1. Slightly OT...well, OK, totally OT. But I wager you all know the
answers off the top of your heads. As mentioned once or twice, I am just
a simple application programmer. Never gave a slide talk before, ILC
2003 will be my first. I got the presentation software, no prob. I am
googling for the answers, but not having much look on certain specifics.
My Q's:
1.a What size? the classic 640x480? Ask the organizer what their
projector can do? If I push the res will it be too hard to see? Or will
the presentation software handle everthing? I have a killer new laptop
(oh, god, I just cursed it, didn't I?)
1.b Will photos show well? I may have to pad my talk with slides from my
trip to Baltimore. I have a recollection of speakers apologizing for
stuff being invisible, forget what. I guess the room being lit normally
does not help. How does one pre-flight these deals shy of buying a
projector?
2. Here's my other problem. Have you all seen the speaker list? Just
part of it:
Gerald Sussman --- Co-Inventor of Scheme (MIT)
Philip Wadler --- Inventor of Haskell
Gregor Kikzales --- Inventor of AOP, AMOP author inter alia
Jack Scwhartz --- Inventor of SETL (NYU)
Gregory Chaitin --- Inventor of `,(ask-Anton)(IBM)
Paul Graham --- Inventor of ARC, note CL author, entrepreneur
Christian Queinnec --- Author of "Lisp In Small Pieces"
Friedman & Felleisen --- Authors of "The Little Schemer"
...and some guy named McCarthy from Stanford. Oh, yeah, and:
Kenny Tilton --- uh-oh
...can someone hide me Oct 12-15th? <sigh> Oh, and my RoboCup goalie
last I looked dives backward into the goal when a penalty shot is
taken... that's bad, right?
This is going to be a tough four weeks. Hope no is actually coming; I'll
have those speakers all to myself.
--
clinisys, inc
http://www.tilton-technology.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm non-violent, but if a hawk comes down when I'm feeding
my birds, I lose my temper and get my air rifle."
-- Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
I forgot #3: I am thinking about doing some software development during
the talk (exceedingly well-rehearsed, and it is the only thing I know
how to do)... does that work? I promise, no debugging other than
pre-planned backtraces.
kenny
Kenny Tilton wrote:
> 1. Slightly OT...well, OK, totally OT. But I wager you all know the
> answers off the top of your heads. As mentioned once or twice, I am just
> a simple application programmer. Never gave a slide talk before, ILC
> 2003 will be my first. I got the presentation software, no prob. I am
> googling for the answers, but not having much look on certain specifics.
> My Q's:
>
> 1.a What size? the classic 640x480? Ask the organizer what their
> projector can do? If I push the res will it be too hard to see? Or will
> the presentation software handle everthing? I have a killer new laptop
> (oh, god, I just cursed it, didn't I?)
>
> 1.b Will photos show well? I may have to pad my talk with slides from my
> trip to Baltimore. I have a recollection of speakers apologizing for
> stuff being invisible, forget what. I guess the room being lit normally
> does not help. How does one pre-flight these deals shy of buying a
> projector?
>
> 2. Here's my other problem. Have you all seen the speaker list? Just
> part of it:
>
> Gerald Sussman --- Co-Inventor of Scheme (MIT)
> Philip Wadler --- Inventor of Haskell
> Gregor Kikzales --- Inventor of AOP, AMOP author inter alia
> Jack Scwhartz --- Inventor of SETL (NYU)
> Gregory Chaitin --- Inventor of `,(ask-Anton)(IBM)
> Paul Graham --- Inventor of ARC, note CL author, entrepreneur
> Christian Queinnec --- Author of "Lisp In Small Pieces"
> Friedman & Felleisen --- Authors of "The Little Schemer"
>
> ....and some guy named McCarthy from Stanford. Oh, yeah, and:
>
> Kenny Tilton --- uh-oh
>
> ....can someone hide me Oct 12-15th? <sigh> Oh, and my RoboCup goalie
> last I looked dives backward into the goal when a penalty shot is
> taken... that's bad, right?
>
> This is going to be a tough four weeks. Hope no is actually coming; I'll
> have those speakers all to myself.
>
--
clinisys, inc
http://www.tilton-technology.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm non-violent, but if a hawk comes down when I'm feeding
my birds, I lose my temper and get my air rifle."
-- Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
Kenny Tilton <·······@nyc.rr.com> wrote in message news:<················@nyc.rr.com>...
> I forgot #3: I am thinking about doing some software development during
> the talk (exceedingly well-rehearsed, and it is the only thing I know
> how to do)... does that work? I promise, no debugging other than
> pre-planned backtraces.
I think people like to see a little lisp, particularly if it does
something while they're watching.
If you can be flexible about resolution you're less likely to suffer
if there has to be a last-minute change of equipment.
My own tale is thus: I turned up for the tutorial I gave last year
with code to dump lisp forms, one at a time, into a lisp listener. I
had tested it and rehearsed it, I had given every form an id number
which appeared on the screen so I wouldn't get lost and which was also
written with a bright marker pen on my hardcopy. And in spite of this
I still managed to get badly lost at one point, spent about a minute
panicking trying to find my place, then just waved my hands and said
"read the printout - this worked yesterday". But it mostly worked.
So, this year, I'm turning up with the same code to dump lisp forms,
one at a time, into a lisp listener. Place your bets, if you like.
- nick
Kenny Tilton wrote:
> I forgot #3: I am thinking about doing some software development during
> the talk (exceedingly well-rehearsed, and it is the only thing I know
> how to do)... does that work? I promise, no debugging other than
> pre-planned backtraces.
>
> kenny
You've never been to a Microsoft MSDN Briefing, have you? Otherwise you'd have
an opinion on this...
When they showed examples of .NET languages it worked well /because/ they were
showing me a new language, a new framework, and a new IDE -- it was definitely
worth it.
But often you can tell it's a simplified example -- not real world enough to
be useful -- or it doesn't show enough of the solution -- it's a real world
solution but you only get to see a couple of screenfuls of code.
So, like all communication, you'll need to guess what your audience wants...
Oh, and I'm not sure if you want to use the standard Lisp bracket style with
right brackets at the end of the current line. Again it depends on the
audience, but I'd suggest aligning some of the brackets so it is easy to
follow in a presentation.
(I use this style
(where brackets are aligned
(most of the time)
)
(so
I may be biased
))
(Although (I believe
(this style is recommended))
(IMHO (this is harder to follow)
(especially for programmers coming from
(Algol-like languages))))
(The compromise
(where right brackets are aligned with
(the corresponding left brackets)
(but (the indentation)
varies
) )
(doesn't appeal to me)
)
(I have also seen the style more commonly seen in C and C++
(which is the same as the previous one
(except the right brackets are indented)
) )
Anyway, /in a presentation/, I believe the first or the third style would be
easier to follow (and ensure brackets are balanced).
--
Regards,
Mark Hurd, B.Sc.(Ma.) (Hons.)
"Mark Hurd" <········@ozemail.com.au> writes:
> Oh, and I'm not sure if you want to use the standard Lisp bracket style with
> right brackets at the end of the current line. Again it depends on the
> audience, but I'd suggest aligning some of the brackets so it is easy to
> follow in a presentation.
It's a Lisp conference. Of course he wants to use standard Lisp
indentation. After all, he'll be getting enough flak already for
StudlyCaps ;-)
-dan
--
http://www.cliki.net/ - Link farm for free CL-on-Unix resources
Daniel Barlow wrote:
> "Mark Hurd" <········@ozemail.com.au> writes:
>
>
>>Oh, and I'm not sure if you want to use the standard Lisp bracket style with
>>right brackets at the end of the current line. Again it depends on the
>>audience, but I'd suggest aligning some of the brackets so it is easy to
>>follow in a presentation.
>
>
> It's a Lisp conference. Of course he wants to use standard Lisp
> indentation. After all, he'll be getting enough flak already for
> StudlyCaps ;-)
omigod!! forgot about that. i'll be run out of the room. better get
started on that global edit now....
--
clinisys, inc
http://www.tilton-technology.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm non-violent, but if a hawk comes down when I'm feeding
my birds, I lose my temper and get my air rifle."
-- Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
Daniel Barlow wrote:
> "Mark Hurd" <········@ozemail.com.au> writes:
>
> > Oh, and I'm not sure if you want to use the standard Lisp bracket style
> > with right brackets at the end of the current line. Again it depends on
> > the audience, but I'd suggest aligning some of the brackets so it is easy
> > to follow in a presentation.
>
> It's a Lisp conference. Of course he wants to use standard Lisp
> indentation.
Fair point. I have also changed my view to agree with standard Lisp
indentation for a presentation because the audience will assume you've got the
right number of brackets, they don't need to be able to confirm it.
(But I was thinking from the point of view of editing code and avoiding
errors...)
--
Regards,
Mark Hurd, B.Sc.(Ma.) (Hons.)
On Wed, Sep 17, 2003 at 05:24:24PM +0930, Mark Hurd wrote:
> (But I was thinking from the point of view of editing code and avoiding
> errors...)
Why not simply use a sufficiently smart editor (such as Emacs) and leave
the worrying to the computer?
--
; Matthew Danish <·······@andrew.cmu.edu>
; OpenPGP public key: C24B6010 on keyring.debian.org
; Signed or encrypted mail welcome.
; "There is no dark side of the moon really; matter of fact, it's all dark."
Matthew Danish wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 17, 2003 at 05:24:24PM +0930, Mark Hurd wrote:
> > (But I was thinking from the point of view of editing code and avoiding
> > errors...)
>
> Why not simply use a sufficiently smart editor (such as Emacs) and leave
> the worrying to the computer?
My pov in my original post in this thread was based upon my impression (now
considered unlikely) that Kenny was thinking of demoing coding in Lisp to an
audience that was going to be introduced to Lisp coding or some "basic"
concepts.
Like I said in that post, good examples of coding during a presentation
included Microsoft's .NET introducing existing VB programmers to VB.NET.
Also, I have seen two comparable Microsoft seminars where the active coding
was similar: one *needed* the coding, and was good, because it highlighted
there was /no/ extra code we didn't see forming a complete functional system;
and the other was bad because it was obvious there was significant unseen
code -- the code we saw might as well have been part of the static
presentation.
Anyway, I was thinking of Kenny trying to cut some Lisp code live and not
wanting to miss an end bracket. I don't believe many editors actually /insert/
them for you. And Emacs is not that helpful when analysing missing or extra
brackets -- highlighting the corresponding bracket only helps when you can
clearly tell which one is missing...
--
Regards,
Mark Hurd, B.Sc.(Ma.) (Hons.)
"Mark Hurd" <········@ozemail.com.au> writes:
> Anyway, I was thinking of Kenny trying to cut some Lisp code live
> and not wanting to miss an end bracket. I don't believe many editors
> actually /insert/ them for you. And Emacs is not that helpful when
> analysing missing or extra brackets -- highlighting the
> corresponding bracket only helps when you can clearly tell which one
> is missing...
mic-paren.el: http://user.it.uu.se/~mic/emacs.html
/Jon
Mark Hurd wrote:
> Anyway, I was thinking of Kenny trying to cut some Lisp code live and not
> wanting to miss an end bracket. I don't believe many editors actually /insert/
> them for you. And Emacs is not that helpful when analysing missing or extra
> brackets -- highlighting the corresponding bracket only helps when you can
> clearly tell which one is missing...
Somewhat OT, during my first presentation to a small Linux crowd I was
indeed coding utterly live and unplanned, and at one point when a
problem arose and I could not make out right away what was wrong,
someone yelled out "take off that extra parens". I was surprised to
realize I had been doing Lisp so long I could simply look at the form
and know the parens were balanced. It wasn't a very big pile of parens,
but I realized that to some degree i could now judge parens just by the
look of things. Come to think of it, when I do get a parens mismatch
after a flurry of editing, I have taken to simply eyeballing the form to
pick out the excess. Works about half the time.
--
clinisys, inc
http://www.tilton-technology.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm non-violent, but if a hawk comes down when I'm feeding
my birds, I lose my temper and get my air rifle."
-- Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
"Mark Hurd" <········@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message news:<··········@news.iprimus.com.au>...
> Anyway, I was thinking of Kenny trying to cut some Lisp code live and not
> wanting to miss an end bracket. I don't believe many editors actually /insert/
> them for you. And Emacs is not that helpful when analysing missing or extra
> brackets -- highlighting the corresponding bracket only helps when you can
> clearly tell which one is missing...
I just helped someone write emacs scripts. He put some of the end
parens on their own lines, indented, and that seemed to work out very
well. (The ones closing defuns and save-excursions.) While the
normal style looks neater, I've been annoyed at how it sometimes takes
a second glance at Queinnec's L.i.S.P. when I'm skimming code, because
he sometimes fits more than he should on a line and I have to count
parens.
I'm sure someone wrote a whitespace-delimited lisp. lisPy or
something.
Tayss wrote:
> I'm sure someone wrote a whitespace-delimited lisp. lisPy or
> something.
I know I've seen samples for a lisp where each level of brackets can be a
different type -- eg. ({[<>]}) -- and that meant it didn't require the all the
end brackets -- so ({[<) is the same as the prevous example!
--
Regards,
Mark Hurd, B.Sc.(Ma.) (Hons.)
"Mark Hurd" <········@ozemail.com.au> writes:
> Tayss wrote:
> > I'm sure someone wrote a whitespace-delimited lisp. lisPy or
> > something.
>
> I know I've seen samples for a lisp where each level of brackets can be a
> different type -- eg. ({[<>]}) -- and that meant it didn't require the all the
> end brackets -- so ({[<) is the same as the prevous example!
Anything that makes you think about parentheses is bad. The point is
to eventually get so used to them that you don't notice them.
This is the old "easy-to-learn" vs. "easy-to-use" dichotomy. Lisp is
in some sense extremely easy to use once you learn it. But it is not
so easy to learn. Unfortunately this fools people into believing that
it's hard to use.
--
Fred Gilham ······@csl.sri.com | If sophists such as Richard Rorty
are correct, and the West has moved from a post-religious age to a
post-metaphysical age, then there is literally nothing Western left
about the West to defend. --David Dieteman
Fred Gilham wrote:
> This is the old "easy-to-learn" vs. "easy-to-use" dichotomy. Lisp is
> in some sense extremely easy to use once you learn it. But it is not
> so easy to learn. Unfortunately this fools people into believing that
> it's hard to use.
I know about that problem! My "other language" is VB and there were people
calling for more changes to be introduced into VB.NET to *reduce* the number
of ways of performing tasks. The most consistent reason given was that it was
easier to learn :-(
Of course, in this case the best reason to ignore these requests was that it
increased the lack of backward compatibility, but some of them got through...
Anyway, that's a old flamewar from another forum...
--
Regards,
Mark Hurd, B.Sc.(Ma.) (Hons.)
PS To be in the same sense as the bumper sticker, my other language is Lisp
:-)
On Thu, Sep 18, 2003 at 12:53:53AM +0930, Mark Hurd wrote:
> Anyway, I was thinking of Kenny trying to cut some Lisp code live and not
> wanting to miss an end bracket. I don't believe many editors actually /insert/
> them for you. And Emacs is not that helpful when analysing missing or extra
> brackets -- highlighting the corresponding bracket only helps when you can
> clearly tell which one is missing...
Emacs's M-( and M-) which can be rebinded to [ and ] if you please.
Also, automatic indentation helps point out where you've gone wrong, if
you did. So I continue to maintain that a sufficiently smart editor is
enough (and also that said editors do exist).
--
; Matthew Danish <·······@andrew.cmu.edu>
; OpenPGP public key: C24B6010 on keyring.debian.org
; Signed or encrypted mail welcome.
; "There is no dark side of the moon really; matter of fact, it's all dark."
Kenny Tilton <·······@nyc.rr.com> writes:
> 2. Here's my other problem. Have you all seen the speaker list? Just
> part of it:
>
> Gerald Sussman --- Co-Inventor of Scheme (MIT)
> Philip Wadler --- Inventor of Haskell
> Gregor Kikzales --- Inventor of AOP, AMOP author inter alia
> Jack Scwhartz --- Inventor of SETL (NYU)
> Gregory Chaitin --- Inventor of `,(ask-Anton)(IBM)
> Paul Graham --- Inventor of ARC, note CL author, entrepreneur
> Christian Queinnec --- Author of "Lisp In Small Pieces"
> Friedman & Felleisen --- Authors of "The Little Schemer"
>
> ...and some guy named McCarthy from Stanford. Oh, yeah, and:
>
> Kenny Tilton --- uh-oh
Yeah, I know the feeling. I had a similar feeling when I looked at the
schedule yesterday and saw my name on it. It's almost like a drug:
First comes the euphoric rush: "I'm going to be speaking at the same
conference as John McCarthy, Gerald Sussman, Paul Graham, etc."
:-)
Then comes the panic downer: "I'm going to be speaking at the same
conference as John McCarthy, Gerald Sussman, Paul Graham, etc."
:-(
--
Bill Clementson
Kenny Tilton wrote:
> Have you all seen the speaker list?
First piece of advice: Don't get nervous. These speakers, while well-known,
are only people - just like you. Sure, they're people who've written
insightful, well-received books, been at the heart of seminal research, and
one of them might be even called "The Godfather of AI" (with all due
respect to James Brown). But, in the final analysis, they all got their
start in the same place you did - standing up in front of people (including
some, at the time, who were a lot more famous or important than them) and
giving the best talk they could. Also, the crowd will be wanting you to
succeed. Other than in roundtable sessions, there isn't any heckling and,
if someone does start getting out of line, just remember the magic words
"Can someone call security?". So don't panic.
Second piece of advice: Talk about what *you* think is special. That air of
specialness will show through - just as going through the motions about the
dry results you think others want to find significant will also show
through. You're not trying to make a permanent record here - that's for
the written paper - you're trying to entertain and get your audience to
listen and persuede them to read the written paper. If you're not excited
about what you're doing, no one else will be -- so although you don't leave
out the killer results, focus on what you were surprised at, what
interested you in the design of the research, and so forth. If nothing
else, it will set you apart from the crowd who deliver dry, boring,
result-centered talks (which people could have got from the paper, which
they don't read because the talk was so boring).
Final piece of advice: Have fun. Think about the talk as a minor part of
the conference activities. Even if it bombs, it will be soon forgotten
(and it's not going to bomb). Network, see the sights if you're from out
of town, go out drinking with the other "luminaries". There's a lot more
to the conference than your talk - even for you. Make the most of your
time with your peers. Defocussing your mind from the talk will actually
help you give a better talk, too - it's a Zen thing.
faa
Kenny Tilton wrote:
> 1. Slightly OT...well, OK, totally OT. But I wager you all know the
> answers off the top of your heads. As mentioned once or twice, I am just
> a simple application programmer. Never gave a slide talk before, ILC
> 2003 will be my first. I got the presentation software, no prob. I am
> googling for the answers, but not having much look on certain specifics.
> My Q's:
>
> 1.a What size? the classic 640x480? Ask the organizer what their
> projector can do? If I push the res will it be too hard to see? Or will
> the presentation software handle everthing? I have a killer new laptop
> (oh, god, I just cursed it, didn't I?)
In my experience, the screen size doesn't matter a lot. You need to make
sure to use big fonts anyway. One problem with PowerPoint is that it
automatically decreases font sizes if needed when you add more text.
This is a bad idea. Stick to the original font size. Or better use
Keynote - it doesn't let you decrease font sizes accidentally. (Some
people told me that slitex is also good for this job.)
This also helps you to think harder about your central messages. It's
better to get one or two ideas across and present them as teasers to
your paper than to stuff in everything you ever wanted to say.
Don't let the slides degenerate into notes for yourself to help you get
through the talk. Such notes should better be in your hands.
Don't use too many animations. They are gratuitous and detract from you
actual presentation.
You might find some useful information about giving presentations at
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/mleone/web/how-to.html
The "Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation" is also insightful ;) - see
http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/
Feel free to contact me if you need some more help.
> 1.b Will photos show well? I may have to pad my talk with slides from my
> trip to Baltimore. I have a recollection of speakers apologizing for
> stuff being invisible, forget what. I guess the room being lit normally
> does not help. How does one pre-flight these deals shy of buying a
> projector?
Maybe there are people in your area that let you use their stuff for
practicing.
It's also a good idea to practice in front of people who don't have a
clue about programming at all. If they get an idea what your talk is
about then it's probably quite good. Furthermore, such people can focus
on your presentation style and give good comments about it.
> I forgot #3: I am thinking about doing some software development during the talk (exceedingly well-rehearsed, and it is the only thing I know how to do)... does that work? I promise, no debugging other than pre-planned backtraces.
These things are hard to do right. Make sure that you know all the steps
by heart. Use big fonts! They need to be much bigger than when you
program on your own.
Make sure that you don't use the mouse too often. I also don't like
laser pointers because I am color-blind and usually have a hard time to
recognize them. Both mice and laser pointers tend to wander around the
screen without focusing on the stuff that you want your audience to
concentrate on.
Of course, these are all only my personal experiences and I might be
totally wrong.
Pascal
--
Pascal Costanza University of Bonn
···············@web.de Institute of Computer Science III
http://www.pascalcostanza.de R�merstr. 164, D-53117 Bonn (Germany)
Pascal Costanza <········@web.de> writes:
> You might find some useful information about giving presentations at
> http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/mleone/web/how-to.html
>
> The "Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation" is also insightful ;) - see
> http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/
See also http://perl.plover.com/yak/judo/presentation/ . :-)
--
Gareth McCaughan
.sig under construc
Gareth McCaughan wrote:
> Pascal Costanza <········@web.de> writes:
>
>
>>You might find some useful information about giving presentations at
>>http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/mleone/web/how-to.html
>>
>>The "Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation" is also insightful ;) - see
>>http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/
I love it.
>
>
> See also http://perl.plover.com/yak/judo/presentation/ . :-)
>
Nice links, thx. But I just got some feedback off-line suggesting no
slides. Now there's a time saver! But I do have a few beauts in mind, so
maybe I'll get those off my chest in a quick intro and then dive into
the "coding".
Duane Rettig wrote:
> - What Frank said about talking about what _you_ think is special
> bears repeating. The paper is the paper, and you're not there to
> necessarily trudge through the paper.
Great, I forgot I have to do a paper as well! :)
Mark Hurd wrote:
"But often you can tell it's a simplified example -- not real world
enough to be useful -- or it doesn't show enough of the solution -- it's
a real world solution but you only get to see a couple of screenfuls of
code."
Right. Too simple and it is unconvincing. But if the application is
complex enough to exercise the technology, it is hard to squeeze it all
into a short talk. I have a couple of ideas for fun little examples
which can be incrementally extended until time runs out. I think by the
time it does, the example should be elaborate enough to convey the point.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Now back to RoboCells. Version 1.1
RSN if anyone cares, otherwise I'll just keep on coding.
--
clinisys, inc
http://www.tilton-technology.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm non-violent, but if a hawk comes down when I'm feeding
my birds, I lose my temper and get my air rifle."
-- Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
Kenny Tilton <·······@nyc.rr.com> writes:
> This is going to be a tough four weeks. Hope no is actually coming;
> I'll have those speakers all to myself.
Sorry to disappoint; I'll be there.
Others have given you some sound advice. Here are some more tidbits:
- Be a little nervous. It's actually a Good Thing to be a little
bit nervous when presenting; it keeps you on your edge. You really
don't _want_ to take the edge off; if you go into the talk with no
nervousness at all, there is a much higher liklihood that you'll
screw up. I've seen some great speakers/performers completely bomb
on a presentation because they had either succeeded in removing their
nervousness, either menattly by trivializing what they were trying to
accomplish (or even by not expecting to accomplish anything) or by
using physical or chemical means to take the edge off. You want
that edge to start with. Usually, once you get past the introduction
and start speaking, the butterflies subside.
- Understand the relationship that you have with your audience.
Your audience is not there to judge you, they are there to learn
from you. Now, some people counter the tendency to think they are
being judged by applying the old adage "picture your audience in
their underwear". Please, do _not_ do this! It attempts to counter
a perceived disadvantage on your part with a contrived disadvantage
on the audience's part. Instead, picture your audience as to the real
role they are playing, that is, as sponges to absorb what you have to
offer. You already know what you have to offer, so just put it out
there.
- Be prepared to skip some of your slides. You don't think you have
enough slides; in reality, you will have too many slides. In your
practicing, you will not get the questions that will inevitably come
when you do the real presentation.
- What Frank said about talking about what _you_ think is special
bears repeating. The paper is the paper, and you're not there to
necessarily trudge through the paper. You'll follow your script,
for the presentation, for the most part, but you'll also be able to
gauge audience reaction and to that extent, it becomes more of
a conversation. And I _know_ you're good at conversation :-)
--
Duane Rettig ·····@franz.com Franz Inc. http://www.franz.com/
555 12th St., Suite 1450 http://www.555citycenter.com/
Oakland, Ca. 94607 Phone: (510) 452-2000; Fax: (510) 452-0182
Duane Rettig writes:
> - Be a little nervous. It's actually a Good Thing to be a little
> bit nervous when presenting; it keeps you on your edge. You really
From "The Craft of Scientific Writing" by Michael Alley (don't know
the original source):
On Monday and Wednesday, my mother was nervous and agitated from the
time she got up... My mother had been teaching for twenty-five
years, yet every time she had to appear in the little amphitheater
before twenty or thirty pupils who rose in unison at her entrance
she unquestionably had "stage fright".
-- Eve Curie
Paolo
--
Paolo Amoroso <·······@mclink.it>
Duane Rettig <·····@franz.com> wrote in message news:<·············@beta.franz.com>...
> Kenny Tilton <·······@nyc.rr.com> writes:
>
> > This is going to be a tough four weeks. Hope no is actually coming;
> > I'll have those speakers all to myself.
>
> a conversation. And I _know_ you're good at conversation :-)
Yeah, the truth is I wish I had a full morning, I have a nice little
rant planned.
You and everyone who responded are the best!
I was actually more worried about techno-logistics (and I have been
suitably intimidated on that score so I will come prepared with a talk
comprehensible in a blacked out room (now there's an acid test).
But all the other advice turned out to be quite useful, if only
sometimes encouraging me in what I thought was a crazy idea, such as a
slideless talk or a live code demo. Not that I do not have a use for
slides, but as someone said, they can always check the paper later if
the talk generates interest. (Omigod! The paper!!)
I am not really worried about the contrast between my poor credentials
and those of the Legends who will be up there before and after me,
because the very contrast makes clear that a break is being taken from
serious stuff, send in the clown from cll!
But everyone (including some by email) was so positive and
reassuring... what happened to The Savages of CLL? You all are a bunch
of mentsches! (And if you are coming to NYC, you better bone up on
your Yiddish.)
Thanks all.
kenny
Kenny Tilton <·······@nyc.rr.com> writes:
> just a simple application programmer. Never gave a slide talk before,
> ILC 2003 will be my first. I got the presentation software, no prob. I
[...]
> 1.a What size? the classic 640x480? Ask the organizer what their
[...]
> 1.b Will photos show well?
Keep your presentation elements--text, photos, diagrams--as huge as
possible. Don't underestimate visual difficulties in your audience,
I'm personally realizing this as I grow older[*]. Trust me, I work at
a planetarium, and I have seen people complain about not being able to
easily read 40-60 pts fonts on slides projected on part of a 20 m
dome.
> normally does not help. How does one pre-flight these deals shy of
> buying a projector?
- find someone with a projector
- use an ordinary monitor, and look at it from a distance
> 2. Here's my other problem. Have you all seen the speaker list? Just
Be gentle when you step over their shoulders.
> ...can someone hide me Oct 12-15th? <sigh> Oh, and my RoboCup goalie
Are you still the same Kenny "Lisp or bust!" Tilton we know and and
like? I will make sure a Marines sargeant doesn't miss you for a
minute.
Paolo
[*] Folks, text labels in software menus, buttons and dialog boxes,
not to mention web sites, is often *tiny*, barely readable, and
difficult like hell to customize.
--
Paolo Amoroso <·······@mclink.it>
On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 23:24:43 GMT, Kenny Tilton <·······@nyc.rr.com>
wrote:
You have received some really good advice, and someone did mention
giving your talk in front of a live non-technical group of people.
Here are some of the tips I picked up and have used from my Public
Speaking course.
What I would emphasize is giving your presentation several times in
front of a live group (family, friends, etc). The more times you can
go through it in front of a live group simulating your actual
conditions, the more comfortable you will be when you give the live
speech.
Try to remain conversational. This will come from talking about
something you know extremely well (ie cells) and from mucho practice.
So that when you get to a topic, you can just begin discussing it in a
conversational manner, rather than reading it verbatim from a
notesheet.
Your notes are important as well. Many people try to cram too much
information into their note sheets with too small of a font. Your
notes should be outlines only, type written in a *large* font, so that
when you are in front of the large group of people you aren't
searching your notes for what you want to say. They recommend 3 X 5
cards with no more than 3 to 5 one sentence bullet point per card.
Although, I find that printed paper is fine if you use a really large
(IE 24pt +) font.
Remember you aren't giving an Oratory, rather you are discussing a
project that you are intimately familiar with. More than anything,
practice, practice, practice. I find that the speeches I have
practiced a minimum of three times in front of a live audience I have
been able to get through them fine. The ones that I didn't adequately
prepare for, came out sounding wooden and hollow because I was
nervous.
Doug Tolton
(format t ···@~a~a.~a" "dtolton" "ya" "hoo" "com")
Doug Tolton writes:
> What I would emphasize is giving your presentation several times in
> front of a live group (family, friends, etc). The more times you can
> go through it in front of a live group simulating your actual
> conditions, the more comfortable you will be when you give the live
> speech.
Possibly the most important element in those simulations of actual
conditions is the passing of time.
Paolo
--
Paolo Amoroso <·······@mclink.it>
Kenny Tilton <·······@nyc.rr.com> writes:
> Gerald Sussman --- Co-Inventor of Scheme (MIT)
> Philip Wadler --- Inventor of Haskell
> Gregor Kikzales --- Inventor of AOP, AMOP author inter alia
> Jack Scwhartz --- Inventor of SETL (NYU)
> Gregory Chaitin --- Inventor of `,(ask-Anton)(IBM)
> Paul Graham --- Inventor of ARC, note CL author, entrepreneur
> Christian Queinnec --- Author of "Lisp In Small Pieces"
> Friedman & Felleisen --- Authors of "The Little Schemer"
Do somebody plan to film the keynotes? It would be great to have all
of these on tape! I've already seen the video from MIT course of
Gerald Sussman, worth watching!
--
Frederic Brunel
>>>>> "Kenny" == Kenny Tilton <·······@nyc.rr.com> writes:
Kenny> 1.a What size? the classic 640x480?
Allthough it most likely exists, it would be very brave to count on
anything above 1024x768. Unless you are talking at a video equipments
museum, it is unlikely to be below 800x600.
It probably wouldn't hurt to have backup plans in case there is a
problem between your computer and the projector. I have once on a
linux conference seen somebody having to handwave himself through a
long talk on some deep technical issue without being able to get his
laptop hooked to the projector. So have your presentation on a floppy
disk in some generic format (say pdf) and printout the slides on an
overhead projector friendly medium (if for not other purposes then to
make sure that you will not need to use it; kind of like remembering
your umbrella to decrease the likelihood for rain :-)
------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------
Christian Lynbech | christian ··@ defun #\. dk
------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------
Hit the philistines three times over the head with the Elisp reference manual.
- ·······@hal.com (Michael A. Petonic)
Christian Lynbech wrote:
> It probably wouldn't hurt to have backup plans in case there is a
> problem between your computer and the projector. I have once on a
> linux conference seen somebody having to handwave himself through a
> long talk ...
Ah, there's the downside of planning a code demo instead of slides; no
way to handwave that. But I could have the code on transparencies... the
show must go on! :)
--
clinisys, inc
http://www.tilton-technology.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm non-violent, but if a hawk comes down when I'm feeding
my birds, I lose my temper and get my air rifle."
-- Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama