Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from February, 2011

Four qualities of good graphical visualisations

1. Show the data without distorting it. 2. Present a large amount of data and remain coherent. 3. The technique used to create the graphic should not interfere with the user reasoning about the data.  4. Reveal both a broad overview of the data, but keep enough detail for the curious viewer.

Why not discard top level domains (TLD)?

During the past few years, I've noticed an increase in the use of customized and abstract top level domain (TLD) names, such as bit. ly , bu. mp , babyli. st , etc. Even Microsoft recently registered bi. ng , and .42 has also been created. (UPDATE: Thanks to commenter tjogin for pointing out that they in fact are all country TLDs. .ly > Libya, .st->São Tomé and Príncipe, etc.) Until recently, I believed that top level domains were few, and that each served its purpose ( .com for commercial use, .edu for education, .gov for the US government, etc). The increase in usage of non-.com TLDs made me think that they are not a limitation, but that we can change them almost freely, presumed we have the knowledge to do it (Please, correct me if I am wrong and forgive my ignorance). Isn't it possible to make TLDs optional (or hidden)? Then typing just the readable part of the domain - second level domain - (e.g. google instead of google.com ) could send you to the the a