I found out that I need to run the command xmodmap .xmodmap when my computer starts up to make those keyboard changes take effect. I've attempted to set that up to happen automatically on startup -- we'll see if it worked tomorrow.

I made a bubble chart mockup [Edit: Links below removed]:

• Static version (no javascript, for validation)
• Dynamic version 

There should be no visible difference between the two. Don't view them with IE (Internet Explorer), though -- I found out later that they don't look too hot that way. I don't have IE on this computer, since I'm running Linux, so I generally only preview stuff in Firefox if it's just a mockup or proof-of-concept.

I spent some time learning about AJAX (Asynchronos Javascript and XML) today. Or is it Ajax, not all capitalized? I'm wanting to know if we could do something like those gapminder graphs in Ajax alone, or if I'd need to learn Flash as well.

I discovered the <canvas> element -- go to mozilla.org and search for "canvas examples." It's got some awesome capabilities, but it doesn't work in IE 6, so I don't know how useful that would be to us.

I went looking for examples of the use of Ajax to create graphs. I also want to look for (free) flash editing software for Linux. I may try creating an Ajax example page.

I discovered a neat site: http://www.lifehacker.com/ . It looks like it would be good to check this every so often to discover handy Firefox extensions and so forth. Speaking of which, I'm playing with Tab Sidebar (here or here).