30 April 2004

musiCompass visualizes resulting connections between people and artists through mapping; http://www.musicompass.net/ is considered an organic entity that is continually evolving as more music profiles are added.
PHP is used on the server to format the data before sending to Macromedia Flash MX.
http://www.wadi.de/musicompass/musicmap.html

29 April 2004

Very interesting ("Brain"-like interface) the map of literature showing related authors; http://www.globalnetworkofdreams.com/books/related/cervantes.php

Link the Great Ideas Map to these;
http://www.robotwisdom.com/ai/syntopicon.html#Memory
http://www.word-gems.com/art.html (quotes and links)

"Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself." - James Stephens (1882-1950)

Research life of illustrator Gustave Dore ; http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0486243001/ref=sib_rdr_zmin/002-9518280-4930413?p=S00C&j=1#reader-page
also;
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/2881241417/ref=sib_vae_pg_92/002-9518280-4930413?%5Fencoding=UTF8&keywords=Dore%27s%20Illustrations%20for%20Don%20Quixote&p=S031&twc=1&checkSum=h3Fq6d6DoQUvB2jZfs%2FP1a3gbEetzhSikPlH34lIfkk%3D#reader-link

Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Collection; http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/pphome.html

http://www.illegal-art.org/print/index.html

Seven principles of ID-cartography to build maps;
1) Mind cannot be represented but thoughts can be mapped.
2) Thoughts are mind activity patterns.
3) Patterns are recurrent thoughts.
4) Recurrence is a sample of reiterative and shared elements.
5) Elements are the pieces of a map.
6) There is no one kind of map. In fact, we can imagine to many class of maps, according to the elements we have chosen.
7) We need imagination to define elements and tools to get it.

28 April 2004

(Clunky) Interactive? Flash maps at http://www.ladbrokes.com/bigbirdrace/

Affirmations; (from http://www.ibelieveinyou.co.uk/go/Affirmations.html )
1: I feel confident to try new things
2: I have the power to make dramatic changes
3: I relax and visualize creative images
4: I operate in my stretch zone
5: I believe in what I think
6: I know how to approach problems from different angles
7: I am open to new ideas
8: I think positive thoughts
9: I am open to new information
10: I understand my own creative powers
11: I am great at generating new ideas
12: My mind has unlimited potential

Technique to make sketches from a photo; (from http://forums.devshed.com/archive/t-138187
1.image > adjustment > desaturate 2.copy background layer (now work only on copied layer, but keep orig.layer visible)
3.image > adjustment > invert
4.change layer blending mode to color dodge (this should turn the image completely white)
5.filter > blur > guassian blur (radius 2.0)
6.repeat step 5 with the same radius several times, until the lines are dark enough
(you may want to play around with different blur radius) and after you get a decent image you can flatten or duplicate image and flatten, then use the sharpen filter or poster edges filter to get the image alittle sharper.

27 April 2004

Research papers now online at; http://www.smartgraphics.org/sg04/schedule.html

Are you a grappling hook or a magnet? A magnet only works with objects that are naturally drawn to it. It cannot hold on to anything that does not have the proper make-up to be attracted to its magnetic field. It cannot "seize and hold" an object that is not the right match for it’s purpose.

26 April 2004

Creative Commons encourages artists to share and distribute their work for free. And that could be the key to a new multibillion-dollar industry... http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/print/0,17925,608619,00.html

20 resources for Navigation in the library; http://aifia.org/library/subjectPage.php?id=25

http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/search.html

17th Century Map Favorites: http://www.cummingmapsociety.org/17thC_Maps.htm

Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/

Conference "Maps and Images": http://www.ori.unizh.ch/maps/program.html

23 April 2004

"Model-Based Reasoning in Scientific Discovery" (how I develop creative info interfaces) including the role of abduction, visualization, and simulation...diagrammatic representations, visual analogy, visual, spatial, imagistic modeling and reasoning.

"Fair use is not a doctrine that exists by sufferance, or that is earned by good works and clean morals; it is a right--codified in § 107 and recognized since shortly after the Statute of Anne--that is "necessary to fulfill copyright's very purpose, '[t]o promote the Progress of science and the useful arts . . . .'" http://www.corante.com/copyfight/archives/003214.html

What would be the visualization equivalent of doing this?..."in lay terms, for this record i spent countless hours going through my hard drive, opening up random data files in an audio program as though they were sound files. i listened to this data-as-audio, picked my favorite sounds, & only then did i begin the long process of making the actual music out of those sounds."
or this...
Over the last ten years, Daniel Barrow has been developing the art of “manual animation.” Using an overhead projector, Barrow manipulates cartoon images printed on mylar transparencies in a new type of cell animation, accompanying his two-dimensional minions with a live monologue or, in the case of the Hidden Cameras’ “A Miracle” video, good old-fashioned pop music.
or this...
But it is in her live performances that she really shines. Not content just to provide visual wallpaper or rapidly cutting strobe effects, Bennett samples sound and image simultaneously, layering them into a richly detailed live collage ­ “a living cinema.” A visual musician, Bennett pulls everything into the mix, from industrial advertising to
old B-movie Westerns and mental hygiene films, and comes out with a toe-tapping audiovisual stew.

Idea to change transparency settings when zooming in; simulating fade to different information (layer?).

Publication; http://thediagram.com/index.html

22 April 2004

See interesting roll-over "bubble" that comes up at http://a9.com/1-900-870-6235.com?p=1 when you roll over theh "SiteInfo" button on Amazon's search portal. It also shows a few screenshot thumbs http://www.alexa.com/data/ds/linksin?q=link%3A1-900-870-6235.com%2F&url=1-900-870-6235.com/ when you click on "Sites that Link Here".
Also shows 3 link; People who visit this page also visit:...

21 April 2004

Find local access to Information Design Journal
http://www.benjamins.nl/idj/

Interesting ideas supporting the PeaceMap project http://www.viewzone.com/marsface.html

20 April 2004

Voronoi/Delaunay research and applications; http://www.voronoi.com/
http://www.voronoi.com/cgi-bin/display.voronoi_applications.php?cat=Applications supposedly includes some ways to divide areas into mosaic-like plates.

Site with many many thumb roll-overs...http://orbitals.com/dcp/dcp15na.htm takes awhile to load.

(Clunky)online mapping interface http://booth.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/do.pl?sub=view_booth_and_barth&args=531000,180400,6,large,5

Ancient World Mapping Center " mapping the ancient world, from Athens to Zucchabar " http://www.unc.edu/awmc/content/xhtml/index.html

"Work stops at sunset. Darkness falls over the building site.
The sky is filled with stars. 'There is the blueprint' they say." - Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

19 April 2004

Idea to use different size pictograms (author icons) to represent number of citations in Syntopicon under various outlined topics. http://www.piktogramm.com/en_index.html

Principles of design (balance, emphasis, harmony proportion, variety, gradation, movement and rhythm).
Artistic fundamentals in design (color, value, line, texture, shape, form and space)

More scientists are striving to illustrate and explain their work with digitized images, color diagrams, and even multimedia... http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/events/sevc/over.htm Scientific and Engineering Visualization Challenge.

Get sources of quotes for all the great authors (like at http://www.inspirationalwoman.com/quoteauthors_view.asp?view=Henrik%20Ibsen
"There is always a way to go if you look for it." - Ernest A. Fitzgerald
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." Friedrich Nietzsche
"In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd." - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, 1547-1616
"When you own your own business, you only have to work half a day. You can do anything you want with the other twelve hours." - Anonymous

Insights on the Shortest Distance TSDB2P = The Shortest Distance Between 2 Points
1. In Geometry TSDB2P is a straight line.
2. In marriage TSDB2P is love.
3. In mountain climbing TSDB2P is in the heart.
4. In sickness TSDB2P is relief.
5. In deep poverty TSDB2P is realizing you have plenty to give.
6. In a career TSDB2P is integrity.
7. In parenting TSDB2P allowing them to grow from their own mistakes.
8. In a friendship TSDB2P is trust.
9. In learning TSDB2P is a mind awaiting discovery.
10. In personal growth TSDB2P is learning your lesson the first time.

16 April 2004

Developing transparent .gif's for animation showing how a (traditional time) "Line" morphs into a 'Swirl'.

Computing researchers at Imaginestics LLC, have developed new search engines that can mine catalogs of three-dimensional objects, like airplane parts or architectural features... http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/16/tech/main612179.shtml
Google Inc.'s picture search program delivers pretty good results but can't actually examine the images it serves up. It just mines the text surrounding the photos, and hopes for success.

15 April 2004

The anacubis visual search interface will represent business data visually, immediately enabling you to understand relationships between companies and people... http://us.anacubis.com/hooversdemo/hoovers/index.asp
The anacubis Viewer is a read only web service. anacubis Desktop users may drag and drop visual search results from the anacubis Viewer into the anacubis Desktop where the data may be further manipulated, analyzed, edited and merged with data from other sources, both internal and external..."environment where users can create a cross section of information … the heart of better decision making."
reveal previously hidden relationships
comprehend and present complex information
identify information with common characteristics
explore factors critical to your research and analysis

AskJeeves "Famous People Search" returns short bio and edited links ... http://who2.com/jeeves/migueldecervantes.html

Get a quote for each Great Author http://www.aol.bartleby.com/66/12/29412.html
http://www.worldofquotes.com/author/Richard-H.-Tawney/1/index.html

Most famous thinking path http://www.aboutdarwin.com/pictures/Sandwalk/Sandwalk.html

"Chaos is the score on which reality is written." - Henry Miller.
"It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious." Whitehead

http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Curves/Curves.html
http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Curves/Equiangular.html

14 April 2004

How to map these elements/dimensions of an organization?;
What are “they” doing?
How successful are “they” and why?
Who are “their” key players?
What is “their” financial strength?
What technology, intellectual property or patents do “they” hold?
How are “they” positioned in the industry?
What trends can we identify?
What relationships are key with the competition?
What changes internally do “they” have that may change the SWOT analysis?

"For all we know, Waldseemller could have had a complete rogue for a source who lied through his teeth and just happened to be right."

http://www.maphistory.info/sitemap.html

13 April 2004

"We all know well that a map is an abstraction of certain "knowledge" of its author, and our challenge is to reverse the process of abstraction."

http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm provides a tool to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting. It's objective is to simply demonstrate visually the relationships between data and the unseen patterns in news media.

"Hell, there are no rules here-- we're trying to accomplish something." - Thomas A. Edison

12 April 2004

Is Fib map interface a "Digital dashboard"? http://www.infovis.net/images/TopTierDashb.jpg

A specific brain region known to be activated by clear images of faces is also strongly activated by very blurred images, just so long as surrounding contextual cues are present. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2004/vision.html supports continued inclusion of even small / blurry map components.

Icons http://www.bu.edu/arion/Paglia_11.3/Paglia_Magic%20of%20Images.htm

"Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see." - Rene Magritte http://www.atara.net/magritte/quotes.html

Boyak's PNAS report http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/0307509100v1.pdf resulting from Sackler Colloquium last May in LA.

"If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is an interactive model of your organization, community, or industry worth?"

08 April 2004

Canadian eLearning funding program for contenet http://www.inukshuk.ca/anglais/fonds.html Process/forms http://www.inukshuk.ca/pdf/proposals/en/2004_Content_AB.pdf

The work of Romanian-born American graphic artist Saul Steinberg (b. 1914) can serve as an example of the great visual information design in objet d'art. The February 21&28, 2000 issue of "The New Yorker" ran an article by Simon Schama with a number of reproductions of "maps" created by this artist. One of the maps connects the space and time dimensions of our daily lifes..http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00002S&topic_id=1&topic=Ask%20E%2eT%2e

Sparklines or Wordgraphs--some draft pages from Beautiful Evidence http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001Eb&topic_id=1

MapQuest http://www.mapquest.ca/maps/map.adp?formtype=search&countryid=41&addtohistory=&country=CA&address=&city=Edmonton&state=AB&zipcode=&submit=Get+Map interface certainly not very user-friendly (yet?)

07 April 2004

When the 40,000 subscribers to Reason, the monthly libertarian magazine, receive a copy of the June issue, they will see on the cover a satellite photo of their own neighborhood. And their house will be graphically circled: subscriber list to be integrated with satellite photographs (endless customization printing).
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/05/business/05reason.html?ex=1081828800&en=29 Putting 40,000 Readers, One by One, on a Cover

"An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field! - Niels Bohr (1885-1962)

http://www.thinkunlimited.ca/thinkhome.html presenting mindmapping and lateral thinking at APEGGA professional development days.

06 April 2004

A Guide to Unusual Maps on the Web http://www.gisnet.com/notebook/unusual.htm

"Envisioning the end is enough to put the means in motion." - Dorothea Brande (1893-1948), American writer, editor and teacher
"The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer." - Nolan Bushnell, Founder of Atari, Inc and Chuck E. Cheese
"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." - Maya Angelou, Author and Poet

05 April 2004

The Point attractor is the simplest way to bring order out of chaos. Its home is the first dimension of the line, a collection of an infinite number of points (looks like a radial mindmap); http://spanky.triumf.ca/www/fractal-info/classic-attr.htm "The four attractors act on all levels of reality to form Cosmos out of Chaos. They make up a newly discovered Wisdom Law fundamental to making sense of what is happening in the real world. The world is not really totally ordered as previously believed. It is fundamentally disordered, chaotic, but it contains forces or attractors of cosmos that create patterns of order over time." Links http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/lab/1837/index_a.html

There are several searchable gazetteers of place names online;
Australia: http://www.auslig.gov.au/mapping/names/natgaz.htm
Canada: http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca/index_e.php
Denmark: http://levende.kms.dk/su/sunavn.htm
Estonia: http://www.eki.ee/knn/index2.htm
US: http://geonames.usgs.gov/
Luxembourg: http://www.igd-leo.lu/igd-leo/onomastics/villages/villages.html
New Zealand: //www.linz.govt.nz/rcs/linz/pub/web/root/core/placenames/index.jsp
Sweden: http://www.sna.se/gazetteer.html
Worldwide: http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/index.html
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/tgn/ features historical and slang namings for regions not just simple place names.


Subjective Mapping by Artists and Cartographers; http://www.saulgallery.com/chronicle/uncharted_territory.html

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics.html
"The map is not the territory." - Alfred Korzybski
"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence." - Henry David Thoreau
"Adversity is the first path to truth." - Lord Byron
"The path of least resistance is the path of the loser." - H. G. Wells
"If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads." - Anatole France
"If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere." - Frank A. Clark
"The path of sound credence is through the thick forest of skepticism." - George Jean Nathan
"My path has not been determined. I shall have more experiences and pass many more milestones." - Agnetha Faltskog
"Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost." - Chauncey Depew
"Look at every path closely and deliberately, then ask ourselves this crucial question: Does this path have a heart? If it does, then the path is good. If it doesn't, it is of no use." - Carlos Castaneda
"The more deeply the path is etched, the more it is used, and the more it is used, the more deeply it etched." - Jo Coudert
"The Path that leadeth on is lighted by one fire - the light of daring burning in the heart. The more one dares, the more he shall obtain." - Helena Petrova Blavatsky
"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives." - Henry David Thoreau
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"You cannot travel on the path until you become the path itself." - Gantana Bouddha
"Never follow somebody else's path; it doesn't work the same way twice for anyone... the path follows you and rolls up behind you as you walk, forcing the next person to find their own way." - J. Michael Straczynski
"The block of granite which was an obstacle in the path of the weak, becomes a steppingstone in the path of the strong." - Thomas Carlysle
"Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"If a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbor, tho' he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"The traveler that resolutely follows a rough and winding path will sooner reach the end of his journey than he that is always changing his direction, and wastes the hour of daylight in looking for smoother ground and shorter passages." - Samuel Johnson
"Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored." - Abraham Lincoln
"In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth." - Mohandas Gandhi
"More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly." - Woody Allen
"We can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present." - Adlai E. Stevenson
"The Open Path leads to the changeless change - Non-Being, the glorious state of Absoluteness, the Bliss past human thought." - Alexander Pope
"I believe that if we really want human brotherhood to spread and increase until it makes life safe and sane, we must also be certain that there is no one true faith or path by which it may spread." - Adlai E. Stevenson
"The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path." - Jim Rohn
"Nowadays a path is scarcely opened up when the crowd begins to pour in." - Jean Rostand
"Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley." - Theodore Roethke
"What you'll need most is courage. It is not an easy path that you've set your foot upon." - Larry Wall
"You will recognize your own path when you come upon it, because you will suddenly have all the energy and imagination you will ever need." - Jerry Gillies
"All paths are the same, leading nowhere. Therefore, pick a path with heart!" - Carlos Castaneda
"The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment." - Earl Nightingale
"We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own." - Ben Sweetland
"People have said there is an integrity about me, and I think there is. I don't try to follow a trend. I have my own little path." - Sarah Brightman
"A man of knowledge chooses a path with a heart and follows it and then he looks and rejoices and laughs and then he sees and knows." - Carlos Castenada
"It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed." - Ram Dass
" It is only through extremes that men can arrive at the middle path of wisdom and virtue." - Wilhelm von Humboldt
"

02 April 2004

MIT graphical processing projects http://processing.org/exhibition/index.pl
(idea for B/W to grey ZoomOut.ani) see http://www.vispo.com/uribe/anipoems.html

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious." - Albert Einstein

01 April 2004

Traditional interface components; http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/components

"It's not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy.
The bee is praised. The mosquito is swatted." - Mary O'Connor

"An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come." - Victor Hugo

Wasn’t the court jester the only one who could tell the truth to the king?