tilde's in URLs (LaTeX)

Obscure LaTeX command:

\textasciitilde{} % for tilde's in URLs as text.

I'd been using $\sim$.

Public and private cv's (LaTeX)

Not directly related to statistics but:

Often one wants to have a public cv that one can put on the web, and a more restricted one that has private information that one only needs for a job application or something. Instead of maintaining two cvs, there's an easy way to automate it if you are a latex user.

1. For a public cv, type:

## public
pdflatex vasishthcv.tex

2. For a restricted cv, type:
## restricted
pdflatex -jobname vasishthcv "\def\UseOption{opta}\input{vasishthcv}"

where in the tex file, you have in the preamble:

\ifx\UseOption\undefined
\def\UseOption{optb}
\fi
\usepackage{optional}

and

in the text itself for restricted sections use:

\opt{opta}{Home address:...}

Statistics in linguistics

People in linguistics tend to treat statistical theory as something that can be outsourced--we don't really need to know anything about the details, we just need to know which button to click.

People easily outsource statistical knowledge in an empirical paper, but the same people would be appalled if they hired an assistant to work out the technical details of syntactic theory for a syntax paper.

The statistics *is* the science, it's not some extra appendage that can be outsourced.