Bio::blogs 11 - special edition
June 1st, 2007Short and to the point - the tips & tricks supplement to this month’s bio::blogs edition has been compiled. The link to the pdf is at the end of this post. But first I want to thank those who contributed.
Thanks to Dan Swan, Pierre Lindenbaum and Konrad Forstner, who contributed particularly large articles covering every aspect of being a bioinformatian.
Euan Adie (Stew) wrote about revision control, creating applications and blogging. Bertalan Meskó sent in a list of genetic disorder databases. Roland Krause offers tips on managing and searching data sets. Ryan Castillo wrote about his experiences in bioinformatics. Paras Chopra offers advice for undergraduates on how to use their summers. Pedro Beltrao, editor of bio::blogs, discusses the importance of keeping up to date on the literature. Also, Duncan Hull whose observations I was unable to add due to lack of time and space (read: my poor organisational skills)
And finally, special thanks go to Neil Saunders whose entry, on recreating code from bioinformatics papers, was so large I couldn’t fit it in the pdf, but you should definitely go and take a look.
Enjoy.
June 1st, 2007 at 8:20 pm
[…] edition has two special sections, both with separate PDF versions. The first one is dedicated to tips and tricks for bioinformatics and it is hosted separately in Bioinformatics Zen. Thanks to Michael Barton for having the idea and […]
June 2nd, 2007 at 7:02 am
[…] Bio::Blogs #11 also includes a special section on tips and tricks for bioinformatics hosted at Bioinformatics Zen. Bio::Blogs #11 is one of the best ones ever, so go ahead and read it, or download the pdf’s […]
June 2nd, 2007 at 7:36 pm
[…] June 2, 2007 Posted by Bertalan Meskó in 10 tips, Bioinformatics, About me, Blogging. trackback Michael Barton at Bioinformatics Zen has made something special and great in this edition of Bio::Blogs: Tricks and Tips in […]
June 3rd, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Thank you,
see that most of this tricks are about how a bioinformaticist could organize its work.
let me try two of mine:
- listen to some good jazz/instrumental music when programming if don’t have to work too hard
- The story about ‘doing a pause every 40/50 minutes’: I use this program, workrave (http://www.workrave.org/welcome/), which is a tool that reminds me to do a pause every 50 minutes.
It could seem stupid, but I think that I work better since I’ve installed it.
June 4th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
[…] A questo numero si aggiunge un allegato speciale dedicato a trucchetti che i biologi computazionali e i bioinformatici possono usare per facilitare il proprio lavoro. Trovate il supplemento sul blog di bioinformaticzen: http://www.bioinformaticszen.com/2007/06/bioblogs-11-special-edition/ […]
June 4th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Michael, this document is a very good start at something I think could become a very interesting web publishing platform for bioinformatics, from newbies to gurus.
I am still very very green as regards to bioinformatics but am very interested in the area. So, these tips and tricks are so well received.
If I can help in a later edition of something similar to this or even the bio::blogs, it’d be great.
Once again, congrats!
June 6th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Hi Mike,
This is a great idea you have had. Its generated a lot of interest and the advice is excellent. I would be very keen to be involved in a future project.
Kieren
June 10th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
[…] to be asked to contribute some thoughts on working in Bioinformatics with regards to Academia at Bioinformatics Zen for their 11th Bio:blogs. You should check out the article, there is a various assortment of […]
June 11th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Thanks for your complementary comments Ricardo and Kieren. Especially for your offers of support for future editions.
Because of the positive response I’ve to had to this tips & tricks edition I’ve been thinking about where to take it next. The initial I idea I had was to put it onto a wiki, where people can contribute. However this is pretty similar to what’s going on at wikiomics, and I don’t think it would be a good idea to overlap.
So I thought about this a bit more - how about an Ubuntu approach to creating a bioinformatics wiki-type book. For example every two months we focus on a particular area of bioinformatics, say sequence analysis, and everybody contributes their tips and it gets written up as a chapter and ‘released’. I’m hoping a regular release cycle might stimulate interest. Of course this idea is entirely speculative, and I’ve no idea what sort of interest their might be in this - i.e. it would rely on the community making contributions.
June 11th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Also thanks to Giovanni for your comment and contributions.
June 13th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
[…] recent release of the bio::blogs “tips & tricks” special has proved popular and comments from three readers suggested continuing it further. But I’d […]