prezi – what your presentation tool could be like…

slideshows or presentations are one of the most widely form of data being presented to users. It shows set of data at a time and moves from one set to another.They are linear in behaviour. But our mind does not see information in straight way.It tries to get a whole picture of things first then see the individual parts and then fits it in the whole picture. He can move in any order between data. If it is more interested in anything he can spend more time on those things.

Current presentation methods are like a set of inormation and you have to fit them to complete the puzzle. You get answer at the end. Though most of the time you wanted answer at the begining. What would a presentation tool be like which matches how the mind sees the information. It shows you the big picture , allows you to move between them while showing the relationship between them and if you like it go to details.

came across this online presentation tool – prezi which is trying to do exactly this. It is completely different presentation tool than what we are used to till date. See it to believe it. Here are some of the presentations created using this. See one of those here. And below is a clip to show how to make prezi presentations.

one of the similar features have been tried with pptplex which is on microsot office labs. But compare the difference. the idea is similar but prezi contents are so stunning that it is next immediate thing you would want to try or atleast want to show others.

one of the theories of eLearning is that there should not be much distractions in the content. It should not be so stunning that it creates hindrance in learning. This is exactly what I felt about this. I liked it , I saw many presentations created in this later on realised that none of the time I was looking at the content. But I do remember all the visual effects it has. The editor is also high on visual appeal , sometimes I wished if there was better way to use the all purpose tool they show is their logo also – It takes so many clicks. These are the only downside I could think of…

monkey menace

unedited excerpts (except identity withhold) from a mail chain of the apartment complex I live in. 

first mail

wildlife is moving closer to us …after honey bees it is monkey band now. It is funny but these daily visitors have forced us to keep the windows closed unless u r very vigilant all the time. Bathroom chutes are perfec hideouts for them and traffic route too. Kitchen is most frequented place.So has anyone started doing something to deter them besides shouting on them and banging rods around them. If yes, plz share,keeping the widows closed all the time is really not possible long term.

reply 1

we had experienced this monnkeys problem in -(place withhold)-. In fact, they had a fixed time of visitng the complex. A troop of 25-26 monkeys used to walk through the compound wall at 6 pm everyday. They used to get into our utility areas and take away stuff which they were able to. Association had called few people to ward off these creatures. But the problem still persists. I guess we will have to live with it, or accept it as one of the consequences of staying close to Bannerghatta Natinal Park…

reply 2

well -(name withhold)- not only the bathroom chutes are hideouts but they are entrant points also.Since these monkeys are entering from the kitchen and I keep the door closing all the time , now they started entering from the bathroom ventilator as well.Yesterday the monkey  was in my living room which came from the bathroom so I ended up throwing the sticks to scare them. Well happy chasing them.

and who says one needs a break from city life to experience this.

ps : i have not taken permission from the writers of these mails for posting here. First objection I recieve I will put this post offline.

year gone by and resolutions…

another year has passed. Our annual shutdown has just ended, actually it has been a week but I am realising it now on the eve of another day of holiday. During it I

• took rest
• completed unfinished books of last year. they were -
  • Himalaya – by Michael Palin – travelogue tracing himalaya from west to east
  • Multiple city – writings on bangalore – edited by Aditi De
  • Banker to the poor – by Muhammad Yunus
  • The Kalam Effect – My years with the president – by P M Nair
  • The motorcycle diaries – Ernesto “Che” Guevara – could not pick the momentum to finish it
• My Canon SLR was gathering dust since years after film rolls were out of fashion and memories began to exist only digitally.
• found renewed interest in photography after a friend gifted Sony digital camera. Below are some of the early samples. Click to go to flickr to see them in better size-

and few new year resolutions related to this blog. This space has been two years in running and was created as part of one of the new year resolution- 

• blog more often
• change the way I blog so that it is more interesting for few people
• more instantaneous fresh topics. In most of the cases the content is stale and very late.
• and put more photographs since I have a digital camera now

google earth has updated bangalore images…

looks like google earth has updated the images of bangalore. I am not sure when exactly it happened but images looks like 5-6 month old but still most of the changes in Bangalore are visible now . Look at NICE road connecting bannerghatta road to electronics city, you can notice the short stretch which is missing .

rising early…

after lots of tries and misses I am back to my schedule of early morning jogging. I am already at optimum wieght levels and no matter what my lifestyle is I don’t lose or gain weight so I dont need to worry about weight . The fresh air, and the body mechanism after it , once you are regular with it you will always look forward to getting early next morning.

I have some preferences like I should start it early when it is just visible enough so that I can avoid harsh sun of bangalore. Though temparature is less here sun is more bright.There should not be any pollution either vehicular or dust. I live in outskirts of bangalore where there are no parks or such public places. And add to that the chaos of evergoing construction activities. The vehicles start earlier than me leaving the dusty trail so even if I rise early it was of no good. And hidden opening of BMIC road mean the traffic direction was reversed causing more traffic in the locality I live.

Finally I found the stretch of road inside my apartment complex which is just taking shape as construction activities are nearing completion. And hopefully I can continue with this habit.

Some tips based on my experience -

• Wear correct footwear.
• Choose route which is balanced on both sides of your body – Like if you are jogging one way on road and considering the roads are most of the times not perfectly 180 degrees, one side of your body will be at higher level than other side . If you do it for sufficiently long time than your body may get tilted. So include coming back on same road also in your schedule. Or if the track is circular – do both clockwise and anti clockwise.
• And once you through with initial fatigue and pains listen to your body and dont compulsarily do it.
• Take rest after 3-4 days.
• Put different type of excercise in your weekly routine for a day so that muscles are used in a different way.