Desire Paths

Photos of paths that people make on their own in spite of planned walkways

I made a simple little web thingy that compares the number of Google search results returned for two terms, and presents them as two parts of a pie chart.

You can check it out here. Update: Got all I needed, thanks!

It’s extremely primitive right now, but I made it for a class project and I’ll probably be adding more to it as time goes on. Thus the list of ToDos at the bottom of the page.

Any help with how it works, how you expected it to work, or suggestions for features would be very nice. I would appreciate it!

Here’s a quick rundown of how my NBA Playoffs bracket automatically updates itself, and how it is designed.

First, my little PHP script goes and checks out the NBA standings over at ESPN.com. It grabs the team name (Detroit Pistons,) team slug (det,) that team’s conference seed, wins and losses. So then I make a list on the Playoffs page of all 15 teams from each conference. They are listed according to the order they appear in the standings. Of course this page is made up of 100% valid XHTML 1.0 Strict.
Using the wonderness of CSS, I use a background image to display the bracket/tree, and then absolutely position each list item in the correct spot. Only the top 8 teams in each conference are displayed, the rest are hidden from view but are still there if you View Source. I then replace the text of each team with their logo (again with CSS.)  All of this happens automatically, and not by me, by the page itself.

There are two links at the bottom: One to show/hide the Seedings for the playoff tree, and one to show/hide each team’s record. This is done with quick and easy Javascript.

The comments link directs people to the associated WordPress post where they can leave a comment.

Finally, my latest addition shows the progress of the current NBA season. This is done by PHP, which divides the number of days into the season we are by the total number of days in the season as a whole (somewhere within Oct. 29, 2007 and Apr. 17, 2008.) I made a little chart to display in the background to show some benchmarks/milestones (the correct term escapes me right now.) The graph expands thanks to a CSS “width:” property.

And that’s it. Absolute magic, I know. When the playoffs start, I’ll be adding wins and advancing the logos along the playoff tree just like I’ve done ever since 2004. And I’m always looking for suggestions!

I never really understood the difference between these until recently (I never cared.) But I thought I’d look up some definitions and learn a little in the process about our political labels.

Democrat - Follows a broadly liberal program, tending to support social reform and minority rights.

Republican - Favors a right-wing stance, limited central government, and tough, interventionist foreign policy.

Liberal - Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.

Liberalism - A political theory founded on the natural goodness of humans and the autonomy of the individual and favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority.

Moderate -  Opposed to radical or extreme views or measures, especially in politics or religion.

Libertarian -  One who advocates maximizing individual rights and minimizing the role of the state.

Conservative -  Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.

Conservatism - A political philosophy or attitude emphasizing respect for traditional institutions, distrust of government activism, and opposition to sudden change in the established order.

Reactionary -   Characterized by reaction, especially opposition to progress or liberalism; extremely conservative.