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ptvan

17 karma · joined August 25, 2011

Financial analyst turned designer of #dataviz @visually | neuroscience enthusiast
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ptvan··on Realtors Are in Crisis–and Home Buyers Could Be the Winners
The buyer provides the funds that allow the transaction to proceed, so yes, the buyer does pay for both commissions. Absent realtor fees, both the buyer and seller would net a better deal.

I did study for the real estate licenses in California and Nevada. The textbook for the course explicitly recommended that seller's agents tell the seller that the buyer pays the fees, and buyer's agents tell the buyer that the seller pays the fees.... to distract from this price-fixing scam.

ptvan··on Global land temperatures since 1900 visualized
Here's the Land vs. Ocean plot in addition to the hemisphere plot.

I'd like to incorporate this bar chart, because I saw some tweets claiming that this project is evidence that global warming is not real. That annoys me.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/service/global/glob/201301-201...

And yes, we will write a post on what we learned in making it!

ptvan··on What we've learned from a year of live coding
i'm wondering if we can first explictly state the objective by which this is being judged, mistakes or successes assigned
ptvan··on What we've learned from a year of live coding
i think some people may not get that the header itself is a tributary math example ... link it up? ;)

theres a difference between creating pixel perfect polished marketing sites and showcasing an evolving prototyping tool

ptvan··on What we've learned from a year of live coding
as a designer (not a coder as much), tributary helps me realize my concepts quicker by helping with some of the technical stuff like automagically linking csv and json files. my go-to workflow is finding a d3.js example (e.g. from bostock's blocks http://bost.ocks.org/mike/ ) that has some components in common with what i want to accomplish, and then hacking/repurposing it to get what i need. sharing my tributary inlets makes it super easy to get feedback on what im doing wrong, and changing variables with sliders is now difficult to live without.

being able to change the parameters of animations/simulations and see the results in real time is pretty incredible.

ptvan··on Things about being a founder I wish I knew years ago
"For God's sake, no NDAs please."

amen brother!

ptvan··on Confessions of A Job Destroyer
I found the full version of the comic http://fatpita.net/?i=1952
ptvan··on Confessions of A Job Destroyer
for those contemplating a dystopian future, it's good to remember that great comic from http://www.recombinantrecords.net/2009/05/24/amusing-ourselv...

unfortunately, they had to take it down, but here's the punchline: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kt5pgoInM81qaoem1o1_r1_500...

I think in the west, we're mainly controlled by entertainment, not violence. (I guess you could call it intellectual/emotional violence.) http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kt5pgoInM81qaoem1o1_r1_500...

ptvan··on Interactive visualization of self-immolations in Tibet
Glad you guys like the link.. it's a sad story.

It was also an opportunity to learn TileMill (mapbox.com/tilemill) to generate that styled map.. I recommend checking it out if you like maps/geodata.

ptvan··on Visual.ly opens it's doors for infographic creation.
This is a valid concern that hinges on the predictability and consistency of the data being used.

There are two approaches to visualiation: exploratory - When you don't know what the data looks like, you use this to find out what's there. expository - When you do know the data, you can use this approach, which is what the Twitter and Facebook infographics are. We designed the templates around the known scale and range of the data.

If these templates don't work for you, there's additional variety and customization to come that will abide by standards of analysis and visualization.. :)

ptvan··on Visual.ly opens it's doors for infographic creation.
We exist to make software that makes infographics and visualizations so that the designers can move on to next-level work like doing more research, better analysis, more interactivity. We coordinate these projects, but don't make infographics ourselves.