July 2004 Archives
Friday morning's keynote at OSCON is from David Rumsey, who's working
on library software to share content (mostly images). His map collection
is amazing...for example he overlays old maps (say the
original circular plan for Washington DC) onto successively more modern
ones. You can see how San Francisco filled in the bay, how Portland
highrises are built over what used to be a marina. It also combines
collections, for example maps of Japan (some scroll maps of roads from
1690) combined with art and images, or with modern photos. Or, for
example, 32 oblique (from a perspective) handdrawn woodblock style maps
of a city stitched together and pannable to form a 19th century 3D full
map of the city. Some of the maps are georectified (automatically re-projected
(warped) to match modern scale or projection) maps. This makes the cool overlays possible.
Even cooler, once that's done he overlays modern 3D elevations on them and suddenly the old handrawn ancient map becomes a 3D relief, and you can even fly through it! It looks exactly like those expensive movie effects where somebody flies into the page of a book. You have to see this. A Flash demo is here.
Some of the content is also shared with the internet (at least, Google
images). This is cool. Just for one stupid example, you could produce
a full imagery tour from your European vacation, overlaid with ancient
papyrus maps of the areas you traveled, combined with art or ancient
representations of the same systems. It's very slick. I don't know
how fast the other art, images, or maps could be pulled over the net
though; the quality is very high.
on library software to share content (mostly images). His map collection
is amazing...for example he overlays old maps (say the
original circular plan for Washington DC) onto successively more modern
ones. You can see how San Francisco filled in the bay, how Portland
highrises are built over what used to be a marina. It also combines
collections, for example maps of Japan (some scroll maps of roads from
1690) combined with art and images, or with modern photos. Or, for
example, 32 oblique (from a perspective) handdrawn woodblock style maps
of a city stitched together and pannable to form a 19th century 3D full
map of the city. Some of the maps are georectified (automatically re-projected
(warped) to match modern scale or projection) maps. This makes the cool overlays possible.
Even cooler, once that's done he overlays modern 3D elevations on them and suddenly the old handrawn ancient map becomes a 3D relief, and you can even fly through it! It looks exactly like those expensive movie effects where somebody flies into the page of a book. You have to see this. A Flash demo is here.
Some of the content is also shared with the internet (at least, Google
images). This is cool. Just for one stupid example, you could produce
a full imagery tour from your European vacation, overlaid with ancient
papyrus maps of the areas you traveled, combined with art or ancient
representations of the same systems. It's very slick. I don't know
how fast the other art, images, or maps could be pulled over the net
though; the quality is very high.
This conference is great for enjoying geekdom. Nancy's Powerbook laptop helps alot. The wireless network is always on, everywhere, so you're always connected. There's power in every room. And her laptop is so small, it feels like (not to beat the dead cliche) the internet in your pocket. It wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable without the Mac.
Lately I've been taking notes while simultaneously working on the BabyWatcher application. I got so excited getting things to work I stayed up til 3 am last night. Here's a screenshot now (with about two months of fake date randomly populated):
This graph will show sleeping patterns (blue for sleep, yellow for awake), based on the wakeup/go to sleep times you put in. The idea is you click the buttons when the baby wakes up or falls asleep and it's way easier than keeping paper records like the hospital recommends.
The cool thing is it's easy to make the graph scale up and down as you move the slider.
This is so cool that even though I am falling asleep I am still trying
to code it up while I listen to presentations throughout the
conference.
This is what we mean by geek out : all code, all internet, all
computers, all the time. Like Stimpy says: happy happy, joy joy.
Lately I've been taking notes while simultaneously working on the BabyWatcher application. I got so excited getting things to work I stayed up til 3 am last night. Here's a screenshot now (with about two months of fake date randomly populated):
This graph will show sleeping patterns (blue for sleep, yellow for awake), based on the wakeup/go to sleep times you put in. The idea is you click the buttons when the baby wakes up or falls asleep and it's way easier than keeping paper records like the hospital recommends.
The cool thing is it's easy to make the graph scale up and down as you move the slider.
This is so cool that even though I am falling asleep I am still trying
to code it up while I listen to presentations throughout the
conference.
This is what we mean by geek out : all code, all internet, all
computers, all the time. Like Stimpy says: happy happy, joy joy.
Larry Wall gives the State of the Onion speech (how Perl is doing).
This is the first time I've seen the SOTO from the inventor of Perl
but have really been looking forward to it. They're usually
hilarious. Hopefully we'll get a little bit about Perl 6.
He does read his speeches and he has kind of a funny voice, but
somehow it works! There's always a thread through the speech ...this
time it's screensavers. While he's talking, all these different
screensavers (mazerunner, ant spotlight, game of life, the qix drawer,
mutator, etc) and relates it to the cognitive process and so on.
(ADHD, wandering mind, symmetry, repressed memory, how big business is
gobbling up smaller ones, and the government).
When he's talking about his battle with a tumor/ulcers/blindness, the
screensavers were hilarious (the running down the tube, the spotlight,
bumps, zoom). It's wonderful that he can find humor in all the pain
he's been through. But it certainly should shut down the critics
clamoring for Perl6 now. Larry Wall is Well Loved.
Paul Graham spoke next. He looks nothing like I expected, but I guess
I was expecting something from his picture at
http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html He's actually a very smooth
speaker - he must have rehearsed this extensively! He's talking about
hackers, and making them happy. Plays well to this audience, but ten
years of business people "eating the seed corn" of their good
programmers and destroying their productivity shows no sign of slowing
down, in my opinion (could be because of how Amazon's commodotizing me
at the moment). Or possibly, I don't know how good I have it and am
suffering from a nothing-is-good-enough. Won't know til I'm out!
Finally, a last-minute substitution gave us YADT (Yet Another Damian
Talk). (there's a lot of YA acronyms at these conferences) This one is
Life, The Universe, and Everything. Actually I believe I've seen this
one before but it's fabulously hilarious as usual.
Seriously if they had the Damian Conway conference I'd go. If they
had the Conway Channel (as he jokes) I'd Tivo it. He's a professional
speaker, in that this is really all he does to make money. But he's
also an itinerant professor from Monash U in Austrailia, and
contributes huge amounts to the Perl community, lately all Perl 6.
This is the first time I've seen the SOTO from the inventor of Perl
but have really been looking forward to it. They're usually
hilarious. Hopefully we'll get a little bit about Perl 6.
He does read his speeches and he has kind of a funny voice, but
somehow it works! There's always a thread through the speech ...this
time it's screensavers. While he's talking, all these different
screensavers (mazerunner, ant spotlight, game of life, the qix drawer,
mutator, etc) and relates it to the cognitive process and so on.
(ADHD, wandering mind, symmetry, repressed memory, how big business is
gobbling up smaller ones, and the government).
When he's talking about his battle with a tumor/ulcers/blindness, the
screensavers were hilarious (the running down the tube, the spotlight,
bumps, zoom). It's wonderful that he can find humor in all the pain
he's been through. But it certainly should shut down the critics
clamoring for Perl6 now. Larry Wall is Well Loved.
Paul Graham spoke next. He looks nothing like I expected, but I guess
I was expecting something from his picture at
http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html He's actually a very smooth
speaker - he must have rehearsed this extensively! He's talking about
hackers, and making them happy. Plays well to this audience, but ten
years of business people "eating the seed corn" of their good
programmers and destroying their productivity shows no sign of slowing
down, in my opinion (could be because of how Amazon's commodotizing me
at the moment). Or possibly, I don't know how good I have it and am
suffering from a nothing-is-good-enough. Won't know til I'm out!
Finally, a last-minute substitution gave us YADT (Yet Another Damian
Talk). (there's a lot of YA acronyms at these conferences) This one is
Life, The Universe, and Everything. Actually I believe I've seen this
one before but it's fabulously hilarious as usual.
Seriously if they had the Damian Conway conference I'd go. If they
had the Conway Channel (as he jokes) I'd Tivo it. He's a professional
speaker, in that this is really all he does to make money. But he's
also an itinerant professor from Monash U in Austrailia, and
contributes huge amounts to the Perl community, lately all Perl 6.
Two more tutorials today but not nearly as good as yesterday. The
first one on XML Schema languages had the author get stuck in Chicago
en route from France, and his replacements just read his handout. I
got out of there after reading the handout myself and listened to the
tail end of Damian's talk on Perl 6 pattern matching, which goes beyond
regexes into grammars. I'm pretty excited about it; this may be one
Perl6 module that I actually use in real life (Damian writes these to
give you some of the features of Perl6 in Perl 5).
The second wasn't much better; POE, which is a event system for Perl,
apparently very popular, but there are already a bunch of these at
Amazon (Chasqui), so I probably wouldn't get to use it.
So I got out, keeping the handout to read later, and went for a long
run along the Columbia river. I went about 3 miles and it's pretty
hot. But I feel a lot better having run. Then I took a soak in the
hottub and pool. Eating in restaurants with steak and pizza and ice
cream is too rich for me. I'm now cutting back to salads and Zone
Bars. Feeling so much better.
Tonight we have Larry's State of the Onion speech and one by Damian as
well.
first one on XML Schema languages had the author get stuck in Chicago
en route from France, and his replacements just read his handout. I
got out of there after reading the handout myself and listened to the
tail end of Damian's talk on Perl 6 pattern matching, which goes beyond
regexes into grammars. I'm pretty excited about it; this may be one
Perl6 module that I actually use in real life (Damian writes these to
give you some of the features of Perl6 in Perl 5).
The second wasn't much better; POE, which is a event system for Perl,
apparently very popular, but there are already a bunch of these at
Amazon (Chasqui), so I probably wouldn't get to use it.
So I got out, keeping the handout to read later, and went for a long
run along the Columbia river. I went about 3 miles and it's pretty
hot. But I feel a lot better having run. Then I took a soak in the
hottub and pool. Eating in restaurants with steak and pizza and ice
cream is too rich for me. I'm now cutting back to salads and Zone
Bars. Feeling so much better.
Tonight we have Larry's State of the Onion speech and one by Damian as
well.
Well, I was going to write something about geeks at conventions
sometimes being stinky, but I decided not to, because that would be a
generalization that's not true of the many many people who are here,
who while tending to obesity are actually all really polite people,
except for possibly one person, who happened to sit next to me...oops ,
I think writing about not writing about it turned into writing about
it.
sometimes being stinky, but I decided not to, because that would be a
generalization that's not true of the many many people who are here,
who while tending to obesity are actually all really polite people,
except for possibly one person, who happened to sit next to me...oops ,
I think writing about not writing about it turned into writing about
it.
Presentation Aikido
with Damian Conway (& Larry Wall as Aikido master)
introduced by Nathan Torkington and Larry.
Wow, Damian is SUCH an amazing speaker, and here's a talk about how to
give talks. Always hilarious and intriguing. Maybe I can use this
stuff to make up my next Perl class.
Aikido means "harmony spirit path". It is a purely defensive martial
art by Morihei Ueshiba, with the mantra of "Love thine enemy" - help
him and encourage him.
You can be extremely relaxed in front the audience. Like perl -
laziness is a virtue - do things in the easiest possible way.
Damain does an aikido demonstration with Larry Wall (who happens to be
an aikido master), some humor, and then - on a serious note, *make the
point*. Very Damian.
Connect with the audience; speaking directly to each person; sharing
your ideas for their benefit. He's a master at this, and he's sharing
his secrets; recursive in a way, if you consider it! Presenting is a
privilege - the audience, even if not giving respect, is giving
*time*. You're like a vampire, or Count Rugen (the life-sucker from
Princess Bride) - sucking their life away. So this establishes a
positive viewpoint.
Talk about subjects you really know; things you've really done (or
prepare so that you do really know the material).
He has four phases to presentations: Planning, Preparation, Delivery,
and Interaction (aka planning, battleorders, engagement, bayoneting
the wounded). Plan out 10 hours of preparation for each hour of
speaking!
First, pick what you're going to talk about! No matter what the
topic, take it in a direction you know about. Find a way to be
interested in it, or find a guest expert. The ki (spirit) in aikido
is the key (hehe). Entertaining always trumps informative. But less
cynically, a presentation is rarely the primary information source -
it's more an overview - or just a reassurance. You give the audience
a gift that the concepts presented are "attainable" - understandable!
They want a cognitive structure to later fit the details into.
Choose a title that hints at the topic - but leaves some measure of
intrigue. and work in a pop culture reference if you can. By the
way, if you use a popculture reference, make them work for it a bit!
(i.e. no picture of Yoda needed for the "Do or do not, there is no
try" quote. Trust me this was hilarious at the time!)
Now you need a blurb - it's the primary marketing pitch. You want to
say "come to my talk because it's interesting and I'm a good
speaker. It'll be applicable to you, not too abstract, not too much
committment required, and I obviously know what I'm talking about.
And there's a bit of a sense of mystery - I haven't told you
everything." Short, well-written, easy to read, catchy, tantalizing.
How to deal with the 7+-2 factor - where as soon as you give people
more than about 7 things to think about, they lose it all. The way
people deal with more information is to hierarchically structure it -
but not as a tree. Structure it, instead, as a *story*. They're only
going to take away 5 or 7 points. What are the five things it's
critical for the audience to know when they leave? Structure a story
to fit those five.
Write the handout first - it's so much easier than the presentation
software. Write the five major outline points. There's
several kinds of sequencing you can use: Chronological (even parallel
- two histories that eventually meet), Causal (answer your own
questions), Layered (drill down or build up), Cumulative (keep
refining a generalization), Narrative (episodes, anecdotes, or
threaded).
I asked Damian about working on "flow" for an ongoing course like the
Perl course. He simply recommended using the same flow techniques
separately for each class (five points each one). For beginning
course, possibly remind the students of what we did on the last course
with the first slide. Another "flow" that's possible for these
courses is to begin with a big code example with well-named variables
and functions, and talk about each section in detail.
Once you have that flow, place all your ideas you want to talk about
under them. The second level is the bullet points for each topic.
Third level is subpoints (minimize those). Fourth level is code,
demos, data, pictures, etc. And throw away ideas that don't fit, or
are too negative. Look for holes and bridge the gaps.
From here, create the slides (hopefully you get a head start by
importing the handout). Remove words - but leave enough for good
form. You need great looking slides. Here's Damian's hints for
visual style:
The presentation should be a harmonious whole. Stick with black &
white if possible. Standard fonts that are easy to read. Minimize the
distractions.
To persuade: Large unbulleted serif text. Short declarative
statements. Phrase the conclusion as a rhetorical question that makes
them say yes. No bullets (except maybe on subpoints). To inform:
smaller bulleted sans-serifed. More complete sentences. Softer
contrast, perhaps light on dark. Big font short rhetorical questions.
There's great visual styles out there (just don't use any Microsoft
templates from Powerpoint!) - some blogs have great presentation
styles. But almost always, less is more. Each font needs a meaning
and a purpose, for example:
<ul>
<li>sans serif for headings (slide title) and decorations (verdana)
<li>classic serif for content (times)
<li>classic fixed width for code (courier)
<li>modern fixed width for command line (monaco)
<li>special purpose : handwritten font for "voice of the audience"
</ul>
Avoid Comic Sans and Papyrus because they're just cliched. A very
subtle shadow gradient can make slides pop. For imperative, high
energy talks you can use high contrast (black on white or vice versa),
softer contrast (grey on white) for a softer talk. There's a website
http://www.vischeck.com to help with contrast issues.
Use images as seasoning only - and preferably in an unexpected manner.
And animations should ONLY be used when the video is both amazing and
makes the point very strongly. Often text animation is all you need
(little SouthPark style cartoons with words).
Interesting: people are better at "blink comparison" than at side by
side comparison. It's better to have two slides, with the transition
between the two, than putting the differing examples side-by-side on
the same slide. It gives them a familiar (stuff on the slide that
doesn't change) handle while focussing on the stuff that does
change. Another way to do it is blur/gray out the lines in a code
example that you're NOT talking about at the moment. But avoid fancy
transitions for any other reason.
Surprise them! Ideas for surprising the audience: vary the pace (lots
of quick slides). Punctuate with pictures, stories, anecdotes, or
demos. Punctuation is also helpful to give people landings for your
staircases - a breather - a navigational beacon - a summary. Very
occasionally a full screen picture is nice.
If you're coming back to navigational slide (e.g. the agenda) over and
over, make sure you come back to the SAME slide before doing the
transition to the next bit (show them the familiar).
Completely avoid graphs and charts. The only kind of graph worth
putting in is an ultrasimple graph with only 2 axes, a simple label on
each axis, and a single line (like in the XP book). Just shows a
trend.
You can put your name & presentation title on each slide, but make
them subtle and ignorable, and avoid logos altogether.
<b>Damian's Hints for Delivery</b>: Look effortless. The audience
wants the material to be easy. and a positive attitude (man, I'm
gonna suck so much of their lives away :) This was good: be yourself,
because humans want intimacy - to see behind the curtain. It helps to
be passionate about the subject. Damian goes into a Zen bit about
"not being there" during a presentation - being "in the moment".
Rituals and talismans can help to reduce nerves. Use nerves to give
you energy for the talk. Anything you can do to engender familiarity;
also talk to the audience members beforehand, about themselves.
Dress slightly better than your audience is the standard advice. But
basically the audience wants you to look like what they expected you
to look - don't break their expectations. This can apply to dressing
both up and down.
Have yourself introduced. They want to like you. They'll have to
clap. :) You want to be introduced by the highest status authority
figure you can get.
The IO::Prompt module can really help with faking the input. And code
demonstrations have to have a very smooth flow. You don't want to be
switching to the wrong buffer. Every wrong thing that comes up is a
break for the audience.
Never ask for volunteers unless you have a plant! Or choose someone
you've talked to before hand. No more than one physical demonstration
or extended digression.
<b>Questions:</b> The Q&A session is vital, and you have to tell them
what the policy is, in the introductory remarks. But you always tell
them you're keen to take questions, even if you don't. Take the tough
questions first; have your own questions ready in case there are
none. "The question I'm usually asked at this point is..."
To handle the "That Guy" (who turns the presentation into a personal
conversation with lots of questions) - shut him down (with respect)
after the first question by telling him "it's a little too involved
for this audience, let's move on".
A great presentation on presenting by the master of presenters, Damian
Conway. When I'm prepping for my next perl class (or maybe speaking
at Amazon?) I'll use these notes.
with Damian Conway (& Larry Wall as Aikido master)
introduced by Nathan Torkington and Larry.
Wow, Damian is SUCH an amazing speaker, and here's a talk about how to
give talks. Always hilarious and intriguing. Maybe I can use this
stuff to make up my next Perl class.
Aikido means "harmony spirit path". It is a purely defensive martial
art by Morihei Ueshiba, with the mantra of "Love thine enemy" - help
him and encourage him.
You can be extremely relaxed in front the audience. Like perl -
laziness is a virtue - do things in the easiest possible way.
Damain does an aikido demonstration with Larry Wall (who happens to be
an aikido master), some humor, and then - on a serious note, *make the
point*. Very Damian.
Connect with the audience; speaking directly to each person; sharing
your ideas for their benefit. He's a master at this, and he's sharing
his secrets; recursive in a way, if you consider it! Presenting is a
privilege - the audience, even if not giving respect, is giving
*time*. You're like a vampire, or Count Rugen (the life-sucker from
Princess Bride) - sucking their life away. So this establishes a
positive viewpoint.
Talk about subjects you really know; things you've really done (or
prepare so that you do really know the material).
He has four phases to presentations: Planning, Preparation, Delivery,
and Interaction (aka planning, battleorders, engagement, bayoneting
the wounded). Plan out 10 hours of preparation for each hour of
speaking!
First, pick what you're going to talk about! No matter what the
topic, take it in a direction you know about. Find a way to be
interested in it, or find a guest expert. The ki (spirit) in aikido
is the key (hehe). Entertaining always trumps informative. But less
cynically, a presentation is rarely the primary information source -
it's more an overview - or just a reassurance. You give the audience
a gift that the concepts presented are "attainable" - understandable!
They want a cognitive structure to later fit the details into.
Choose a title that hints at the topic - but leaves some measure of
intrigue. and work in a pop culture reference if you can. By the
way, if you use a popculture reference, make them work for it a bit!
(i.e. no picture of Yoda needed for the "Do or do not, there is no
try" quote. Trust me this was hilarious at the time!)
Now you need a blurb - it's the primary marketing pitch. You want to
say "come to my talk because it's interesting and I'm a good
speaker. It'll be applicable to you, not too abstract, not too much
committment required, and I obviously know what I'm talking about.
And there's a bit of a sense of mystery - I haven't told you
everything." Short, well-written, easy to read, catchy, tantalizing.
How to deal with the 7+-2 factor - where as soon as you give people
more than about 7 things to think about, they lose it all. The way
people deal with more information is to hierarchically structure it -
but not as a tree. Structure it, instead, as a *story*. They're only
going to take away 5 or 7 points. What are the five things it's
critical for the audience to know when they leave? Structure a story
to fit those five.
Write the handout first - it's so much easier than the presentation
software. Write the five major outline points. There's
several kinds of sequencing you can use: Chronological (even parallel
- two histories that eventually meet), Causal (answer your own
questions), Layered (drill down or build up), Cumulative (keep
refining a generalization), Narrative (episodes, anecdotes, or
threaded).
I asked Damian about working on "flow" for an ongoing course like the
Perl course. He simply recommended using the same flow techniques
separately for each class (five points each one). For beginning
course, possibly remind the students of what we did on the last course
with the first slide. Another "flow" that's possible for these
courses is to begin with a big code example with well-named variables
and functions, and talk about each section in detail.
Once you have that flow, place all your ideas you want to talk about
under them. The second level is the bullet points for each topic.
Third level is subpoints (minimize those). Fourth level is code,
demos, data, pictures, etc. And throw away ideas that don't fit, or
are too negative. Look for holes and bridge the gaps.
From here, create the slides (hopefully you get a head start by
importing the handout). Remove words - but leave enough for good
form. You need great looking slides. Here's Damian's hints for
visual style:
The presentation should be a harmonious whole. Stick with black &
white if possible. Standard fonts that are easy to read. Minimize the
distractions.
To persuade: Large unbulleted serif text. Short declarative
statements. Phrase the conclusion as a rhetorical question that makes
them say yes. No bullets (except maybe on subpoints). To inform:
smaller bulleted sans-serifed. More complete sentences. Softer
contrast, perhaps light on dark. Big font short rhetorical questions.
There's great visual styles out there (just don't use any Microsoft
templates from Powerpoint!) - some blogs have great presentation
styles. But almost always, less is more. Each font needs a meaning
and a purpose, for example:
<ul>
<li>sans serif for headings (slide title) and decorations (verdana)
<li>classic serif for content (times)
<li>classic fixed width for code (courier)
<li>modern fixed width for command line (monaco)
<li>special purpose : handwritten font for "voice of the audience"
</ul>
Avoid Comic Sans and Papyrus because they're just cliched. A very
subtle shadow gradient can make slides pop. For imperative, high
energy talks you can use high contrast (black on white or vice versa),
softer contrast (grey on white) for a softer talk. There's a website
http://www.vischeck.com to help with contrast issues.
Use images as seasoning only - and preferably in an unexpected manner.
And animations should ONLY be used when the video is both amazing and
makes the point very strongly. Often text animation is all you need
(little SouthPark style cartoons with words).
Interesting: people are better at "blink comparison" than at side by
side comparison. It's better to have two slides, with the transition
between the two, than putting the differing examples side-by-side on
the same slide. It gives them a familiar (stuff on the slide that
doesn't change) handle while focussing on the stuff that does
change. Another way to do it is blur/gray out the lines in a code
example that you're NOT talking about at the moment. But avoid fancy
transitions for any other reason.
Surprise them! Ideas for surprising the audience: vary the pace (lots
of quick slides). Punctuate with pictures, stories, anecdotes, or
demos. Punctuation is also helpful to give people landings for your
staircases - a breather - a navigational beacon - a summary. Very
occasionally a full screen picture is nice.
If you're coming back to navigational slide (e.g. the agenda) over and
over, make sure you come back to the SAME slide before doing the
transition to the next bit (show them the familiar).
Completely avoid graphs and charts. The only kind of graph worth
putting in is an ultrasimple graph with only 2 axes, a simple label on
each axis, and a single line (like in the XP book). Just shows a
trend.
You can put your name & presentation title on each slide, but make
them subtle and ignorable, and avoid logos altogether.
<b>Damian's Hints for Delivery</b>: Look effortless. The audience
wants the material to be easy. and a positive attitude (man, I'm
gonna suck so much of their lives away :) This was good: be yourself,
because humans want intimacy - to see behind the curtain. It helps to
be passionate about the subject. Damian goes into a Zen bit about
"not being there" during a presentation - being "in the moment".
Rituals and talismans can help to reduce nerves. Use nerves to give
you energy for the talk. Anything you can do to engender familiarity;
also talk to the audience members beforehand, about themselves.
Dress slightly better than your audience is the standard advice. But
basically the audience wants you to look like what they expected you
to look - don't break their expectations. This can apply to dressing
both up and down.
Have yourself introduced. They want to like you. They'll have to
clap. :) You want to be introduced by the highest status authority
figure you can get.
The IO::Prompt module can really help with faking the input. And code
demonstrations have to have a very smooth flow. You don't want to be
switching to the wrong buffer. Every wrong thing that comes up is a
break for the audience.
Never ask for volunteers unless you have a plant! Or choose someone
you've talked to before hand. No more than one physical demonstration
or extended digression.
<b>Questions:</b> The Q&A session is vital, and you have to tell them
what the policy is, in the introductory remarks. But you always tell
them you're keen to take questions, even if you don't. Take the tough
questions first; have your own questions ready in case there are
none. "The question I'm usually asked at this point is..."
To handle the "That Guy" (who turns the presentation into a personal
conversation with lots of questions) - shut him down (with respect)
after the first question by telling him "it's a little too involved
for this audience, let's move on".
A great presentation on presenting by the master of presenters, Damian
Conway. When I'm prepping for my next perl class (or maybe speaking
at Amazon?) I'll use these notes.
There are so many things to take care of! Here's a list I got from the
Suze Orman (who is actually writing a lot of smart articles lately).
Check on life insurance : we'll need insurance on Nancy too now, which
I don't think I got before. What about an irrevocable life insurance
trust - will it protect the insurance money from estate taxes, thereby
needing less of it? Of course this would only be necessary if the
beneficiary is somebody other than Nancy.
Disability insurance - needs to be for "owner's occupation", and needs
to be "guaranteed renewable". Perhaps I should check out getting this
insurance from somebody other than Amazon.com. And what is the
"elimination period" - how long you have to wait after getting hurt to
start getting paid.
Home insurance - I'm paying way too much.
Will - perhaps Suze Orman's portfolio protector package can do the job
of a $ 3000 lawyer.
Suze Orman (who is actually writing a lot of smart articles lately).
Check on life insurance : we'll need insurance on Nancy too now, which
I don't think I got before. What about an irrevocable life insurance
trust - will it protect the insurance money from estate taxes, thereby
needing less of it? Of course this would only be necessary if the
beneficiary is somebody other than Nancy.
Disability insurance - needs to be for "owner's occupation", and needs
to be "guaranteed renewable". Perhaps I should check out getting this
insurance from somebody other than Amazon.com. And what is the
"elimination period" - how long you have to wait after getting hurt to
start getting paid.
Home insurance - I'm paying way too much.
Will - perhaps Suze Orman's portfolio protector package can do the job
of a $ 3000 lawyer.
This week I'm at the Open Source conference in Portland, OR. I took the train down from Seattle. The train has power, so I was able to start my geek-out with Nancy's 12" Powerbook (Mac) laptop (I'm working on a application to help track the new baby's diaper, eating and sleeping habits.
It's super nice to have the laptop at the conference too. There's wireless everywhere, so I can take notes - download software - try out the programming I'm learning about - or blog to my diary website! But I'll need power soon - I'm only an hour into my first class (learning Python, a new language) and running low on juice. Ok, I just got somebody to plug me in. Hope they don't trip over the cord!
The city is nice. The weather is really sunny right now (same as Seattle). Last night I had a nice steak dinner at a different hotel, wandered around, and got a huge ice cream cone down near the Marina on the river. There's a few speedboats running around but a bit less than say Lake Washington in the city of Seattle. I wish Nancy could have come. We were planning to be here together and she could just relax while I'm at the conference. But like my last planned "junket", she had to cancel - her schedule surprised her with a wedding to photograph on Sunday.
Will Smith's character (a detective) in the new "I, Robot" movie is
named "Spooner".
I just want everybody to know my dog has been named Spoon for 3 years
now. After his performance in "Amazon.Dog" he started getting a lot of
offers, but when "I, Robot" came up he was looking to go in a more
dramatic direction, and Will "I passed on Neo/The Matrix" Smith snapped
it up.
named "Spooner".
I just want everybody to know my dog has been named Spoon for 3 years
now. After his performance in "Amazon.Dog" he started getting a lot of
offers, but when "I, Robot" came up he was looking to go in a more
dramatic direction, and Will "I passed on Neo/The Matrix" Smith snapped
it up.
Does anybody know who did that song that goes "money money money
mooooon-aayyy!" with the little bass guitar going doo-doo, dee-dee,
doo-doo ? It usually gets just 5 seconds of it played when someone
gets/sees big cash on a TV show or movie. Usually it signifies someone
getting money, not money woes.
Well, we just solved some of our money woes. We've been trying to
refinance for about 4 months, but as soon as we had everything together,
it turns out that we have a big black mark on our credit! Back as we
were getting married, Nancy was trying to shutdown her former life and
move in with me in New York. Someone the phone got left on, or
long-distance got shut off, or whatever, and the phone company billed
her for 1074 in one month. She got it all straightened out, but they
never sent a receipt. Fast forward 6 years, Sprint finds it in their
computer (without the notes that it was resolved, of course), figures we
skipped town, and slams it over to collections agency. Suddenly we go
from perfect credit to criminals.
Now you're in a weird situation, because Sprint's deleted everything
from their computers, so they don't have any records of it. The agency
doesn't care where it came from either, they just want money. Plus, the
statute of limitations on bills is only 4 years. (Ignore the fact that
the entire bill was from Sprint's mistake, since we don't have paperwork
to show it.) So this would never hold up in court, and they know it.
Even though they have our current name & address, they never send a bill
for it because it can't be collected. But, ironically, the credit
report leaves it on your record for SEVEN years. So even though they
have no legal right to the money, you're still marked as a deadbeat and
will have a hard time getting the loan or doing a refinance.
The refinancier also let me in on some secrets of the mortgage
business. The banks will ignore unpaid debts of up to 250 apiece, or
up to 1000 altogether. Above that, they won't loan you money, period.
Even if you've got 20 pages of fully paid off loans, like student loans
and car loans far in excess of these small amounts, this one ding will
shut you down. Also, the collections agencies will usually settle for
75-80% of the original amount. So you see a lot of disputed and wrong
debts in the 200-300 range just paid by frustrated consumers who have
no other recourse. It's blackmail, by anyone who wants money, enforced
by Equifax and Transunion.
Ultimately it's costing us more not to refinance than to pay. So, like
many people, I paid them their money and am getting on with the
refinance. But it sure felt like a bribe to me, greasing the financing
wheels.
mooooon-aayyy!" with the little bass guitar going doo-doo, dee-dee,
doo-doo ? It usually gets just 5 seconds of it played when someone
gets/sees big cash on a TV show or movie. Usually it signifies someone
getting money, not money woes.
Well, we just solved some of our money woes. We've been trying to
refinance for about 4 months, but as soon as we had everything together,
it turns out that we have a big black mark on our credit! Back as we
were getting married, Nancy was trying to shutdown her former life and
move in with me in New York. Someone the phone got left on, or
long-distance got shut off, or whatever, and the phone company billed
her for 1074 in one month. She got it all straightened out, but they
never sent a receipt. Fast forward 6 years, Sprint finds it in their
computer (without the notes that it was resolved, of course), figures we
skipped town, and slams it over to collections agency. Suddenly we go
from perfect credit to criminals.
Now you're in a weird situation, because Sprint's deleted everything
from their computers, so they don't have any records of it. The agency
doesn't care where it came from either, they just want money. Plus, the
statute of limitations on bills is only 4 years. (Ignore the fact that
the entire bill was from Sprint's mistake, since we don't have paperwork
to show it.) So this would never hold up in court, and they know it.
Even though they have our current name & address, they never send a bill
for it because it can't be collected. But, ironically, the credit
report leaves it on your record for SEVEN years. So even though they
have no legal right to the money, you're still marked as a deadbeat and
will have a hard time getting the loan or doing a refinance.
The refinancier also let me in on some secrets of the mortgage
business. The banks will ignore unpaid debts of up to 250 apiece, or
up to 1000 altogether. Above that, they won't loan you money, period.
Even if you've got 20 pages of fully paid off loans, like student loans
and car loans far in excess of these small amounts, this one ding will
shut you down. Also, the collections agencies will usually settle for
75-80% of the original amount. So you see a lot of disputed and wrong
debts in the 200-300 range just paid by frustrated consumers who have
no other recourse. It's blackmail, by anyone who wants money, enforced
by Equifax and Transunion.
Ultimately it's costing us more not to refinance than to pay. So, like
many people, I paid them their money and am getting on with the
refinance. But it sure felt like a bribe to me, greasing the financing
wheels.
