Potpourri

If you are a PHP developer and if you are searching for easy to use and stunning PHP charts, then I can strongly suggest you a name FusionCharts in PHP charting. As an amateur PHP developer I was once searching for an excellent PHP chart that I can use in my analytics application.

I searched a lot with these keywords "PHP Chart, Pie Chart PHP, Free PHP Chart, PHP Flash Chart, PHP Bar Chart, PHP Line Chart, PHP Charting" and found various sites that are offering PHP charts but ultimately experimenting with almost all of those, I came to a conclusion to vote for FusionCharts. It's the best PHP Charts I have seen. I have used FusionCharts v3 evaluation , FusionCharts Free version and FusionCharts v3 and it is worthy buying their licenses

Previously I had faced those common problems as almost everybody faces in Charts and data visualization . I was thinking of something new rather than using those boring image charts and complex tables we normally see in Excel. But when I used FusionCharts, I have seen cross platform charts (so if a part of your app is in ASP, part in PHP, FusionCharts still looks the same), interactive, low server load and variety. It's awesome.

It has everything you need. It provides you a complete reporting experience with features like drill-down, one-click chart export and full AJAX support. With an easy-to-use PHP API and lots of code samples, it makes chart generation a breeze.

If you still think that you don't need visual effects in your charts, then also FusionCharts advantage is that it supports basic colors plus it supports advance features like export to CSV, export to image/PDF etc.

So if you are a web developer (any technology - ASP, ASP.NET, PHP, JSP or whatever) or desktop application developer or Business/non developer user FusionCharts suits to everybody.

For PHP Charts, you can visit FusionCharts PHP Chart Read more!

30+ most popular Infographics, Data Visualization and Charting blogs

I have compiled here a list of most popular data visualization and infographics blogs. If you think you know some other good data visualization and infographics blogs, please feel free to drop here a comment with the links of the data visualization and infographics blogs.

Popular Infographics & Data Visualization Blogs

1) Information is beautiful
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/

2) Visual Complexity
http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/

3) Flowing data
http://flowingdata.com/

4) This is indexed
http://thisisindexed.com/

5) Cool infographics
http://coolinfographics.blogspot.com/

6) Chart Porn
http://chartporn.org/

7) Eager eyes
http://eagereyes.org/

8) Simple complexity
http://simplecomplexity.net/

9) Data visualization
http://www.datavisualization.ch/

10) Well formed data
http://well-formed-data.net/

11) Sankey Diagrams
http://www.sankey-diagrams.com/

12) Carto Grammer
http://www.cartogrammar.com/blog/

13) Wall Stats
http://www.wallstats.com/blog/

14) Accuracy and Aesthetics
http://accuracyandaesthetics.com/

15) iGraphics Explained
http://igraphicsexplained.blogspot.com/

16) Junk Charts
http://junkcharts.typepad.com/junk_charts/

17) Many Eyes
http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/

18) Juice Analytics
http://www.juiceanalytics.com/writing/

19) Good
http://www.good.is/

20) Swivel
http://www.swivel.com/

21) As Map
http://as-map.com/blog/

22) Visualization Magazine
http://visualisationmagazine.com/blogvisualthinkmap/

23) Infosthetics
http://infosthetics.com/

24) Edward Tufte
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/

25) Prefuse
http://prefuse.org/gallery/

26) Charts Bin
http://chartsbin.com/

27) Infographiker
http://blog.infografiker.com/

28) Excel Charts
http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/

29) Six revisions
http://sixrevisions.com/

30) Graph Jam
http://graphjam.com/

31) Presentation Zen
http://www.presentationzen.com/

32) Strange Maps
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/

33) Fusion Charts
http://www.fusioncharts.com/

34) Am Charts
http://www.amcharts.com/

35) Any Chart
http://www.anychart.com

36) PTS Blog
http://peltiertech.com/WordPress/

37) Open Flash Chart
http://openflashchart.com/

Picture source - FusionCharts Read more!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Avatar (2009) James Cameron film Review : Avatar - Some thoughts

Avatar (2009 Film) by James Cameron - Film/Movie review and some thoughts

Yes . . . its the biggest spectacle of the decade . . . and yes its visually pure magic . . . rock solid in every department of film making . . .except for writing maybe . . . but we won't go there . . . cause some Films are wayyyyy bigger than the story they are tryin...g to tell . . . and some Directors just make you realize the power of Cinema as a medium of storytelling . . . way more impactful than a book / play / radio / what have you sometimes . . . James Cameron is such a man . . . there ain’t no doubt about that one . . . So yes . . . this isn't a review at all . . . just some thoughts on the Film . . . Lets look at the intention behind the Film for starters . . . why would Cameron want to make this Film??? And what you garner and see is that here’s a man who first and foremost wants to raise the bar . . . here’s a dreamer and a visionary who sits there dreaming a magical dream . . . and finds a way of actually making it happen . . . and that to me is the biggest power of cinema . . . that beyond the dream created in your head and then on a laptop . . . someone has to actualize it as well . . . its lost otherwise . . . and hence my constant angst about a Film having to be as good technically as in its writing . . . but I deviate here . . . what got me most about Avatar was somehow the visual of a whol bunch of Film Technicians sitting out there wanting to do their BEST . . . to push the envelop hard and tear it . . . to strive for the excellence that their dreams show . . . and actually achieving it . . . such an inspiring visual . . . and am humbled and moved by it . . . and sad . . . because this is the ONE thing I find missing the most in our films / industry . . . we just don’t intend excellence . . . our darnest best . . . why????? When??? Will we ever??? Then my mind goes to the day James Cameron must have sat there looking at his Final Copy . . . the dream come alive in front of his eyes . . . must he have had tears in his eyes about it . . . relief, pride, excitement . . . or a self assured man saying . . . damn! I did it again!!! Or maybe even a cocky man . . . saying next!!!! Would love to know . . . but what’s important is that Avatar makes me think of all this while I’m watching the movie and for hours later . . . perhaps till . . . days later who knows . . . the true stamp of a great film . . . Technically . . . am not even proficient to comment on it . . . just know that watching live action in 3D . . . swimming in front of your eyes . . . seeming touchable . . . making it all look so hyper real is such an addiction that seriously 2D is going to be boring now . . . I don’t even know enough about the new technology he cracked in creating this Film . . . but all I can think of is the man who creates Aliens, True Lies, Terminators, Titanic and now Avatar is in fact a Scientist who can create Art . . . and that too for mass consumption . . . which to me is the true definition of a Film Maker . . . in the tradition of a Quantum Physicist if you will . . . where Science meets Philosophy . . . James Cameron does that for you . . . While I gush . . . the story comes to my mind . . . but before I even get into it . . . the point is that Cameron has always chosen the Speilberg path . . . of telling you simple or actually very simplistic stories mounted on a very, very large scale . . . with heroes called Jack, John, Jake . . . which have to be made on a budget of Millions of dollars . . . you’ve got to earn those millions back . . . which means every human being on the planet has to watch it . . . well almost . . . which means your story / script has to be moron proof . . . it has to be basic . . . understood across cultures . . . age groups . . . sensibilities . . . it HAS to be simplistic . . . now whether Cameron consciously chose that as a his style or whether that’s what comes to him naturally . . . I don’t know . . . Speilberg tried proving his seriousness with Schindler’s List and Munich . . . Cameron hasn’t bothered yet . . . but the point being, Avatar’s story / screenplay cannot possibly get any more complicated or layered than that . . . structurally its standard hollwyood with themes . . . set ups and pay offs and 3 acts firmly in place . . . the only lack I felt was that unlike Titanic . . . it isn’t a very FELT movie . . . it doesn’t feel like the Writer ie Cameron again infused the characters and the set up with too much emotion . . . somewhere technology took over . . . so Avatar leaves you dazzled but not very moved . . . I have a feeling the sequel would take care of that . . . Themes wise though, I have lots to say on the story / film . . . it is such a beautiful blend of myths . . . there are those blue bodied gigantic natives on a planetary moon . . . totally like Vishnu’s 10 avatars right to the point of tikas on foreheads a la Iskcon . . . the birds that are so much like Garuda . . . yet faces that you feel might be Afican beneath . . . and accents that are French or Spanish . . . Music that is Oriental often . . . and philosophy that most certainly is . . . in one broad stroke, the Film pits it as a White vs ‘Colored’ people literally . . . as much as humans vs aliens . . . as much as US vs rest of the world . . . a lovely blend of ethnicities . . . and in these allegories, Avatar is such a brilliant concept . . . it takes all the Buddhist / Hindu philosophies of Nature, Kundalini (at the base of their plaits) . . . connecting to other beings (plait connects to horse literally) . . . the collective consciousness (the Tree) . . . and makes them literal and visual . . . and easy to understand . . . what a triumph that is . . . it makes the simple message of Nature vs humanity so powerful . . . it makes villains out of myopic corporate vision and numb brained military destruction come to life . . . It reminds you of Iraq, Vietman, etc in its visuals rather consciously . . . when that the big tree comes down, I am moved . . . and for some reason reminded of the Bamiyan Buddha being torn down in Afghanistan by the Taliban . . . every frame has so many references . . . informed yet simplistic . . . sometimes a bit too underlined . . . but I’m impressed . . . because there’s basically something for everyone . . . I can go on some more . . . but will spare you . . . the simple point being that Avatar heralds the new age of Cinema, affecting even our shores . . . and the thronging crowds giving our Industry enough impetus to learn from it . . . will we???? Hollywood take overs apart . . . what moved me most about Avatar was to see a PACKED HOUSE after so long and to the palpable excitement of everyone waiting outside like eager kids . . . dying to catch hold of their 3D glasses and get on to the joyride . . . forgetting your woes for 3 hours and being sucked into a make believe world in a darkened hall . . . that ultimately reminds you of your basic inner goodness . . . Isn’t that what movies are meant to do to us??? Avatar does that . . . no two ways about it.

By Anuraadha Tewari

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