Archive for March, 2007

Links for 2007-03-31

Saturday, March 31st, 2007

Voice to the people!

Friday, March 30th, 2007

Don’t like what you see here? Take action.

It’s cute. I had already found the dinosaur steps blogworthy two years ago, but this newer option is even more amusing.

Links for 2007-03-30

Friday, March 30th, 2007

Links for 2007-03-29

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

How long would it take to swim across the Atlantic Ocean?

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

Google Maps has the answer for me if I am headed from Stanford to Budapest. The only part left for me to figure out is how much to subtract for driving from California to Massachusetts and then from France to Hungary. Subtracting that from 31 days 14 hours I should have the answer. Alternatively, I can do a search for Boston to Brest, France and calculate it from that although I don’t get why they’re making me reach the coast at Le Havre since that’s quite a bit of extra swimming. Google Maps estimates that trip at about 29 days 5 hours, which makes me wonder how they got 31 days 14 hours for the other trip.

Hmm.. maybe I’ll stick to flying.

(Skip down to direction #33 on the first map or #9 on the second if this is all too cryptic.)

[thanks]

Links for 2007-03-28

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

New lab space!

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

The Web Use Project at Northwestern University moved into a new space recently.

My new lab space

I am ultra excited about this move. We worked with a planner and architect to make sure the new space would meet the research group’s various needs. The result is wonderful. There is a separate cubicle for the project coordinator and a private carrel for observations. There is tons of filing space and lots of cupboards for everything else. We also have considerably more room for computers. There is also a central table (that can be folded to take up less space) and several chairs so we can have meetings. Plus there are wipe boards and a projection screen in case I ever find the means to buy a projector. This is a wonderful move for my group.

See more photos here.

Woohoo!

UPDATE: Here’s a little video action:

Links for 2007-03-27

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

Links for 2007-03-26

Monday, March 26th, 2007

Links for 2007-03-24

Saturday, March 24th, 2007

Poll: use of cell phones in restrooms

Friday, March 23rd, 2007

Two months after 11 of you told me that you are absolutely in favor of having polling around here, I get around to posting another one. Apologies for the delay.

I am on the road and have spent some time in airport restrooms over the past few days. On occasion, you hear someone talking on a cell phone. (Fine, it’s an assumption I’m making since I can’t actually see them, but I am fairly confident I am assessing the situation correctly.)

So I thought I would do a poll on this. How do you feel about people using their cell phones in the stalls of public bathrooms? Just to clarify: the question is not about using the cell phone in the sink area, but when they are in a stall.

What do you think? Cast your vote today.

Disclaimer: significantly less time went into the construction of this survey item than the amount of time and effort I spend on my professional work so you should not assume anything about my academic survey work based on this entry.:)

Links for 2007-03-23

Friday, March 23rd, 2007

Links for 2007-03-20

Tuesday, March 20th, 2007

Links for 2007-03-19

Monday, March 19th, 2007

Cool visualizations

Sunday, March 18th, 2007

What do you get when you sort approximately 800,000 published papers into 776 scientific paradigms? If you have an interesting visualization expert working with you on the project then you get this map (or click here for an even larger version). Seed Magazine has more on the details and Brad Paley’s Information Esthetics Web site tells you how you can get your own copy just for paying shipping and handling charges.

This map is just one project of Katy Börner’s cool Places and Space: Mapping Science initiative at Indiana University. Check out that site for more goodies.

Brad also has some other intriguing projects, like this calendar (an alternative to what we usually use). One of my favorites, however, remains his TextArc work for alternative ways of visualizing text. For example, check out his representation of Alice in Wonderland.

UPDATE: I’ve been meaning to blog about Jim Moody’s related work as well so I should’ve remembered to include a link to his visualizations, too: co-citation of physical and bio sciences, dynamic visualization of sociology co-authorship network.

Links for 2007-03-17

Saturday, March 17th, 2007

Links for 2007-03-14

Wednesday, March 14th, 2007

Links for 2007-03-13

Tuesday, March 13th, 2007

Links for 2007-03-12

Monday, March 12th, 2007

Links for 2007-03-11

Sunday, March 11th, 2007
  • this is fun, even if you don’t read the results; it’s just fun to see for yourself which of the images you pick in the various categories
    (tags: fun quiz)
  • neat game; I won’t tell you how it works, you can figure it out in an attempt or two; once I did, I made it to “max attempts: 30” and only had two tiles of one color to rescue when I failed that level (meaning, I almost made it); enjoy! (don’t click if you don’t have time to play. UPDATE: I managed to get to level 26 (going down from 35)
    (tags: games flash)
  • “to make portraits of Palestinians and Israelis doing the same job and to post them face to face, in huge formats, in unavoidable places, on the Israeli and the Palestinian sides.”