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Communicating Using Technology
Vol. 2 Issue 20 September 30, 2003
Published and Copyright by Dave Paradi
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In this issue:
1. Keeping Your Computer Safe - Hoaxes
2. Results of PowerPoint survey
3. Useful Resource - Javascript References
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1. Keeping Your Computer Safe - Hoaxes
Almost every month (or more frequently) I get an urgent e-
mail from someone saying that they are sorry that their
computer seems to have a virus and it was probably
transmitted to my computer. The e-mail they send tells me to
look for a certain file and delete it if I find it on my
computer. If you ever get e-mails like this be very
skeptical - almost every one of them is a hoax. The first
thing I do when I receive one of these e-mails is to check
out one of two sites that list these hoaxes. The first spot
I check is the Symantec web site at
http://securityresponse.symantec.com and check the Hoaxes
link at the bottom of the page in the Reference Area. This
list is well organized and tells you what to do if you have
already acted on the e-mail and deleted a file. The other
site to check is http://www.truthorfiction.com, which also
has a good list and will tell you if something is true. By
deleting some of the files mentioned in these hoax e-mails,
you can disable some functionality of your computer, so they
are not always harmless. I had the impact of sending one of
these to all of your colleagues shown very clearly to me
recently. I received one from a client who sent out the
panicked notice to her entire list, then 10 minutes later
sent out an apology after a few of us responded that it was a
hoax. How would your reputation suffer if you did that?
Don't ever have to answer that question by first consulting
with the sites listed above.
2. Results of PowerPoint survey
Well, the results are in from the survey I was doing on what
annoys people about bad PowerPoint presentations. I can
summarize the results in one sentence: Stop jamming the
slides full of text and then reading it to your audience! By
far the biggest annoyance is when a presenter just copies a
report onto the slides and then proceeds to read it to the
audience. What an insult this is to the audience, who feels
like the presenter thinks they can't read on their own. It
is clear that a lot of presenters need to work on properly
preparing their presentation by developing the key points,
the backup for each point and then constructing a
presentation that puts the audience first, not themselves. I
have way too much information I want to share about the
results to include it all here, so I have summarized it in
two documents. The first is a press release which I will be
sending out in the next week or so which will hopefully get
picked up by major media outlets so we can stop some of these
annoying practices. And the second is a more detailed
summary of the results. Below are the links to both of these
documents. If you would like me to come and speak to your
association or professional group about these results and
what presenters can do to stop annoying their audience,
please e-mail me.
Link to press release:
http://www.communicateusingtechnology.com/pptrelease.htm
Link to detailed survey results:
http://www.communicateusingtechnology.com/pptresults.htm
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Who else wants to sell more and boost their career with
better PowerPoint slides? Learn an easy 13-step process in
under two hours with this e-book. Click on this link:
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3. Useful Resource - Javascript References
A month or so ago I had to learn some simple javascript for a
web site I have been working on. For those of you who may
have to do this or to try to interpret what a webmaster has
done on your site, here are two reference sites that I found
useful during that experience. Hope they help if you need
this type of knowledge. BTW, Javascript is pretty cool and I
will be using for some neat stuff in the future on my own
site.
http://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp
http://javascript-reference.info/
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Would you like me to speak to your professional association
or chapter event? I am always looking for opportunities to
share my information with others and would consider speaking
to your group if you are in or near the following areas:
Rochester, NY, Buffalo NY, Detroit, MI, Cleveland, OH,
Pittsburgh, PA or Toronto, ON. Just e-mail me at:
dave@communicateusingtechnology.com for more info.
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Check out the books, e-books and other learning tools at:
http://www.communicateusingtechnology.com/tools.htm
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