[OS X TeX] NASA, Word, TeX and PowerPoint

[Lee Witt]

I'm  a new comer here - I've been watching these mailings for a couple  
weeks. About these comments:
On Feb 4, 2009, at 3:00 PM, Peter Dyballa wrote:

>
> Am 04.02.2009 um 18:24 schrieb Joseph C. Slater PE, PhD:
>
>> Instead of a few high quality reports, the tendency is to generate  
>> PP after PP presentation in what turns into a dog and pony show.  
>> IMHO an excruciating amount of time is spent trying to show that  
>> things are "getting done" in place of time better spent a) doing  
>> it, b) documenting it.
>
> This is a common situation in all companies with a decent amount of  
> useless managers.
>
> --

It isn't simply companies that have this problem. I teach mathematics  
and statistics at a small, private, business school. I typed my  
dissertation with Ams-Tex, and currently use latex to produce pdf  
handouts and Beamer-based presentations for my courses.
Our school's VP of professional development doesn't like this because,  
in her words, they aren't ``flashy'' enough. In her opinion good  
presentations shouldn't be centered on content, they need to be active  
(animations, bright colors, media) so they keep the attention of the  
audience.

In short - all flash, no show.

I could write the difference off to background (mathematics vs  
business) or teaching history (many years for me, never for her), or  
to something else. However, I would definitely lump her into the  
"worthless manager" category.

Lee Witt