topics include TeX commands, software for working with LaTeX, tips on typography, etc. I basically stick to LaTeX, though much applies to plain TeX. Also, I don’t say much about add-on packages but stick to the heart of LaTeX.
ProbFact is currently the most popular daily tip account with 1100 followers. This account gives one fact per day from probability. Probability and statistics are intimately related, but this account primarily sticks to probability proper, though some posts are more statistical. People have suggested I start a statistical counterpart to ProbFact, but I have no plans to do so.
AlgebraFact gives facts from linear algebra, number theory, group theory, etc. A few of the facts are advanced but most are not. I’ve gotten a few complaints for including number theory, but that’s been part of the charter from the beginning. The name AlgebraAndNumberTheoryFact would be more accurate, but too long.
TopologyFact gives theorems from topology (point-set topology, algebraic topology, etc.) and geometry. Point-set topology has a lot of theorems that can be condensed into 140 characters but I find other areas harder to tweet about. I could use some help here. I’d like to include more geometry: Euclidean geometry, differential geometry, etc. But I don’t want to include material so esoteric that not many will understand it.
AnalysisFact is the most advanced account on average. Some of the posts are elementary, but some fairly advanced. Topics include real and complex analysis, functional analysis, special functions, differential equations, etc.
I’m doing a drawing to give away either a coffee mug or T-shirt to someone who mentions these tips on Twitter. Tomorrow is the last day to enter.
I also have a personal Twitter account. I use this account to post links, interact with friends, etc. I try to keep the signal to noise ratio fairly high, though not as high as the tip accounts.
Fall Twitter giveaway
I have seven daily tip accounts on Twitter. These accounts post once a day, Monday through Friday, plus occasional unscheduled posts.
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Windows keyboard shortcuts |
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Regular expression tips |
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TeX and LaTeX tips |
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Probability |
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Algebra and number theory |
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Topology and geometry |
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Real and complex analysis |
Please help new people find out about these accounts by linking to this post or by recommending your favorite account on Twitter.
I’m going to do another giveaway like the one I did last April. I’ll draw a winner from the tweets that mention one of these accounts. The winner gets a choice of a T-shirt or coffee mug with one of the Twitter account logos. The winner from the Spring drawing chose a coffee mug with the RegexTip logo.
Daily tip winner and statistics
Giveaway winner
Nicholas Dunn is the winner of the Twitter daily tip giveaway. A coveted RegexTip coffee mug is on its way. Update (5 May 2010): Nick posted a photo of his mug.
Follower statistics
I ran some statistics on the daily tip sites. The full data are available here.
There are 1406 unique followers across the seven daily tip accounts. There are 2572 followers if you count multiple follows.
Most of the patterns in the data were predictable. For example, people who follow one math account are likely to follow another math account. But those who follow SansMouse for Windows keyboard shortcuts are not so interested in the math accounts.
Here’s one surprise: 84% of TopologyFact followers also follow AlgebraFact, but only 31% of AlgebraFact followers follow TopologyFact. This may be in part because TopologyFact is newer; I suspect those who follower the newer accounts are more aware of the older accounts than vice versa.
Related links
Here’s the full list of my daily tip accounts.
Here are a few similar accounts that other people maintain:
- learnemacs (Emacs)
- commandtab (Mac keyboard shortcuts)
- eeeFact (electrical and electronic engineering)