gripe about Washington Usenix conference

[msb at sq.UUCP]

Dave Martindale (dave at onfcanim.UUCP) writes:
> That was a few years ago now, and I'm surprised I've never seen a laser
> pointer at a conference since then, given how well it worked.

Laser pointers have been around for longer than that - I first saw one
used 15 years ago!  They really are nice - as someone said once, "you
never get tired of looking at laser light."  However, in my opinion,
using laser pointers with overhead projectors is solving only half the problem.

Overhead projectors, as usually used, give images that are light gray
on a white background.  Yuck!  Turning off the room lights makes it dark
gray on white, but can also be unpleasant.  At the first day of the
conference, however, instead of overhead projector foils we were given
slides, typeset in white on blue.  Much better!  This was apparently an
innovation of the organizers du jour; it should become a standard.
(And if the speakers want to point at the slides, the dark background
allows either flashlight or laser pointers to work nicely.)

Mark Brader, utzoo!sq!msb
	Without the threat of frequent new releases of the system to
	enforce conformity, we have been free to modify and adapt the
	system to suit our own purposes.  ...  On more than one occasion,
	we have found it has been quicker to correct a newly discovered
	program error than to document its existence.  We feel we are in
	a relatively advantageous position compared with users of other
	brands of software.				-- John Lions