Ones and Zeros

Where I work I had a manager once that used to like to give our customers their reports in PowerPoint.   And whenever there’s a presentation on any project, naturally someone wants to make a powerpoint document for it.  It’ll be reliably full of bullet points in the usual telegraphic grammar style.  And the presenter usually just reads the damned thing.

So I sit there contemplating the more useful and pleasurable things I could have down with this particular hour of my life.  Like have a cavity drilled and filled, getting a root canal.  Or installing Windows Vista.

So it’s with delight that I came across this:

Design by Mark Goetz.  And see information presentation guru Edward Tufte as well.  Presentations CAN be made well in PowerPoint or KeyNote (on the Mac).  Here’s a few tips:

• Use the presentation to highlight key points.  Don’t list everything.
• Presentations should provide a framework to discuss a topic, not everything you’ll say.
• You should already know what you want to say.
• Whatever you do: don’t read from the slides!

I think people get into bad presenting styles because they don’t like speaking in front of a group and they’re afraid they’ll forget something.  Well, that’s what your own notes are for.  The presentation is to communicate ideas to others, not to remind yourself.  Watch good presentations on YouTube from Lessig, and the TED.com presentations have some good examples too.  And Google as always provides a wealth of resources, YMMV.

But Powerpoint, as typically used, is an abuse of technology.  The trick - as always - is to use the technology instead of letting the technology use you.

I don’t understand it, I just don’t understand it!

There’s been a lot of people who lost power around the Washington DC metro area this last week, I understand that.  But several times I’ve heard people quoted on TV or radio complaining that the stuff in their freezer and refrigerator would spoil.  I can’t understand that.

Right now the outside temperature is 27 degrees F (-2 degC).  That’s freezer temperatures.  The warmest it got outside this week was about 40 degrees F.  Most of the time it was in the low thirties or colder.

You don’t need a refridgerator or freezer.  Just a box (read ice chest) to even out the day/night temperatures and keep squirrels and birds out.

Today is the anniversary of Lincoln’s birthday.  And of Darwin’s birthday too.  The man who freed slaves in the US and set American democracy on the course of increasing freedom started his life today.  He also, at great cost, kept the country together.  He gave his life to his cause too.

Darwin also brought freedom.  But this time the freedom was in thought, to consider how life developed and grew to fill the planet as a natural process instead of one handed down by religious authorities.  He kept scientific though moving forward instead of dividing in a civil war of what can and can not be considered.

Neither man did the work by themselves, both relied on others to implement and fulfill their work and both stood on ideas prepared by others.  But both, for better or worse, have come to symbolize the battles that they were part of.  So here’s to both of them and here’s to our efforts at keeping their work alive and building on it.

Well, it’s over.  The recovery from the “February Fury” (as one TV network dubbed it) has begun.  The combined total of storms over the last week dropped 45 inches of snow (114.3 cm) here.  My local airport tried to bounce back during the week.  They were open for less than 24 hours before they closed again.

This is the most snow I’ve seen at once.  And the most I ever want to see.  Can’t wait for spring!

(Note: Next Monday is has snow predicted.  Again.)