The magic of Twitter

Ever since I first heard of Twitter I’ve been wondering three things:

  • What is it good for?
  • Why is it so popular?
  • And who are really interested in reading other peoples Twitter messages? (I could understand the fun of writing messages yourself… but reading?!)

When this student blog was taking form, we discussed about what to write and what not to. We quickly decided that we should be able to write anything we like, except for meaningless posts like: Today, I drank a glass of milk. -Because, well… who cares?

However, as far as I know, sentences like that are just what Twitter consists of. …I hate the Eurovision Song Contest, I overslept today, Fuck Västtrafik, Mac for the win, It snows!and a billion other random statements.

People whine over girls like Blondinbella who writes about lipgloss and high heels. But when thinking about it, isn’t Twitter just as pointless? Or as meaningful? The difference is that Blondinbella actually makes a smaller fortune on her blog. Pwned(!)

Ok enough, we all know this stuff. But did you guys know that the Pope, Benedict XVI is on Twitter?! Please, what is it that I’ve missed about this magical medium? Tell me!

The dangers of being lazy

Another way to relax...

Stress is a very dangerous illness. Yet, many of us suffer from it.

I have never seen stress as something serious. I mean, every day you hear about it, because everyone is stressed. Just like everyone is feeling tired when they get up early in the mornings, or getting hungry when it’s time for lunch. It’s natural.

And to these issues,
there are simple cures:

  • If feeling tired:  Get some rest
  • If hungry:  Go eat something
  • If stressed:  Relax

But honestly, how do you relax? The tasks you need to carry out don’t disappear because you go to a yoga class. The workload will remain the same, even if you completely lose yourself in a hot bubble bath. Relaxation might therefore not be the cure to stress. It might even be the factor to why we feel this way.

Being too relaxed (read: lazy) often results in stress. So if you, instead of trying to forget about the things you have to do, just do them, I assure you: you will feel more relaxed.

Geeks need to learn how to present

Using a background image to cover the entire slide

Using a background image to cover the entire slide

How should we otherwise communicate abstract and complex ideas that intrigues us, creates business, and changes the world. Most people are unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the technical terms and the norms of the hacker community. It is our duty to convey intricate ideas, whether it be requirements, architectural decisions, or implementation details, in the clearest way possible.

Within the SEM programme presenting is common practice. Project work has to be presented for your classmates, supervisors and examiners. We are naturally nervous when those occasions are mandatory or the stakes are higher for whatever reason. There are many great authors and inspirational sources for making your presentations better on the Internet. Two of my personal favourites are Garr Reynolds, author of Presentation Zen, and Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte Design and author of Slide:ology. But I thought I share a few of my own experiences when presenting within the SEM programme, both as a classmate and occasionally as a supervisor.

First, lets look at how I remember us starting out presenting and errors that I still experience today when watching presentations.

Using fonts effectively can help your audience focus

Using fonts effectively can help your audience focus

  • Too many ideas are cramped in to one slide – message becomes unclear
  • Poor use of imagery and visuals – slides are distracting rather than enhancing the presentation experience
  • Presenter talks to the screen and not to the audience – the slides becomes the presenter’s notes

The answer to resolving all of above is seemingly easy to envisage. Then, despite trying to lead by example is it so hard to change? And here’s the catch; preparing a presentation takes time. A lot of time.  In preparation for the latest presentation that Emil and I held for our class we spent roughly 10 hours preparing the slides. Unfortunately, due to bad planning, we never had time to practice enough and the delivery was so-so. We survived on having presented together many times before.

As said earlier, in our field of study, we constantly have to communicate abstract and complex ideas. Visualising the how a three-tier layered architecture fulfils the stakeholders needs is not an easy task. Nevertheless, by inverting the points made above we get three good starting points.

  • One idea – one slide. If the idea is too complex, spread it across several slides.
  • Use images to explain and enhance. Flickr’s Creative Commons library has tonnes of useful imagery. The audience listens to your words, use the visuals to focus on the idea you’re communicating at that moment.
  • Write your own notes and aim the slides to the audience.

Consider staging your ideas across several slides if content is too complex

Consider staging your ideas across several slides if content is too complex

Actually, that last point should be emphasized. Your words and your visuals should be chosen to suit your audience. Presenting for geeks allows you to use the vocabulary of geeks. Presenting for customers is a completely different thing. Think about your audience, and do it early, already when you start planning your presentation. Otherwise your audience will not understand what message you are trying to convey despite how interesting your content may be.

Now I hope this will inspire a few more students to drop the boring slides and start to present their already interesting content in a fashionable and compelling manner! As Jesper says: “copy-tweak,” start small, then move slowly and experiment. Once you’re out there [in the big world] it is a lot harder to test and the pressure and nervousness might be much higher. Finally, I’d also like to recommend a short introductory presentation that the Duarte team made for (and with) PowerPoint 2010. Watch it here.

Ps. The images in this post are taken from our latest presentation. A presentation about how organisations can improve “corporate communities” by adopting practices found in the free and open source communities.

Attacking the Microwaves

Dirty microwaves

Dirty microwaves

Just before Christmas some students in the 2nd and 3rd year of Software Engineering and Management programme took their hands to action. They cleaned all Microwave ovens! We got 19 of them in our kitchen and they all looked like hell and smelled worse than ever. In other words, they were all completely appalling.

Two things comes to mind. 1) How come we (the students and the teachers) let our kitchen into such dismay? 2) What wonderful classmates I have that take initiative and lead by example.

Therefore, as a reminder for the coming semester, it is our collective responsibility to take care of the kitchens. The famous cliché expression “Your mother doesn’t work here” never fails.

What can you do?

  1. Put your dishes in the dishwasher before you leave uni
  2. Empty the dishwasher (if all do this, we only have to do it once a year)
  3. Remind your peers

Thank you!

******* mouse! My arm >.<

House Mouse, Mus musculus. lol ^-^

Kitty Kittiwat, a newfound idol of mine, having a masters degree in biochemistry and running an oriental spa (which I find very impressive) taught me some very wise things about the body: Take care of it now, you’ll never get it back.

Suddenly I felt both worried and perplexed, because I realized I have been taking my body for granted.

Lately, I’ve been having an unhealthy relationship with my laptop, which has resulted in my right arm getting totally out of function. Just being able to press one key at a time with my left hand sucks and makes me so mad I don’t know what to do. This is what we Swedes call the dreaded MUSARM!

Hurts like hell. Please, do consider taking care of your bodies.

Btw, when my pain is gone I will write some mindblowing posts. Stay tuned and take care.