I don't know why but the tilde shortcut "~" to access my User Folder doesn't work for me (I get a "Permission Denied" alert). I've just discovered that "cd home" does exactly the same: it moves you to the user directory...I don't know if it's a common Unix feature or another alias made by Apple but it's neat!
descoff.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20010520221511307