I’m Back and Things Begin Again Monday!
Backstage
On a recent project in Dallas (the one that took me 10.5 hours on the plane to arrive from San Diego (should be a 2.5 hr flight)), the event photographer took this photo and emailed it me – thanks Sal!
The nice side lighting is actually a combination of another laptop monitor and the 12×9 screen in front of me. Despite the great photo, I am as usual working in the dark…
– Troy @ TLC
What Takes Up My Time…
Okay, a bit of guilt here. First I lock myself out of the blog and spend over a week figuring out how to hack into it. I have been in Seattle, San Francisco, Big Bear, Los Angeles (3Xs), Boston and Orlando in the past 3 weeks – so time has been spent traveling and working onsite at many corporate events.
But the BIG thing that has taken my time is this new computer (actually I had a number of these delivered, but this is the one I am configuring first). It is running Windows Vista Ultimate and has a ton of power (2.16Ghz Dou Core 2, 2GB ram, 512MB video card, 160GB hard drive, etc – and it is a laptop!). Vista is stunning, but I am spending lots of time working through issues with various software to assure they work and are stable.
So my time has been taken up with airplanes, taxi’s to hotels and the nuances of Vista. Stay tuned, I have a backlog of great tutorials and information series that will start showing up soon!
— Troy @ TLC
It Must Be The Water
So the secret to Microsoft’s success is in the water!
One of the benefits of working at Microsoft, or being an invited guest, is that beverages are free. For the week of the MVP Summit there was a special blend of water on hand.
– Troy @ TLC
Listening to Bill Gates
Last week was the Microsoft MVP Summit – a great time! Even more impressive was that Bill Gates himself gave a live keynote address – A definite sign that I am in good company. Hear is a photo of Mr. Gates opening statements, this would be after the ‘please no photography or video taping’ announcement (notice the hundreds of cameras being held up – mine included!).
– Troy @ TLC
I’M IN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It has been a great week spent as a guest at Microsoft.
It has been a painful week – due to some almost unbelievable occurances I have been locked out of the blog and unable to access it. After spending the afternoon armed with lots of notes and suggestions, and working way outside my realm of expertise (ie. PHP administration) I have successfully hacked my own blog database and given myself access once again!
Stay tuned for some delayed photos and highlights from this past week at the Microsoft MVP Summit.
– Troy @ TLC
Knowledge Does Not Equal Design
I had a recent conversation while updating a series of presentations that I found very insightful. The conversation was along these lines:
Client – Thank you for updating all of our presentations, making them look consistent and just ‘better.’
Troy – Thank you for the opportunity to assist.
Client – I can see the ‘graphic designers touch’ over what our engineers do.
Troy – Well, after I actually figure out and interpret what the intended message of the slide is, my biggest goal is to bring focus to it.
Client (and this was the key to the whole conversation) – You know, our people have taken lots of classes on how to use PowerPoint, but there is a big difference between knowing how to add things to a slides, and knowing how to design a good layout.
Over the next few days I will pull some before-and-after examples that focus on redesigning the visual layout of the slide.
– Troy @ TLC
Desk Space – again
PowerPoint for a corporate event can require a lot of computers. In this case it was a primary and backup for the main screen, another for a logo and countdown when the IMAG screen was not on camera, and one additional for production work. Deskspace becomes an issue when you show up and have only been allocated 4 feet of table…
– Troy @ TLC
Morning Nutrition Is A Must
PowerPoint can be very time consuming – up before anyone else and ending after all have gone. This past week one of Lori’s co-workers on a large show “helped” her by supplying fresh Florida (we were working in Florida) Orange Juice for breakfast as she was too busy to get any… thanks Chris!
– Troy @ TLC