Prezi: Never Use Powerpoint Again [en]

[fr] Prezi va tuer Powerpoint, c'est moi qui vous le dis. Vous créez un canevas géant de votre présentation, et à coups de zoom et de déplacement, naviguez à l'intérieur pour illustrer votre présentation tout en gardant la structure de celle-ci bien visible. Powerpoint? Une dimension. Prezi? Trois.

A quick note to point you to Prezi, which I saw in action a couple of times in Paris. For example, see this one below by Kevin Marks on Buzzwordsmy talk notes).

Prezi allows you to create a giant mind-map of your presentation, and using zoom and movement on the map, creates a presentation from it.

Check out the Prezi tutorials and videos for more. It’s just blowing my mind, and seems very fun and easy to use too.

I think I’m never ever going to use powerpoint again.

Response to Yvette: Loving Links in Posts Through Tabbed Browsing. [en]

[fr] Comment lire un texte plein d'hyperliens? Le mieux, à mon avis, c'est d'ouvrir les liens dans des onglets séparés en utilisant un navigateur comme Firefox. On peut ainsi facilement y jeter un coup d'oeil sans perdre de vue notre lecture principale, et y revenir plus tard si désir il y a.

Je pense qu'il est de la nature du web de nous disperser. Je commence à écrire un billet, en consultant mon matériel source, je me retrouve à répondre à un commentaire, et pour ce faire à mettre en ligne une saisie d'écran sur Flickr... J'utilise depuis peu un "mind map" pour me souvenir de ce que je suis en train de faire. Cela m'évite de perdre de vue ma tâche principale quand je suis plongée dans les ramifications des tâches secondaires qui en dépendent.

The best way to deal with reading links in a blog entry, IMHO, is to open them in tabs in the background. Then you can either go to the link page straight away to look at it, come back to the blog post, and read the linked page more in detail later.

To work with tabs, you’ll need a browser like Firefox, which you can download and install for free. Once you’re in Firefox, instead of simply clicking the links you want to visit, ctrl-click them (or command-click if you’re on a mac, like me).

Here’s a picture of what it can look like.

I find that there is something in the nature of the web that encourages one to get sidetracked. It’s a web, not a road! For example, I started writing a blog post, came to read this page (as “source” material), decided I was going to reply to Yvette’s comment, then halfway through thought “hey, I should show a screenshot of what tabbed browsing looks like!”, so took a screenshot, saved it as jpg, uploaded it to Flickr, added a few notes to it…

I sometimes find it useful to keep a mindmap current with what I’m doing, when the “sidetracks” start becoming “tracks” in their own right. In this case it’s not too hard for me to remember I’m actually trying to write a blog post (my main task), because the “secondary tasks” (visiting links, putting a screenshot on Flickr) are things I’m comfortable doing.

And finally, now, because this comment is becoming really long, I’m going to make it into a blog post and publish it on my blog instead. See how things go on the web?

Java and FreeMind on my MacBook [en]

[fr] Maintenant que je suis sur mon MacBook, Freemind ne marche plus. Description du problème. Solutions et suggestions bienvenues.

Ah, well, the Lazyweb was retired, looks like I missed that. We can just go about tagging posts with lazyweb, though.

I used Freemind as a mind-mapping application on my iBook. Unfortunately, it won’t start on my MacBook. I’ve looked in system profiler and it tells me about plugins for two Java versions.

Screenshot of error message.
Screenshot of error message.

Suggestions or solutions very much welcome (or nice free OSX mind-mapping apps too).