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Dr. Tufte,

I just completed your seminar in Denver this week. Thank you.

I am a consultant and have been recently enhancing my resume. I wanted to know your thoughts on how to use some of your suggestions in putting together a resume. My resume is a technical one, but I wanted to get your thoughts on maybe how to get more information on one page.

As I was looking at the cover of Visual Explanations (and recently reading about the Project Mgmt thread), I had an idea that was similar for resumes and wanted to get your input.

I have two ideas:

1) Horizontal format:

Originally my thought was to have a horizontal format rather than vertical. Here's my thought along the bottom (similar to visual explanations cover) you list your major talents (as a legend). The rest of the paper would be filled with your experience broken into categories (e.g. Software Engineering, Web services, ...).

2) Vertical format:

Have this legend be between your "biography" and "experience" using a similar concept as above.

I was speaking to an HR person and he was very intrigued by the idea. I showed him your web site.

A picture would clearly explain this a little more. How would I post a graphic, or should I just include a link?

So what is your thought?

Thanks

Jerry Howard

My wife and I were looking at the large print of Minard's depiction of Napoleon's march to Moscow (Tufte, Visual Display of Quantitative Information [2nd edition], p41), and noticed that on the return trip, near the end, the army's size apparently swells from about 12,000 men to 14,000 before dropping once again to 8,000. However, we see no indication that a 2,000 person contingent has joined the army.

What's going on here? I'm fairly certain that I'm not the first to notice this oddity, but I'm at a loss to explain it based solely on the text.

Not a question, just an observation about a practical system that does a great job of erasing irrelevant ink from maps.

MapBlast has been testing (since March 2001, apparently) a new type of map for driving directions, under the name LineDrive. The maps don't include useless features not on your route; instead you get just the roads you're supposed to take, distances, and major cross streets, simplified and with proportional distances adjusted so that turns are easier to follow.

In contrast, most driving directions just highlight a route on an traditional road map. It makes for a vast improvement in the readability of the direction maps.

The technology is described in a paper by Maneesh Agrawala and Chris Stolte,


Rendering Effective Route Maps: Improving Usability Through Generalization.
My take-away is that they modeled the maps on how people draw maps by hand when giving directions.

Professor,

In reading about the development of your personal collection of books, charts, maps, art, and other media for the display of information, I wonder if you would share your opinions and perhaps recommendations on the storage of archival materials. Books are the least of the problem for me - bookshelves work fine. Large quantities of flat materials, of all different sizes and materials, however, present a problem for me. Do you employ plain or "flat file" cabinets? Do you invest in climate/humidity control? Of course the answers vary with the material being stored - is there a seminal book on how to store such materials? I'm sure your collection dwarfs my own - what's your approach to managing your materials?

What do you think of nomographs as a way to show data?
Are there any good software packages or books on the topic?

One of the largest historical map archives online exists at http://www.davidrumsey.com. The David Rumsey Collection contains over 150,000 physical maps, globes, puzzles, and atlases; 6,500 of these pieces have been scanned, digitized, and indexed, and are currently available for viewing.

The collection is accessed through a Java-based image browser. While the interface takes a little time to get used to, the browser toolbar can be minimized to decrease administrative space. Data from and a thumbnail view of the image are available in the left frame of the browser, which has an elegant look about it.

In addition, Mr. Rumsey has added geographic information system (GIS) capability to the collection. Using historic maps, satellite imagery, aerial photos, and other sources, Mr. Rumsey and his associates have created a GIS applet that can layer different views of San Francisco, Boston, and Washington, D.C. one on top of the other, and then allow the user to manipulate the images and print out custom maps.

This is a magnificent addition to the art and science of cartography. I was introduced to this website through an article in Geospatial Solutions magazine. The article is available online at the Geospatial Solutions website.

Mike Reardon San Jose, CA

I'm curious about the font used for the jacket of "Visual Explanations" and here on your website. What's it called, who designed it and can I get a copy?

Thanks, a loyal fan.

Would like to find software to create a series of US maps showing the adoption of laws over time by American states. Any suggestions for low-cost, monetary and otherwise, programs?

Thanks, RB