First impressions

[Steven M. Bellovin]

Dick Dunn raises some good points to rebut my preference for 35 mm slides.
A few comments in response...

First, experience using overhead transparencies (as opposed to preparing
them) doesn't transfer very well.  The environment at Usenix is totally
different.  You're not flipping the viewgraphs yourself (oh, for a button
to signal the person changing them, instead of an incessant ``next slide,
please''!), you don't have intimate contact with your audience (in fact,
given the TV lights, you can't even see your audience), and pointing
to the screen with a light saber is very different than using a pointer
or pen on a viewgraph machine.

Second, a Usenix conference is not the place for casual, unprepared
talks.  You should be doing your preparation and proof-reading well
ahead of time; most folks, incidentally, would benefit from a rehearsal
of their talks.  (Ability to give a good talk to a large audience is not
the same as the ability to talk to a small audience is not the same as
being able to do the work in the first place.  But practice helps.)
I'm as guilty as the next person of waiting till the last minute; worse
yet, my lecturing habits are such that I give *better* talks, at least
to small groups, when I prepare the talk the day before, an odd fact
I learned during several years of teaching.  But I *don't* do that
for major talks....

Finally, random-access slide projectors do exist, or at least did; I'm
not certain if they're suitable for Usenix use, though.  I've asked
the Powers that Be to investigate.


		--Steve Bellovin