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Penny Arcade - Comic - PPT
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Penny Arcade - Comic - PPT
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.
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"Powerpoint is boring."
"Let's just... ask Powerpoint-"
"Michael, this is a presentation tool."
"You're a presentation tool!"
The best part? She sent me again the next year, along with my sister. "Oh it was just kids being kids, I know you really had a good time". (I love my mom but she's not the brightest bulb) I think the message finally sank in when my sister, having already been injured by her cabin mates, was helpfully brought to the nurses office by her tormentors and literally thrown through the screen door into the office. Is there a word for the opposite of defenstration? Infenestration maybe?
But I will say this: That second panel of the comic reflects more training than probably 80% of the counselors at that camp received. I can laugh about the experience now, but as an adult, thinking about the sheer incompetence and apathy of those counselors is chilling. All of the above went on with counselors present and nothing was ever said or done, not even the slightest verbal reprimand. Just 'business as usual'.
I'm not fluent in subtle American euphemisms, but do you mean a camp for black ghetto kids? is that even a thing?
Yeah, that's what it boiled down to, and that was certainly the prevalent culture, counselors included. There were a few other white kids though. Not that they treated me any differently!
Even now, I admire the *intent* of what the camp was trying to do, it's just that the execution was so unprofessional that I think it may have done more harm than good to the kids it was trying to benefit. I believe they transitioned to just a 'regular' camp some years ago though, but I still think the concept was sound if it was done properly.
Now, you would think that people who are possible candidates for a Nobel prize in their lifetime would forgo using fonts like Comic Sans for their header font. Well, I can assure you that you'd be absolutely wrong to think that.
The internet cares way way more about fonts and kerning than the average person.
Oh, trust me, I know. But, I'm also a graphic designer and if my art degree is going to allow me to do anything in life, it's complain about fonts on the Internet with impunity. :biggrin:
Seriously though, it's not even like "Comic Sans is an awful font and should never be used blah blah blah." it's just that tonally it doesn't fit a lecture about advanced science, cancer research, etc. I mean, what's wrong with just using your standard Arial or Times New Roman or Helvetica or whatever your generic base font of choice is, especially if you're not thinking/caring about fonts.
A conscious choice has to go into picking Comic Sans, and maybe when you're doing a lecture about stillborn fetuses using a font that looks like a child wrote it in crayon could be considered a poor life choice?
Good times.
I assume they delivered that message in a PowerPoint.
I will probably still remember this when I'm 85
As a veteran of too many years in the Army, I would guess it was. To be honest, nobody in the Army likes PPT, we even called it "Death by Powerpoint", what with all the quarterly and annual mandatory briefings you have to sit through in an average year that are presented through its evil and twisted lens. But in the Army, even Powerpoint can be used as a weapon when in the wrong hands, or when a soldier is just pissed off. A friend of mine in our S3 shop had a Captain that kept foisting work setting up Powerpoint presentations on him. The first time or two my friend didn't mind, as S3 battle Captains tend to be buried under work. But when it dawned on him that the Captain was just going to keep dumping this work on him, he deliberately and royally fucked up a Powerpoint presentation. It was the Captains own fault for not reviewing the work before he tried to give the presentation. My friend never had to do another Powerpoint again for the Captain. I think mainly because when the Captain had to explain why his presentation was such a steaming pile, he had to admit he was having a Joe do his work, he was "politely" informed by the Major that he needed to do his own work.
Sun Microsystems famously banned powerpoint presentations. They'd found that managers at all levels in the business were spending an inordinate amount of time fussing about with fonts, styles, backgrounds, layout etc. etc. etc. to make the PPT look good. You're paying them to manage (at not inconsiderable expense), and then they're doing the kinds of work that would traditionally be done by typing pools / secretaries. Talk about a terrific waste of money.
My employers (large tech company), haven't explicitly banned powerpoint, but use of it is discouraged. In somewhat of a throwback approach, we come to the meeting with a report printed out on paper, and the first part of the meeting is spent with people sitting down and reading it with red pen in hand, making notes of things to follow up on etc. After 10 minutes or so *then* the actual discussion starts, having had sufficient time to understand the document and think about the situation. I found it weird to start with. I'm used to creating a presentation, but I've swiftly come to love it. The document is a great way to present a detailed narrative with all the necessary supporting data right there on the page. You don't have to worry about nerves or forgetting points, you've a chance to clear up and ensure you have a solid narrative, you can get others to read over in advance and offer feedback, and you're not adversely affected by your skills (or lack thereof) as a public speaker. Producing those documents is so much quicker, easier and with a good chance you'll have a tighter and more coherent understanding of the situation which is all to the company's benefit.
I have memories of school projects where the prep time would ring to the sounds of the machine gun and typewriter sound effects that my classmates would use to accompany the text animations.
so whatever, I do a basic, minimalist powerpoint because this particular subject didn't really need graphics (iirc the subject was actually styles of speechwriting, so meta)
I vividly recall the prof commenting that he liked my little ten minute talk, but marked me down because I didn't 'spice' the slides up enough
there were some times in undergrad that I thought a prof was out and out a fool, but I'm pretty sure that was #1 with a bullet
ed: and yeah, if I'm presenting something with enough meat to it that a powerpoint would actually be a useful way to display information, I prefer to just bring it in handout form; people seem to follow along that way, as opposed to just kinda dozing off in front of a powerpoint presentation.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccckkkkkkk
I've grown really fond of reveal.js, it's really easy to use, absolutely basic HTML structure and it churns out a great looking presentation with reasonable amount of customisability. Whenever I inevitably do have to present, I can usually produce something with it in 10 minutes.
There is a series of sci-fantasy books by Charles Stross called The Laundry Files where advanced maths and computers are used to summon and control demons, cast spells, etc.
In one of them, a PowerPoint presentation is used as a weapon of mass destruction.
The two panels on the left are based on actual powerpoint templates.