Google has opened its Public Data Explorer tool to user-uploaded data. You can even ask that your data be included in the public dataset directory, which currently holds 27 datasets, from Australian Population Estimates to World Development Indicators (a subset of WorldBank data) with a host of U.S. data in-between. Continue reading
Category Archives: Design
Creating Folders In iOS4
You know that it’s possible to put your applications into folders with Apple’s iOS4 … but you can’t remember how. Or (less likely) you’ve not seen a step-by-step set of instructions.
Given that folder creation is a task that we won’t do everyday — and given that it is non-intuitive (IMO) — I’ve put together a step-by-step. Adding apps to an existing folder? Simple drag-and-drop while in “edit” mode. Creating a new folder? Read on …
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InfoGraphic: Gulf Oil Explosion (Daily, 30 Days)
Updated 30 May
It’s been more than 30 days since a BP explosion killed 11 employees and opened a pipe that is spewing vast quantities of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. On Thursday, BP acknowledged that the “leak” is greater than the official government estimate of 5,000 barrels (210,000 U.S. gallons) per day.
Depending on which estimate you’re using, over a 30-day period this ecological disaster has resulted in between 150,000 (NASA) and 3,000,000 barrels (feds worst-case scenario) of oil gushing unchecked in the Gulf. For context, the Exxon Valdex spill was approximately 250,000 barrels (10.5 million U.S. gallons). The U.S. consumes about 21 million barrels of oil a day.
What follows is a recap of the estimates, followed by two infographics; one visualizes the daily estimates, the other visualizes the 30-day total in the context of the Exxon Valdez spill. (Note: the BP situation is not a spill; spills are one-time events. It doesn’t seem quite right to call it a leak, either, since the connotation of “leak” is something with a small volume.) Continue reading
Design Basics: GIF, JPG, PNG
There are three image types that are considered “web native” – which means that they can be displayed by a web browser: GIF, JPG and PNG. What are they and why would you pick one format over another?
Facebook Foibles: Notifications UI
Not for the first time, I triggered an unexpected Facebook dialog box today.
While reading “notifications,” I clicked the “x” to the right of a notice, thinking it would make that notice “disappear” and allow others to rise “up” to the top of the notification panel.
