February 17, 2005

Video: Miranda Climbs High Chair

Miranda climbing high chairHere's a video of Miranda climbing her "antique" high chair -- the one that Grandpa B refinished for her.

Wendy says that one day she had placed Miranda down to go do some cleanup, only to turn around later to find Miranda sitting up in the high chair! She had done some climbing before onto lower-height surfaces like her toy bin, but we didn't think she could climb something so high.

Lower-quality video (smaller file, shorter download time, ~176KB)
High-quality video (larger file, longer download time, ~1.4MB)

UPDATE: New and improved chair climbing! Now, with improved speed! And the ability to climb back down!
Lower-quality video (smaller file, shorter download time, ~158KB)
High-quality video (larger file, longer download time, ~833KB)

February 14, 2005

Interactive Data Zooming Java Applets Series, Part 2

zipdecode

zipdecodeQuick, tell me where this ZIP code is: 54321. Somewhere in the midwest, right? How about this one: 98765? Must be out west, you say. Or how about 12345? Gotta be somewhere in the east.

Everyone knows the basics of ZIP code numbering: lower numbers in the east, higher numbers towards the west. This cool applet will let you zoom in digit-by-digit and see, interactively, how ZIP codes are assigned geographically.

Once the applet is loaded, click on it so that keystrokes are sent to it, and start typing digits. Each digit you type will highlight a portion of the country, each portion getting successively smaller as the ZIP code zooms in on its assigned town/city/area.

Alternatively, there's a Zoom option in the lower right corner which, if turned on, will zoom the map in each time a digit is entered.

Incidentally, of the 3 hypothetical examples I gave, only 12345 seems to be a valid ZIP code (Schenectady, NY)

February 10, 2005

Interactive Data Zooming Java Applets Series, Part 1

The Baby Name Wizard's NameVoyager "Explore the sea of names, letter by letter...watch trends rise and fall, and dive in deeper to see your favorite name's place in the historical tides."

babyname_wizardThis nifty little Java applet gives an interactive drill-down into the popularity of baby names over the last century, graphing relative popularity of names, as well as their trends.

Typing each letter narrows down the names that are displayed.

For example, by typing 'M' you can see that Mary was the most popular girls' name of the first part of the century, but has since fallen to #61 in 2003. Michelle gained popularity in the 60s and 70s, Megan in the 80s and 90s, and Madison has come on strong lately.

Other names:
Patrick: #32 in the 60s, #92 in 2003
Wendy: #47 in the 60s, #288 in 2003
Miranda: #160 in 2003

Coming soon: Zooming Applets Series, Part 2 - ZIP Codes!