I thought I would die laughing when I saw the Gettysburg Address on PowerPoint. Even though I am a PowerPoint afficionado, I enjoy a good satire. But John Naughton, writing in The Guardian, is serious in his disdain for the software: "As an addiction of the white-collar classes, PowerPoint ranks second only in perniciousness to cocaine. Some executives appear to be -- literally -- incapable of public utterance unless they have their bullet-pointed security blanket on a screen behind them." This is, of course, the well-worn complaint that PowerPoint is a "substitute for thought." (Pardon my directness, Mr. Naughton, but your column is a substitute for thought. It contains nothing original on the topic ... besides the link to the Gettysburg Address.) The more that I hear this so-called argument, the more I am inclined to believe that complaints against PowerPoint are a cover for laziness. Most people I have met who grumble about PowerPoint are techo-dinosaurs, and I have the feeling that this is their way of mitigating what otherwise might be a competitive disadvantage. In fairness, I have seen (and made!) many bad PowerPoint presentations, but they are not inherently worse than a "naked" presentation or one that uses the "crutch" of a chalkboard. I am old enough to know that business people did not become bad public speakers because of technology. So enough of the complaints!

(Thanks to Kaimi Wenger for pointing out this story.)

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