The perfect presentation remote

April 18, 2006 eirikso5 Comments

I like to use a remote control when doing presentations. I have used different remotes and experimented with this even back when my computer was running on Windows NT, the remote was communicating through an infrared reciever on the RS232 port and it was one week of work to get the remote up and running.

So through the years I have put together a simple requirement specification for a presentation remote:

1. Stable wireless connection through radio and not IR
2. Good design and not too many buttons
3. Absolutely no drivers or software installation
4. Battery indicator to warn low power
5. A range of at least 10 meters

The question about drivers and software is important for the situations where you can’t do the presentation from your own computer. It should be possible for you to just connect your remote and have it working in seconds.

The good news is that I have found it. The Logitech Cordless Presenter 2,4 GHz. It fills all my requirements and adds a couple of extra features as well:

A built in timer that will also quietly and briefly vibrate the presenter when you have 5 minutes and 2 minutes left. Meaning that you know when your time is running out without even looking at the display.

A volume control that also worked with no drivers on the computers I have tried.

A button to blank the screen and an escape button to leave the presentation.

A laser pointer
At this point I have to mention that I don’t really like laser pointers. I like to design my slides so simple that I don’t need a laser pointer to guide people. But who knows, it might come in handy…

I have tested the remote on two different computers running Win XP and on a Macintosh PowerBook G4 running OS X. It worked fine on all three. No installation. Just reliable control of PowerPoint immediately.

Presentation for The Norwegian Computer Society

January 19, 2006 eirikso6 Comments

As discussed in my post about presentation technique I try to make slides that only illustrates what I am talking about. If I hand out anything it is always done after the presentation, and it has to be more than the slides alone. People want some kind of summary, for internet stuff they want the links etc..

At the Norwegian Computer Society I talked about blogging and how I gain knowledge and valuable contacts through this activity. A bit about the relationship between my blog and my professional life and discussions around tools like Flickr, RSS Readers etc…

This is a little experiment. I have written short summaries of what I was talking about for each slide and publish all of it here as a reference. Both for the people that attended the presentation and for the people that did not attend. It should be able to get some info out of this little post even for the people that missed the session this evening.

Maybe this could be a way to extend the discussion that was started during the presentation:
– Is it a good idea to try to define “blog” strictly?
– What RSS feed readers do you use?
– Do you have any special blogs to recommend?

My short answers. It’s difficult to define what a blog is in detail. Some of my thoughts are given in the presentation. As for feed readers I use Bloglines and Netvibes.

My recomended blogs are here:
– 10 essential blogs
– The media center blogs
– The blogs that I subscribe to in Bloglines right now

So for the presentation. This is what you get if you save a powerpoint presentation as a web page. It is extremely ugly, but works. Still, you can also have a look at it here in the blog:
Continue reading “Presentation for The Norwegian Computer Society” →

Presenting at TiDE – Television in a Digital Environment

November 18, 2005 eirikso3 Comments

I have been fortunate enough to attend and present at the TiDE conference hosted by Lillehammer University College. Here are some recommended links for the people that attended my presentation:

Digital Rights Management:
How bob the millionaire became a pirate
BMW don’t get it
Placeshifting – your media everywhere (ORB)

Remixing and open APIs:
Give the kids something to remix
Panoramio – place your pictures on Google maps
BBC Backstage
BBC Mood News
Flickr hacks
Google Earth Hacks

Media centers:
The Media Center Software List
NRK makes one of the worldâ€™s largest Media Center services
Apple Media Center – At last!
Google Video and Media Center Edition
The Media Center Blogs

Usability:
Bad usability and the nokia memory card
An example of good and bad usability design
Why your camera phone will outperform your compact camera – bigtime!

Some words on Flickr, blogging, RSS, del.icio.us etc:
Help for â€œthe left behindâ€
Top 10 essential blogs
YouTube and the Flickrs of video

Insane, still slightly interesting experiment:
Everything you would ever want to see!

Other stuff:
The Gizmo Project
Flickr related tag browser

Picture: The streets of Lillehammer

Presenting software

November 9, 2005 eirikso4 Comments

I just got a question about presenting software and how to explain certain features without using these hated bullet points.

Let’s take an example. I am going to present four of the features in the video editing software Sony Vegas Video. Worst case scenario is this slide:

This one is slightly better and works fine as an executive summary that you can hand out after the presentation:

And another one, also good as an executive summary:

But, in the presentation you are going to tell people that this software has “Unlimited amount of video tracks”, “Simple integrated video trimmer” etc.

So you make four slides. One for each point:

If its possible to walk up to the picture and point at it you can also do this on one slide.

How to avoid making boring presentations

November 8, 2005 eirikso20 Comments

I have been doing a lot of presentations lately. So, inspired by the classic Steve Jobs and Bill Gates comparison, and after reading these comments over at Presentation Zen:

If someone emailed you both presentations, you’d probably be more likely to make out Bill Gates’ message.

How would you scape from bullet points and charts if you are presenting a technical subject?

I’ll have to throw in my little presentation guide as well. Hell, I’ll even give you an example. I am going to show you the presentation I use to tell students about pixels, colour schemes, dynamic range and a complete explanation of run length encoding of pictures.

Without one single bullet point.

The typical bullet point hell version of one of the slides would be like this:

Nicely done with a horrible default gradient background and an ugly font.

The first quote from the comments is answered by my presentation rule number one:

If someone that did not attend to my presentation can understand anything if I mail them my slides I have made a really bad set of slides. Really bad.

Why the heck would I bother spending money on a ticket to London and do a presentation if I could just mail the people my presentation and they would get the same? Ladies and gentlemen: slides are an illustration to what you are saying.

…but what about the people that did not attend? If they are important you’ll have to do another presentation or you’ll have to produce a document that people are supposed to read. A set of slides is not a document that people are supposed to read.

I’ll show this with my example.
Continue reading “How to avoid making boring presentations” →

Priceless comparison: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates presenting

November 6, 2005 eirikso8 Comments

Presentation Zen has done a comparison of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates doing presentations. With a special focus on Bill Gates’ last presentation about Windows Live.

The fact that Mr. Gates has totally horrible slides is interesting enough. He should know better. His advisors should know better. The fact that his only interesting competitor is one of this planet’s best speakers and has some of the best slides out there as well makes the comparison simply hilarious.

All I can say is:
– I hate bullet points
– I really hate bullet points
– Bullet points, I can’t stand them

Finally. Now I know why Microsoft PowerPoint is such an insanely crappy product.

eirikso

Photo, media, technology

Presentations