Rick's b.log - entry 2025/11/19

Presentations of "The London Show"

Surely it wasn't that bad.

Well, yeah, it pretty much was. With one standout "oh my god!" entry.

While one can aim some of the issues at the method by which the videos were recorded, to be honest the problems could be sorted with a relatively minor investment and some forward planning. I'm absolutely not complaining about Leo White's work here. His making the videos is appreciated, it's everybody else that needs to step up to make them properly watchable.

Let's go over the three primary issues and make some enemies along the way. ☺

1, The audio sucks

When your input filter doesn't work correctly, as mine doesn't, it just isn't possible to meaningfully separate the speaking from all of the other noise. I am actually impressed by people who can hold conversations in crowded rooms. I hear everything nearby and while I can manage to converse in a crowded place, it is extremely tiring and I only want to do it briefly before simply trying very hard to ignore everything, or putting on my noise-cancelling headphones. But, clearly, that isn't always an option. It was much the same thing for this video, it picked up the speech, more or less, but it picked up everything else too. Microphones, people! We want to hear you, not the guy in the back pretending he didn't just let one rip.

2, The narrative sucks

There is nothing wrong with using a prompter, loads of people do it. Have you ever watched an American political thing like the presidential pre-election discussions? Have you noticed that odd rectangular piece of glass that is in front of them with the top edge facing closer? That's not some bizarre bulletproof shield, it's a prompter. There's a screen at floor level and the glass reflects what it is showing in such a way that the speaker can read it.

Biden and obvious prompters; picture from CNN (I think).

I was watching a video for the virtual show held during the Covid hiccup, and I won't single out any one person, but I will say that I remember exactly nothing that was said. Instead my brain latched into the umming and I was basically counting seconds between them. Until, that is, about fifteen minutes into the video I was like "what the hell am I doing?" and just stopped the video.

So, don't be afraid to use prompting, either bullet points to remember, or script out (and rehearse) the entire speech. Do not forget rehearsals, they are the time you can remember to add in points you missed while writing it, and to pick up on tongue twisters or things you find hard to say. Banish all of those unnecessary utterances with a few simple tricks and you'll sound way better.

3, This is just bullshit

This is so, so, unbelievably terrible.
(screenshot from a video recorded by Leo White)

I find it hard to express in words how awful that screenshot is. I am absolutely not going to blame the camera, even though some of the washed out blacks are down to the camera, because the problem here isn't the camera, the problem here is somebody who clearly has no idea how to create slides for presentation.
DO NOT USE CLUTTERED BACKGROUNDS. I don't care how awesome it looks on your monitor, just don't do it. And, honestly, that much text on-screen at once is not great, it should probably have been broken into two slides.
Remember, the golden rule is Keep It Simple, Stupid.

All I can say is that there's something that looks like words over top of what looks like a picture of the back end of a jet engine that's in the process of exploding.

Here's a test that everybody should perform when making their epic presentation. Mock up whatever awesome looking slide you want, and then display it on the crappiest monitor you have access to. Then get somebody else - a colleague, the tea girl, the granny next door, it doesn't matter who - to come and read it from the other side of the room. I really really really wish people would try this, rather than thinking "it looks good" when their nose is like a half metre from a screen that probably takes up a substantial part of their direct vision. I'm sure it did look good on their monitor. But on a projector and from a distance? This is the poster child for how not to design a slide.

Really, white on clutter, it's so bad that in order to make any sense of what it says, I needed to zoom into the screenshot. Put text on to a solid contrasting colour, or at most a gentle blurred colour transition with high contrast to the text. Save the fancy designs for titles, and go VERY simple when it comes to the detail. If white on black looks boring to you, then try light yellow on dark blue.
If you want to experiment with colours never use red on green (or vice versa) or red on black. I trust you understand why, and if not you really shouldn't be designing any sort of visual aids.

After all, the aim of the slide is to support and reinforce that which is being said. This fails by every metric you care to name.

As you can see, a few really small things (planning ahead to have proper microphones, some sort of prompting, and not having a hyperactive toddler design the slides) would greatly elevate the presentations and make them seem so much more professional.

You can watch the videos on YouTube and decide for yourself if my commentary is fair.

Sheiny spammy

PS: The title reads better if you pronounce it like "shine" rather than "she-in", the latter apparently being the correct pronunciation even though it sounds like the henchwoman in a Korean drama. In today's episode: Ha-Na and Mo-tak end She-in's reign of terror...

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Steve's Astounding Screen, 20th November 2025, 20:53

Nobody gives a shit what you think. You aren't wanted here.

Rick, 20th November 2025, 21:01

What a nice thing to get a notification for as I'm deciding what to make for dinner.  You do understand, I hope, that *here* is my site. This isn't the forum. You understand that, right? SMDH...

Rick, 20th November 2025, 21:28

I opted for fish and chips, and as that is doing its thing in the air fryer, I want to give you a challenge.    Imagine you're an investor, or venture capitalist, whatever. You're the guy with money and you're looking as the moonshot.  You need to be asking: What does this do for me? What makes you special? Why should I be interested in this?    I don't say this to dump on anybody, I say this because - at the end of the day - an investor will be looking for some kind of return on that investment. Maybe they can nurture this into something great? Maybe they have something in mind where Linux is overkill but "it needs a little work"? Who knows. But one thing I can say is that appearance matters. A cluttered unreadable presentation isn't the right sort of appearance.    I wish them luck in what they're doing, my commentary is intended to push people to understand that "a camcorder in the corner" is a very 1990s way of doing things, there are things that don't actually need a lot of expense (like, literally, placing a screen behind the camera to read off of it) that can really elevate the presentations. If you really don't give any 💩s, fair enough. I tried. You don't have to listen or pay attention, certainly not to me. But it's worth asking "Can I do this better?" and not doing it for me (because I'm nobody), but doing it for yourself.    The air fryer has just pinged (should that be "pung" in past tense?) so "that'll do, pig, that'll do", I'm done here.

David, 21st November 2025, 09:35

"You aren't wanted here"    The best joke ever!  (I guess you wanted to say "You aren't wanted there")    "I opted for fish and chips"    Excellent choice.    "You need to be asking: What does this do for me? What makes you special? Why should I be interested in this?"    And why ROOL dismissed the offer of Charles?    IMHO, today RISC OS is 32bit, and should be finished before going somewhere else. RISC OS 32 bits could be something in the embedded space.

C Ferris, 21st November 2025, 11:01

Rick what do you think of Archive Mag?

Chris M, 22nd November 2025, 05:45

Ignore the hater(s) Rick, please. I enjoy reading your commentary on RISC OS, politics and everything else :)

Rick, 22nd November 2025, 11:23

David: Yes, my worry is that all of the things remaining to be done for the 32 bit version are liable to be swept aside in chasing some mythical 64 bit ideal. The problem as I see it is that by making a 64 bit build of what we currently have, it'll be a shiny newer version of all of the current outstanding problems. If they're looking for serious wads of cash, they need to have a serious proposal, and surely that must start with a ground-up rewrite to fix a lot of the long-standing problems borne of its decades-old heritage.    Colin: I have liked the complimentary issues that I have been sent in the past, but the problem for me is one of cost. The current issue looks to be about fifty pages and it's a little over seven quid. Except, even if I was interested: "Due to customs changes, print subscriptions to the EU are temporarily suspended." I'm not interested in paying for PDFs. Oh, and one might want to point out that selecting PDFs for the EU isn't a simple fix:   if you sell digital products to consumers in the European Union (EU), you need to register with the EU and collect the EU VAT - even if your business isn’t located in the EU. As of 2015, all businesses selling digital products to consumers in the EU must collect VAT for *the local country of the consumer*.  While you don't have to *pay* tax if your annual sales are under €10K (and it would be hard to imagine anything in the RISC OS world being over that), it doesn't mean you can simply ignore it - you may need to audit all sales to the EU to demonstrate they you are below the threshold. Yes, it's a mess. And another of those wonderful Brexit benefits now that the UK is on the outside...    Chris: Thank you. :)

jgh, 23rd November 2025, 02:04

It's not just EU stuff, this predates Brexit. Being responsible adults in charge of their own country meant that when my nephew in Hong Kong sent me something, labelled something like HK$30, which is about £2.50, UK Customs managed to put the UKP1=HKD13 on the wrong side and assessed it as £400 of goods and demanded 40 quid from me before releasing it.

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