The dangers of PowerPoint

Every time you make a PowerPoint, Edward Tufte kills a kitten. – Mark Goetz

I picked this up as a ‘re-re-re-tweet’, and the original sleeper post from last November called “My new wallpaper” has a cool wallpaper design worthy to go onto a geeky t-shirt!

Oh, and here’s a blog post “Dilbert on PowerPoint Presentations” which collects 24 strips on the topic.

Getting sequences right

The M*A*S*H episode “The Army-Navy Game” illustrates the importance of getting sequences right in technical writing. Blake and Trapper John are trying to defuse a bomb:

LT. COL. HENRY BLAKE (reading instructions)
And carefully cut the wires leading to the clockwork fuse at the head.

TRAPPER JOHN (cuts the wires)

LT. COL. HENRY BLAKE
But first, remove the fuse.