Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with visual

I want to see what my code is doing

crosten — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 09:43:51 -0800

I am taking an entry-level college class in programming. We are using Javascript "playground" that works within a web browser. I am a visual learner and the textbook and exercises are useless to me. We're only six weeks in and I'm in the weeds. Is there a tool that shows what exactly is happening at each step in the Javascript code? I'm stuck at variables and we're now moving on. I'm afraid that if I don't "get" this, I will be left behind. Specifically, I have an issue with local and global variables and the difference between them. I see variables names being used in functions/modules that are not used elsewhere and it confuses me. I also don't get the passing of variables into functions/modules and how different things come out with different names. Is there a way (video/alternate language, etc.) to visually show what happens at each step?

Ideally, I would like to have two windows: one that shows the code and one that somehow illustrates what is happening in a friendly way, i.e. cute buckets holding the contents of variables and how they are passed around. I know there are programming languages for children. Would they have some relevance to someone learning Javascript?

Emerging Cuban artists in exile

brynnwood — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 15:23:37 -0800

Can you help me with Cuban musicians and/or artists who are still suffering from being banned/censored in Cuba? I've read that Celia Cruz and many others are no longer banned in Cuba. Are there still artists (either musicians or visual artists) that the country can't abide? I'm researching Cuban exiles and particularly interested in musicians and visual artists. I'm just getting started and not clear whether the censorship that was routine even ten years ago is still the norm within Cuba for those who live elsewhere but call Cuba home. Are there artists or musicians who live outside of Cuba who still struggle to be heard/seen in their country of origin, particularly emerging artists? I apologize if this is really a dumb question. My interest is sincere. Thanks much for your help.

A Lot of Monitors a Few Computers

Optamystic — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 07:07:51 -0800

I would like to run a lot of monitors (100+) with a few computers. Functionality isn't important, the visual is. It's for an art space. Any suggestions?

How creative is instructional design as a career?

jpritcha — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 21:16:05 -0800

How creative is instructional design? I'm finishing up a degree in visual communication design, but I have a keen interested in adult education. I am considering doing a masters in adult education and/or instructional design but I really don't know if the field of instructional design is for me. That being said, I looking at getting a job as an instructional assistant to see how it fits. I'd still like some feedback though.

I am quite creative and I enjoy visual communications/graphic design but I find myself craving a more analytic type of career. I have done some special projects in instructional design but I mainly focused on creating interesting visual aids and visual instruction. I understand that there is a major focus on creating objectives and outcomes alongside evaluating instruction, but I am wondering, how creative and/or visual is an instructional design career? Is it more of a "science" than an "art"? I do think I would enjoy the "science" behind instructional design, but I know that I am more passionate about the "art" side.

Encyclopedia of idea generation strategies?

jerwilkins — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:38:30 -0800

Is there an encyclopedia or wiki of idea generation and decision-making strategies? I've been working as a Scrum Master for my development team over the past few days, and I've noticed there's quite a body of idea generation and decision-making tools. I've found bits online, but wondered if anyone knew of books or more exhaustive wiki websites devoted to visual thinking and idea generation strategies.

Stressful afterimage?

kengraham — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:25:03 -0800

Who has experience with palinopsia and how can it be treated/managed?
My girlfriend has been experiencing really distressing visual symptoms for three weeks. An eye exam revealed nothing wrong. Since she also has physical symptoms commonly associated with stress, and is dealing with legitimately stressful shit, a visit to a general practitioner resulted in her being told her visual symptoms were stress-related.

She describes, in detail, having images of what she sees persist after turning away, and this is exacerbated by poor lighting. She's also experiencing photosensitivity. No history of neurological problems. She says the symptoms most closely resemble palinopsia.

YANMD, I understand, and she will be seeing one again soon. In the meantime, I am quite worried. What I would like to know is whether you have experienced similar symptoms, and whether stress is a plausible cause.

Accessing visual basic thesaurus

Neale — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:50:58 -0800

Is there a way of accessing the MS Thesaurus through independent Visual Basic applications built in Visual Basic Studio? If so, how? If not, what's the best way of accessing a thesaurus library using Visual Basic?

"KABOOM!" went the Death Star.

The otter lady — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:56:36 -0800

What are some examples of spectacular, climactic visuals... in text? You know the kind of thing I mean; the dark tower topples, the planet explodes, the Arc of the Covenant is opened, the ghosts break out of the containment grid, the anime hero triumphs in the final battle with flames and lightning and everything going everywhere... you can see all these incredible scenes in any sci-fi/fantasy/supernatural film or TV show, the kind of thing that breaks the filmmaker's budget and makes you go "WHOOHOO!"...

...but even though the imagination is the ultimate tool, it's a little harder to make flashy visuals through the medium of text. The best example I can think of from my own reading is the climax of "The Last Unicorn" which always gives me a shiver...

What are some other examples that you like for the best "Wow!" visuals in text? I want to be able to write good scenes like these, and I want examples to learn from!

What are these visual phenomena?

cdenman — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:16:16 -0800

I have the perfect question for the hive mind: Does anyone know the name for and reasoning behind the following visual phenomena: 1 The patterns you see when two fences (or any repeating "grid" of objects) pass each other (or appear to pass each other due to parallax) slightly out of phase. I was told the name for this and it bugs me that I've forgotten it. 2 The odd wobbling about you see in LED clocks when eating or (even more pronounced if you can do it) when "rolling" the letter R. The name is what I'm most interested in RE 1, and the reasoning for 2!

Microsoft Access and VBA

freddymetz — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 11:43:43 -0800

I want to learn Visual Basic and Microsoft Access. Where do I start, what resources and special tricks can you recommend and how do i learn it quickly and efficiently?

Web 101 Course Pack

TheGoodBlood — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:37:46 -0800

Internet as visual medium - Intro texts for college level? Asking for a friend.

She's teaching a generalist course at college level that's an intro to visual media. She has film, visual arts and photography covered, but needs some ideas for an engaging text about the Web as a visual medium. I guess super esoteric is not good, but challenging is good.

Thanks hivemind!

examples of song lyrics used in visual artworks?

aesop — Mon, 23 May 2011 03:55:43 -0800

Trying to find examples of musical lyrics being used in visual artworks (painting, print, film, etc). I immediately thought of Peter Blake to see if he'd done anything along those lines, but the pickings are slim - perhaps because of the copyright problems involved. So, not looking for a discussion of the copright problems, just those few examples where someone may have gone ahead anyway.

Also of interest - any 'visual reenactments' of lyrics that aren't what we ancients used to refer to as music videos. Thank you.

How do I turn my kids voices into images?

uauage — Sun, 08 May 2011 12:52:15 -0800

I have an audio recording of children playing. I want to take data from that recording (frequency? volume? something else?) and use those numbers to generate some sort of visual output. As you can see it's all very vague because I have no clue of:
a)what variables are found in an audio file
b)how to obtain them

I plan on using Processing for the visual part, but I need an idea on how and what to get from my audio.
Any advice on programs that could fit my case?
or info on the science of sounds. or something.
(this is close to what I would like to achieve using the data taken from the audio files: link )

Weird moving elevator buttons, why so blue?

greatgefilte — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 09:00:28 -0800

Why do the elevator buttons seem to be moving? My eyes deceive me! For the past month or so, I've noticed that whenever I'm in the elevator of my building and looking at the floor that's selected, I'm able to make the button move, visually, by focusing my eyes on it and moving my head. Try the same thing with the buttons that aren't on, and nothing happens.

Is this a known optical illusion? Does it have something to do with blue light in particular, or wearing glasses?

The buttons in question look a lot like these, only they're square.

Help a budding videographer

zachawry — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 21:18:30 -0800

I've got a Nikon D7000 to record video. I've got a Zoom H4n to record sound. I've got Adobe Premiere Pro (which I'm just learning) to put them together. What's the best way to go about recording and combining audio and visual during post to ensure easy (I really don't want this to be a pain in the neck, if possible) and effective synching? If it matters, I'll be recording musical performances in a controlled environment.

What are the best examples of stylized visual resumes?

nathaole — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 07:58:54 -0800

I'm looking for the best examples of stylized visual resumes. For example, I remember seeing a creative resume done in the style of a periodic table - perhaps on Metafilter? Google has turned up a lot of periodic tables, and a lot of resumes... but not quite what I had in mind.

I've also seen a lot of examples of what not to do.

Realizing there is a time and a place for resumes like this, please point me to those that you admire.

what if 'there will be blood' was in comic sans

nakedmolerats — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 14:23:56 -0800

I'm teaching visual arguments and want examples of how fonts (or spacing, but especially fonts), drastically change the 'message' of a visual piece. I thought about using Sporcle or Mental Floss's font quizzes in class as a way of showing that we have pretty ingrained notions about what kind of fonts accompany certain products, movies, etc. but I think a lot of the quiz things are not things my students will know (or will know from the logo rather than the font itself).

Ideally, I'm looking for either:
a) a website where I can type in something academic and show it in Star Wars font, action-movie font, etc. so they can see how the tone changes, or

b) a website with examples of ads or other visual things that use fonts in a humorous, unexpected, or inappropriate way, which will illustrate how fonts immediately introduce some expectation of the genre/situation.

I'm also interested in showing them how the manipulation of blank or empty space changes a message, but this might be easier to come up with on my own.

My Google-fu hasn't turned up quite what I'm looking for. Any suggestions (or other similar ideas besides the ones I listed?) Thanks!

What is a good visual symbol that conveys strength, determination, willpower, character, conviction and perseverance?

Cool Papa Bell — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 13:06:03 -0800

What is a good visual symbol that conveys strength, willpower, character, determination, conviction and perseverance? Imagine you were building a Web site, starting a company, getting a tattoo, or creating an artwork, and you needed a visual symbol to convey these feelings to the viewer:

Strength, willpower, character, conviction and perseverance.

Ideas?

Could be anything -- but I'm looking for more than just cliches, more than just Chinese characters used for tattoos or the "play like a champion today" sign at Notre Dame.

Help a visual artist improve her mailing list

leslies — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:12:46 -0800

I'm looking for recommendations on email marketing software. I'm a visual artist sending out periodic e-newsletters. I know about Constant Contact but am wondering what else is out there. I've googled but want to hear about your experiences - what's great, what's meh? I'm on a mac and obviously want to be able to send jpegs but what other features should I be looking for? Bonus points for ease of embedding sign-up on my soon to be revamped website. Last time this was answered was a couple years ago so I'm assuming things may have changed with new versions.

How can I file documents visually?

HopStopDon'tShop — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:12:07 -0800

How can I visually file my documents? Is there a way that I can use flowcharts and other visual tools to file documents? I would like to be able to open this tool and see, for example, a corporate tree - I could then click on one of the corporations and it would show links to corporate documents, correspondence, invoices and then contracts with links to other companies that it had contracts with. I could click on those contracts or go straight to those companies themselves, where the same thing would happen.

I would expect this tool to simply be pointing to another place where these documents were filed in a more standard way.

What's the solution? Is it just html or something similar? Is there anything out there that's designed to do stuff like this and make it easy for someone with zero IT skills?

Appreciate your insights on a health problem

gibbsjd77 — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:54:32 -0800

I have a crazy health issue/issues and wonder if any of you brilliant people can give me any insights or advice. Thanks for your time. Alright, where to begin, I have had "persistent Migraine Aura, or visual snow" nonstop for a little over a year. It sucks and it's nonstop, but I have been unable to find any promising treatment for it. Anyone familiar with treatment or that has personal experience with it, please let me know.

Second, I am on the following medicines and wonder if you are familiar with a side effect that I am having. It did not start when I began any of these meds, but it is fairly unpleasant now and I want to know if quitting these might help.

Lamictal 300mg a day (migraines and depression)
Propranolol 120mg extended release (migraines and tremor)
Nefazodone 200 mg a day (depression)
Ativan as needed for anxiety, very rarely taken

My latest issues are with clear thinking and thinking of the proper word. I used to be able to think sharply for most of the day and usually late into the night. Now it seems like I have to get everything just right to get a few hours of sharp, clear thinking. Also, I have a very difficult time thinking of the correct word to say in a sentence. Not just difficult words, but words that must make me seem mentally slow to the people that I'm speaking with. I don't know if this junk is from the medicines/medicne or if it's somehow related to the PMA that I referenced earlier. I probably sound winey and like a big complainer, but this has made my life more miserable than I can explain. I used to be so sharp and always speak perfectly with others and had great self-confidence, but after all this has happened My confidence is shot and I feel dumb a lot and like I can't handle doing the things that can make me fulfill my dreams and become successful. My family has been great through this in helping me, but it makes me feel all the worse, because I now doubt myself to the extent that I wonder if I can make it again in the real world. I never used to think that before all of this. Thanks for taking the time to read my rant here. It feels good to vent sometimes, but seriously if you have any experience with these issues, or advice I'd love to hear it. Thanks and have a great day!

Create UML from source code?

mcarthey — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:10:44 -0800

What is the best tool to generate UML diagrams from pre-existing code in Eclipse and/or Visual Studio? I'd also like to reverse engineer the code from an existing UML diagram, if possible. I don't have a problem with this being a stand-alone product as long as it can read the source code files (.java or .cs). I realize there are a lot of tools out there, but I'm looking for ease of use and cost. Bonus if it can plug into Eclipse since this would allow me to use it with my PortableApps version, as well.

How do I graph/chart this information in a way that tells the whole story?

laskagirl — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:10:13 -0800

I need to graph/chart the information below, but I am not sure what format tells the whole story. Can you help? My company has a lot of meetings with foreign nationals. Various suboffices within the company and occasionally the head of the company conduct these meetings with varying numbers of foreign associates. We want to graph/chart/visually capture this activity in a way that shows:

* What offices in our company are conducting the meetings
* WHEN they are conducting them (I'd like to have either the x or y axis be the months of the year, so we can see our annual coverage)

I can do a regular graph in PowerPoint that includes the numbers of foreign nationals met with and categorizes our internal agencies by color. OK.

But here's what I can't seem to capture: The numbers or frequency of some offices' meetings don't really tell the whole story. The head of the company's meetings are clearly more significant than the others. He might have just one meeting with just one foreign partner, but that meeting can be more significant for our company than countless weekly working meetings some other section has.

Final information: The reasons we are making this chart are 1) to capture what we do to see where our coverage is and where we may have gaps 2) to prioritize our resources.

So, graphic information specialists and other Mefites, what do you think? How can I meaningfully display this data in one graph?

Thanks!

"...try as we may to make a silence, we cannot." - John Cage

regicide is good for you — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:47:54 -0800

What visual artists are known (or would you say should be) for use of white space / negative space? From any era, working in any medium. I'd also be interested in any exemplary works even if their creator wasn't otherwise known for reliance on white space.

Academic citations in a visual arrangement

b33j — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:52:43 -0800

I want to be able to map visually how citations of a common academic article are linked in other ways. I'm looking for a visual connecting and mapping system like Gnod or LivePlasma but for academic references.

Say for instance Jo Bloggs writes a very important article about online communities. Searching for academic articles about online communities, Google scholar shows Jo Bloggs' article first in the list, and notes that 100 people have cited her. John Smith, Kelly Brown and Kim Jones also have written good stuff and they follow her in the list.

I would like to see a visual mapping system that puts Jo Bloggs and her article in the centre, and surrounds her either wtih Smith, Brown and Jones OR with those people who have cited her article (which may well include Smith, Brown and Jones, of course).

Is there anything out there that does that? One of the reasons I want to see this is because I can not think of a reasonable analog way to track the citations of the citations of a work which has 160 known citations. Or hopefully in better English, if Bloggs has 160 citations, I'd like to see the next most important or most quoted article (and several layers down) about the same topic that also cites Bloggs, and the most quoted other authors.

It needn't be free, but it should be quite cheap. Is there anything that does this? Remember, visual connections, not just lists. And quoting Clyde Mnestra about LivePlasma, it should be able to"re-center the web by clicking on another displayed [academic] you liked"