More on infographics

I saw this infographic today:

So, this got me thinking about how you could use this with students. 

1. Ask a question (in this case Do increased IP filings give a good indicator of economic recovery?)
2. Find some data to support / answer your question.
3. Create some slides in Powerpoint (or LibreOffice Impress).  For data, it would be useful to use a spreadsheet (Excel, GoogleDocs, Office Live Skydrive) to make the charts.
4. Export the slides as PNG
5. Assemble the exported PNGs as an infographic with Inkscape (I use the portable version since our school board does not install it on its computers).  Of course, you could use something like Adobe Illustrator, but who has the $$ to buy that?

My previous post gave more details on how to create an infographic.

Some other questions you could try:

1. Does homework time result in higher grades?
2. What is the relationship between interest rates (prime rate) and consumer debt levels?  Did a Google search "canadian prime rate and consumer debt statistics" and found some relevant information.
3. Do the rich really pay their fair share of taxes?  Did a google search "canadian tax revenue by income level" and found this as the third link.  This link led to this link at StatsCan.  And this page should give some relevant data!
4. Analyse a passage of literature with Wordle and use this in an infographic.

Now, it would be interesting if students made infographics that actually showed you could get diverging answers to the same question depending on what data you use and how you interpret it.  That could be a quasi-debate via infographics.

A frustrating day

Today was a rather frustrating day.  Helping a friend, I tried to clone a drive to a refurb I bought from Newegg.ca with no luck because the drive was a dud.  I will never buy from Newegg again.  It would cost more to return the drive than for the cost of the drive itself!  Judging from the reviews, it's likely the replacement drive would also be a dud.  A load of crap indeed.  Not only that, but another drive I tried to clone on an Emachine would always stop at about 90% completion.  Tried 3 different software (Easeus, Paragon and Reflect) all for naught.  Well, that was a waste of 5 hours!

Yesterday, I bought three CDs from the Saskatoon Symphony Book Sale.  I looked for stuff that was a little less mainstream.

1. A CD of Josef Suk playing the Dvorak Violin Concerto.  This was a Suphraphon recording.
2. A CD of Babette Hierholzer playing Schumann.  I saw it was an EMI Electrola recording from Germany.  The audio quality isn't very good despite the digital recording.
3. An Eurodisc CD of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra playing some baroque and classical favorites.

So, it was 3 for $10, but keeping in mind the great bargains now with boxed sets, I refrained myself.  I was looking for Naida Cole's recording, but no luck.  It's really cheap used at Amazon.com, but they won't mail to Canada.

Listening to Pollini play the last three Beethoven sonatas to forget the frustrations today.  The final movements of each of the last three Beethoven sonatas are quite amazing.  Nr 30 is a set of beautiful variations, Nr 31 is a fugue, Nr 32 is almost jazz-like!  Also reading Joel Osteen's book which I got at Bookcloseouts.ca.  Also played the Mason and Hamlin Model A today - tried to play Chopin Waltz Opus 69, Nr 1.  Alice Sara Ott plays it like no other I've ever heard!  At Superstore, my son asked me if Beethoven played the violin.  I said, no, he was a pianist.  All the greats were pianists (Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms).  That's why piano is the best instrument!

Easter Sunday

We drove past the Alsask radar dome today  I thought it was part of the DEW line, but it was in fact part of the PINE tree line.

Alsask Radar Dome

Flaxcombe is near the border with Alberta:

Flaxcombe, SK

I think it was featured on a Canadian Bible Society postcard years ago.

Drumheller is a nice place.  I really like the Rosedale suspension bridge:

Rosedale Suspension Bridge

There are lots of dinosaurs in town:

TRex from the Red Deer River

Albertosaurus

The Hoo Doos are now blocked off, but you can walk all over the place (other than the actual Hoo Doos)

Dispute with The Dev Shop amicably resolved

I had bought a suite of database tools on March 3, 2012.  Unfortunately, the product activation of the software was not allowing me to activate anything except DBQwiksite Developer Edition.  I was getting tired of not having my e-mails replied to regarding the activation issues.  Since I paid with Paypal, I opened up a dispute under my Paypal account and my request for a refund of the portion of my payment in excess of the price for a license for DBQwiksite Developer Edition was granted the same day.  Score one for Paypal buyer protection.  If you don't complain, then you won't get your satisfaction!  This salvages my opinion of the DevShop as DBQwikSite is a really great product!

On another sour note with regard to customer service, I had contacted Musical Heritage Society by phone today inquiring about my previous orders which were no longer showing up online when I logged in.  I was trying to reconcile credit card charges with the packing slips (which no longer showed how much was being charged).  When I explained to the rep that the numbers weren't adding up (and I noted it was a small amount anyways) and that I've had issues with backordering of 2 of my last 3 orders, she told me I could close the account since I wasn't satisfied.  I asked her if she had an alternative solution.  Eventually she said she could get an accounts person to contact me.  I said that sounded like a reasonable solution.   However, I was rather annoyed with her attitude, so I e-mailed customer service and told them to close my account (as she suggested).

Now, I don't get this kind of crap with Amazon.ca and Zeller's kindly refunded my money for a purchase that was beyond their return date (the power cord was missing and the item I thought was new, was actually returned by someone previously).  I know sometimes customers take advantage, but that wasn't my slant!  Thank goodness for quality customer service to offset the bad!

Valerie Tryon's Mozart Concerto Recording Arrives on Maundy Thursday

I was awaiting this CD with great anticipation.  I have waited several months before finally taking the plunge and buying it from Amazon.ca marketplace.  There are several unique things about this CD-the first recording of Leopold Godowsky's candenza for KV 491 and some newly discovered music to add to the Rondo KV 386.  Hummel's candenzas are used for KV 503 and there is an extra track of Hummel's cadenza for KV 491 (which I believe Annie Fisher plays in her EMI KV 491 recording).  A very generous CD from APR as usual (76 minutes).  It is the third APR recording I've purchased (the others were Tryon's Schumann/Schubert/Mozart CD and her Chopin Chronology).  I've never been disappointed by either APR or Valerie Tryon.  She has a formidable technique which is always in service to the music.  I came upon an interview of her from Parry Sound last summer and she said "I haven't many years left" and indicated she wanted to play less.  Well, she was 75 years old when she made this concerto recording 18-19 April 2009.  I certainly hope she plays many more years.  Her technique is still secure.  Truly a great artist.  I actually listened to the final movement of KV 503 first as I was wondering how it would compare to Leon Fleisher's recording.  I think she is actually playing it Allegretto as marked.  Fleisher takes it very fast (and wow, is he ever exciting).  Géza Anda also takes this Allegretto pretty fast.  Year's ago when I first heard KV 503 from Alicia de Larrocha's LP recording from my Time Life Mozart series, I was quite awe struck at the grandeur of the first movement (Allegro maetoso - very apt indeed).  For KV 491, I first heard Wilhelm Kempff's recording on a cassette.  That was a magical recording from 1960 and Valerie Tryon's CD is of that calibre.  We are very fortunate that Valerie Tryon's art is preserved for everyone by the several recordings she has made for APR.  We are also lucky that people more remote places can now order this CD from Presto Classical or Amazon.ca (or direct from APR).  I will be buying more APR recordings of Valerie Tryon.  Her talent is truly under-appreciated!