TIL (Today I Learned)

A collection of small snippets that I learn day to day across a variety of tasks I am involved in. Often, they are curious and useful insights that I wish to share with everyone but are too short for a full blog post.

Browse them here til.raivivek.in. Count: 67

Table of Contents

• R-lang
• Algorithms
• Biology
• Computing
• Zen lessons
• Statistics | Methods | Math
• Miscellaneous
• Productivity
• Python (lang)
• GNU Unix | Command line
• Writing

R-lang

• Evaluating string as an expression
• Save the "current" figure
• knitr: Put code as appendix
• Large datasets in R
• Restarting your R Studio server session
• stack and unstack
• ggplot tricks
• Bin-or-discretize numeric data (ggplot)
• Using conditionals (if-else) in data pipes
• Using Microsoft R Open 3.5.X
• Modifying ggplot2 objects after creation

Algorithms

• Newick Tree Format
• KMP Algorithm

Biology

• The Omnigenic Model
• Pedigree Collapse
• 'Thrifty' gene hypothesis

Computing

• Editing remote files
• Snakemake wildcard rules
• Snakemake on HPC
• GitHub actions
• Automount + SSHFS on macOS
• Database comparison
• Mount remote server locally on macOS
• SOAP-vs-REST stack
• pkg-config for managing compilation

Zen lessons

• The value of being slow

Statistics | Methods | Math

• Permutation testing

Miscellaneous

• Banzhaf Power Index
• Using cookiecutter to generate project skeleton
• Setting up hostname in macOS
• Pizza Effect
• Email forwarding for your domain
• HMMER
• COVID-19 and groceries
• Using Zotero with WebDAV for file storage
• Choosing right Wifi channel
• Fix Firefox auto DPI scaling

Productivity

• Batch import into Zotero
• Keeping notes for long time
• Using Asana for project management
• Getting Research Idea I
• Using Hammerspoon on macOS for quick tasks
• Quickly organizing ideas

Python (lang)

• pandas.get_dummies: Vectorize category variables
• multiprocessing module in Python
• Itertools module
• Check if STDIN is tty
• Writing Conda Recipes
• pymust.watch
• Records: SQL for Humans
• Super considered super!
• Don't use f.readlines()
• Care with string.split()
• contextlib module
• ORMs and Database migration
• Writing unbuffered output

GNU Unix | Command line

• Watch LaTeX file and autocompile
• OOM Killer
• Fork a command to background
• GNU sort has a '-u' option to output only unique values for the columns used for sorting
• Fetch random lines from file
• Run a command for some time
• Changing priority of running programs
• Concatenate files with same header

Writing

• Rhetorical Précis Format
• Headlines and the Inverted Pyramid
• Double Entry Journal

Other TIL Collections

• Today I Learned by Hashrocket
• jwworth/til
• thoughtbot/til

License

© 2015-2020 Vivek Rai