[tempestn]

Our technical writing prof in school made it his personal mission to wipe those filler pauses from our lexicon. It was remarkably difficult to adjust at first - you don't realize how much you do it until someone calls you on it every time - but I definitely found presentations and such came across much more clearly without all the uh, er, and ums. It feels very uncomfortable as a speaker to simply pause silently, at least at first; to the listener though (unless you're unusually awkward about it) it seems natural, and can single-handedly make you come across as more thoughtful and compelling.