Last May I visited the first large scale international conference (CLEO) during my PhD. I was shocked about the enormous contrast with smaller scale (more specialized) conferences. In this post, I will discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages that struck me during this conference.

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In my previous post I discussed a feature I would like to be implemented by slide-sharing services. I am not going to repeat here all the arguments why slide sharing is useful for scientists. I just want to discuss the present quality of the engines used by these services. I consider here SlideShare, authorSTREAM, SlideBoom and Google Docs from the point of view of scientists. Two years ago I pointed out to you that SlideBoom was by far the best. After two years much could have been changed in a world where nowadays everything on the Internet is about sharing.

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Ten years years ago the major computer company Sun  Microsystems advertised in all media with the slogan: “The network is the computer”. And I must admit they knew where they were talking about. They saw the clouds coming. Sun has been taken over by Oracle in 2009.

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When you look at modern scientific journals you will find that in the majority of papers (some of) the results are presented in graphical form, from a simple black-and-white X-Y plot to sophisticated multicolor 3D-plots.

The data that are graphed come from various origins, like filled-out surveys, output of detectors, or mathematical programs. If the data are gathererd or produced by a commercial computer program, the developers of that program will try to supply graphing capabilities within the program. Keeping users tied to a program is of high commercial value. So Microsoft’s programs Word and Excel supply plotting facilities, although the capability is so rudimentary that it does not deserve the name.

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