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I was trying to come up with a way to represent/convey a time lapse of something visually in a more concise or creative way. 

For example: I was sitting at Tartine on December 30 and from 6:45 to 7:05, I tried to note down each of the cars I saw pass by on 18th Street. I then sorted out a way to assign a numeric value to the cars based on a certain attribute (in this case, I used size). I then needed an additional variable - which unlinke the number would not necesarily need to apply to each of the items (in this case I used the car color, but could have, for example, used car make or model).

Here's an example of the first few lines of what I noted:

5 red, 3 tan, 4 yellow, 2 silver, 1 blu/slvr, 3 blu, 4 tan, 4 blk, 5 wht, 3 periwhinkle, 3 red, 4 blue, 1 silver, 4 blk, 4 tan, 3 silver, 3 wht, 3 blu, 3 wht, 3 cream (puplish), 4 silver, 3 silver, 4 navy.....

In this case, the number represents varrying sizes of cars (1=coupé, 6=a bus or truck).

This goes on for about a page in my sketch pad. So, now, what I wanted to do is figure out a way to translate this into a visual - whether it be a simple html table with the number equalling the width of a cell and the color being the background. This would be really basic and easily hand-coded.

So, again, the basic idea is that there is a set interger, and then some other piece of information which when put together with some sort of color library (whether it be simple CMYK formula, or a library of imported .gif's [from. say, car manufacturer's websites]. Then, take the # and have it translate into some sort of measurement and then the color be the color.

What would be cool - i think - is if i can (or find someone who can) put together a simple form that would allow people to go to a site (sort of like the kuler.adobe.com site) and input (or import) their numbers and colors and the PHP application will generate a simple html or css table, or auto-generate a pdf with the linear output.

So, I feel like this application is super simple.  The next part of this is then being able to apply this to broader pieces - things that may not be as easy as color of cars. I've been trying to think of some sort of project to do for World AIDS Day and the only thing I've been able to come up with is that I want to do something that visually conveys information (E.g. The Quilt, the ActUp Tombstone demonstration in NY from the early 90's) The thing that just popped into my head was looking at spending on HIV per demographic. This would typically be based in like a pie-chart (I'm sure I have some report somewhere in my files at work with that exact chart) but It'd be interesting to find another way of conveying the info that would create something more abstract but also more impactful. Perhaps if breaking it down by month? By service provider? What would be neat, i think, is if the formula could create something 3-dimensional.

Anyone have any coding ideas? Interest in helping this happen?

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I've been overwhelmed today - and extremely flattered - by the number of "happy birthday" wall posts; however, for me it begs the question: what ever happened to cards and phone calls?
 
I blog, twitter, etc. but I still consider myself to appreciate some of the old-fashioned things in life: giving a gentleman one's phone number on a piece of paper vs entering it into your mobile, a manhattan instead of a cosmo. I feel that there's something to be said about a friend singing a slightly-out-of-tune "happy birthday" to your voicemail, or the pleasure of opening up an envelope to see what kind of unique, fun or pretty card the sender picked - just for you!
 
But, alas, what once were mainstays of affectionate communication have become almost a sort of indulgence. The exception to the norm. Perhaps I'll twitter about it.
 
→ "Twitter Can Make You Immoral"
→ "Kids & Twitter and the Emotion Costs"

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