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Great Find: SlideShare

October 23, 2006 by Liz

PowerPoint Without the Hassle

Thank you to Ann Michael who sent me the tip on this new little beauty. The Boston Globe called it YouTube for PowerPoint. Take a look here.

Great Find: SlideShare
Permalink: http://slideshare.net/
Target Audience: Anyone who gives presentations
Content: What do you get when you cross the sociability of YouTube with the slide function of PowerPoint and then mix in a large dose of individuality? They’re calling it SlideShare, and it’s pretty exciting. You can build and upload your own slide shows OR you can go there to watch shows that other folks made.

SlideShare lets you upload PowerPoint or Open Office presentation files. Then you can share them through a online interface much like YouTube. The joy is that now PowerPoint documents can be stored on the Internet. No sending, copying, or moving them to a new machine. You can even embed them in your blog. People are already finding creative ways to make use of this new mashup. Here’s what they say at their main site.

How people are using SlideShare?

Teachers are uploading their own slideshows and also asking students to upload their assignments to SlideShare so that parents can see their work.

Conference organizers are uploading presentations from their conferences.

People are uploading photo slideshows to memorialize a wedding or other special event.

If you are bored, check out the humour on SlideShare. There’s tons of it there!

It’s so easy; it seems everyone is using it. I’ve embedded on here.

There are many beautiful ones at the site that the type more effectively. I chose this because it shows how things still look when not perfectly designed. (I’m sure you’ll use type more effectively.)

To learn more about SlideShare and to see many more shows go the main site or visit their blog.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

6 Reasons Readers Don’t Click Your Ads and What to Do about It

October 23, 2006 by Liz

Busted!

Last night I did something that I found curious. Here’s what happened.

I was writing a piece and I needed to think. To get some space, I put the idea on hold, while I clicked over to check my stats. I’d hardly started, when a comment came in on Successful-Blog. I went back to talk about the Jolly Green wearing PayPerPost on his chest.

That done, I returned to my stats, but the window was partly covered.

By accident I clicked on an ad!

Oh no! Not that! Busted!

Someone Already Knew

The second the ad came up, I automatically looked away. NO! I’m not an ad clicker. No, no no! I needed out of there right away!

I looked around for a witness to my reckless clicking. No one here saw. Still I knew Some place, somewhere, in some stats, someone already had tracked me there.

Then I had an epiphany. Okay, I woke up.

[Read more…]

Net Neutrality 10-23-2006

October 23, 2006 by Liz

Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Analysis: U.S. Elections Will Shape Many Key IT Issues

The winners of next month’s Congressional elections will decide the future of many important telecommunications and information technology issues, including net neutrality, data privacy, and patents. . . .

Among the pieces of legislation topping the dockets are a major rewrite of the nation’s telecommunications laws and potential new rules for how businesses and government agencies manage personal data. Also on the agenda are programs to protect the nation’s critical IT and physical infrastructure, increased funding for education and R&D, and a contentious battle over H-1B visas.

With so many issues at hand for our representatives and senators, InformationWeek takes a close look at five key areas affected by IT policy: communications, data privacy, critical infrastructure, innovation, and jobs and education. . . . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Bloggy Life Question 26 — Do You Wish to Comment?

October 22, 2006 by Liz

Money for Nothing?

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week. I offer this bloggy life hypothetical question. . . .

About two weeks ago, you visited a blog that had a post about a cause that you believe in Ã¢â¬â helping homeless children get a solid education. The post you read was well written and quite moving. You left a comment about your feelings and your ideas, thanking the writer for a great posting. You actually linked to the post and shared the link with a few friends.

This afternoon you received an email from that writer, she was writing you with an offer. Since you are passionate about the same issue, would you want to help in raise awareness? Would you want to read and comment on other blogs discussing the education of homeless children? A group that she is part of is willing to pay you $5.00/comment and provide you with a list of 50 blogs on which you might comment.

How do you respond?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Net Neutrality 10-22-2006

October 22, 2006 by Liz

Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

FROM PDF: Nuts and Bolts of Network Neutrality by Edward M. Felten, Center for Information Technology, Princeton University, was released in July 2006.

In this essay, Mr. Felten presents unpacks the murky mysteries of Net Neutrality. The paper is unemotional, understandable, unbiased, and well-written. His stance is detached and instructional stance which leads to a detached, observer’s conclusion.

Read this and Mr. Felten’s work if you need to know what Net Neutrality is about. If you want to know what to do, read MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet.

Ed Felten Explains, Then Is Silent

Mr. Felten begins his essay by saying

One of the reasons the network neutrality debate is so murky is that relatively few people understand the mechanics of network discrimination. In reasoning about net neutrality it helps to understand the technical motivations for discrimination, the various kinds of discrimination and how they would actually be put into practice, and what countermeasures would then be available to users and regulators. These are what I want to explain in this essay.

Felten offers seven core issues that underpin the discussion. I summarize them here.

The Argument Is Partly about Controlling Innovation. Unlike most networks, the Internet is built with the intelligence at the edges. Routers in the “center” transmit and receive. Three advantages of this are that the intelligence is where the resources — computers, memory, processing power — are; network users own and control the computers at the edge; innovation usually happens faster at the edge.
Those for Net Neutrality tend to be at the edge. Those against tend to be in the center. Both groups want to control the intelligence and thereby control innovation.

Minimal Discrimination Is a Necessity; Non-Minimal Discrimination Is Purely Economical. When a router in the “center” receives more than it can transmit, it “buffers” incoming packets in memory to wait for an outgoing link. If the buffer is full, the router must discard a packet — any packet.
One way a router might choose which packet to drop is by assigning priorities. In what Felten calls minimal discrimination the router only discards packets when congestion requires it. A second way, or non-minimal discrimination, drops low-priority packets when they could be sent through. Minimal discrimination is an engineering necessity. Non-minimal discriminatiion is an economic choice.

[Read more…]

TUES., Oct. 24th PARTY – Open Comments DAY: NEW Bring-a-Link Event!

October 21, 2006 by Liz

Open Comments DAY on Tuesday the 24th?

We’re having an OPEN COMMENTS DAY PARTY OCTOBER 24TH to celebrate Blog Birthdays. The Mic will be open all day for conversation, so stop by whenever you can to see who’s here and chat a while. It can be a talking marathon, if we want.

So far we know of these blogs celebrating in October:

NEW:

HART Empire Network

Does your blog belong on this birthday list? Tell me. Tell me. Tell me, please. Also write a post about your blog birthday and submit it to the Blog B-Day Carnival for October 31 being sponsored by Working at Home on the Internet.

Bring-a-Link Event: Successful Bloggers Write Successful Posts

That’s right, when you come on Tuesday, you’re invited to bring a link to your most successful post. When you leave the link, please write a comment about how you chose the most successful post to bring.

Was it your best content?
Did it get attention from a hero?
Did it get the most links?
Did it get the most comments?
How do you define a Successful Post?

I’ll compile a list of all of the posts when the party is over.

What Contest?

To find out about Tuesday Open Comments DAY, October 24th, links, prizes, conversation, fun, and how to be part of the Successful-Blog 25-Words Birthday Challenge, click the title below.

Write about a memory, an event, a funny incident. Be clever as a code-writing donkey.

Join the fun, get a link or two, and give good wishes to the birthday blogs!
Prize donations are still being accepted. Judging will be by random drawing by IT man, my husband, who is not a blogger.

There will be more surprises on the 24th — I get bored easily.
— ME “Liz Strauss