ejfox

I couldn't find a link in the article- is the presentation available online somewhere?

As a human, you are more able to handle hallucinations than you think. If you see a bear off in the distance, in real life do you freak out and drive off the road? No. You just remark at it. "Holy shit a bear in the distance!"

When you're on acid, you don't change as a person, your reactions don't change. If you see something weird you say "woah, that's weird" but, unless you're deep in a trip and forget you are on a substance, you can usually handle it like a normal person.

The feedback from other dataviz people is such an important part of it, and it's hard because we are all so separated geographically and in different companies.

When I make a new project, I'm lucky enough to have a small group of people who are in the business who I can trust to give me feedback. But I've spent years cultivating that group, and it's not really fair to newcomers who want feedback on their first work, or just want to lurk and listen to the experts debate things (which is what I usually do on HN). That's all private or hard-to-find now, which is a problem.

This is not so much as a design trend as a designer's in-joke that is getting more attention than it deserves. While more dimensionality vs. texture and gradients for depth is definitely where things are going and this is part of it, it's like saying coughs are the new trend while there's a flu epidemic. If you're stuck emulating little techniques like this to stay current you're doing it wrong.

"Previous practitioners of civil disobedience clearly thought that submission to punishment was necessary for their actions to be justified."

I never got this sense, let alone thought of it as clear. Can you explain?

"If MLK decided to break a traffic law in order to speak out against segregation, he surely would accepted the punishment for this violation of the law."

Would he? And even so, would he do it because he thought otherwise his actions would be unjustified?

I'd love to read more about how you use Anki. I've been using it for random things like the NATO phonetic alphabet or state capitals, but I've been wanting to try and create my own decks. I've just been having trouble wrapping my mind around how to turn knowledge like a library's documentation into cards. Any tips?

I love these stories as well and would love to read more. Is there a central place to find more? Or would someone care to drop some links my way?

I think there’s a big place for a Kickstarter for journalism- consumers pay to get the news that they want to hear. I saw this most during the Occupy actions last year. Livestreamers would go out and cover events in their cities, funded through donations. People found livestreamers whose actions and viewpoints got them their news best, and then paid them directly. I’m sure a lot of them felt the thrill of hearing their name thanked over a livestream watched by 1000s. But others were simply paying for journalism- and in a way big news organizations are not prepared to replicate. These weren’t micropayments, but (often) funding of specific things. This month’s cell phone bill, a better camera for better video, a light to see the action better. The connection between spending your money and the results it brings needs to be tight. Watsi knows this about philanthropy and executes perfectly. Maybe we need something similar to that for journalism. This doesn’t leave much room for profit, but I often prefer news sources without profit as a primary goal (Mother Jones, NPR, et al.)

This is similar to the change the music industry is going through. There will always be enough money to fund the creation of good music and good journalism. The question is how it will be distributed in the future, and whether those industries will still generate the profit they used to.

Musicians now release their albums independently for free or cheap, and then make their cash from live shows and selling merchandise. This directly funds the artist, but doesn’t leave room for a record company to take it’s cut. This freaks out the music industry exactly the way the journalism industry is freaking out. I think we are shifting away from following organizations for our news to following individuals and funding them directly. Talking to them on Twitter. Impacting what they cover next. As much as big news organizations try to imitate this, it’s never the same as talking to and donating to an independent journalist. Like the difference between seeing your favorite band in a tight little club and at a stadium. There might not be enough profit around to fund big newsrooms full of reporters at desks, but I am pretty sure there will be enough money for reporters to make a living, especially if they can come together in collectives in coworking spaces like the leanest of start-ups do.

Hello I'd like your data please.

Makes sense to me. Lightened up the background a bit- any better? https://github.com/ejfox/happybirthdaytributary/commit/dc189...

What would you improve? Always looking for useful feedback!

Cheers

I experimented with http://rifff.com/ a bit for crowdsourcing feedback. I got some great detailed feedback, but I think the site is more prone to X vs. Y questions, which are helpful as well.

Thanks so much. Would love to hear more of your thoughts about potential uses, I've been struggling to think of examples to make.

I wish that this was retina-ready because it sounds like two billion pixels is what this machine was made for.

Tell that to Canada.

"People in San Francisco really saw the vision more," he says.

"New Yorkers tend to be a lot more competitive whereas people in Silicon Valley, I think of them as more ambitious."

--

One thing I noticed when I moved to the bay area from New York is I experienced something similar. A critical part of my process is running my ideas and designs by "normal people". It's easy to get caught up in a technology-centered idealistic mindset because it surrounds San Francisco like a bubble. There are some ideas that friends in San Francisco might say "Oh that sounds great! I know of an API/Library/start-up doing something that might be able to help you!" but friends in New York might say "People want that? You can make money off that?"and that is healthy. Sometimes those questions are asked much too late in the process.

In SV you get an insular market of products where you have start-ups that serve needs that really only other start-ups have. Or you end up building your product only for the tech-savvy folks you are always surrounded by in the valley. And that's not necessarily a bad thing but I think many of us hope to serve more people than what is essentially a tiny swatch of the world.

On the one hand, like the founder of that quote, I think it's nice to be surrounded by the ambitious atmosphere of SV. But it's also nice to be surrounded by a money-centric cynical realism that comes, I think, from NY's finance roots and the skepticism & cynicism in it's blood.

SEEKING WORK - Remote, NY area, SF

Hi, I'm EJ Fox and I specialize in data visualization design and interaction. I create both static Infographics using Illustrator as well as interactive dataviz using D3/HTML/CSS3. I'm always looking to solve exciting new visualization problems, and nothing makes me happier than a client with an enormous dataset.

Proficient in Photoshop, Illustrator, HTML, CSS3, jQuery, Coffeescript. Familiar with Node.js, MongoDB, Cinema 4d, hi-DPI & responsive web design.

Looking to combine my dataviz knowledge and front end developer skills in an interesting project/company with cool people.

Find me at ejfox.com - email: ejfox@ejfox.com - portfolio: portfolio.ejfox.com - GitHub link on my site.

Cheers!

First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the socialists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

Can you expand on what you mean by "break the web"?

Dude, I really liked the story. I'm glad you wrote it and had this experience. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt while reading the comments, but your phrase "It would mean that our designs are simple enough for a homeless person to use!" really, really, REALLY rubs me the wrong way. Whether you notice it or not, whether you intend it or not, you are sounding incredibly patronizing to other human beings. It makes you sound sheltered and ignorant. Both in the way you phrase your story (Homeless people can be interesting?!?!) and in this concept that designs would need to be "simple" or someone who is homeless to use.

I suggest spending a LOT more time outside talking to strangers if you think you need to "simplify" things for homeless people. Talking to and helping a homeless person does not make for a blog post in my life, and many other people's lives.

Imagine replacing "homeless" for any other adjective. "It would mean our designs are simple enough an asian to use!" "It would mean our designs are simple enough an MIT student could use it!"

It's offensive.

I like the infographic showing the series of events, definitely goes a long way in terms of aiding transparency. I wonder if it could be a new trend?

I wrote a little post about why I'm so excited about Tributary here: http://ejfox.tumblr.com/post/22615208842

What I think is really cool is how many applications it could potentially have, from education to performance.

I wanted to make a poster of this for myself so I did. Sharing in case anyone else might wanna use it, you're more than welcome. All respect to Paul Graham & Bronnie Ware.

There's a 26" x 39" poster version, in case you happen to have a big-ass printer around, and an 8.5" x 11" smaller version if you're normal. http://cloud.ejfox.com/G1IE

Also available in black: http://cloud.ejfox.com/G1Wm