Author Archive

February 22, 2012 2

The importance of rewriting

By in Reading, Writing

Most academics really want to improve their writing, because good writing increases your chances of getting your manuscript accepted. Still, I think the academic system doesn´t reward good writing as much as it should. The best advice I´ve seen recently on how to become a better writer is this quora post by Venkatesh Rao. He [...]

January 30, 2012 0

To RSS subscribers: sorry, last post was not intended for ap.com

By in Announcements, Blog

The explanation below may only make sense to you if you read this from an RSS reader. If you don’t please skip it. Have you ever sent an email to the wrong person? Did wish you could pull it back? I just did this, but for our blog (!). I was feeding a WP install [...]

January 29, 2012 0

When your users tell you ‘you are not adding value’: Boycott against Elsevier

By in e-Science, Writing

Scott Aaronson uses an analogy to the game industry to describe the predicament academics are in: I have an ingenious idea for a company. My company will be in the business of selling computer games. But, unlike other computer game companies, mine will never have to hire a single programmer, game designer, or graphic artist. [...]

June 12, 2010 2

Detexify2 – LaTeX symbol classifier

By in FOSS, Hacks, Web 2.0, Writing

Using HTML5 features, this is the kind of obvious tool that makes symbol lookup faster than doing it by hand. Just draw the symbol in the box and up comes the LaTeX code, and the package name that contains it.

June 12, 2010 7

The Future of the Journal, by Anita de Waard

By in Early-adopter, Hacks, Opinion, Social Media

I just found this presentation, and thought it’s worth bringing it to the attention of ap.com readers: The Future of the Journal Anita de Waard is the director of Disruptive Technologies at Elsevier. A company that has a position with such a name has my sympathy. Looks like publishers are slowly realizing that they can [...]