If you are making a PowerPoint presentation and you keep lowering the font size below 24, you are writing a document, not a presentation.
paraprhased from Presentation Zen
Archive for April, 2009
Thought to Remember for the Day
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009Google Office
Monday, April 20th, 2009I will start by saying that I usually love Google Apps. Gmail is my defacto cloud storage solution and Google Reader is the only RSS reader in my opinion, so I went in hoping that the Google Office apps would do as well for me. Unfortunately I have to say that they lack a lot of polish and are not quite ready for primetime.
In my field, education, I do a lot of writing and formating (making exams, lab report templates, etc.) and here is were Google Documents failed me. The overall page formating options were limited to nonexistent and simply not up to any decent complexity on the page. This type of criticism can be leveled against all of the other Google Office apps, they are good for easy stuff, but lack any complexity in use. Given the availability of other freeware office suites (Open Office and Abiword/Gnumeric for example) with much better performance and options Google needs to up its game. Granted it is in the cloud, but this is not a reason to sacrifice performance to the degree that Google Docs and such would ask you to.
Revisiting my cellphone
Monday, April 6th, 2009A while back my daughter broke my last smartphone, a Pantech Duo, and I couldn’t afford to replace it with a noncontract priced smartphone, so I went for a moderately intelligent dumbphone (Sony Ericcson z750). The SE z750 is by no means a smartphone, but it is a great dumbphone with only the drawback of not having a keyboard. I have recently figured out a few features on my phone that I didn’t originally used.
- The Gmail Java App (through SE website) gives a great open interface and through integration with Google Apps allows you to view attached Microsoft Office files (as long as the formatting is simple). This is great for viewing my students’ assignment submissions on the run and give formative feedback.
- Mobipocket Reader (mobipocket.com) allows for easy ebook reading on the fly.
- POP Email – I unbranded the phone to reactivate the native SE POP/IMAP client
- Media Player – excellent media player with easy controls
- Sync with Outlook
I have to admit that the size, battery life, and versatility of the phone allows me to do pretty much everything I need to without using a smartphone. I will find it hard to upgrade in the next round without some serious upgrade options.