Dennis Austin dies at 76.
* Born in Pittsburgh, studied engineering at the University of Virginia
* Collaborated with Robert Gaskins at Forethought to create PowerPoint
* Forethought acquired by Microsoft
* By 1993, PowerPoint generating more than $100 million in sales
* Product is widely used, but controversial and target of jokes
> Mr. Austin and Gaskins acknowledged the complaints, but thought they were unfairly aimed at the software and not the people who were using it to make lazy, poor presentations.
> “It’s just like the printing press,” Mr. Austin told the Wall Street Journal in 2007. “It enabled all sorts of garbage to be printed.”
* Born in Pittsburgh, studied engineering at the University of Virginia
* Collaborated with Robert Gaskins at Forethought to create PowerPoint
* Forethought acquired by Microsoft
* By 1993, PowerPoint generating more than $100 million in sales
* Product is widely used, but controversial and target of jokes
> Mr. Austin and Gaskins acknowledged the complaints, but thought they were unfairly aimed at the software and not the people who were using it to make lazy, poor presentations.
> “It’s just like the printing press,” Mr. Austin told the Wall Street Journal in 2007. “It enabled all sorts of garbage to be printed.”