October 1st, 2007

Summary:   beep...beep...svg...beep...beep...

I need to refocus on the book, but you'll be seeing the tangible aspects of writing a book on web graphics throughout my web sites in the weeks to come. For instance, if you're using an SVG capable browser, you might notice the 'squiggle' line across my header. That's my 'blog pulse'. It reflects my updated comment count for the last 80 posts. Of course, you know what this means: if my blog pulse straight lines flatlines, my weblog is dead. You hold the life of my blog in your hands.

Currently the 'pulse' isn't viewable to IE or other non-SVG enabled browsers. The Adobe SVG Viewer won't pick up the SVG, as I'm embedding the SVG directly into the page's XHTML. That's the whole reason I bit the bullet and converted to XHTML in the first place.

I could convert the example to using the Canvas object and Google's ExplorerCanvas library, or perhaps use Sam's SVG to Silverlight Workbench. Frankly, even though I have a lot of visitors using IE, as long as the information represented in the graphics is either available in other formats or non-essential, I may just blow off IE.

Comments
1
Bud Gibson - 3:10 pm 10/1/2007

In FF 2.0x, it's on the main page but not the entry pages.

2
Shelley - 4:15 pm 10/1/2007

I added it to the other pages.

That's it, though? Not a word on whether it sucks, or is cool or stupid or something?

3

It's Tufte-esque in its minimalism. :)

Seriously though, I like it.

4
Arthur - 4:38 pm 10/1/2007

That is pretty nifty.

5
Anthonyh3 - 4:45 pm 10/1/2007

Shelley -

In FF 2.0 it seems to arbitrarily break links on the page. For example, on the main page, there is very little that I can actually click on (link-wise.) A very odd bug.

6

Shelley,

that is effing brilliant! A live indicator of an online community's health. I love it.

7
Bud Gibson - 5:16 pm 10/1/2007

Well, it's baroque ;). I kinda like it. I was a bit rushed earlier.

8
DaveD - 5:59 pm 10/1/2007

Unless if either (a) you are showing two totally different graphs depending on if you are viewing the main page or a specific post, or (b) you suddenly had a few hundred comments made on your last 80 posts - theres a strage bug that renders two very different graphs.

The concept is fantastic! (If it matters I'm using FF2.0 on a Mac.)

9
Shelley - 6:17 pm 10/1/2007

No cookie for you, Bud ;-)

Thanks for comments and feedback.

More style differences between the post page and the main page, which I've removed. Shouldn't be any link errors, now. The SVG should be the same regardless, other than it changes as the comments change.

10
maria - 7:20 pm 10/1/2007

That's cool! Works just fine for me in FF Windows (Just doing my bit here in the ER to help keep that pulse going…..)

11

That's really cool.

Have you seen this? Whoever makes the first tool to embed one image in the histogram of another will likely generate a lot of buzz. Might be a good project for the book.

12
Sam Ruby - 7:45 pm 10/1/2007

FYI: I've improved on the technique a bit. That being said, I'm not sure it is worth it. Give the IE users a reason to upgrade.

13

Very cool!

ObNitPick (I am so predictable): 'flatlines'.

14
Danny - 2:40 am 10/2/2007

Great!

15
Karoli - 3:07 am 10/2/2007

I feel so…responsible. Blog life or death in my hands…it must LIVE, LIVE I say!

(and yeah, it's really a slick idea, Shelley!)

16
madame l. - 5:08 am 10/2/2007

If you throw a vintage t-shirt into the bargain some kid will make that line fly to the moon. And she will do it while talking to 11 friends, coding, listening to horrible music, using photoshop and looking at "wicked clothes". She will skim your writing somewhat unenthusiastically (spending more time perusing your photographs) and retain disdain for danah boyd's research on 13 year old's internets habits. But she will do it well. And she will laugh at discussions about women in tech and try to put a blog pulse on her blog.

17

Cool! I think I see where the weekends are.

18
Ed Davies - 5:15 am 10/2/2007

Cool! I think I see where the sunny weekends are.

19
Shelley - 9:04 am 10/2/2007

Thanks for kind words all, they are very appreciated. Hopefully you'll like the other goodies as I roll them out.

I did 'flip' the diagram so that the high ends represent high points. It was the opposite before, which is confusing at first glance.

Yup, the weekends are easy to spot — straight lines, all the way. We've always guessed that weblogging dies on the weekend, and now I have physical proof.

From the pattern, I also seem to consistently write a relatively active post every 25 posts or so. Odd that.

After this tests a bit, will roll out as a Wordpress plug-in, making it adaptable (vertical and horizontal, count, and so on), as well as being able to work in an HTML page.

(Madame, certain kid will be getting both t-shirt and book, as soon as I get this quarter's royalty check from publisher so I can afford to send. Hopefully in the next week or so.)

20
jeneane - 10:29 pm 10/2/2007

I want one!

21
Alan - 6:53 pm 10/3/2007

I like it. Though the color is a bit hard to see.

22
Arthur - 7:48 pm 10/3/2007

I like it. Though the color is a bit hard to see.

(It can be at times, yes, however:)

I propose the first official frequently asked question on Burningbird:

Q: 'The colour of the Burning Bird Pulse is a kind of hard to see on this image. How do I adjust it so that it stands out'

A: Currently the header graphics (on the top of the webpage) are selected randomly everytime you visit this site. You can try to press your browser's refresh button until you have a picture with a (hopefully) darker background which may make the yellow line stand out a bit more.

23

Hmm. There is a general graphic solution though:

Draw the pulse twice, once in ~50% transparent black, and again on top of it in yellow (or whatever bright color you want) with no transparency, ~2 pixels narrower.

24

cool! I'll install the plugin when it becomes available.

25
Shelley - 7:58 am 10/5/2007

The blog pulse is only the first of the changes I'm making. Hopefully it will be more easily viewable in the future.

Thanks to all those who have contributed to the discussion. Comments are now closed, but you can contact the author of the post directly.