henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (03/01/87)
Thinking back over the Washington Usenix conference, I'd say that on the
whole it was pretty well run. (The topics of the conference may not have
been of interest to everyone, but that's a different issue.) I would like
to lodge a complaint about one thing that annoyed me very much at the time,
though.
People who have read the Collyer/Spencer paper in the proceedings and who
also heard my presentation of it may have noticed that the presentation
was relatively disorganized by comparison. Some of this was simply because
I miscalculated and ran out of time for preparation; sorry about that. But
a significant part of it was due to a botch by the organizers, which I raise
in public in hopes that it won't happen again. The botch was very simple:
there wasn't a lectern by the overhead projector. Consequently, there was
nowhere to put my notes where I could read them. I simply had to keep them
in my hands, with the obvious complications whenever I wanted to change an
overhead foil and needed both hands free. This wouldn't be a problem for
people who simply read their talk off their foils, but since I dislike that
practice and refuse to engage in it myself, I was stuck. It was a nasty
complication for a relatively inexperienced speaker, I wasn't prepared for
it, and it hampered my talk significantly. Argh.
For that matter, having to bend over every time I wanted to change a foil --
becaus there was no table to put the foils on -- didn't help either.
This may have affected others, too. I wasn't the only disorganized speaker
that afternoon.
So, the message to conference organizers is: a physical setup like this
encourages people to recite their talk off their foils, rather than using
the visual aids to provide *visual* support for the talk. If you want to
encourage high-quality visuals, don't force people to make their visuals
double as notes. Provide a lectern or at least a table near the overhead.
--
Legalize Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
freedom! {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henryrcj@clyde.UUCP (03/02/87)
In article <7720@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes: >a significant part of it was due to a botch by the organizers, which I raise >in public in hopes that it won't happen again. The botch was very simple: >there wasn't a lectern by the overhead projector. Consequently, there was >nowhere to put my notes where I could read them. I simply had to keep them >....... >For that matter, having to bend over every time I wanted to change a foil -- >becaus there was no table to put the foils on -- didn't help either. Henry, I have great respect for your technical abilities, but this one seems rather simple. If I had walked up there and seen no lectern and no table for the foils, I would have asked for such. If that didn't work, I would have demanded such. And if that didn't work, I would have found two of the organizers and had one hold my papers while the other held my foils. I guarantee they would have got me a lectern or at least a couple of tables before they submitted to that or had a big stink raised. They aren't paying you to speak (at least I don't think so); make them make your life comfortable! They aren't gods; they's just lil ol human beans like us -- if they screw up, be understanding but don't expect them to read your mind! Yours for better assertiveness training, The MAD Programmer -- 201-386-4295 (Cornet 232) alias: Curtis Jackson ...![ ihnp4 ulysses cbosgd allegra ]!moss!rcj ...![ ihnp4 cbosgd akgua watmath ]!clyde!rcj P.S.: I know Rick Adams well enough to know that he would have got you close to what you needed had you just asked.... [Foot in mouth here if Henry did ask Rick!!! ;-) ]
haas@msudoc.UUCP (03/04/87)
There was a lecturn in the hall where Henry Spencer gave his paper, he just wasn't at it. He was down on the floor, virtually out of sight, flipping foils. I prefer to be able to see both the speaker and the foils. At future Usenix's, it would be nice if the session chair could provide someone other than the speaker to flip the foils. If need be, I can even volunteer for a limited number of talks. ===== Paul Haas, haas@msudoc.egr.mich-state.edu (35.8.0.108 rather new) or ...!ihnp4!msudoc!haas A literature search has revealed that not one of the cows at the MSU Dairy Cattle Research and Training Center has published a single paper. I strongly suggest that they do not get tenure.
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (03/05/87)
> ... If I had walked up there and seen no lectern and > no table for the foils, I would have asked for such... > P.S.: I know Rick Adams well enough to know that he would have got > you close to what you needed had you just asked.... Clearly that's what I should have done... but I'm not a very experienced speaker, this was my first encounter with the problem, and I didn't realize how awkward it was going to be until I tried it. Next time I will know better. -- "We must choose: the stars or Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology the dust. Which shall it be?" {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry
steffen@ihlpg.UUCP (03/05/87)
> There was a lecturn in the hall where Henry Spencer gave his paper, he > just wasn't at it. He was down on the floor, virtually out of sight, > flipping foils. I prefer to be able to see both the speaker and the > foils. > > At future Usenix's, it would be nice if the session chair could provide > someone other than the speaker to flip the foils. If need be, I can > even volunteer for a limited number of talks. When the speaker flips the foils, the talk is smoother. I'm always distracted the speaker constantly interjecting "next foil please" into the talk. I've given 4 USENIX talks myself, and I prefer flipping my own foils, so there should be arrangements to accomodate the speakers preferences. I also prefer the speaker be a the foil projector so s/he can point to something on the foil with a pencil. The flashlight arrow that a speaker at the lecturn has to use is harder to see, and distracting because it jiggles around on the screen because it is hard to hold the flashlight steady. -- Joe Steffen, AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL, (312) 369-7395
dave@onfcanim.UUCP (03/10/87)
>I also prefer the speaker be a the foil projector so s/he can point to >something on the foil with a pencil. The flashlight arrow that a speaker >at the lecturn has to use is harder to see, and distracting because it >jiggles around on the screen because it is hard to hold the flashlight >steady. At the Toronto USENIX, the lecturn was equipped with a pointer that used a helium-neon laser instead of a projected white-light arrow. Its visibility was far better than the conventional pointer; the intense red spot would be hard to miss. I assume they rented the pointer from somewhere; it was clearly designed for just such a use and was not a lab laser. That was a few years ago now, and I'm surprised I've never seen a laser pointer at a conference since then, given how well it worked.
msb@sq.UUCP (03/10/87)
Dave Martindale (dave@onfcanim.UUCP) writes: > That was a few years ago now, and I'm surprised I've never seen a laser > pointer at a conference since then, given how well it worked. Laser pointers have been around for longer than that - I first saw one used 15 years ago! They really are nice - as someone said once, "you never get tired of looking at laser light." However, in my opinion, using laser pointers with overhead projectors is solving only half the problem. Overhead projectors, as usually used, give images that are light gray on a white background. Yuck! Turning off the room lights makes it dark gray on white, but can also be unpleasant. At the first day of the conference, however, instead of overhead projector foils we were given slides, typeset in white on blue. Much better! This was apparently an innovation of the organizers du jour; it should become a standard. (And if the speakers want to point at the slides, the dark background allows either flashlight or laser pointers to work nicely.) Mark Brader, utzoo!sq!msb Without the threat of frequent new releases of the system to enforce conformity, we have been free to modify and adapt the system to suit our own purposes. ... On more than one occasion, we have found it has been quicker to correct a newly discovered program error than to document its existence. We feel we are in a relatively advantageous position compared with users of other brands of software. -- John Lions
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (03/11/87)
> There was a lecturn in the hall where Henry Spencer gave his paper, he > just wasn't at it... Because it was fairly obviously not in use that day -- no lights on it, nobody else using it. One reason why the situation took me by surprise was that I wasn't at that morning's session, and the lectern was in use the previous day. > He was down on the floor, virtually out of sight, > flipping foils. I prefer to be able to see both the speaker and the > foils. I sympathize, but I also sympathize with people who are irked by problems in coordinating talk and foils. I'd made sure Geoff was going to be on hand in case I did need a foil-flipping helper, but given a choice I do have a mild preference for handling the AV myself. -- "We must choose: the stars or Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology the dust. Which shall it be?" {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry
trb@ima.UUCP (Andrew Tannenbaum) (03/16/87)
> Overhead projectors, as usually used, give images that are light gray > on a white background. Yuck! Turning off the room lights makes it dark > gray on white, but can also be unpleasant. At the first day of the > conference, however, instead of overhead projector foils we were given > slides, typeset in white on blue. Much better! This was apparently an > innovation of the organizers du jour; it should become a standard. > (And if the speakers want to point at the slides, the dark background > allows either flashlight or laser pointers to work nicely.) Yes, the commonly accepted way to deal with these problems is to use slides. The speaker gets a remote control. The problem of highlighting should be dealt with *on the slides* by highlighting the proper data in a brighter color. You end up with several slides which contain the same text, each with different highlights. The best way to do this is using two projectors pointing at the same screen, with a system that is designed to fade one in as the other fades out. No death rays, no jiggle. And make sure that the typeface is readable from a distance. Roman does not suit this purpose, a sans serif is best, since you can't see the serifs from the back of a hall anyway. And keep the text content of each slide to less than six lines. Andrew Tannenbaum Interactive Boston, MA +1 617 247 1155
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (03/18/87)
> ... And keep the text content of each slide to less than six lines.
And while you're at it, don't forget that using slides to display an
outline of your talk is like using videotape to show the head of the
announcer as he reads the news: if that's all you're going to use the
medium for, why bother? Slides should be used for things that *can't*
be done easily with words: images, graphs, diagrams, comparisons,
tables, cartoons. It's more work but much more satisfactory.
--
"We must choose: the stars or Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
the dust. Which shall it be?" {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henrysteffen@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Joe Steffen) (03/19/87)
> And keep the text content of each slide to less than six lines.
I don't agree with this because it can fragment a talk unnecessarily. If
the text is an outline of the talk, this is reasonable, but a program
example or program output is not easily limited to 6 lines/slide.
--
Joe Steffen, AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL, (312) 416-7395rs@mirror.TMC.COM (Rich Salz) (03/19/87)
Henry's article complaining about the "speaking conditions" at the DC
Usenix have resulted in several articles with really good ideas on
things to be aware of when presenting a talk.
It would be really worthwhile if someone collected those comments
and put them into a pamphlet that would-be Usenix presenters could
be given.
Any volunteers (from the Usenix office :-)?
--
--
Rich $alz "Drug tests p**s me off"
Mirror Systems, Cambridge Massachusetts rs@mirror.TMC.COM
{adelie, mit-eddie, ihnp4, harvard!wjh12, cca, cbosgd, seismo}!mirror!rshenry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (04/05/87)
> > And keep the text content of each slide to less than six lines. > > I don't agree with this because it can fragment a talk unnecessarily. If > the text is an outline of the talk, this is reasonable, but a program > example or program output is not easily limited to 6 lines/slide. But if you put a lot more than 6 lines on the slide, a substantial audience won't be able to read it anyway. I'm not sure I agree with the particular number "6" (I'm basically opposed to using slides for text at all), but the general point is valid. -- "We must choose: the stars or Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology the dust. Which shall it be?" {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry