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Slideshows are an intuitive way to share complex ideas with an audience, although they’re dull and frustrating when poorly executed. Here are some tips to make your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations sing while avoiding common pitfalls. Table of Contents Start With a Goal Less Is More Consider Your Typeface Make Bullet Points Count Limit the Use of Transitions Skip Text Where Possible Think in Color Take a Look From the Top Down Bonus: Start With Templates Start With a Goal It all starts with identifying what we’re trying to achieve with the presentation. Is it informative, a showcase of data in an easy-to-understand medium? Or is it more of a pitch, something meant to persuade and convince an audience and lead them to a particular outcome? It’s here where the majority of these presentations go wrong with the inability to identify the talking points that best support our goal. Always start with a goal in mind: to entertain, … [Read more...] about 8 Tips to Make the Best PowerPoint Presentations

You might think that switching from Facebook Messenger to old-fashioned text messages would help protect your privacy. But standard SMS text messages aren’t very private or secure. SMS is like fax —an old, outdated standard that refuses to go away. Your Cellular Carrier Can See Your SMS Messages With SMS, messages you send are not end-to-end encrypted. Your cellular provider can see the contents of messages you send and receive. Those messages are stored on your cellular provider’s systems—so, instead of a tech company like Facebook seeing your messages, your cellular provider can see your messages. Cellular carriers store the contents of those messages for various amounts of time . Messages are often only retained for several days, but they store metadata (which number sent a message to which number, and at what time) for even longer. These records could be subject to subpoena in legal proceedings—for example, text message records are a common form of evidence in divorce … [Read more...] about Why SMS Text Messages Aren’t Private or Secure

Ecosia is a not-for-profit search engine that uses advertising revenue gained from searches to plant trees. It doesn’t have the privacy-focus of DuckDuckGo , nor does it have the search results of Google. But it does have a unique mission. This search engine is getting bigger and more widely recognized. For example, starting with Apple’s iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 , Ecosia is one of the few options you can use as your default search engine in Safari. Google Chrome also includes it as a built-in option. Ecosia’s Main Mission Is to Plant Trees Ecosia is a not-for-profit search engine that aims to help the environment by planting trees. The search engine’s mission is to absorb as much CO2 as possible by planting trees to try and reduce the impact of climate change. This is done for the planet, for people, and for animals. The service acknowledges that trees can help empower and lift vulnerable populations out of poverty through the regeneration of depleted soils and … [Read more...] about What Is Ecosia? Meet a Google Alternative That Plants Trees

Whatever wireless Xbox controller you have—whether it’s a controller for an Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, or Xbox One—more battery life is always good. Here are our top tips for extending your controller’s battery life, both in the long and short term. Power off Your Controller to Save Battery The easiest way to make your controller’s batteries last longer is to simply turn it off when you aren’t using it. You can do this manually at any point while playing a game: Press and hold the Xbox button in the middle of the controller, then choose “Turn Off Controller.” If you don’t touch your Xbox controller for 15 minutes, it will power off automatically. Unfortunately, there’s no way to override this setting at present (as you can on Sony PlayStation consoles). Got a Play and Charge Kit? Charge Smart The Xbox controller comes with a single set of disposable batteries. The easiest way to upgrade your controller to be rechargeable is to purchase Microsoft’s official Play … [Read more...] about How to Extend Your Xbox Controller’s Battery Life

You might not realize it, but every time you purchase a new desktop CPU, you also get a ticket for a giveaway called the “silicon lottery.” Two CPUs of the same model can perform differently when pushed to their limits thanks to something called “CPU binning.” What Is Binning? Binning is a sorting process in which top-performing chips are sorted from lower-performing chips. It can be used for CPUs, GPUs (graphics cards), and RAM. Say you want to manufacture and sell two different models of CPU: one that’s fast and expensive, and another that’s slower at a bargain price Do you design two different models of CPU and manufacture them separately? Why bother when you could just use “binning?” The manufacturing process is never perfect, especially given the incredible precision necessary to produce CPUs. When you’re manufacturing those speedy, expensive CPUs, you’ll end up with some that just can’t run at the top-end speeds. You can then tweak these to run at slower speeds and … [Read more...] about What Is “Binning” for Computer Components?