http://alt-tag.com/blog Thoughts on everything from education and politics to internet usability, and programming. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:52:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm fascinated by data visualization. Expressing complex ideas in a simple way is immensely powerful. In my post yesterday, I linked to a county-by-county time lapse of unemployment rates. I've found some interesting images (complete with a thorough explanation) examining the U.S. economy. The article is interesting, but the ... http://alt-tag.com/blog/archives/2009/11/data-visualization-and-unemployment/ Daring Fireball pointed to this county-by-county time lapse of unemployment rates. Fascinating. It explains some of the differences I've observed in the move from Utah to Georgia. A few things to notice: Because each frame is a 12-month running average, the map doesn't show whether some counties have started to pull out ... http://alt-tag.com/blog/archives/2009/11/unemployment-map/ I came across a great explanation of what I believe are the primary reasons most organizational change efforts are exceedingly more difficult than leaders initially expect: [Because] change in organizations typically involves shifts in the way people work, these may introduce feelings of inadequacy and dislocation that potentially challenge people's identities ... http://alt-tag.com/blog/archives/2009/10/why-change-efforts-are-difficult/ I caught on TV tonight an education policy presentation by Julian Betts, Chair of the Department of Economics. Originally presented in April of this year, Dr. Betts discusses peer-reviewed research on testing, accountability systems, charter schools, vouchers, and merit pay systems. No matter where you fall on these issues, I think ... http://alt-tag.com/blog/archives/2009/10/an-economist-on-education/ Go here first. Then come back. I'll wait. The trouble with talking about government budgets, even ones as small as a city or local school district, is that big numbers rapidly lose meaning to people. It's more visceral to talk about a dozen people (or dollars or "things") than to discuss ... http://alt-tag.com/blog/archives/2009/09/big-numbers-and-visualization/ Via Gruber, who posts following a TechDirt article. A federal judge denies an individual of property (contents of an email account) without notification, with no opportunity for appeal (the person is not a party to the matter), and with no cause to suspect wrongdoing. Saith Gruber, who dubs U.S. District Court Judge ... http://alt-tag.com/blog/archives/2009/09/federal-judge-ignores-rights-of-individual/ For years, I've kept a personal (and unfortunately, unwritten) list of books I think every manager, programmer, and [insert category here] should read. A book every programmer should read The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master. Every programmer I hired was required to read this book. It's a great resource for people ... http://alt-tag.com/blog/archives/2009/09/books-worth-their-weight-in-gold/ As I was driving in to school this morning, I had a mini-revalation on the difference between power-users and "regular" users. This thought may have been spawned by a research paper used in one of my classes [1], where power users became the de facto trainers during the implementation of ... http://alt-tag.com/blog/archives/2009/09/on-power-users/