Tag: FAQs Help and Tutorials

How to be a better writer

tumblr_mp7rc872DQ1rnvzfwo1_1280

Background- I wrote this as an accident while trolling on Quora. I was not confident of what I wrote- in fact I wrote it anonymous except people kept asking me why! It was pure serendipity- I wrote it less than 4 minutes and submitted without thinking. Then edited once based on feedback.

Some one clearly more smarter than me made my tips for writing into a picture http://amandaonwriting.tumblr.com/post/54265230509

and it went popular on Tumblr just like it did on Quora!

Apparently if some guy like Wil Wheaton likes your words, it can go viral!  It has 41799 notes ( reblogs+hearts) on Tumblr as of now.

http://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/post/54699823961/torteen-great-advice-to-writers

Words . Reposted by a member of STAR TREK:NG. I can now die a happy Geek! The Internet is a funny thing!

Thank you everyone! Now if only Google learnt to include OCR for Images as part of text search!

  1. Write 50 words . That’s  a paragraph.
  2. Write 400 words . That’s a page.
  3. Write 300 pages. That’s a manuscript.
  4. Write everyday. That’s a habit.
  5. Edit and Rewrite. That’s how you get better.
  6. Spread your writing for people to comment. That’s called feedback.
  7. Dont worry about rejection or publication. That’s a writer.
  8. When not writing, read. Read from writers better than you. Read and Perceive.

But overall, just write more to get better.

1887+ votes on Quora!! 🙂 Probably my most viewed content ever- !

61036 people  have viewed this answer!

https://www.quora.com/Writing/How-can-we-improve-our-writing-skill/answers/2048810?__snids__=94784810&__nsrc__=1

Also it got a mention here-

Ajay Ohri: The 8 Rules of Writing

Now I think I should take some of my own advice and get back to writing

Using R from within Python

Python logo
Image via Wikipedia

I came across this excellent JSS paper at www.jstatsoft.org/v35/c02/paper

on a Python package called PypeR which allows you to use R from within Python using the pipe functionality.

It is an interesting package and given Python’s increasing buzz , one worthy to be checked out by people using or thinking Python in their packages.

























Citation:
	@article{Xia:McClelland:Wang:2010:JSSOBK:v35c02,
	  author =	"Xiao-Qin Xia and Michael McClelland and Yipeng Wang",
	  title =	"PypeR, A Python Package for Using R in Python",
	  journal =	"Journal of Statistical Software, Code Snippets",
	  volume =	"35",
	  number =	"2",
	  pages =	"1--8",
	  day =  	"30",
	  month =	"7",
	  year = 	"2010",
	  CODEN =	"JSSOBK",
	  ISSN = 	"1548-7660",
	  bibdate =	"2010-03-23",
	  URL =  	"http://www.jstatsoft.org/v35/c02",
	  accepted =	"2010-03-23",
	  acknowledgement = "",
	  keywords =	"",
	  submitted =	"2009-10-23",
	}

 

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Nice BI Tutorials

Tutorials screenshot.
Image via Wikipedia

Here is a set of very nice, screenshot enabled tutorials from SAP BI. They are a bit outdated (3 years old) but most of it is quite relevant- especially from a Tutorial Design Perspective –

Most people would rather see screenshot based step by step powerpoints, than cluttered or clever presentations , or even videos that force you to sit like a TV zombie. Unfortunately most tutorial presentations I see especially for BI are either slides with one or two points, that abruptly shift to “concepts” or videos that are atleast more than 10 minutes long. That works fine for scripting tutorials or hands on workshops, but cannot be reproduced for later instances of study.

The mode of tutorials especially for GUI software can vary, it may be Slideshare, Scribd, Google Presentation,Microsoft Powerpoint but a step by step screenshot by screenshot tutorial is much better for understanding than commando line jargon/ Youtub   Videos presentations, or Powerpoint with Points.

Have a look at these SAP BI 7 slideshares

and

Speaking of BI, the R Package called Brew is going to brew up something special especially combined with R Apache. However I wish R Apache, or R Web, or RServe had step by step install screenshot tutorials to increase their usage in Business Intelligence.

I tried searching for JMP GUI Tutorials too, but I believe putting all your content behind a registration wall is not so great. Do a Pareto Analysis of your training material, surely you can share a couple more tutorials without registration. It also will help new wanna-migrate users to get a test and feel for the installation complexities as well as final report GUI.

 

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Getting Inside R

Forums and Minerals, the new Internet tools
Image via Wikipedia

I loved the new upgraded design of Inside-R, Revo’s new(?) community.

And promptly shot up a blog application.

What makes Inside- R- slightly better than SDC, Analyticbridge,PlanetR and R _bloggers (with due respects)

  1. Open Id logins (I think thats a new and good step)
  2. Options for automated feed parsing for blogs
  3. More than just a blog aggregator- includes sections on other stuff- thus more like a community than a big feed
  4. Abbreviated feeds- just gives you two-three lines of summary per post  than the whole big schmakaround -thats a time saver for me —(D Smith is the only -lonely blogger atm there)
  5. The more the merrier- One more place to read and write R.


 btw is the name insider (as in guy who knows inside stuff) or Inside- R (as in get inside the R box)- just kidding. With PlyR, ManipulatR, ApplyR and now Inside R- the pun gets MerrieR

If my blog app gets rejected- these views may change ,grr


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Blogging Motivations

Doctor Girlfriend
Image via Wikipedia

My blogging motivations

1. Sum up your blogging motivation, philosophy and experience in exactly 10 words:

I am addicted to writing prose and poetry ergo blog.

2. Pass it on to 10 others.

3. If you read this and are blogging and have not yet done this, consider yourself tagged.

From: Dr. Girlfriend

 

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The auto-suggest link/tags for WP.com blogs

WordPress.com blogs have a great new option for generating tags, and links and thus improving their search engine optimization for posts.

Just go to Users-Personal Settings- and check the options shown. Thats it every time you write a post it suggests links and tags. Links are helpful for your readers (like Wikipedia links to understand dense technical jargon, or associated websites). Tags help to classify your contents so that all visitors to the web site including spiders ,search engines and your readers can search it better.

The bad thing is I need to go back to all 1025 posts on this site and auto generate tags for the archives ! Oh well. Great collaboration between zementa and Automattic for this new feature.

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