Thursday 26 July 2007

Hunt for music

I had a very random moment today and suddenly remembered the tune for the title music of Jonathan Creek the magician mystery series that used to be on the BBC several years ago now. Then I suddenly thought hey it must be on youtube. I mean I have found just about anything on youtube. To get a picture just check my Orkut profile and you will see what I mean. So after some very crafty searching I have found it! It is called the Dance Macabre. Want to listen to it then click on the link above. So far youtube hasnt failed me but I am satrting to see them trying to clean it up. My personal advice to the media companies...Are you nuts? I am more likely to buy the dvd or cd of something once I have seen it on youtube. I mean this just means that I will be able to look at some new and old stuff i have never seen before. Surely that is a good thing?

Wednesday 18 July 2007

How to keep people listening into techno speak

yes Yes I know I was meant to talk about hubs but I am still working on it ok...It is difficult you know!!! But anyway moving onto another challenge that I encounter quite often is how to explain technical things to people without making them fall asleep and ensuring they understood what I was explaining. Lets face it, I.T is not fun when explaining theory and you can get extremely confused with all the acronyms and new words you have never even heard off in the normal use of the English language. If you want an example as a non-techie then try Polymorphism!If you dont understand the meaning then well done you are sane and probably not a serial killer (For those of us who had the pleasure of receiving the Spot the Serial Killer and Developer email that has been floating around the net for a few years now.)

Well in one of the presentations I did as a team a few years ago, we actually found you can keep your audience following you and understanding what you are explaining by using the Bull Shit Bingo concept. You make sure you create a word list and you ensure as you are talking you get use as many key words as possible. What this does is it makes the session quite interactive and gives you instant feedback from your audience as to whether they are listening to you or not.

For some instant words commonly used try this for size
OSI Model
DoS
DDoS
DOS
AD
Transaction Logs
Information Store
SID
Memory Leak (No this doesnt mean when your memory decides to use the toilets though it can sometimes feel that way!)
Routing
RG Connector
Cluster
Active
Passive
Polymorphism
Inheritance

So the next time have some fun in your meeting but ensure everyone understands what you are explaining!