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Brad Feld got an offer from Tableau Software to try it out, and he wrote his experiences up for all of us to enjoy.

I’ve known about Tableau Software for a long time. The CEO and founder is Christian Chabot – we worked together at Softbank Venture Capital. Tableau has built a significant software company and when Christian called me up to ask if they could play around with some of my running data as part of their launch of their new web-based services, I agreed.

via Technology Review: Blogs: Feld Thoughts: The Magic of Data Visualization.

Science review, tableau

Will Evans has written a fantastic treatise on Dynamic Visualization: introduction and Theory over at Semantic Foundry.  It discusses several classifications of visualizations and how they succeed, and how they fall.

The visualizations that are created must support the cognitive requirements such as pre-attentive processing, working memory, etc.. To do this, many of the same theories, strategies, and techniques are also duplicated in a dynamic visualization (Image Theory, the Gestalt Laws, verbal / visual dual-coding, etc.) Instead, I will give a brief overview of the literature, cognitive processes, and techniques that are unique to dynamic displays. This article is roughly organized into the following sections: Introduction, Dynamic Visualizations, and Conclusion, References, and Apologia.

via Dynamic Visualization: Introduction & Theory.

Science education, infovis, theory, visualization

Right on the heels of the recent announcement of Edward Tufte’s tour, Businessweek has gathered up some of his greatest work and combined it with descriptions of the depth of meaning he was able to bring to it.

Edward Tufte defies easy categorization. His academic training and work at Stanford, Princeton, and Yale span statistics, computer science, political economy, and design. Yet he is best known for what began as a cri de coeur, published in 1983 in the form of a meticulously elegant book: The Visual Display Of Quantitative Information. Tufte’s treatise—part academic text and part coffee-table book—takes aim at the confusing and just-plain-awful graphic design then proliferating in print and subsequently, on screen. In that first volume and in others since, Tufte shows how data visualization can be done well and how powerful it can be as a tool.

via The Vision of Edward Tufte: Data’s Visualization King – BusinessWeek.

Science example, tufte, visualization

e-on software has partnered with Maxon, Pixologic, 3D Total, 3Dconnexion, Cornucopia3D and 3D World Magazine to announce the 4th annual Vue 3D Environment competition.

Any version of Vue – including the Pioneer and the Personal Learning Edition (PLE) which are available at no charge- can be used to enter the competition (standalone or in combination with any other 3D application).

Judging will be based solely on the quality, realism and artistic merit of the entries, not on the version of Vue used to create them.

Winners will be announced at SIGGRAPH2009 and recieve part of an $11,000 collection of software.

The winner of the “Vue 3D Environment Competition 2009″ will receive a complete 3D arsenal worth over $6,500 including: Maxon Cinema4D XL Bundle ($2,495), Vue 7.5 xStream ($1,495), a 3D Total Mega Bundle (worth over $1,300), Pixologic ZBrush 3.1 – with free upgrade to ZBrush 4 ($595), 1 3Dconnexion SpaceExplorer ($299), 1 year subscription to 3D World magazine ($150), $100 voucher for Cornucopia3D content, and a 1 year subscription to 3D Creative and 2D Artist magazines ($81.2).

via Vue 3D Environment Competition 2009.

Science 3dconnexion, 3dtotal, contest, cornucopia3d, maxon, pixologic, siggraph, vue

An impressive video of a planetary implosion done by Mark Theriault while he worked for Blur over the course of three weeks.  The specs:

• Hand cut planet peices with MBFracture
• All destruction done in Pflow with a script from Bobo that places geo to particle location.
• Fire and smoke done with FumeFX
• Rendered with variety of solutions (vray,scanline,mentalray,krakatoa).
• Krakatoa was used for dust and etheral effects.

See the video after the break.

Read more…

Graphics 3dsmax, blur, breakdown, example, fumefx, krakatoa

Visualization guru Edward Tufte is traveling the US and offering a one-day lecture on “Presenting Data and Information”.  Topics covered include:

• fundamental strategies of analytical design
• evaluating evidence used in presentations
• statistical data: tables, graphics, and semi-graphics
• business, scientific, research, and financial presentations
• complexity and clarity
• effective presentations: on paper and in person
• interface design
• use of PowerPoint, video, overheads, and handouts
• multi-media, internet, and websites
• credibility of presentations
• animation and scientific visualizations
• many practical examples

Visit his website for a list of locations and more information.

Graphics, Science education, lecture, tour, tufte

NVidia presented a great tutorial on CUDA programming at the HPCMP User’s Group conference today.  The slides start with the basics of CUDA & GPGPU technology, and then spread out into some of their specialized CUDA libraries such as CUBLas and NVPP, and discuss several memory optimization strategies.  Definitely worth looking over if you’re a CUDA developer.

UPDATE: Now the slides are available on SlideShare for you to review before downloading.  View the 192slides, & download the 3MB PDF after the break.

Read more…

Science cuda, education, government, nvidia, powerpoint, tutorial

NVidia has just announced a slew of new mobile GPU’s using their 40nm manufacturing process, and boasting a new 128-bit GDDR5 memory controller.  The other oddity of this announcement is that the new chips are DirectX 10.1 compliant, which goes against NVidia’s previous claims that DirectX10.1 was ‘unimportant’.

Besides DirectX 10.1 and the 40-nm manufacturing process, the other new addition of significance is the new 128-bit GDDR5 memory controller used on the new GeForce GTS mobile GPUs. The use of GDDR5 should allow these chips to sport significant memory bandwidth figures while still utilizing a 128-bit memory interface and relatively tame clocks. Like DX10.1, this is another feature NVIDIA has had a change of heart on.

via NVIDIA launches new mobile GPUs – News and Siteseeing.

Hardware mobile, nvidia

Roger Federer is now tied with Pete Sampras for the record of Most Grand Slam Titles (14).  But how did each athlete get there?  It’s an interesting question that Dave Potsiadlo decided to answer.

Although the two athletes have arrived at the same destination, how do their respective journeys compare with one another? With this question fueling my curiosity, I set out to create a rich visualization of the data to add some depth to this story.

It’s a great graph, and his website contains a wealth of knowledge about its creation.  Done entirely in Adobe Illustrator, it’s not only a great reference on managing data and visualization, but on use of non-science products (illustrator) for graphing.

Visualizing Data: the Sampras & Federer Title Race – Intridea Design Blog.

Graphics, Science example, illustrator, infovis, sports

Recognizing that the best way to get data “to the people” is through interactive web2.0 websites with all the basics such as search, query, and visualization, The General Services Administration (GSA) issued a pre-solicitation notice thursday seeking an IT contractor to rebuild the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act website.

Specifically, the work will include updates and changes to the site’s user interface, information architecture and design engineering. According to GSA’s pre-solicitation, the contractor needs expertise in project management, and the ability to “deliver a website with interactive data-visualization, and web-application level functionality.”

via Feds want to build a better stimulus website – New Mexico Business Weekly:.

Science government, interactive, stimulus, web