Ollie's Blog

In my earlier article, Slideshows in a Digital Age. I talk about the need to resize images down to something that resembles the projectors inherent resolution. The idea is that since a good projector can only handle 1024 x 768 pixels, embedding a picture bigger than that only strains powerpoint and your hard drive — the projector still only puts 1024 x 768 pixels onto the screen.

So here’s a quick and easy approach for Mac users if you don’t want to fire up either Lightroom, Aperture or Photoshop:

1. Copy the pictures you have chosen for your presentation into a folder on your desktop called “Resize.” Note that I said “Copy” — this is important since this process changes the files themselves and you don’t want to mess up your originals.
2. In Finder, select all the images in “Resize” (you know about Ctrl-a, right?).
3. Double click on one of the selected images — this will open them all in Preview.
4. Select all the images in Preview (Again, Ctrl-a).
5. In the Tools menu, click on “Adjust size.”
6. Change to “pixels” in the dropdown to the right of “Width” and “Height.”
7. Change “Width” to 1024 and make sure “Scale proportionally” is checked.
8. After you click OK, you will see shrunk images.
9. Do a File | Save ALL and you will now have a nice folder full of resized images.
10. Use these images for your powerpoint.

This is a really quick and simple approach to making your powerpoints more efficient, faster loading and less likely to crash.

Stratfor (www.stratfor.com) does regular analyses of geopolitical events. Their July 7th report (reprinted below) was an interesting review of the recent US-Russian summit: what did and didn’t happen.

The U.S.-Russian Summit Turns Routine

By George Friedman

The Moscow summit between U. S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ended. As is almost always the case, the atmospherics were good, with the proper things said on all sides and statements and gestures of deep sincerity made. And as with all summits, those atmospherics are like the air: insubstantial and ultimately invisible. While there were indications of substantial movement, you would have needed a microscope to see them. …Continue reading Stratfor on U.S.-Russian Summit

Despite our best intentions, it took a while to get under way from Las Vegas. Nevertheless, the trip to Springdale, UT (the town at the south end of Zion Park) was easy and we checked into the Bumbleberry Inn. This motel is the same one we stayed in a couple of years ago for an earlier Zion trip. It is reasonably priced, is located in a busy part of town and offers great views of the surrounding canyon. …Continue reading Zion Canyon

We got up at 8:30 local (11:30 EDT), an indication of how tired we were. Our west-facing window featured sun-lit hills and the shadow of the great pyramid, our hotel, on the parking lot below.

Following showers, we headed downstairs to reclaim our car. Today would feature a trip to Hoover Dam and, if we didn’t get lost, a tourboat ride on Lake Mead. First, though, breakfast. Luckily we happened on an iHop just a little bit south of the hotel on Las Vegas Blvd. Happy place! They have free internet. The hotel charges $15/day, something of a rip-off. …Continue reading First Day in Las Vegas

We are flying into Las Vegas and renting a car there for our canyon tour. As long as we are there, we’ll stay a few nights and see the sights in Las Vegas.

We are staying in the huge pyramid called the Luxor Hotel. The prices during the week (and maybe this year especially) are pretty reasonable. Gillian should get a real kick out of the Egyptian theme.

Wednesday morning we plan to drive to Hoover Dam and take the tour of the dam and power plant. Maybe we will take the paddle boat that leaves on the Arizona side as well.

Wednesday evening we have tickets for a magic show: Penn & Teller at the Rio Casino Hotel.

Thursday we plan to sightsee along the Strip and use the pool — Las Vegas has sun and heat, something NJ hasn’t seen this year.

Sue, Gillian (g’daughter) and I are heading West on vacation in a couple of days. We first fly to Las Vegas, where we’ll spend a couple of days sightseeing and maybe even going to a magic show.Thursday evening, Gillian, our daughter, will join us for the remainder of the trip.

From Las Vegas, we will drive north to Zion Canyon, then on to Bryce Canyon. From there we will drive south to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, west to Mesa Verde and finally south to Albuquerque from which we fly back home.

We will be gone for 12 days, so we expect to have lots of sightseeing adventures to report. Once we are out of Las Vegas, though, our internet connections may be pretty scarce, so these reports may be sporadic at best

Roger Ebert’s April 12th journal (that’s his title up above) examines the fine art of joke telling. He notes:

A joke should have the perfection of a haiku. Not one extra word. No wrong words. It should seem to have been discovered in its absolute form rather than created. The weight of the meaning should be at the end. The earlier words should prepare for the shift of the meaning. The ending must have absolute finality. It should present a world view only revealed at the last moment. Like knife-throwing, joke-telling should never be practiced except by experts.

Many fine examples follow. Well worth reading, and be prepared to laugh out loud. Ebert’s writing is a pleasure on all levels.

President Obama held a news conference on Saturday in Strasbourg following the NATO conference at which he was asked about whether he held to a view of American exceptionalism. The following segment is quoted from the transcript released by the White House and may be found on CQ Politics:

Ed Luce, from the Financial Times. Where’s Ed — there he is.

Q Thank you, Mr. President. In the context of all the multilateral activity that’s been going on this week — the G20, here at NATO — and your evident enthusiasm for multilateral frameworks, to work through multilateral frameworks, could I ask you whether you subscribe, as many of your predecessors have, to the school of American exceptionalism that sees America as uniquely qualified to lead the world, or do you have a slightly different philosophy? And if so, would you be able to elaborate on it?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. I’m enormously proud of my country and its role and history in the world. If you think about the site of this summit and what it means, I don’t think America should be embarrassed to see evidence of the sacrifices of our troops, the enormous amount of resources that were put into Europe postwar, and our leadership in crafting an Alliance that ultimately led to the unification of Europe. We should take great pride in that.

And if you think of our current situation, the United States remains the largest economy in the world. We have unmatched military capability. And I think that we have a core set of values that are enshrined in our Constitution, in our body of law, in our democratic practices, in our belief in free speech and equality, that, though imperfect, are exceptional.

Now, the fact that I am very proud of my country and I think that we’ve got a whole lot to offer the world does not lessen my interest in recognizing the value and wonderful qualities of other countries, or recognizing that we’re not always going to be right, or that other people may have good ideas, or that in order for us to work collectively, all parties have to compromise and that includes us.

And so I see no contradiction between believing that America has a continued extraordinary role in leading the world towards peace and prosperity and recognizing that that leadership is incumbent, depends on, our ability to create partnerships because we create partnerships because we can’t solve these problems alone.

Not only is this a fine definition of American Exceptionalism, but it is yet another example of the ringing oratory this president brings to all his communications, whether pre-prepared or off-the-cuff.

Where are the critics who claim he can speak only with a teleprompter?

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Originally uploaded by OllieA

Sue and I are going to Jamaica later this week. We’re looking forward to seeing this idyllic spot again. Beautiful location, nice, interesting people and great weather. A welcome respite from a long northern winter.

We’re staying in Montego Bay, home of this lunch counter. Sounds like a pretty good lunch to me. Click on the photo to see some other Jamaica pictures.

Today’s (24 Feb) Stratfor update, Internal Divisions and the Chinese Stimulus Plan, provides a brief economic history of Chinese economic development as backdrop to an analysis of the political debate surrounding their US$600B stimulus program. The debate is apparently surprisingly public and seems to represent a genuine split in the political system. The fissure extends to the jockeying for power between the two heir-apparents, vice-premiers Li and Xi, as well as the widening split between the wealthy coastal and impoverished rural areas. Ultimately it could play out in serious social unrest as the huge migrant labor population becomes unemployed.

Interesting reading as backdrop for President Obama’s speech to the joint session of Congress tonight.