Anatoly Zenkov provides this nifty tool (Mac and PC) to track your mouse pointer. Really simple. Just start it, let it run, minimize the window, and carry on as usual. In the end, you get this image that looks something like a Pollock. Circles show areas where the pointer didn't move while the tracks show movement.

The above is my own activity during the past couple of hours. I was just randomly browsing while watching the Laker game, so it's kind of all over the place. Run while using a single application for a while, and you might see something like Zenkov's tracks on Photoshop.

What do your tracks look like?

[via feltron]

What followed was a long thread of emails that (entertaining) morning. This is that email thread. It got ugly quick (and kind of inappropriate towards the end). Let this be a lesson to you site administrators.

Here are some links and stuff to chew on as you wait for the Super Bowl, in between the beer, pizza, and wings.

Pink Floyd Timeline, 1960-2000 - A highly stylized timeline of music from Pink Floyd over the years.

The making of the NYT’s Netflix graphic - The interactive showing the geography of Netlfix rentals was a big hit around the Web. Detailed, engaging, interesting, and a great ad for Netflix.

An Interview With Nicholas Felton, Creator of the Feltron Annual Report - It manages to make a bigger splash every month. Felton gets into some of the details of compiling the report [thanks, Mike].

Multiplayer Basketball - Nothing to do with data or visualization. Just pure, simple multiplayer fun [via Waxy].

If you're an undergraduate with an interest in data and statistics, you should definitely consider applying to this one-week summer program: Explorations in Statistics Research. It's in Boulder, Colorado and your travel expenses, along with room and board, will be covered.

The seven day workshop is designed so that students get a sense of how statisticians approach large, complex problems. Several different topics will be presented over the course of the week.

You'll also get hands-on experience with computing and visualization tools. Basically, you're going to have fun with data when you're there.

And since three of the four organizers are either past or current advisers of mine, I can tell you first-hand that you're going to learn some cool stuff during the workshop.

Get your application in now. The deadline is March 3.

In case the in-flight pamphlet isn't enough for you, everything on this Kulula airplane is labeled for your convenience.

Look, there's even a spot to put your boots. So convenient.

[Thanks, Fernando]

Back in May last year, the US government launched Data.gov as a statement of transparency, and the Internet rejoiced. After the launch, excitement kind of fizzled with the actual Data.gov site, but big cities like San Francisco, New York, and Toronto got in on the open data party.

Then just a couple of weeks ago, Data.gov.uk launched, which brought me back to the US counterpart. How do the two compare? Here's my take.

Behind the Application

The two applications are very similar on the surface. They catalog government data. Look a little closer though, and you'll see that they're actually really different in purpose, design, and end results. These key differences stem directly from those who were involved in the creation of each.

Data.gov: According to FAQ, it was developed by the Federal CIO Council, as in Chief Information Officers Council. Here's their main role in government, which sounds a lot like information science:

The CIO Council serves as the principal interagency forum for improving practices in the design, modernization, use, sharing, and performance of Federal Government agency information resources.

Data.gov.uk: It was a much more tech-oriented operation from the UK side with Tim Berners-Lee and Nigel Shadbolt advising. Shadbolt is a professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Southampton and Berners-Lee is credited with inventing the World Wide Web.

Winner: Toss up. While the computer science backgrounds can lead to good implementation, the information science crew took on organizing the many many US agencies. However the UK had the Web inventor. Yeah, gotta give the edge to the UK.

Data

Now let's get into the actual data. When Data.gov first launched there were only forty something datasets, but the collection has since grown to several hundred. Data.gov.uk, on the other hand, started with a few hundred.

Data.gov: It links directly to data files in various formats including CSV, XML, Excel, and KML. A lot seems to be lacking though. For example, there's no basic demographic data like population from the Census Bureau. You think that's where they'd start. Maybe the Open Government Directive, which instructs Executive departments to publish three "high-value" data sets, might help this along.

Data.gov.uk: Instead of hosting the data, the UK took a link catalog approach. To the end user this doesn't make a huge difference. As long as you get the data, you're good, but from a developer standpoint, it's a lot easier to catalog links than files.

Winner: Data.gov.uk. A quick browse through the available data sets on both sites will show you the wider range of topics on Data.gov.uk.

Design and Usability

One looks like a government website. The other sports a more modern design.

Data.gov: At launch, Data.gov didn't look all that bad to me, but then I tried to use the site and find some data. The main flaw I saw was in the data browser. I wasn't looking for a particular data set. I just wanted to browse, so I'd select an agency and search. The problem is that a lot of the listed agencies don't have any data cataloged.

Data.gov.uk: Navigation through the site was very familiar using common netspeak like tags and apps. I felt more engaged.

Winner: Data.gov.uk. Both could use a data preview though.

Projects

Data.gov: Other than the "join the dialogue" section on a separate domain and the pitch on the homepage, Data.gov makes little effort to highlight or promote any projects that use the data from the site. The focus is on a repository. What you do with the data doesn't seem to matter much. At least Sunlight Labs is making an effort.

Data.gov.uk: Lists recent apps and has an idea submission section. They clearly want you to use the data with a developer-centric approach.

Winner: Data.gov.uk. It's all about engaging with data over creating a catalog.

Bottom Line

While Data.gov.uk was just recently launched publicly, it has many advantages over Data.gov. It's easier to use and geared towards developers, who, let's face it, are the only ones who are going to do more with the data than open it up in Excel. Data.gov has some catching up to do. Both still have a long way to go. Both are good steps in the right direction.

Just a quick update for those who ordered the World Progress Report. It's been with the printer this past week, and I expect to have the prints physically in my hands tomorrow. I'll start mailing them out as soon as I get them. Thanks for your patience.

By the way, together we raised around $2k for Haiti earthquake relief. Way to go, FD readers.

Update (2/5/10) - First batch of prints went out today.

NPR shows projected employment changes from 2008 to 2018. Large circles represent major employment sectors and are sized by current employment numbers. Smaller circles are areas in the respective category.

Oddities

Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me, but the sizes of the large sectors look funky. For example, is the bubble for Education, health, and social services really ten times the size of the bubble for Information? I don't think so (and it should be).

It'd probably aslo be worth distinguishing between negative and positive growth. You know something simple like making the 0% line solid or color-coding the declining sectors.

What do you think?

[via The Big Picture | Thanks, Barry]

Are you using the most efficient typing technique or are your fingers jumping all over the keyboard? If it's the latter, I implore you - there is a better way. Your arms don't have to be tired after typing for ten minutes, and you just might finish that novel before the end of the decade. See these finger movement diagrams form Weather Sealed if you don't believe me.

The above shows the amount of finger movement with the two-fingered peck. The thicker the line, the more your fingers travel to and from the end points.

Here's the diagram for touch typing, the beginner technique that you learn from Mavis Beacon. You always return to that home row in the middle.

Forget the return home, and you're a typing wizard.

See the diagrams for all the other techniques over on Weather Sealed.

In other news, I just found out Mavis Beacon isn't even a real person. What the heck? I feel cheated.

[Thanks, Steve]

President Obama announced his 2011 budget proposal. How does it compare to last year's budget? Shan Carter and Amanda Cox of The New York Times compare the two plans. Red indicates a decrease in the percentage of the budget dedicated to the respective area, and green is for growth. Zoom in for a better view of the smaller areas.

Big decreases for Medicaid grants, veteran benefits, and unemployment insurance. Major increase for education, Medicare, and administration of justice.

This of course takes budget forecasting into account, which Ms. Cox shows isn't all that accurate sometimes.

[via @nytgraphics]