So, I was playing around a bit with various APIs last night and found out I could utilize Google’s Visualization API to do stuff like this fairly easily, given data changes I’m planning for the TWDB. How useful would you think this sort of thing might be?
What does that chart convey: the years those models were produced? or what’s in the TWDB right now? or something else?
If years of production, mildly interesting but not really useful. If what’s in the DB, somewhat less so.
HTH
== Michael
it’s the years the models were produced. It would supplement the serial numbers, not replace them. In fact the serial numbers would be split out onto the specific model pages, with the “Brand” page becoming an overview of the brand, its history and what it produced, and you would click through a specific model to get the serial numbers, platen/ribbon sizes, manuals and galleries.
Extremely useful!
And also really, really, really fun.
I like it. This would make it much easier to get a sense of the sequence of models. Go for it!
Thumbs up from me!
I like pictures and graphs and charts – the visual display of numberish information helps me find meaning in the numbers.
Very much like this! Seeing the product roadmap of a manufacturer in this way is neat.
Something like this also can be an easier entry point into the serial number list itself. Especially for the longer lists.
(With even a thumbnail image of a machine of the type, it could also help the layman seeking info on their one machine to navigate the lists easier. Don’t know how hard/impossible that would be. The Database has images but the toolkits may make it ‘hard’.)