My PowerPoint 2007 Book is Out!
I'm happy to announce general availability of my latest book, Creating a Presentation in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 for Windows: Visual QuickProject Guide. Like all of the Visual QuickProject books, it is short, has lots of color pictures, and is designed to help the reader accomplish one task. In this case, it's using PowerPoint 2007 to produce your first presentation. It's a good book for newbies, so if you know someone who has to do their first presentation, please suggest this book to them. If they still have PowerPoint 2003 for Windows, or PowerPoint 2004 for Mac, I suggest the previous edition, which remains in print.
I'm selling my two SliMP3 units
A few weeks ago, I mentioned how much I like the Slim Devices Squeezebox, and how it can play streaming music from Pandora and Rhapsody (clicking that link gets you a free 14-day trial).
Since then, I discovered that the older SliMP3 units from Slim Devices cannot play music from the two streaming services, though they work great for streaming MP3 and other formats over your home network. Dori mentioned that she would like to be able to listen to the services in the living room, so I bought a Squeezebox 3 for my office, and moved the Squeezebox 2 down to the house, replacing the SliMP3 I had down there. I'd also had one in the office, which was just sitting around. So now I've got both of them up on eBay, and Dori reminded me that I should mention that here. There's only about a day left in the auctions, so if you're interested, you should act soon. One of the units is here, and the other one is here. Each auction listing has a description and photos. Good luck!
Update: Both units sold.
Put him on hold, John!
There's this guy named Sam Fox. He's a slimeball. A rich Republican slimeball, in fact. He's a big, big donor to Bush. He gave $50,000 in seed money to the Swift Boat crowd, the pigs who lied about John Kerry's Vietnam record during the 2004 campaign. Now, we've discovered Bush's payoff for old Sam's largess; Dubya wants Sam to be Ambassador to Belgium. In a hearing on the nomination, Kerry criticized Fox. No surprise there. But really, John, take off the gloves. You're a Senator. Just put a hold on the guy's nomination, and don't take it off. Ever. This guy helped to keep you out of the White House. Take your revenge. It's OK. They did lots worse to you. This swine doesn't deserve to represent the United States of America.
If you read the story, it says that "...Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. [shouldn't that be I-Conn.?], also testified enthusiastically for Fox." Imagine my surprise that Holy Joe is found, once again, sucking up to a Republican. It's yet one more another example of Lieberman's total lack of moral center. He really is one of the most reprehensible politicians in Washington. And given the stiff competition, that's saying a lot.
Gender diversity, web conferences, part 2
I've noticed that we're getting a lot of hits from John Gruber's recent piece, and it's clear that a lot of you (including John) didn't understand what it was I was trying to say in my last piece on gender issues, so I'll try again.
In particular, I was writing about what Lisa Price of Carson Systems said, as quoted here (the comments don't have permalinks, so look for Jen Bekman's 02.22.07 / 8pm comment where she quotes Lisa):
…all I can say is we can’t magic up women developers out of nowhere if they simply don’t exist. I would ask what percentage of your excellent list of women speakers [Ed: yes, I'm on it] would be appropriate at our web app events? Honestly, we have looked for them in the interests of diversity and because we know that providing role models for the next generation of developers is an important part of redressing the balance, but frankly (and again I refer you back to your list and our attendee statistics) it’s just not easy.
If women are being held back from positions in the web industry then I would seriously be pissed off about it but I have never felt that this community is anything more than a meritocracy (you’re only as good as your last job) and that is a rare thing (no matter what your gender). To compare the FOWA [ed: Future of Web Apps] with SXSW (an excellent show which I’m looking forward to attending) is a false exercise. How many women are there talking about PHP, Rails, JavaScript and other development issues? Not many I think you’ll find.
I'm not talking percentages. I'm not talking strict numbers. What I am talking about is that when someone says that she is looking for women developers & speakers and yet cannot find them, then she isn't looking very hard. Or possibly, at all.
Once again: I'm not talking about what percentage of speakers at any given conference are women (yes, other people are, but I am not). This also isn't about me. This definitely isn't about me applying for speaking gigs (I have, but that's not what I'm writing about here).
This is about claims that I "simply don't exist." This is about claims Shelley doesn't exist. This is about claims that people like Molly don't exist — 'cause nobody, but nobody could know that we exist, talk to any of us for five minutes, and still say that
[i]f women are being held back from positions in the web industry then I would seriously be pissed off about it but I have never felt that this community is anything more than a meritocracy
I would love to live in that world, but I don't. And actually, I don't believe that any of us do.
6th Annual Oscar Blog
Multiple Oscar winners:
- The Departed: 4
- Pan's Labyrinth: 3
- An Inconvenient Truth: 2
- Dreamgirls: 2
And it ends with a brief "Good night" from Ellen, after 3 hours and 47 minutes. Overall, I think she did a great job; I'll be interested to see if she's invited back next year.
Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton come out to give the best picture Oscar. Jack and Diane, eh? For her, that's a nice normal look. And the Oscar goes to The Departed. The announcer says, "Martin Scorcese says that The Departed is the first film he's done with a plot." Tom agrees.
Spielberg, Lucas, and Coppola come out to give the best director Oscar. I didn't think that Lucas had won one, and I was correct. Given that those three were presenting, I wasn't one bit surprised to hear the winner was Martin Scorsese for The Departed. I half suspect that no matter what name was on there, that's who they would have announced.
Reese Witherspoon comes out to give the award for best actor. Nice dress, Reese, but you should do something (anything!) with your hair. The Oscar for best actor goes to Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland. Drat; I was rooting for Peter O'Toole.
Philip Seymour Hoffman normally looks good at awards shows, but what the hell happened this year? His hair was combed with a rake, he's wearing a black shirt with an electric blue tie, and needs his face powdered. Wow. He's presenting the award for best actress, which goes to Helen Mirren for The Queen.
Jodie Foster's looking good, and darn young for someone who's about the same age as me, not to mention someone who is introducing the montage of people who died last year.
Kate Winslow looks great in a beautiful dress, presenting the award for best Film Editing. The Oscar goes to Thelma Schoonmaker for The Departed.
Will Smith looks great, and is presenting a montage, which is supposedly of movies about America. That's much too broad a category to actually make any sense.
Queen Latifah looks amazing, as always. She and John Travolta are up to present the best Original Song award, which is I Need to Wake Up from An Inconvenient Truth, with music and lyric by Melissa Etheridge. Another thank you to Al (run Al, run!).
Tom says that despite what the announcer says, no, JLo is not an excellent reason to have HD. Bad dress — it's a cheesy Cleopatra knock-off (what, did the designers of Rome reject it?). Tom also just referred to Jennifer Hudson's "best supporting actresses"; I thought that the problem was that she/they needed more support.
Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, both looking blah. It's a great dress ruined by a Peter Pan collar. Bad designer, no biscuit. They're giving the award for best Original Screenplay, which goes to Michael Arndt for Little Miss Sunshine.
Penelope Cruz and Hugh Jackman giving the award for best Original Score, which went to Gustavo Santaolalla for Babel. See? If you want to show some personal style while wearing a tux, wear a colored bow-tie. Skip the cravat, please.
A nice tribute to Ennio Morricone ruined by a Celine Dion performance. Damn, we hate that woman. Tom was talking to our guests when I asked him to be more quiet so I could hear what Morricone was saying, but then it turned out that the reason I couldn't understand him was because he was talking in Italian.
No, we hadn't been wondering where Jerry Seinfeld was. And we were fine with not caring, either. He's presenting the award for best Documentary, which goes to Davis Guggenheim for An Inconvenient Truth. Oh, and some guy named Al.
Two people I don't recognize give the award for best Documentary Short Subject to Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon for The Blood of Yingzhou District.
For years, George Clooney has been my standard for what men should wear to the Oscars, and once again he doesn't disappoint. I wish more men would follow his lead. He's up to give the award for best Supporting Actress. And the Oscar goes to Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls; she also wins the award for most references to God in a thank you speech.
Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen present the award for best Foreign Language Film. Will Pan's Labyrinth sweep? Nope, the winner is Lives of Others (Germany).
Catherine Deneuve looks amazing. Montage of past winners of best Foreign Language Film.
Naomi Watts and Robert Downey Jr. She looks lovely; he can't even bother to tie his cravat. Sheesh. The best Visual Effects Oscar goes to John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Allen Hall for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
We're split on Gwyneth's dress. In general, it's probably more positive than negative, and it's much much better that some of what she's worn in the past. The Oscar for best Cinematography goes to Guillermo Navarro for Pan's Labyrinth.
Okay, the shtick about getting Spielberg to take a picture of Ellen and Clint for her MySpace page is funny.
Do Scientologists think that what Tom Cruise is wearing is a tux? If so, they're wrong. A black suit, white shirt, and black tie does not equal a tuxedo. He's giving the Jean Hersholt award to Sherry Lansing.
The nominees for best costumes, given by Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt. Nice bits about Meryl Streep playing off The Devil Wears Prada (hey, that makes two films I've seen! Three if you count Cars). And the Oscar for best Costume Design goes to Milena Canonero for Marie Antoinette.
We're trying to figure out how Apple got the rights to all those movie clips for the iPhone ads. Top guesses: they were offered either free laptops, or special billing on the iTunes movie store.
Helen Mirren and Tom Hanks: she looks great, he (once again) should be wearing a bow-tie (and ditto for Ben Affleck). The winner for best Adapted Screenplay: William Monahan for The Departed.
Hey, it's a film montage about scriptwriters. We're always in favor of more visibility for writers.
We were looking forward to seeing Cameron Diaz in HD, because we'd heard she looked terrible. Well, she looks great — although her dress looked wrinkled. Wow! A Pixar film didn't win. We're stunned. The best Animated Film winner is Happy Feet.
Tom: "Did you notice that Jack Nicholson is starting to look like Jabba the Hutt?"
Leo and Al. There's a combo! Leo does a bit on Al running/not running, and says that the show has "gone green." Our big question: has Al lost weight? If so, then he's most likely running (we hope yes). Cute shtick with Al starting to announce something, and the music coming up and over his voice. Oh, and we're in favor of him winning the Nobel Peace Prize as well.
I can do without performances of the nominated songs, even when it's James Taylor, Randy Newman, and Cars. Back to back nominated songs performances? I didn't expect that. Melissa Etheridge does a great job, although Tom is beside me cheering for the Keynote slides.
Ellen's doing a walk through the audience like it's her talk show. Bleccch. Style points for having Pilobolus (sp?), though. Pixel is watching the flightless birds intently. I'd like to point out that if my cat can wear a proper tuxedo, presenters and Oscar winners should be able to as well.
Rachel Weisz knows how to wear a great dress. She's up to give the award for best supporting actor, which goes to Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine. Comment here: "Eddie, if you'd worn a bow-tie, you might have won."
The award for best Sound Mixing goes to Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer and Willie Burton for Dreamgirls.
Tom feels a need to point out to me that in HD, he can see Jessica Biel's nipples. I'm not clear why we're paying extra for this.
The award for best Sound Editing goes to: Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman for Letters from Iwo Jima. It's a tradition here to bitch about cravats with tuxedos, and I have to say again: it's not a tuxedo if you don't wear a bow-tie. You only do this once a year; get with the program.
The Sound Effects Choir? Okay, I had my doubts at first, but this is actually kind of cool. A friend of ours is here, and he says that it was done about two years ago by a British Honda ad.
The best animated short award is being given out by cute kids. And the Oscar goes to Torill Kove for The Danish Poet. It would be a shame if that was the best dress of the night. Next, for the best live action short: Ari Sandel for West Bank Story.
And the award for best makeup goes to: Pan's Labyrinth. As with Art Direction, well deserved.
Will Farrell comes out to sing. Yow. I don't much like him, and his singing doesn't help any. OTOH, I love Jack Black, and doing a tribute to comedians never getting nominations is funny.
Things appear to be getting better just in time for me to see an iPhone ad. Is this coincidental???
Well, I may have to give up on this entirely, as my Mac is freaking out and is making everything take twice as long as it should. And even worse, we're watching it without a pause or rewind button, so I can't go back and look at things (damn that husband guy for wanting to watch it in HD!).
First presenters: Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman. I've seen her wearing better dresses. He looks great, though. The winner for Art Direction is Pan's Labyrinth — it's nice, an award for one of the few films I've seen.
Ellen's off to a reasonably good start. I wish she was a little more dressed up (yes, I'm going to snark about the outfits, as always), but she's good.
Just as the Oscars were about to start, my Mac froze up. We're not off to a good start...
6th Annual Oscar Blogging about to start...
Oscar blogging should be starting very shortly. This is my 6th year straight doing Oscar blogging, and if you want to read my previous go-rounds, you can see them at:
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