Powerpoint, it's a tool we all love to hate, but use all the time. In my presentations I generally have a few concept slides, and then lots of demos … more often than not which utilize live web content. In the past I've toggled back and forth between Powerpoint and my browser. Using LiveWeb I can insert live / dynamic web pages into a Powerpoint presentation. This removes the need for all that toggling, and potentially getting lost. One option of LiveWeb is I may define the size of the embedded web content. Thus, I could assign 90% of the Powerpoint page to my dynamic web content … and keep 10% for a slide title and the ability to click forward within the presentation.

Even I have to admit, this is pretty cool. I've added three screenshots to this post which demonstrate LiveWeb. I learned of this Powerpoint Add-In via Microsoft's Sharepoint blogger, Michael Gannotti.

Click upon any screenshot image to view full size

Let the battle begin! Remember Netscape? As most everyone knows, Google has entered the browser wars with Chrome. A blog I regularily monitor, DemoGirl, has a great, high quality screencast which demonstrates Chromes' key features.

See my prior post for my New York Times data visualization links, however in addition to grown-ups I've tried over the years to provide high quality / educational resources for kids which encourage our children to encourage the sciences. Thus, today I bring you the Wolfram Education Portal. This site is a wealth of data visualization / concepts which revolve around mathematics. One may download a free Mathematica viewer should you desire an animated copy on your own computer. This resources will definitely be added to my Engineering Learning Wiki section, Engineering for Children.

My own involvement with youth science education goes back over six years … as coach of the Lego Robotics Team, S.N.I.P. (Super Nerds In Pink). See my Legos section of this blog. You'll even find a Lego Robotics Educational Search Engine which I built using Google Custom Search (see tutorial). After all … it all begins with Legos!

My, what a tangled web we weave!

This morning the Northstar Nerd may be found among the corn fields of rural Illinois, a few weeks ago I posted about Silicon Valley vs. Lake Superior Hot Spots. However, most of my visitors today come from the New York Times' article on data visualization. Yes … as I get ready to head back to Minnesota, the NY Times featured my tutorial on Data Visualization. This post was actually part of a two part series on the importance of looking at data. This is how I led off my earlier post:

• "Last Summer Second Life was all the rage in the popular media. In fact, one of the most linked (and found) pages on this blog are the Second Life Tutorials (more SL posts). However, as much as SL gathered media attention, the bigger interest for most of us was the discipline of engineering simulation and data visualization."

Welcome New York Times Visitors. Here are some key links:

• Northstar Nerd Tutorials
• Data Visualization Tutorial
• Engineering Learning Wiki

Bye for now; it's time to get back in the car and drive another 400 miles. I've dropped off my youngest son at his new engineering college, Rose-Hulman. Molly and I were impressed with his choice of schools. His new engineering faculuty advisor actually stopped by his dorm room to say hello and introduce herself while we were unloading the van! How many engineering colleges would that happen at? (see my search for the perfect engineering college)

(Update on Oct. 27, 2008 … See Microsoft's new visualization tool, DataDepot)

Going back to my high school days in the early 70's I've always needed to know how to use statistics for solving technical problems. Back then I used a slide rule; now I use a high power PC. Hopefully my answers are still correct!

One software package that I have used in recent years is Minitab. Recently I found an excellent online text book which covers Minitab 15 … from "frequency distribution" to "confidence intervals" and "hypothesis testing". I will add this test to my Engineering Learning Wiki eBook / Manual section.

• Minitab 15 Manual – Thiel College