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December 16, 2003
PowerPoint: Art or info fog?
After David Byrnes premiered his PowerPoint art in LA, Clive Thompson writing in New York Times highlights Edward Tufte's essay that PowerPoint is a terrible way to convey information. From the Times article: In his slim 28-page pamphlet, Tufte claimed that Microsoft's ubiquitous software forces people to mutilate data beyond comprehension. For example, the low resolution of a PowerPoint slide means that it usually contains only about 40 words, or barely eight seconds of reading.
Wired Magazine has a column by Tufte highlighting points in his essay and a column by Byrne about making art on PowerPoint. Wired later published this interview with Byrnes. Tufte's pamphlet can be purchased from his site.
Another use of PowerPoint: The Gettysburg Address.
Posted by eubie at 9:02 PM permalink
Online news turns 10
Steve Outing reviews the first 10 years of online news including what news organizations are not doing well such as failing to grasp that "published content online isn't nearly as powerful as the communication between people that the online medium facilitates. E-mail and chat were consistently the features that were most popular in the early days -- not news stories published online. Most news companies still don't grasp this."
Also: "Carlson (David Carlson, Cox Foundation Palm Beach Post professor of new media journalism at the University of Florida at Gainesville) suggests that where the news industry makes its biggest mistake is in failing to create services that are personally useful to people. E-mail; instant messaging; e-commerce; package tracking. It's no easy task, but the news industry still needs to figure out how to offer online services that are as personally useful as those."
Posted by eubie at 8:45 PM permalink
Maybe taxes are more certain
From Reuters on why funeral-home operator Stewart Enterprises laid off workers: The company said earlier this month it would cut 300 jobs, or about 5 percent of its work force, to reduce costs after several years of declining deaths in its markets. Gee, that's too bad people didn't die according to budget.
Posted by eubie at 7:13 PM permalink