[Sheflug] A new appp!

[(Ted Harding) <ted.harding@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

First, my apologies for cross-posting (which I know will
affect some of you), but this is one of those news gems
which deserves the widest publicity.

I just received my ISP Zen's latest News letter. One item
therein is:

Powerpoint politics
There's a new political party in Switzerland and its sole aim
is to have PowerPoint outlawed. The Anti-PowerPoint Party
says banning the application would allow people to get back
to doing some real work. In the party's blog, it claims that
so many government institutions use PowerPoint that about
11 per cent of more than 4.1 million employees have to waste
time on presentations on a regular basis. The ban might happen.
Citizens can force a referendum on any subject in Switzerland.
All it takes is 100,000 voters to sign a petition demanding one.

URLs in the Zen article:

[techeye.net: "Switzerland demands Powerpoint's death"]:
http://zen-mail.co.uk/IJT-HCUP-3BFWEB-6SFFZ-0/c.aspx

Sample quote: "Looking at the problem Europe wide, SAP
  thinks that Powerpoint costs the 110 billion Euros which
  is coincidentally how much the Greek debt bail-out will cost."

[techeye.net: US Army declares war on Powerpoint"]:
http://zen-mail.co.uk/IJT-HCUP-3BFWEB-6SFG0-0/c.aspx

Sample quote: "Sam Nuxoll, a platoon leader in Iraq, seems
  to have shaken the Pentagon with a quote that said he was
  spending most of the war making Powerpoint slides.
  Instead of spending his time dodging bullets, he was
  making bullet points."

=====================================

And I shall add one of my own favourite APP diatribes
(much inspired by Edward Tufte, one of the great experts
in the presentation of information, and a pioneer in
formulating the principles of good presentation):

http://services.exeter.ac.uk/cmit/media/audio/
Microsoft-Powerpoint-And-The-Decline-Of-Civilisation-BBCR4-2004-10-18.mp3

(equivalently: http://tinyurl.com/42al9e9 )

[BBC Radio 4, 18 October 2004. Duration 14 minutes.
 Which was a delightful surprise to me that day, with
 R4 casually on in the background]

See also the Wikipedia article on Tufte:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_tufte

There's a good (bullet-pointed???) summary of his views
on PowerPoint in Section 2.2 "Criticism of PowerPoint".

Best wishes to all!
Ted.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 01-Aug-11                                       Time: 11:37:35
------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

_______________________________________________
Sheffield Linux User's Group
http://sheflug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/sheflug_sheflug.org.uk
FAQ at: http://www.sheflug.org.uk/mailfaq.html

GNU - The Choice of a Complete Generation