Missing Scale: Lack of Critical Information Is Misleading
How important is knowing the scale when looking at data? Hopefully, you’ll agree, “very”, but I was amazed to see how much is missed (and misunderstood) without knowing the scale of my latest run performance. When reviewing my latest run, I was amazed to see the Nike+ widget graph: Wow! Looks like I was all over the place with my pace. Some strong, some really weak, until I petered out at the end.
Does the Roomba really cover the whole room? Question answered...
Ever wonder if the Roomba really covers the whole room? Wonder no more. Thanks to signaltheorist.com, you can see for yourself at Roomba, Economics and Long-Exposure Photography | signaltheorist.com. [Thanks to coolinfographics.blogspot.com for the link, via http://roboticvacparts.com/]
Edgar Martins Posts Long Essay Addressing "Confusion" Around His Photographs
Edgar Martins replies to the whole controversy stirred up by his photographs in the NYT Magazine. Read his own words, where he quotes Nietzsche, Roland Barthes, and Susan Sontag. None of his post sounds even vaguely like an apology in the modern sense of the word, but an apology in the classical sense – a proof of his beliefs. I should have known I was in trouble when he starts with a quotation from Nietzsche.
PolarClock reincarnated as protovis.js webpage
Based on the original PolarClock, the PolarClock has been reborn as a protovis.js webpage. Enjoy the coolness…
What's The Best Font For Code Editing?
Choose for yourself. the hamstu » The Typography of Code has a number of free options which were designed for smaller fonts, such as those in code editors. There’s nothing worse than working in 12 point Times New Roman font when editing code. Thankfully, this article lists a number of excellent alternatives. Pick one for yourself. You’ll be glad you did.
Essay: Icons as Fact, Fiction and Metaphor - Lens Blog - NYTimes.com
Is photography always honest? Where is the line to be drawn between truth and fiction? Essay: Icons as Fact, Fiction and Metaphor - Lens Blog - NYTimes.com. [See my post on Edgar Martins, too, here.] Makes me think of Susan Sontag’s On Photography [page 86]: A fake photograph (one which has been retouched or tampered with, or whose caption is false) falsifies reality. The history of photography could be recapitulated as the struggle between two different imperatives: beautification, which comes from the fine arts, and truth-telling, which is measured not only by a notion of value-free truth, a legacy from the sciences, but by a moralized ideal of truth-telling, adapted from nineteenth-century literary models and from the (then) new profession of independent journalism.
Announcing the NYT API Tool - Open Blog - NYTimes.com
The New York Times just announced the NYT API Tool on their website. Geared toward making use of their API easier, the web interface shows the options, allows for setting custom parameters, and facilitates pulling data from their site as easy as possible. For real use, you’ll need a key, but once you have it, you can pull data from their site programmatically. It won’t be as easy as their API Tool, but at least you can make more calls with fewer keystrokes.
Data Scienist > Data Geek > Designer « Visualizing Economics
Catherine Mulbrandon took Ben Fry’s 7 steps of data the Data Scientest steps (from his PhD dissertation (page 30 etc), dated 1997 and reiterated in his Visualizing Data book, as he describes on his website) and graphed her own ability levels in each area. Clever use of the original ideas, along with some additional “Testing” inserts of her own. In fact, as a programmer, I would argue for testing between each of these 7 steps.
Canon’s New Anti-Blur Lenses Will Be Available This Year | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
One of the problems I’ve seen and experienced taking photographs is unintended blur. Taking a picture of a moving car or a picture of a waterfall, for example, you’ll probably want to have some blur to show motion (otherwise, it doesn’t look like the car is moving at all – though reading the labels of a tire on a car going 140 mph is pretty nifty :). But usually blur isn’t a good thing.
Turning Statistics Into Knowledge: Seminar Review and Notes
I had the pleasure of attending the Seminar on Innovative Approaches to Turn Statistics into Knowledge, hosted by the US Census Bureau, the World Bank, and the OECD. While Robert Kosara, from UNC Charlotte, has a fairly thorough review (but not focusing on the technical aspects) of the seminar, and I would agree with most of his points (except for the presentation by David Spiegelhalter and Mike Pearson; their presentation was geared toward (and succeeded in) linking data with decision making), I didn’t read much about the technical side of things, so I thought I’d cover those areas here.