State Parameter Tutorial

In response to some requests, I have prepared a talk that discusses the state-parameter measurements at a "tutorial" level.

There are five files, all pertaining to the same "Talk1" presentation:

  1. StateParamTutorialForIdeas4Talk1.pdf -- just the slides
  2. StateParamTutorialForIdeas4Talk1Audio.tgz -- the voice files numbered to match the slides
  3. StateParamTutorialForIdeas4Talk1L.pdf -- slides with audio files attached. Click on the attachment to play the voice. This is the only file that provides audio on a linux system.
  4. StateParamTutorialForIdeas4Talk1W.pdf -- slides with audio files embedded so that they will play automatically when the frame is advanced. I think this is the best to use on a Windows system or a MAC, but it won't work right on a linux system because the Acrobat Reader for linux doesn't have the right plug-in available.

    This file has the most content because I attached a few additional voice segments as options to provide some additional discussion of a few points. At the start, if you use Adobe Reader, you will have to accept an option that will appear at the top of the screen, to "trust" the presentation; otherwise, the recorded MP3-format files won't play. An alternative is provided, with "L" substituted for "W" in the name, for other systems. Those have the audio attached to the pdf file, and you have to play each attachment to hear the audio. That version should work on all machines, but the optional material in the "W" version is not included in the "L" version.

  5. StateParamTutorialForIdeas4Talk1U.pdf -- This is better to use than the one with last-letter "W". The content is the same, but there are two significant improvements:
    1. The "W" version had the problem that, once started, the audio for a page kept playing even if the presentation had been advanced to the next page. This could result in overlapping audio streams from multiple pages, and made it impossible to step rapidly through the presentation. This is fixed in version "U"; now any audio stream only plays while the associated frame is displayed.
    2. There were some problems with navigation, introduced when some of the additional audio was added, that have been fixed in the "U" version.

Files #1 and #2 are just provided as backup. I'd use #1 if I were giving the talk live. #3 should work on all systems, although you may have to grant the program permission to play the MP3 files that are attached. #4 is the closest to a live presentation, although it is intentionally designed so you have to advance frames manually. In a class setting, that could allow you to stop at the end of each frame and discuss the content before proceeding.

Beware of one problem with #4: I don't know of any way to stop the audio once it starts on a particular frame, and it starts automatically when the frame becomes visible. That means if you step quickly through four frames, you will get four audio streams playing simultaneously, and that is impossible to understand. The only way to get out of this is to cancel the program and restart; otherwise, you have to wait for all to finish. To skip around among frames, use the navigation features to select the frame instead of trying to skip through the presentation. (Version #3 doesn't have this problem because you get a separate audio player each time you play the attached files.)

File #5 should work in either Windows or Mac systems. For linux, the Adobe Reader cannot handle the audio content and will repeatedly generate a pop-up window irritatingly directing you to a site that just says that no appropriate plug-in is available. However, the Adobe Reader recognizes the embedded audio as attachments, so you can extract them and listen to them through another tool like MoviePlayer. If displayed by evince, the audio is just ignored so you can view the presentation that way.

If there is need, I'd also be glad to deliver this live and record that, but I think maybe these files are better because individuals can listen when they like and classes can use them to play each slide and then pause and discuss what was said. I think there is about 50 min of material if you skip all the "extras" that are included.

I have prepared some more advanced material also, on uses of the derived variables. I'll post that later if there is interest, but that part of the next talk goes into areas that are too involved for an introductory class; they will be intended more for advanced users of the data. Please let me know if you want to discuss anything about these presentations.

-- Al

Contact:
William A Cooper
NCAR
PO Box 3000
Boulder CO 80307-3000
(303) 497-1600
cooperw@ucar.edu