A large chunk of the BBC went on strike on Monday which meant that their usual current affairs radio output was replaced by repeats of panel games, sketch shows and off-the-wall documentaries. One particular one found me while I was in the car at lunchtime. It was concerned with how Microsoft Powerpoint was Evil. The presenter was positively foaming at the mouth (an impressive achievement to get this across on radio, I'm sure you'll agree) about trivialising serious matter with animations, graphics and bullet points.
I agree. I loathe having to sit through a PowerPoint presentation, where the presenter simply reads the slides out loud and tries to enliven the wafer-thin content with inappropriate clip-art (is there any other sort?) culled from Microsoft's website. And ensuring slides are readable often means that there can be hundreds of the damn things to sit through.
The only cheering aspect is when that bloody paperclip pops up and the audience yells "Fuck OFF, Clippy"
Obviously this depends somewhat on the content of the audience...
But I digress. The presenter finished by suggesting a new parlour game: converting famous speeches into PowerPoint presentations. I've just spent a happy half hour converting Churchill's "We Will Fight Them On The Beaches" into 3 slides, replete with animations and sound effects for each place where the fighting will occur. I'm particularly pleased with the tinny rendition of the French national anthem. I less sure about the mad fairground tune to illustrate the beaches.
I suspect it may have lost some of its inspirational qualities. Ah well, I guess thats progress.
