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DocuBurst: Visualizing Document Content using Language Structure
Christopher Collins, Sheelagh Carpendale, and Gerald Penn

Abstract
DocuBurst is the first visualization of document content which takes advantage of the human-created structure in lexical databases. We use an accepted design paradigm to generate visualizations which improve the usability and utility of WordNet as the backbone for document content visualization. A radial, space-filling layout of hyponymy (IS-A relation) is presented with interactive techniques of zoom, filter, and details-on-demand for the task of document visualization. The techniques can be generalized to multiple documents.

HCIL Overview

The Human-Computer Interaction lab has a long, rich history of transforming the experience people have with new technologies. From understanding user needs, to developing and evaluating those technologies, the lab’s faculty, staff, and students have been leading the way in HCI research and teaching.

We believe it is critical to understand how the needs and dreams of people can be reflected in our future technologies. To this end, the HCIL develops advanced user interfaces and design methodology. Our primary activities include collaborative research, publication and the sponsorship of open houses, workshops and symposiums.

the prefuse visualization toolkit

Prefuse is a set of software tools for creating rich interactive data visualizations. The original prefuse toolkit provides a visualization framework for the Java programming language. The prefuse flare toolkit provides visualization and animation tools for ActionScript and the Adobe Flash Player.

Prefuse supports a rich set of features for data modeling, visualization, and interaction. It provides optimized data structures for tables, graphs, and trees, a host of layout and visual encoding techniques, and support for animation, dynamic queries, integrated search, and database connectivity. Prefuse is written in Java, using the Java 2D graphics library, and is easily integrated into Java Swing applications or web applets. Prefuse is licensed under the terms of a BSD license, and can be freely used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.

the flare visualization toolkit

ActionScript 3 libraries for interactive visualizations on the web.

Flare is a collection of ActionScript 3 classes for building a wide variety of interactive visualizations. For example, flare can be used to build basic charts, complex animations, network diagrams, treemaps, and more. Flare is written in the ActionScript 3 programming language and can be used to build visualizations that run on the web in the Adobe Flash Player. Flare applications can be built using the free Adobe Flex SDK or Adobe's Flex Builder IDE. Flare is based on prefuse, a full-featured visualization toolkit written in Java. Flare is open source software licensed under the terms of the BSD license, and can be freely used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.

Flare Visualization Toolkit

Flare is a collection of ActionScript 3 classes for building a wide variety of interactive visualizations. Written by Jeff Heer, flare can be used to build basic charts, complex animations, network diagrams, treemaps, and more. Flare is written in the ActionScript 3 programming language and can be used to build visualizations that run on the web in the Adobe Flash Player.

More information can be found on the official Flare site.
Prefuse Visualization Toolkit

Prefuse is a set of software tools for creating rich interactive data visualizations. Written by Jeff Heer, this toolkit supports a rich set of features for data modeling, visualization, and interaction. It provides optimized data structures for tables, graphs, and trees, a host of layout and visual encoding techniques, and support for animation, dynamic queries, integrated search, and database connectivity.

Please visit the official Prefuse site for more information. The toolkit can be downloaded here.

This is a 20-hour version of our 40hr. course (Criminal Interrogation and Confessions) This is an abridged version that covers the highlights of the Reid Technique of interviewing and interrogation, offering an approach based around psychological principles. Examines interrogation as an easy nine-step process, with a chapter addressing the timely issue of distinguishing between true and false confessions.

Microsoft EXCEL Pivot Table Links & SEARCH

Using Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts in Microsoft Excel

The Excel Nexus provides the ultimate guide to spreadsheet resources on the web. It is not just a list of websites! It is a dynamic directory, carefully organized into specific categories.

If you run a website related to Excel, we invite you to submit your link(s) to the most applicable category.

An Excel 97-2003 Tutorial:
Use Benford's Law with Excel
To Improve Business Planning

Benford's Law addresses an amazing characteristic of data. Not
only does his formula help to identify fraud, it could help you to
improve your budgets and forecasts.

by Charley Kyd
July, 2007
(Email Comments)

(Follow this link for the Excel 2007 version.)

Unless you're a public accountant, you probably haven't experimented with Benford's Law.

Auditors sometimes use this fascinating statistical insight to uncover fraudulent accounting data. But it might reveal a useful strategy for investing in the stock market. And it might help you to improve the accuracy of your budgets and forecasts.

This article will explain Benford's Law, show you how to calculate it with Excel, and suggest ways that you could put it to good use.

From a hands-on-Excel point of view, the article describes new uses for the SUMPRODUCT function and discusses the use of local and global range names.

Hello Square Pie Chart!
Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

In one of my recent posts, I had pointed out some bad choices for data visualizations in the BusinessWeek magazine. By no means do I have it “out” for them. I am an avid reader and will continue to support their magazine and website. This post aims at pointing out a great job by Jessi Hempel, the Innovative Department editor for BusinessWeek, for her creative graphical display on page six of the IN section in the June 11, 2007 issue. Below is a thumbnail of the series of charts, which graphically illustrates who participates in different activities on the Internet by age grouping. data visualization



Here are some things that impress me about these graphs:

· Easy to read

· Easy to see scale

· Can quickly see trends

· Brief explanations to ensure understanding of groups

· Use of colors to delineate different levels of use



By “squaring the pie” a phrase used in a post by Juice Analytics, Jessi takes this data visualization to the next level. It would have been easy to put the percentages into a line graph or bar chart, but this representation is both eye-catching and innovative. Edward Tufte may not agree with my assessment because the graphs may be construed as distracting (chartjunk), but I like it.



IN Data Chart



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About DataPig Technologies

DataPig Technologies was founded in 2004 by Mike Alexander to help the Data Analyst community accelerate learning and improve skills. In subsequent years, DataPig Technologies has helped organizations across various industries enhance data analytics and gain better insight into data.

Mike Alexander is a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) and author of 7 books on advanced business analysis with Microsoft Access and Excel. He has more than 14 years experience consulting and developing Office solutions.

Making Charts in Microsoft Excel.

This is a set of tutorials about charting in Microsoft Excel. The first tutorial is the most basic, an introduction to making charts. Follow up tutorials deal with formatting parts of the chart, updating charts with additional or changing data, advanced techniques and tricks, and automating charts with VBA. These tutorials are companion pieces to the many charting examples on this web site. The first time through these tutorials, the neophyte may wish to stay on the basic tutorial pages, without straying too deeply into the more detailed pages.

Online invoicing service FreshBooks released a new version of its software yesterday and included an interesting new component that I think is a sign of things to come. Users are now asked if they would like to identify what industry they work in and contribute to aggregate data collection by sector. Participants will be able to see how much other web designers, for example, are charging per job, how much they make per month and are how quickly invoices are being paid. Those who participate will be able to access their individual averages over time and be notified whether or not their performance is improving relative to others. FreshBooks will find the top users in various fields and interview them for tips on their success.

From gambling site PicksPal to the talent hunt that viral video is becoming - leveraging the value offered by top users of any system is becoming an important trend.

Toronto based FreshBooks is approaching 100,000 registered users and will allow users to identify themselves as belonging to 86 specific sectors across 12 different industries ranging from web professionals to financial services, non profit and health care.

There are a lot of data mining possibilities here and the company is exploring options beyond invoice size, monthly income and turnaround time. I really like this idea and by making it opt-in I think the company is really doing it right. You can imagine a larger service provider making industry identification mandatory, selling that information to outside parties and generally making a mess of privacy and other concerns.

This new feature joins other interesting value adds to Freshbooks, including an API and integration with pay-as-you go CRM service PipelineDeals. We first wrote about Freshbooks here. See also competitors BillMyClients and Blinksale.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Inflation Conversion Factors for Dollars 1665 to Estimated 2016
by Robert Sahr
Consumer Price Index (CPI) conversion factors to determine the value of dollars of 1665 to estimated 2016 in dollars of 2006 (estimated), 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, CPI (1982-84), and two special CPI measures, CPI-U-X1 (starting 1950), and CPI-U-RS (starting 1947).
To ease understanding of the value of dollar figures over time, the materials on this page “re-base” the official CPI from its current 1982-84 average base (= 1.000) to dollars of more recent years (for example, 2005 = 1.000).
All tables (but not all graphs) have been revised to reflect final 2005 price levels and early 2006 inflation estimates.
Basic tables for 2005 were revised January 18, 2006, using final 2005 CPI, released that day by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most graphs in the price levels and the US economy section were revised January 23, 2006, to reflect final 2005 CPI.
The summary Excel file was revised March 10 and updated April 12, 2006, using the inflation estimates for 2006 and later years published by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Tables for all other-year conversion factors were revised April 12, 2006, and minor corrections made May 25, 2006.

A phenomenological law also called the first digit law, first digit phenomenon, or leading digit phenomenon. Benford's law states that in listings, tables of statistics, etc., the digit 1 tends to occur with probability ∼30%, much greater than the expected 11.1% (i.e., one digit out of 9). Benford's law can be observed, for instance, by examining tables of logarithms and noting that the first pages are much more worn and smudged than later pages (Newcomb 1881). While Benford's law unquestionably applies to many situations in the real world, a satisfactory explanation has been given only recently through the work of Hill (1996).

Benford's law was used by the character Charlie Eppes as an analogy to help solve a series of high burglaries in the Season 2 "The Running Man" episode (2006) of the television crime drama NUMB3RS.

Benford's Law is named for the late Dr. Frank Benford, a physicist at the General Electric Company. In 1938 he noticed that pages of logarithms corresponding to numbers starting with the numeral 1 were much dirtier and more worn than other pages.

(A logarithm is an exponent. Any number can be expressed as the fractional exponent -- the logarithm -- of some base number, such as 10. Published tables permit users to look up logarithms corresponding to numbers, or numbers corresponding to logarithms.)