babbling blue

More funny from Savage Chickens.

It’s good because it appeals to multiple kinds of geeks.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fractured her right elbow Wednesday during a fall, State Department officials said.

Clinton fell Wednesday afternoon on her way to the White House and was taken to George Washington University Hospital. She was treated and released, and will have surgery to repair her elbow in coming weeks.

From CNN.

Study: PowerPoint animations are comprehension killers - Ars Technica.

So, for example, on a slide dedicated to discussing four aspects of a given topic, the relevant text and images can be made to appear gradually, so that each aspect is discussed thoroughly before the next even appears. The alternative, dumping all the information to the screen at once, and then working through it verbally, would seem to have the potential to distract and overwhelm the audience. So, this seems to be a situation where animation should clearly help.

Not so, as it turns out. At least in this study. Students watched identical lectures. The only difference was one had PowerPoint animations and the other didn’t. Both sets increased their scores from the baseline (around 40%) but the non-animated group went up to 82% while the animated group only went up to 71%.

Of course this is just one study, so take it with a grain of salt. But it’s something to keep in mind next time you’re putting a presentation together and have the itch to make it fancy. I know I’ve given in to that temptation myself in the past.

Dueling technology bloggers! I don’t know if one of these was written in response to the other, or if this was coincidental, but it’s kind of amusing either way.

David Coursey from PCWorld.com weighs in with “Five Reasons the Palm Pre Won’t Prevail” (see what he did there? clever, eh?). Unfortunately he doesn’t really have simple one-sentence summaries for each of the 5, so I’ll let you go to the site and read them yourself.

Then we have Jason Hiner over at ZDNet.com giving us “Palm Pre: Five reasons to expect a homerun“. He was considerate enough to give us short versions for each of his points, so I’ll include them here.

5. Palm knows how to build an ecosystem
4. The carriers want an iPhone competitor
3. The webOS will be a strong development platform
2. Touchscreen + Qwerty
1. It is the first true multi-tasking smartphone

Who’s right, who’s wrong? Who can say? Not I. The naysayer has a bit of an odor of iPhanboy about him. An “If it ain’t iPhone, it ain’t worth it” sort of mentality. One commenter had an excellent response, but to keep this brief I’ll quote it in a separate post. Either way, the fact that the Palm Pre is stirring some debate is a good thing for Palm and Sprint, because it means people are talking about it.

Dear California Supreme Court, California Constitution and Prop 8 supporters:

Fuck You.

“We’ve done everything here. We’re leading the way with our inspector general, office of compliance, all the things we’ve done,” Daley said. “We’re more transparent than any other government. Look at it.”

“We’re doing a tremendous job here, we lead by example,” he said.

In a story last week, the Tribune documented how the Daley administration routinely cites exemptions in the state’s public records law to avoid releasing information and frequently drags out for weeks or even months efforts to get records.

Federal prosecutors convicted several top Daley aides for running an illegal hiring scheme, and a federal monitor has complained the city still is not complying with court requirements to keep politics out of hiring.

(Chicago Tribune blog)

Does he really believe the nonsense he spews, or is he just that deluded? I can’t tell.

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. All hail King Richard II, King of Chicago!

I found these boxes in the back of a local Mexican restaurant. I can only assume they are boxes of swine flu.

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Yeah, right. 100 days of Fox News attacks on President Obama.

Fair warning, Ann Coulter makes two brief appearances here. I don’t suggest watching this while you’re eating.

Facebook addict? You’re not alone. From CNN:

One day recently, Cynthia Newton’s 12-year-old daughter asked her for help with homework, but Newton didn’t want to help her, because she was too busy on Facebook. So her daughter went upstairs to her room and sent an e-mail asking her for help, but Newton didn’t see the e-mail, because, well, she was too busy on Facebook.

Wow, the poor daughter… at least the Cynthia has admitted she has a problem. That’s the first step.

Although there are no statistics on “Facebook addiction” — it isn’t an actual medical diagnosis — therapists say they’re seeing more and more people like Newton who’ve crossed the line from social networking to social dysfunction.

This doesn’t surprise me. From my observations, Facebook can be highly addicting, and is a giant time sink. While I don’t know anyone who has reached the epic level of dysfunction Cynthia has, I do have friends (who shall remain nameless) who can’t seem to make it through a meal at a restaurant without checking Facebook on their phones.

What are the clues that you may have a problem with Facebook? Well…read the article! Also check out “Seven Signs You May Be Ready for a Social Media Detox”.

Basically, it seems that President Obama is kicking ass in the pirate department.

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Ripped off from here, possibly ripped off from here before that.

Yarrr!