I have always wanted to be good at public speaking, especially in front of large audiences. Although, I can address a gathering without a shiver in my voice, I nonetheless feel butterflies in my stomach all the time!

I found some interesting links that might help soothe those tense moments!

http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~csk/presentations.html
http://www.aresearchguide.com/3tips.html
http://lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/dept/Tips/present/present.htm

Most times, one hardly derives anything at the end of an hour long technical presentation, and more often than not, the content of your presentation is lost after your audience exits the room.

http://www.presentationhelper.co.uk/presentation_humor.htm

The author in the above link suggest that how adding some humor, may help in retentivity of the subject in the minds of your audience.

Very nice link that tells how humor is hidden in content more than in a few one-liners that you add to your speech.

http://www.fripp.com/art.addhumor.html

Another nice essay on FUN-talking

http://humorcenter.umd.edu/Essays/culbertson4.htm

My site is probably one of the least visited blogs in the world! Trust me on that one! by linking to the following set of youtube videos, I know I don’t do much in making it reach more people, as it rightly deserves.

Nonetheless, I consider it my responsibility to do it. and those of you who do read my blog, please do visit these vidoes and tell the author what you experienced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnylM1hI2jc&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn70gPukdtY&mode=related&search=

Been using Windows Live Writer as my blog writing tool. Here are some plugins that I would definetly make my life much easier. If you are insterested in writing a plugin or would like to add to these requirements, do get in touch.

1. Extended Link insertion
   • Link to different Search Engines (Google, Google Blog Search, Code search, Sun API search, Technocrati search etc.)
   • Link to various product sites (Amazon, RitzCamera etc)
   • Link to previously exisitng Posts
   • Recent Links
   • Links from clipboard
   • Auto-link insertion based on certain keywords
   • Multiple link inclusion - when this mode is enabled every word that is clicked on / selected should be added to a bucket, which can then be used to create links on.
2. Note-taking
   • Separate interface for storing notes/ideas for blog entries
   • Allow search across notes
   • Auto-complete using phrases from existing notes (optional)
   • Plugin for Firefox and IE to enable addition of notes by selecting text on browsers
3. Monetize #
   • Support for various ad tools like adsense, amazon associate etc.
4. Wordpress Style Support#
5. Review Publishing#*
   • Wordpress plugin that allows to create a set of reviews for various products
   • Allow access of reviews separate from posts. (can use a set of categories for this - similar to asides plugin)
   • Allow posting to this through categories, or allow through a plugin in windows live writer as “write review’ 
6. Drafts sync#
   • Allow multiple instances of windows live writer to share drafts.
   • upload selected drafts to wordpress
   • check-box for using wordpress drafts instead of local drafts
   • button for pulling drafts from wordpress and adding them to local drafts

# - might require extending existing XML-RPC (should be possible with wordpress)
* - might require wordpress plugin

[tags]windows live writer, wordpress, plugins, ideas[/tags]

I’m now officially one of the self-obssessed techie guys, sitting in public places and completely ignoring all the life-forms around me. Got a very nice deal from HP. Here is the config!

HP Pavillion DV2124TU
Intel Pentium Core Duo 1.6 Ghz
1 GB (2 X 512 MB) DDR2 SDRAM
Intel 945 800Mhz FSB Motheboard
14.1″ Widescreen Display
LightScribe DVD-RW drive
802.11 a/b/g wireless
Bluetooth
Infrared
Altec Lansing Speakers
Built in modem and ethernet ports
3 USB ports
1 DV based USB
SD/MMC-Pro/MS/XD card reader
Remote control for DVD player
Windows XP Media Center Edition

It costs around Rs. 56000 in India. Since I bought the laptop before the 31 jan 2007, I get the following freebies

Hauppage USB TV tuner card
Reliance USB Internet Data card

This is essentially the dv2000 branded as 2124 in India. oh yeah, since I bought it betwwen Nov 06 and Mar 07, I get a free upgrade to Windows Vista when it is released.

It took me the whole of the weekend to get it into working shape, installing all the necessary open source tools that I use. Still a lot of work ahead. I hope to blog more since I have access to decent computing power where ever I go.

[tags]laptop, hp, hardware[/tags]