March 2003, VisuaLinks News - Volume 2, Issue 3

March 2003		Volume 2, Issue 3

On the Cover
Welcome
BCD Speaks
VisuaLinks News
What's New?
Did You Know?
Feature of the Month
Link Chart of the Month
DIG News
What's New?
Did You Know?
VAI News
What's New?
Upcoming Events
Employment Opportunities

Here are a few tips and tricks for using VisuaLinks. We hope these help you to use VisuaLinks more efficiently.
	In any Mouse Mode, double clicking the left-mouse button will display the attributes (Data Details) of any objects and/or associations under the mouse.
	Most operating systems (Windows, Linux, etc.) do not allow you to use special characters, such as \ / : * ? " < > \|, as part of file names. Avoid using these characters when saving files.
	You can display names under toolbar icons using this menu command: Tools » Show Tool Button Text.
	The Zoom Window mode will not allow you to magnify a blank area within a View - there must be some type of data item present in the selected area.

The following network was uncovered while performing proactive analyses on financial data using the Network Miner service. The span of this network is fairly extensive and has a number of interesting features.

The SUBJECT shown at the bottom of this network is connected to five unique SSNs (Social Security Numbers). The thickness of the link indicates the frequency of the connections; thicker lines indicate more links, thinner lines indicate fewer links. In this cluster, three of the five SSNs are heavily connected to the SUBJECT. This type of behavior could indicate that the SUBJECT intends to misrepresent his identity.

Although not displayed in this diagram (use of the Data Details mouse mode shows the object attributes), characters in the SSNs were transposed in a manner that could not result from data entry transpositions: sequences of two and three digits were switched. The combination of the transaction frequency and the character-group transpositions can only be interpreted as purposeful misrepresentation.

The SSN near the top of the diagram, connected to four SUBJECTS, reveals another scenario. In this case, the SSN is considered to be "valid" because it passes all of the basic validity tests, including the SSN Validation and Death Master Index Check. However, this number was used heavily for fixed time periods by different people. Again, the thicker lines indicate there is a heavier utilization by certain individuals.

Overall, the entire network of SUBJECTs and SSNs shown exposes a highly unusual set of connections. Because this network exposed such a suspicious set of actors, a large scale investigation ensued using this small network as the starting point.

What's New?

VisuaLinks is steaming toward a 2.0 release in the next few weeks. Version 2.0 is a substantial improvement over our previous versions. We are all very proud of this release, and we know that it will be well-received by our user community.

In the last two issues, we briefly introduced two new VisuaLinks features. This month, we'll review Mouse Modes and explain what they are and how they are used in VisuaLinks.

You can review our editorial schedule for the coming year at:
http://support.visualanalytics.com/newsletter/.

If there is a topic that you would like to see covered that is not listed, please let us know. Send an e-mail to newsletter@visualanalytics.com.

Feature of the Month

This month, we look at an unusual user interface technique that adds to the power of VisuaLinks: Mouse Modes.

Mouse Modes are functional modes in VisuaLinks that affect the look and operation of the mouse pointer. When a Mouse Mode is selected, the mouse pointer changes to reflect the selected mode and the mouse functions in that mode until a new Mouse Mode is selected. For instance, when you select the Data Details mode

, the mouse pointer changes to this

and clicking on one or more objects or links causes the selected objects to display in the Details Panel on the left.

Mouse modes are selected from the Data Toolbar, just above the View area, as shown here:

You can change the behavior of many of the Mouse Modes by clicking the triangle in the lower-right corner of the icon.

This opens a small dialog
that allows you to change
the settings for the Mouse Mode.

There are a number of Mouse modes available in VisuaLinks. Here we'll focus on a commonly used mode: Zoom Lens

Using the Zoom Lens Mouse Mode

The Zoom Lens Mouse Mode allows you to zoom in on a small moveable section of the View area. When you select the Zoom Lens Mouse Mode, the mouse changes to this icon

When you hold the left mouse button and move the mouse pointer, a yellow highlight appears showing the area of the View that will be enlarged in the Zoom Lens.

The slider at the top of the Zoom Lens allows you to increase or decrease the magnification. If you move the slider to the right, the magnification increases and the yellow highlight shrinks to show you the area included in the Zoom Lens.

The Zoom Lens window lets you:
	Add Lens - Adds another Zoom Lens window that can operate independently of the first. This allows you to zoom in on multiple areas of the View at the same time.
	Zoom To - Causes the View area to zoom to the area currently displayed in the Zoom Lens window.
	Fit - Causes the View area to reset so that all objects and links are visible in the View area.
	Add Current to Tab - Causes the content of the Zoom Lens window to be added to a tab on the left side of the window.
	Print Zoom Lens - prints the image currently displayed in the Zoom Lens window.

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