Some time ago I took the "Developing iPad Applications for Visualization and Insight" course from CMU [1]. Honestly, I do not remember much from the "visualization theory" part. I have learned more about the tools needed to build those visualizations (programming the iPad).
I think it is one of the instances, where you learn by doing and reflecting your work with theory and users. It is not a linear process, you must be willing to build stuff, then go back to the theory again and improve. Without that, the message of these courses will be reduced to mantras like "good design should be simple".
I don't really think that the colors are working out that well. I'm having a hard time imagining the continuum of colors between red and blue. Mapping the variable (percentage of votes for either party) to saturation or brightness of a certain hue would be more straightforward and intuitive. Although, it would make for a pretty lousy political statement as compared to purple :)
Another way to make the two basic colors more interesting could be the delta between the state and 50% and mapping it to saturation in both directions, i.e. CA dark blue, OH light blue, UT darker red… but I'm pretty sure some news outlets already did that.
Red and blue contrast well against each other, purple and blue contrast well against each other, purple and red do not however, so the map visually looks very republican heavy.
I don't think that "creative" people would fail the test. Creativity has nothing to do with finding smartass solutions to puzzles. It has little to do with even solving puzzles.
Creativity is seeing, connecting and coming up with things other people don't. The main prerequisite is usually grunt work. We only see the results, not the messy process behind James Dyson's vacuum cleaner with thousands of prototypes, or Bob Noyce's integrated circuit. What made him so creative was his knowledge and understanding of the world of semiconductors and the ability to question things.
I strongly believe that any inventor with a similar story would score high on an IQ tests and would not manifest his creativity by making up unlikely theories. Admittedly, its a sign of intelligence to understand the question and the context in which it is being asked. The world is full of opportunities to show ones creativity. Picking one of 4 answers in a test is not one of those.
Personally, I'm looking foward to a future where the display of my phone does not get scratched by the keys in my pocket. It will happen, and it will be a good thing. Admittedly, getting rid of my phone would solve the problem equally well.
Really? Whilst noone would talk ever talk or gossip about her engagements, I'd like to think that most people are at least aware of her existence; particularly given her competing in the Olympics and huge visibility as Britain's IOC representative and huge visibility in the run-up to this year's games.
Go out onto the streets of britain and ask people who princess anne is. I seriously doubt you'll get a good rate of correct answers, especially if you ask people under 50.
There are so many minor royals, and their lives form such a complex soap opera, it's very easy for them all to blend into one if you don't actually follow it, which very few people do.
I've been programming a 3D application in Objective-C for a few months. There are things I like, dislike and find really confusing about the language. The thing is, you have to learn and understand it before making assumptions based on "hello world"-like pieces of code. The best "feature" I found so far is not even a feature. It is the way the language is designed simultaneously with the framework/os. It feels more compact and makes reasoning about programs easier.
The second is the way in which complex applications are built. Some programming languages are known for having many design patterns around them, which often feel artificial. Objective-C and the Cocoa libraries use only a handful of them, but they come very natural.
David is from CVUT/Open Informatics - http://oi.fel.cvut.cz/en/home. I'm not sure about Tomas. I met him some time ago when they were working on a web app with David. These guys are really passionate about building things on the web, that's for sure :)
Would you mind getting in touch? My mail should be in my profile. It's always nice to meet people from HN in Prague :)
I think it is one of the instances, where you learn by doing and reflecting your work with theory and users. It is not a linear process, you must be willing to build stuff, then go back to the theory again and improve. Without that, the message of these courses will be reduced to mantras like "good design should be simple".
[1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/developing-ipad-applicati...