The most interesting Mac-related news is that, for the first time, AAS presenters can use Macs (and Keynote) for presenting in oral sessions. They have Powerbooks with Parallels running OS X and Windows in every room, so people are free to use whatever OS and presentation software they want. Excellent idea. Hopefully this becomes standard practice for AAS. I grumbled about being forced to use Windows here some years ago, so it’s only fair I post again now that the situation has been improved.

On an unrelated note, I attended the NASA CAE workshop on improving the introductory astronomy class for non-majors, and it was excellent. There is a large body of research that lecture-only classes are ineffective for teaching non-science major courses, and so called “active learning” techniques are better. I’m convinced, and I think many people would benefit from the workshops so… find one near you and check it out.

p>So, there was a post on Macintouch about Mac marginalization at physics conferences. The writer said everything had to be made for Powerpoint on a PC and he couldn’t use his Mac or Keynote. I figured surely astronomer’s are more enlightened – I mean Macs are everywhere at AAS. iBooks, Powerbooks. You can’t spit without hitting a Mac, so AAS must have a more mac-friendly policy, right?

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p>Wrong. This is the AAS policy:

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LCD Projectors and Computers will be provided in every oral session room, free of charge. YOU MAY NOT USE YOUR OWN. You do not need to place an order to use the LCD Projector, but the following requirements must be strictly adhered to:

PRESENTATION: PowerPoint or Adobe Acrobat are the required formats. Your PowerPoint presentation must be compatible with Office XP (2002) for the PC. The computers in the sessions rooms will be Windows XP Pro with Office XP.[my emphasis]

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p>Well, that’s just garbage. I understand they have lots of rooms and lots of speakers and want to standarize but Mac users must make up half of astronomer’s these days? Maybe 40%. Still, we’re huge as this popularity of this site indicates. Why must our presentations conform to ungodly Windows computers running Powerpoint? I use Keynote – not Powerpoint. Ugh.

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p>I think we need to make a stink. Who should we write? Who reading this is in the power structure at AAS? I know there are time constraints and delays associated with having people plugging in their own laptop but still. How about a Macintosh in each room with Office 2004 and Keynote? That would assuage 100% of users, wouldn’t it?