slide:ology The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations Nancy Duarte ISBN: 9780596522346 O’Reilly Media, Inc. August 12, 2008

Completely reasonable for a graphic design company to publish a book on slide design or presentation style. The principles are completely dead-on: spend the time to prepare; watch out 3 elements: delivery, visual, and message; focus on the presenter not the material; and use contrast to emphasize.

The professional approach, however, makes the book less a tutorial than an advertisement. Ver few people can afford 90 hours for preparation, creating custom diagram, establish an image library, or do professional color schemes. Not all presenters will be Al Gore. In fact, many who present frequently are stretched in both time and money to just get by with slides slammed together quickly and a few minutes of mental preparation. They are the ones who need helps.

What if Leonardo da Vinci was born later? Say, in 18th, 19th, or even 20th century? He makes every engineer to feel inadequate. God knows what more would he come up with advanced tools like computers, internal combustion engine, or calculus. Never mind that he was also a great artist. Inadequacy indeed.

This special event (the only one in the USA, click the image above) at the Tech Museum lasts only until January 25th. Do not miss it. We arrived at 10am, just slightly ahead of the crowd. There are docents scheduled but I preferred just wandering semi-randomly. We spent about 3 hours there. Bring a bottle of water and pace yourself. Park at the corner of 2nd and San Carlos. San Jose downtown area has many good restaurants. Don’t forget to validate your parking at the museum.

The rest of the Tech Museum was one of thd favorites for elementary school kids. The Leonardo exhibit, however, is more for young adults and their techie parents. It is a normal museum style exhibit, with models to explain how they work, not like the rest of the Tech Museum to be hand-on.

Everytime I visited the Tech Museum, I spent 10 minutes or so fascinated by that perpetual pool ball machine on Park Ave. The machine is showing a bit age, but everything still works perfectly. Too bad the chilly wind drove us back to the car.

Very well written, with reference to my favorite self-control exercise: TaiChi. My kid’s friend shared it and she shared his sharing. My usual style is to share again, but this one stroke a bit bit more than “interesting.”

Pay It Backwards: An Act Of Coffee Kindness

The door #3 requires a cool head, an inspiration, and a bit guts. I have seen it and heard the same a few times. Everytime I was awed at the ingenuity and the dare boldness.

This one shall be remembered.

The Day the Earth Stood Still Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly 12 December 2008

We cracked up when Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) and Mr. Wu (James Hong) talked in a McDonald restaurant. Keanu’s Chinese is passable, James Hong’s better, but the dialog was bewildering to Chinese, “That’s not how we talk!”

The idea of robotic bugs, large and small, that digest everything man-made and use the material to reproduce more is intellectually amusing. It reminds me the book Prey, by Michael Crichton, several years ago. This is a plausible approach to erase human beings, and all their artifacts, from the face of the earth.

As movie goes, this one is not particularly good. Particularly how Klaatu changed his mind and stopped the process to wipe clean Earth’s slate.

If you have not, watch Wall-E instead.

No, I did not read the book or see the 1951 original movie.

Many years ago, this freshly-off-the-boat grad student needed a car. I walked into a dealership in Phoenix and came out the proud owner of a yellow $2,000 Buick LeSabre. I drove this all-American V8 to LA a dozen times, always came back with its huge trunk packed with rice, soy-sauce, seasonings, bamboo leaves, wok, and whatever yearned by my fellow homesick Chinese school mates.

A decade or so passed, Detroit fell from grace and was supplanted by Toyota. I always kept a space in my heart for my LeSabre.

Then GM came up with a credit card that earn money toward the purchase of a new car. That gave us a few thousand dollars every several years: 15% to 20% off for a GM car. With additional lower insurance premium, I drove for much less than my foreign car loving co-workers. I was frequently amused to be the only American made sedan in the parking lot. I have driven Chevy, Buick, and, yes, another LeSabre. Not only they were cheaper, they were also as reliable as my neighbors’ Camries and Accords, just less sophisticated with cup-holder designs. No, I really never thought of spending money on a BMW, Mercedes, or Audi. A Porsche would cross my mind once in a while, but only briefly.

When I needed to retire the one both my kids learned to drive, I found over $3,000 credits on my GM card. Maybe I can slow down Detroit’s imminent collapse, for a micro-second or two? Or I can get that money out of the GM card while I still have a chance?

Several visits to the dealership later, I drove this one out with a price significantly less than MSRP and all my earned credits used. New car smell, money in the bank. Hmm, I like this economy.

Former President of Taiwan, Mr. CHEN Shui-Bian, was indicted for massive embezzlement, accepting bribery, and money laundering. When he took office in 2000, Taiwan was the brightest of the 4 dragons of Asia. (The other three are S. Korean, Hong Kong, and Singapore.) Eight years later, not only China has firmly grabbed the spotlight, Taiwan has also missed out many opportunities to capitalize from it. This is a huge shame. People on both sides of the strait speak the same language and share much of the culture. Taiwan should have been the main benefactor of China’s growth. Instead, the island was mired in the ideological differences and stuck in the bitter fissure of suspicion and distrust amont themselves. Mr. Chen and family allegedly embezzled over US$18 millions while squandering the future of 22 million Taiwan people.

Today begins the era of direct flights from Taiwan to China. Since 1949, there has been no direct air, sea, or postal links between them. In 1992, both sides agreed that there is only one China and they are part of it. They simply have a different idea of which government represents China. Starting in 2003, they allowed chartered planes to fly directly on occassions.

When I was living in Beijing, it took me a whole day to cover the mere 1,000 mile flight to Taipei (just a bit shorter than the distance between Seattle to Los Angeles). My heart aches whenever I see opportunity missed by ideological stupidity.

Are direct links too late to reverse the island’s sink? I don’t know. But many friends will now be glad to visit their family or take a weekend vacation to the other side. That cannot be bad.

A friend sent an message from Beijing, “I was frozen silly!” Clearly, the ambient temperature hovered around 20F or so.

A phone call to another friend in New England, he does not expect electricity for several days. That ice storm appeared to have completely paralyzed the 978 area code (upper Massachusetts).

So I woke up this morning to walk the dog. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, it was a bit chill, so I put my hands in the pockets. Dog clearly is totally oblivious. The pavement is damp, so it must have rained last night.

Ah… California.

Every holiday, no doubt this one too, I stuffed myself silly with all those foods: turkey and ham, yams, veggie, and side dishes too. Always over-do desserts: pies, cakes, cookies, candies, everything. Like the rest of Americans, I will work hard for the rest of the year recovering from the holiday gluttony. So that I can do it over again.

While most of the US is over-flowing with foods, we should be mindful that there are many hungry people out there. Not just in developing countries, but also right around the corner where you live. When it comes to hunger, I have a simple rule: no question asked, just let them eat. Whatever the reason, even squandering the money on something I do not approve, there is no reason that anyone in this world should be hungry.

Please give. There are food banks everywhere. Please give.