I apologize for my protracted absence from the um, well, from here. This boy has been busy. Lately I’ve found myself shuffling from one meeting to another to be force-fed the glow of hideous Powerpoint “decks.” We sit there like zombies as many well intentioned folks read their slides to us. About the only time I’m awakened from the trance is if a hot babe in a tee-shirt runs by swinging a sledgehammer. Kinda like this.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Powerpoint and do quite a bit of them myself, but damn… It’s intended as a visual medium, so why not use some pictures? I have a new favorite blog called Presentation Zen. It’s devoted to “professional presentation design.” One recent post compares the presentation styles of two high-tech heavyweights, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates:

Which speaker do you think would be more compelling? Somewhere I read that “communication is the transfer of emotion.” Bullet points sure don’t evoke any, but a good storyteller can paint vivid images in your mind so the point really sticks. Isn’t that the um, point? Recently I had the pleasure of watching Barb and Joe present. They both presented naked. Well, not literally, but without the security blanket of slides for people to go zombie on. They were both great because they know their stuff cold and speak passionately about it. That’s communication.

Oh, if you’d like to improve your PPT’s, check out Seth Godin’s Really Bad Powerpoint.

Now that my HDTV summit has been um, scaled, I’m embarking on another gadget quest. I need a smartphone so I can have 7×24 access to my corporate email. Uhhhhh…. Nevermind. Perhaps that one deserves some rethinking. Nah! I’m all over it! My Product Advisor is a very cool site that runs you through a series of questions to help recommend the right product for you. They cover cars, smartphones, digital cameras and TV’s. Right now the Palm Treo650 is in the lead…

There are TV commercials that are artisticly pleasing and there are ads that are effective. In rare instances, they accomplish both. I think a current ad from Fidelity Investments hits a home run. The visuals are flourescent green lava lamp bubbles with key investment words related to 401K’s. The point of the ad is to get people to consolidate their various 401K’s held at various institutions with Fidelity. Or maybe I just like lava lamp bubbles.

This is just for Jeff.

Bloglines, that is… This cool site provides me one place that I can view all the internet content that interests me. Previously, I used to have a MyYahoo page and a MyMSN page to aggregate all that content. Now it’s all on one easily navigated page. A couple things I still haven’t figured out, like how to get local sports scores and movie times, but for the most part, it’s all there.

Yesterday was Kyle’s 14th birthday. I had a comittment to do a presentation for our Education line of business at Babson College, so I took Kyle along. It was the first time he’s ever seen me speak publicly. I sprinkled a good amount of humor into it, and I thought it went well. When I asked Kyle what he thought, he had but a one word response: “humiliating.” I see. In spite of being viciously panned by my own son, we went straight to the mall to grab (another) present. His new Darth Vader lightsaber is one nasty tool. When you turn it on, the beam of red light shoots up the blade while the digital sound effects wail. The beam shut off in the opposite direction. So cool. He was a very happy evil Sith Lord.

Finally, I’m guessing this is just an internet hoax, but it’s so well done, I can’t tell for sure. The Focus Fusion Society claims to be developing the Plasma Focus Device for hydrogen-boron nuclear fusion… Hmmmmm….

Yesterday I found myself chatting with my boss about the horrors present in the bathroom mirror in the wee hours. “I should blog on that, because it’s pretty scary at that time of day.” I just wasn’t sure whether I’d have the guts to go with full disclosure. What the hell? If I can’t laugh at myself…

I’m sure a great deal of what’s going on in the world today is good, but the news media puts most of their efforts into the bad stuff. One bit of news (good imo) is that the International Energy Agency (IEA), an energy overseer, issued a bleak report urging the industrialized world to kick its oil habit. Interesting, the Paris-based IEA issued its report from London. Perhaps that’s because a great deal of petroleum products were ablaze across the French countryside. Slate has an interesting compilation of foreign press perspective on the rioting of frustrated Muslim youth in France.

Anyway, speaking of weaning us off of petrol, I read in dismay a Marketwatch report on the “insurance sticker shock” parents receive when junior gets added to their automobile policy. (Note: Megan got her Learner’s Permit last Friday. She’s a very good driver. Seems quite experienced, but that’s another story…) The report says that adding a teenager to a policy can increase premiums anywhere from 100% to 355% even for the old family jalopy! It notes that “safe” vehicles will drive the cost down. As is my nature, I seek the good in everyone and everything, so here it is: Female drivers pose less risk, so adding a 16-year-old daughter results in only a 349% hike… Cool. Why are the rates so high you ask? Well, the report cites “Car accidents are the leading cause of death among those 15 to 20, according to 2002 figures from the National Center for Health Statistics, the most recent data available.”

So now I’m in a bit of a quandry given the fatality statistics and the costs for insurance and gasoline. The Sherman tank I’m buying Megan will keep her safe and the insurance on it will be a mere pittance, but the fill-ups are gonna be brutal.

I heard this line from Elliott Smith’s “Baby Britain” (From “XO,” 1998) on the way home from the gym tonight. It echoed the sentiments of an email I received earlier today. In part, it read, “Ned (not his real name) was a great guy, but we weren’t exactly on the same intellectual level if you know what I mean.” Yeah, I do know what you mean. It’s just one of the many “tests” we all must pass in the mating game. As I get older, I find myself overanalyzing these things with regard to women. The truth is I think I’m just looking for something to disqualify them from being “the one.” The one I’m afraid to let in. My issues aside, I think as single thirty or forty-somethings get used to the independence and freedom their lifestyle affords them, the less apt they are to “settle” for a relationship with a person that doesn’t measure up in one category or another. Intelligence. Honesty. Physical appeal. Empathy. A sense of humor. Class. Dignity. Self-esteem. Hey, the New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd even asks in a new book, “Are Men Necessary?” As the subject of her punching bag of a book, I guess we are.

Last Sunday, after a particularly strenuous day of shopping for Megan’s new school stuff, she Kyle and I stopped into the Olive Garden for a quick dinner. Megan is a soup lover, so I recommended the Pasta Fagioli. She devoured it and took advantage of their “bottomless bowl” policy. It looked pretty simple, so this morning I made it. Pretty much anything I see in a restaurant, I can replicate in the kitchen. In this case, I didn’t make the traditional recipe (including celery), but guessed the ingredients based on how it looked. (Note: Tasting helps one to nail the shopping list.) First, I browned an onion, mushrooms, green and red peppers, followed by some ground sirloin after removing the veggies. To the browned beef, I added six cups of water and three Knorrs beef bullion cubes for stock. To that I added two cans of crushed tomatoes, a bag of frozen peas/corn/green beans, some garlic, cannelloni beans, and one pound of al dente Barilla Ditalini.

At some point in the process, perhaps while Kyle was “testing” the ground sirloin, he hit the brew with enough salt to mummify an Egyptian queen. The final concoction’s a tad salty, but a nice hearty soup for a cool, damp November day.

I took the plunge into the world of HDTV. From what I hear, my 42” LG Plasma should be here “soon.”

Now before I can drench myself in rich, 1080i splendor, I must purchase a new DVD player and all necessary cables. Sounds pretty easy, right? Well, let’s start with the DVD player and then get right into navigating wires like slashing through dense vines in the Amazon. (No, not the store, the rainforest following the river.)

DVD manufacturers now offer “upconverting” players that “process” a standard DVD 480p image and increase it to an HD level 720p or 1080i. A pretty cool demonstration of the difference can be seen on this picture of Yoda. Tough call on whether the quality is worth it, especially since the “upconverters” are more expensive than progressive scan players.

Welcome to the Jungle
As sweet as my new plasma is, it has only one DVI input. DVI carries high resolution Digital Video, but is being replaced by HDMI which carries both high resolution Digital Video and Digital Audio. In order to receive HDTV from Comcast, I have to upgrade my set-top-box (STB), but the Comcast website doesn’t indicate whether their HD STB’s output the signal via DVI or HDMI. So, my STB may have HDMI and the “upscaling” DVD’s only upscale via HDMI. Um, looks like I need 2 HDMI inputs, but I have only 1 DVI input. What’s a boy to do? Well, after cringing at $250.00 HDMI/DVI converter boxes found on the net, I discovered one for $38.99! And… this bad boy can handle either two HDMI inputs, two DVI inputs, or one of each, then outputting (I don’t care if it’s not a word. Hang with me…) to either an HDMI or DVI output!!! Oh, and then there’s the cables… Very few manufacturers include them, but don’t pay $100.00 or more per DVI/HDMI cable. There are good ones here and here.

Got all that? Stuff like this is why “Home Improvement” was so popular.

This recently discovered picture of Albert Einstein is yet another reason I love the Internet…