[PLUG-TALK] Greetings from Mordor

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Mon Aug 17 08:15:13 UTC 2009


On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 08:24:49AM -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
>   The TeX fonts are all PostScript so they scale easily. I vaguely recall
> reading that someone uses LaTeX for banners, so I suppose that large size
> fonts can be accommodated.

Again ... test please.  It is a pain in the a** to set up somebody
else's recommended tool and then try to debug it if it doesn't meet
expectations.  Is it user error, setup error, library/kernel/hardware
inadequacy, or is it defects in the tool?  If you can't get LaTeX
working with large fonts on your machine, then I eliminate the debug
process and just use something else (typically, GIMP).  If it does
work for you, then I can probably make it work for me, even if lengthy
debug is involved.

And no, 16 point type does not belong on a slide, just like 2 point
type does not belong in a document.  Never use less than 30.  If the
audience is reading a lot of text, they are not hearing you talk. 
f you have that much to say, put it in a handout, or reduce your
expections of your audience.

I put some supplementary stuff on display boards in the conference
meal area.  Spreading the message out and multiplying encounters
with the material helps it penetrate partly-closed minds.  

I watched a lot of really soporific presentations over the last few
days.  My three presentations got big applause, and changed a few
minds.  Not because I am brilliant, but because others were led by
bad tools and bad technique to do ineffective things.  They never
bothered to question those tools and techniques.  Maybe they will,
now.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs



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