The title is actually a takeoff on the recent movie Sideways. I liked it because it was a decent movie, featured Saabs, has great scenery and inspired me to investigate pinot noir.
Enough digression, what the title Slideways refers to is my tendency to provide a ton of viewgraphs for my classes. I rarely go through the bulk of them in class, but I do feel providing a comprehensive set is important since it can provide a quick, topic based resource when work or research insists that you dive deeper into a topic. They also are accessible, since I provide electronic copies during the semester and have them available at my homepage (except between semesters when I am doing site cleaning, but you can always email me and ask).
During the classes, students are not always convinced, as they have to wait for the slides to be printed and lug them to class or wade through them when studying for a test (then again they provide decent summaries of the readings, useful as a study aide). However my main purpose was to provide a resource that lasts longer than the class.
What inspired this post was an email from yet another student who actually found that there was life for the slides past class. In his case it was investigating software metrics. I use them for my work too and initially that is what motivated me to obsessively provide them for you and start the web page on the external internet so that they would be available to you. I would appreciate feedback from anyone else who has found the slides, the site or the blog useful
So as this semester begins and you yawn as the printer churns out a seemingly endless stream of slides, know in some not to distant future it may save you time, so that you can spend time with your family, watch a movie, take a ride in the country with the top down, enjoy some pinot noir or your-choice-here. Later!
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