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Dear NSA, let me take care of your slides.

fr.slideshare.net

61–70 of 83 posts

Re: Dear NSA, let me take care of your slides.

#61

Apparently I'm grumpy beyond my years but I find these lighthearted jabs at the NSA counter-productive as they just trivialize what happened. I'd much rather see creations that will help bring about change, like shining a spotlight on the representatives that support these programs. For instance Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence committee , who said "the authorities need this information in case some…

You don't like "lighthearted jabs", but you call yourself waffle_ss!?

Re: Dear NSA, let me take care of your slides.

#63
post #58

Apparently I'm grumpy beyond my years but I find these lighthearted jabs at the NSA counter-productive as they just trivialize what happened. I'd much rather see creations that will help bring about change, like shining a spotlight on the representatives that support these programs. For instance Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence committee , who said "the authorities need this information in case some…

I completely agree and actually would argue that it further pushes the point of why we should be concerned: They cant even make good slides, how can anyone be sure they're keeping the data they collect (legally or not - irrelevant for this point) safe? I suppose you could also say they spend their time keeping the data safe and not producing quality slides, but i would consider it to be more of an insight into the qu…

I disagree. Satire is a very effective form of political argument. There are probably many people in the politically apathetic masses who will have not followed recent developments. Unlike the regular media, gimmicks like this can effectively penetrate their consciousness.

Re: Dear NSA, let me take care of your slides.

#64
post #58

Apparently I'm grumpy beyond my years but I find these lighthearted jabs at the NSA counter-productive as they just trivialize what happened. I'd much rather see creations that will help bring about change, like shining a spotlight on the representatives that support these programs. For instance Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence committee , who said "the authorities need this information in case some…

I completely agree and actually would argue that it further pushes the point of why we should be concerned: They cant even make good slides, how can anyone be sure they're keeping the data they collect (legally or not - irrelevant for this point) safe? I suppose you could also say they spend their time keeping the data safe and not producing quality slides, but i would consider it to be more of an insight into the qu…

I would disagree with what you consider to be an insight. There are plenty of great architectures that don't have well designed slide shows to go with them. Come now, look at some of the old school web sites that hard core *nix hackers kept. An example would be the old Linux kernel website was a single text page. Sure, they've upgraded it in this past year, but it was a simple ugly site many years before that. If your argument about slide show vs arch is true, then Linux would have failed long ago.

Re: Dear NSA, let me take care of your slides.

#65

Apparently I'm grumpy beyond my years but I find these lighthearted jabs at the NSA counter-productive as they just trivialize what happened. I'd much rather see creations that will help bring about change, like shining a spotlight on the representatives that support these programs. For instance Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence committee , who said "the authorities need this information in case some…

Next up, pre-crime per Minority Report.

Agreed, this is alarming beyond belief.

Re: Dear NSA, let me take care of your slides.

#66
Feedback from the client:

Thanks for sending this over, it looks great. Could you just add a few tweaks?

- Add the seal

- We need the "top secret" stamp on each slide

- We think the grey is too bland. Could you make it pop more?

- Did you get the PRISM logo from us? I am attaching the Word doc in case you missed it

- I am not sure you left enough room for the bullets -- will they go on separate slides? We need to see those.

[edited for line breaks]

Re: Dear NSA, let me take care of your slides.

#67
post #58

Apparently I'm grumpy beyond my years but I find these lighthearted jabs at the NSA counter-productive as they just trivialize what happened. I'd much rather see creations that will help bring about change, like shining a spotlight on the representatives that support these programs. For instance Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence committee , who said "the authorities need this information in case some…

I completely agree and actually would argue that it further pushes the point of why we should be concerned: They cant even make good slides, how can anyone be sure they're keeping the data they collect (legally or not - irrelevant for this point) safe? I suppose you could also say they spend their time keeping the data safe and not producing quality slides, but i would consider it to be more of an insight into the qu…

>They cant even make good slides, how can anyone be sure they're keeping the data they collect...

When I was in university, my professors made and taught from slides of roughly the same quality. Does that mean they cannot do their jobs? Obviously not: they have proved important theorems, published significant papers, worked on interesting patents, and successfully trained their students (all the while updating and reusing shoddy slides for years and years).

I am a little surprised at the surprise/snobbery over the quality of NSA's slides, as if it mattered. In my mind, blustering about colors and fonts in a case of this import only serves to highlight the triviality of designers: they are a luxury.

Re: Dear NSA, let me take care of your slides.

#69

Imagine the uproar if the NSI hired a graphic designer of sorts to make their slides more attractive. I can see the moaning now "They spent HOW much of my tax money making those slides pretty?!?" I expect the NSA's slide to be crappy, because you know, they're spies and stuff not graphic UX experts.

As an ex military & civilian space contractor... there are people perfectly capable of developing slides similar to the ones posted. However - you'd be blasted by the (client) for the lack of the agency logo, program logo, and colors. The usage of colors can even be an issue. Depending on the audience the color red and variations of red will indicate that the line of communication is classified, as does purple depending on the system. For example - the army would hate the use of blue because it's an Air Force color and Navy color.

I use to try to make my slides and diagrams pretty and every time I did I was blasted which led to my disgruntled feelings towards my job. Hence why I'm no longer in this industry.

Re: Dear NSA, let me take care of your slides.

#70

Apparently I'm grumpy beyond my years but I find these lighthearted jabs at the NSA counter-productive as they just trivialize what happened. I'd much rather see creations that will help bring about change, like shining a spotlight on the representatives that support these programs. For instance Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence committee , who said "the authorities need this information in case some…

All representatives support these programs, they're all part of the state; none of them are striking against it, get your head out of the sand.

Unless you're ready to remove the power structures, you're as much a part of the problem as any other taxpayer.

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