PUBLIC MARKS with search bill

For my final project for MAT 259 (Data Visualization) I wanted to explore the topics of 3D Space, particle systems, OpenGL and java, alpha blending, bill boarding, user interactivity, self-organizing algorithms (Kohonen), and electromagnetic attractions and repulsion. The end result is what you see above and below. I used one year of transaction data (books, DVDs, etc) from the Seattle Public Library to drive the visualization. Each particle/sphere is given properties, such as what category/subcategory it represents and how many items where checked out in that category. This is used to drive the physics system that is used to separate the nodes evenly on the surface of the sphere, moreover I wrote a Kohonen-like to cluster the nodes that are related (same category) together. The visualization is interactive; it allows the user to manipulate how they see the data and the properties of the system.

RDF is worth learning for a different reason — the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it. That experience will make you a better format and data API designer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use RDF itself a lot. (You can get some beginning experience with RDF fairly easily by writing and modifying simple files like FOAF and DOAP for social networks and software projects, or RDFa extensions for XHTML.)

This year will see the implementation of a new piece of American legislation developed by the Department of Homeland Security called the Secure Flight Program (SFP). The bill contains at least one measure that has raised the ire of many Canadian civil liberties organisations; airlines must provide the United States’ Transportation Security Administration with such personal information as a passenger’s passport and travel itinerary three days before any flight goes through American airspace. All information gathered is subsequently cross-referenced against lists of suspected terrorists and criminals.

C’est vrai que vous devez avoir du charme pour que je vienne vous visiter régulièrement. Car vous avez aussi plein de défauts. Votre site n’est pas très bien fichu. On s’y perd, car vous vendez un peu de tout, de l’avion, des hôtels, des séjours, des voitures… Et pour les trains, votre site fait ses crises. Il ne reconnaît pas bien les noms de villes qu’on lui demande, il se crispe sur les accents, ne veut pas sortir de tranches horaires qu’on lui a demandés à l’origine. C’est un peu long, fastidieux alors qu’il y a mieux à faire.

Du coup, il y a des traîtres à la patrie qui passent par le site internet de la Deutsche Bahn, votre pire ennemi, qu’ils trouvent bien plus simple pour acheter des billets SNCF. Un comble. Faut dire qu’il n’y a pas d’autres choix quand votre boutique baisse le rideau de fer parce que tout a planté dans les arrières cuisines informatiques. Comme cet été au moment des grands départs, plus récemment ou de façon sporadique. 700 000 visiteurs par jour que vous revendiquez. La faute a trop de succès. Et peut-être à des choix techniques pas très heureux. Il y en a qui disent que vous n’auriez pas dû faire confiance à Microsoft. Chère Rachel, avez-vous songé à écrire à son patron ? « Cher Bill Gates, un grand MERCI à vous. Malgré tous les défauts de vos logiciels, nos clients nous ont quand même élu comme leur site préféré ».

We can now add colleges and universities to the list of victims of the financial crisis. The stock-market collapse has badly eroded endowments, forcing schools to suspend capital projects, freeze hiring, rethink need-blind financial-aid policies and cut budgets. The Journal reported this week that Harvard University's giant-killer endowment, which stood at $36.9 billion as of June 30, has lost 22% of its value in the months since and that the university's administration is planning for a 30% decline for the fiscal year ending next June.

Squeejee believes that billing hourly offers more flexibility and cost savings for our client and is fair to us. Now that’s a win-win.