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An AC ealier in this discussion posted this link: http://danbricklin.com/log/201... [ http://apple.slashdot.org/comm... ]

Thanks for all of that information. In any case, it is kind of fun running 30 year old software at the start of a class to show the beginnings of the spreadsheet...

By the way, you can download a working copy of Visicalc from Dan Bricklin's website: http://www.danbricklin.com/history/vcexecutable.htm

(It is really just a curiosity at this point...)

Well, filling in a bunch of formulas IS a form of dataflow programming.

It is easy for non-programmers because it quite closely maps real-world calculations on a sheet of paper to the computer screen - just fill in the initial values and write down formulas without worrying about operations ordering. VisiCalc and those who polished the concept after them did a pretty nice job.

On a side note, Visicalc authors' notes make for quite an interesting read.

Almost all these replies citing luck, talent, and hard work, and knowledge (all true), leave out a key aspect -- the way you can get or buy all these (or by having free *time* and access to *tools* can develop them), and that thing is access to capital (dollar-denominated ration units in our society). Bill Gates had a lot of ration units (capital) to give him free time and access to tools and learning because his family was wealthy and he was born with a big trust fund. See:
    "How to be as Rich As Bill Gates"
    http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/
"William Henry Gates III made his best decision on October 28, 1955, the night he was born. He chose J.W. Maxwell as his great-grandfather. Maxwell founded Seattle's National City Bank in 1906. His son, James Willard Maxwell was also a banker and established a million-dollar trust fund for William (Bill) Henry Gates III. In some of the later lessons, you will be encouraged to take entrepreneurial risks. You may find it comforting to remember that at any time you can fall back on a trust fund worth many millions of 1998 dollars."

Oh, and Bill Gates dumpster dived at a computer center in his formative years as well:
    http://danbricklin.com/log/2004_03_11.htm#paw
"Interviewer: Is studying computer science the best way to prepare to be a programmer?
Gates: No, the best way to prepare is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating systems. You've got to be willing to read other people's code, and then write your own, then have other people review your code. You've got to want to be in this incredible feedback loop where you get the world-class people to tell you what you're doing wrong..."

What he describes here sounds a lot like what the free and open source community of programmers does. :-) Not what Microsoft does. He had the guts to drop out of college (Harvard), true, but he also had the safety net of personal wealth already. Starting with wealth and others' information are key aspects of the Bil Gates story (and understanding our society), and it is unfortunate this is all not better known. It puts his early letter to hobbyists in a new perspective, where an already rich guy (from inheritance) claimed poorer hobbyists sharing knowledge and content were hurting this guy economically who already was very wealthy and had gotten a lot of what he knew from reading through others' discarded printouts. (That sharing was before copyright infringement was a felony, by the way, as the laws have been made stricter since to further protect people like Bill Gates.)

I don't know which is worse:
* the ethical hyprocrisy of Gates' letter:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists
* the defense of Gates and the US economic system by "Millionaire Wannabees" who do not know of this history.
    "The Wrath of the Millionaire Wannabe's"
    http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/?q=node/47
"But here's something I'll bet the dittoheads haven't thought of. Maybe they're the chumps. Maybe they've been sold a bogus "American dream" that never existed. Maybe "the rules" they play by were written by the people who have "made it" - not by the people who haven't. And maybe - just maybe - the people who have "made it" wrote those rules to keep the wannabes chasing a dream that's a mirage."

Experts contribute to Wiki. I have contributed a whole two edits to Wiki. Why? I am a content expert (albeit in a narrow field) and I spotted a couple of typos. I was happy to do it for free and I did it anonymously because I didn't want to create an account for something I do only every couple of years.

The trouble with paid experts is that they, like me, have narrow areas of true expertise. Outside of their areas of true expertise, they are only sort of expert. My favorite (really bad) example is Sir Roy Meadow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Meadow People thought he was an expert and would believe anything he said. The queen even knighted him. The trouble was that his half baked theories on sudden infant death sent people to jail.

Meadow may have been an expert at medicine but his theories were based on a faulty understanding of statistics. He was clearly no expert at statistics.

Trying to create a paid cadre of experts is a losing game. To have all the content edited by real experts would require too many experts. The result is that one could only afford a smaller number of sort-of-experts. The other result would be that the real experts would be driven away and would not make casual edits for free. MIT professor Dan Ariely spoke about that recently: http://danbricklin.com/log/2008_03_06.htm#ariely

Everyone is talking about editors, but what about office applications?

For all my spreadsheet needs, nothing beats VisiCalc!

Looking at VisiCalc perhaps there is a good argument against patents as a means to foster innovation. Patents do not protect innovation, patents protect invention.

Sony innovating on Nintendo's design is still innovation by any other name. I know this is a "Sony bashing" thread, but I think the record needs to be set straight: Patents BLOCK innovation.

NB. VisiCalc was the precursor to modern spreadsheet software. It was never patented and many products based on it were produced including Microsoft Excel.

The ChiaPaint thing is amusing, but what's amazingly ironic is that Dan Bricklin seems to be working on an Ajax spreadsheet called wikiCalc. Or maybe you already knew that...

For the record, I have the feeling that if AjaxWrite were a great word processor then people would be using it instead of reviewing it. And it's XUL, not ajax.

This is the home page for the wikiCalc Alpha Test

Introduction

The wikiCalc program is a web authoring tool for pages that include data that is more than just unformatted prose. It combines some of the ease of authoring and multi-person editing of a wiki with the familiar visual formatting and data organizing metaphor of a spreadsheet. It can be easily set up to publish to basic web server space accessed by FTP and there is no need to set up server-side programs like CGI. It can, though, run on a server and be used with nothing more than a browser on the client.

wikiCalc is currently released in Alpha test. This means that it is largely untested, has bugs, and is missing features that will hopefully be in the 1.0 release (and Beta versions leading up to that). It does, though, implement a large enough subset of the targeted features to get a good idea of what the product is all about. It is also useful in its own right and seems to be able to create, publish, and maintain a wide variety of web pages already. For example, this page and many of the ones it links to about wikiCalc were created with the wikiCalc Alpha. (The graphical design comes from a CSS file and the side bar is in a simple custom template. Much like a blogging tool, you can automatically wrap the output in static nice-looking stuff if you don't want the default.)

The Alpha release is available for use on Windows, Mac, Linux/Unix, and other platforms that can run the Perl language. On Windows you need only download a single .exe file that will install wikiCalc, a Perl runtime, and assorted sample files. Other platforms need to have Perl already installed (but they commonly come with it pre-installed).

The program is written by Dan Bricklin (me) and is available under a GPL 2.0 license. When shipped it will also be available with a dual-license non-GPL proprietary license. You can read my essay explaining a little more about what wikiCalc is and why I created it on the "About wikiCalc 0.1" page on my blog.

Note that this is the 0.2 alpha version which uses AJAX techniques when editing cells. It includes a "Demonstration Setup" option to get you up to speed quickly if you just want to see what a browser-based spreadsheet feels like.

wikiCalc is currently aimed at users who are comfortable figuring out how best to use a new tool. It is very flexible and there are many options to meet many different needs. It should be especially of interest to the DIY (Do It Yourself) and VAR (Value Added Reseller) crowd. Such people can set it up for use by others.

. . . skipping part about downloading and running . . .

News and Reviews

Here are links to some of what others have written about wikiCalc:

David Berlind on ZDNet

For details and analysis you can't beat Groklaw's coverage, including notes by two bloggers who attended the meeting.

Also note that the hearing was convened by a senator who seems to confuse "OpenDocument" and "OpenOffice" and "open standards" with "open source software".

OK, I've read the typical array of bashing connected to any MS story. While I don't disagree that MS has made some sleazy business choices, this does not mean that their competition is any more angelic. Here are a few tidbits of food for thought:

Eric Kriss is a busy man. As well as his heroic efforts on behalf of the people of Massachusetts, he is also quite the entrepreneur. Along with his boss, Governor Mitt Romney, he founded Bain Capital a 17 billion dollar capital management firm that owns pieces of such widely diverged companies as Staples, Dominos, Burger King and Toys-R-US. Bain also tried to buyout the entire NHL and partnered with the Chinese in the attempted buyout of Maytag. He also worked for previous Massachusetts Governor William Weld. He took some time off to start a couple of companies of his own before continuing in public service. Workmode offers a web-based subscription model project management application called iProject. Follow the link and notice to what competitor he compares his product. Anyone want to take a guess before they click? Kriss started MediVision, Inc and was CEO of MediQual Systems, both health care companies. MediQual is especially interesting since it deals with medical information and documents - like web forms submitted to a state government. Yes sir, I bet they can make your practice compliant with that new format for billing documents pretty darn quick. When was the last time you believed a health care company was on the side of the people? Finally, take a look at this, looks like MediVision wanted to cover their butts before paying some government office holders an honorarium at a political fundraiser. Hey, I'm not saying that there is anything WRONG with any of this. Just that factors other than "because it is an overriding imperative of the American democratic system" may be involved in the decision. What I'm saying is: a wolf in geeks clothing is still a wolf.

You can call OpenDocument an 'open' format, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have to be licensed. The XML format is actually provided by Sun and a license IS required. There are some interesting terms involved in the license, including cancellation if the licensee sues the licensor over ANY "infringement of claims essential to implement any W3C Recommendation" and the granting of reciprocal licenses. MS might have some legitimate hesitations about acquiring such a license. By the way, you need a license for PDF as well. And Reader STILL takes forever to load.

This whole discussion is about forms used by a state government for internal AND external use. Meaning the forms used to communicate with the citizens by the government. This can include informational presentations (possibly multimedia), online registration for services (motor vehicles, voter registration, unemployment, schools, etc.) and yes, maybe even embedded VOIP (click here to leave a voice mail for your city councilman). Why would a company spend time and money to develop gee whiz technology and willingly support a standard incapable of its implementation? How willing will companies and individuals be to toss out their tried and true Office routine and switch to apps that even most zealots describe as 'catching up' and 'almost as good as' Office? And that's not taking into account Office 12, due in '96, and, you guessed it, featuring improved XML. Do you call the government forcing you to quit using the overwhelmingly most popular business document tool if you want to communicate with them a good thing?

So what I'm saying is: there ain't no fre

A while back there was a neighborhood movement in my area against a cell phone tower. I didn't really have an opinion on the matter at the time. I still don't.

Dan Bricklin had two interesting log entries (1), (2) on this topic.

There are pages at the FCC website here and here on RF safety considerations.

Find towers near you.

A while back there was a neighborhood movement in my area against a cell phone tower. I didn't really have an opinion on the matter at the time. I still don't.

Dan Bricklin had two interesting log entries (1), (2) on this topic.

There are pages at the FCC website here and here on RF safety considerations.

Find towers near you.

A while back there was a neighborhood movement in my area against a cell phone tower. I didn't really have an opinion on the matter at the time. I still don't.

Dan Bricklin had two interesting log entries (1), (2) on this topic.

There are pages at the FCC website here and here on RF safety considerations.

Find towers near you.

The fake tree cell towers I've seen are 1) much taller than the surrounding trees, 2) not shaped like the nearby trees, and 3) regular in shape, unlike real trees.
For instance:
http://campus.champlain.edu/faculty/whitmore/img/w ireless/Cell-Tower-Tree.jpg

or

http://danbricklin.com/log/0f010790.jpg

or

http://www.80acres.com/Stupid%20things/stupid_thin gs.htm

From the article: "...In our definition, "Open Formats" are specifications for data file formats that are based on an underlying Open Standard developed by an open community and affirmed by a standards body or de facto format standards controlled by other entities that are fully documented and available for public use under perpetual, royalty free, and nondiscriminatory terms.

... An example of an Open Format that we have already characterized is TXT text files and PDF document formats.

...It should be reasonably obvious for a lay person who looks at the concept of Public Documents that we've got to keep them independent and free forever because it is an overriding imperative of the American democratic system. That we cannot have our public documents locked up in some kind of proprietary format or locked up in a format that you need to get a proprietary system to use sometime in the future. So, one of the things that we're incredibly focused on is insuring that the public records remain independent of underlying systems and applications insuring their accessibility over very long periods of time. In the IT business a long period of time is about 18 months, in government it's about 300 years, so we have slightly different perspective."

This not only goes far beyond "flirting with open source to get a better deal," it ignores that angle completely - they'd be happy to buy MS Office if they know they (or anyone else!) can hack together a reader for the format in 300 years based on publicly av ailable information.

In Palm Beach County (home of Terry's Butterfly Ballot) there were 32000 errors out of 450000 votes. That's over 7% error rate. Note that typical error rate for non-butterfly punch cards is 4%, whereas optical-scan (aka pencil & bubbles) is well under 2%.

Let us not forget that IBM published the assembly language source code listing for the original PC BIOS in full beginning in 1980.

This "openness" allowed and enabled the first generation of PC developers to see and understand what was going on at the firmware level - literally an open book and manna from heaven for the times.

This was not quite the precursor of today's open source movement though since IBM never granted permission to copy or use the code, but 1 billion PC compatibles later it is easy to see that IBM's approach unlocked at least one aspect of the value of openness.

Dan Bricklin comments thoughtfully about the PC BIOS in his blog. Search for "purple".

Here we go Flash free and links to US companies.

Not true.

Read Dan Bricklin's Treo review. His review discusses usability, and he describes how surprisingly easy it is to use the keyboard, even if one accidentally presses multiple keys.

Have poor eyesight (narrow field of view or can read large party name but not smaller number). They should have worn their glasses.

Left-handed and use right hand to steady the Vote Recorder, covering list on right. They should look at the whole thing, it only decides the future of the country.

Are spatially challenged (can't read maps well) but can count. Seems like the only valid point, but thousands of spatially challenged folks? I dont think so.

Doing things by rote from last time (double column is new for Presidential race) ?????

Cultural issues (don't understand the arrows) If they don't understand the arrows, how can they understand the issues?

Thought arrows pointed to entire column, not specific hole, and are used to SAT-type tests with separate grid and ordered questions down the column. Once again, ????

Nervous or confused by new voting style (just moved to warmer climate) I voted for the first time ever this year, I didn't find it at all confusing...

In a hurry because voting lines are long and you're unexpectedly late for an appointment. They are in a hurry? this is the freaking future of the country, people! Make some freaking time.

Sigh.... I feel slightly better now...

It isn't confusing at all. Not at all. The only people who are responsible for the problem are the people who couldn't follow simple instructions and take the time to look at what they were doing.

So you say. Expert testimony says otherwise. Jakob Nielsen:

The Florida ballot clearly had usability problems, caused by the attempt to map a two-column set of labels onto a one-column action area. A direct mapping between two single-column areas would have been much less error-prone.

Nielsen doesn't go so far as to say that this is specifcally what cost Gore the election, but with 19K incorrectly filled out ballots in two counties, I'd say it's a pretty fair guess.

Additionally, from Dan Bricklin:

You can see pictures of the ballot on the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Election's web site ... What isn't obvious from these pictures is exactly how the ballots aligned with the holes in real machines. Boston.com has an AP picture that shows one situation without the card but a real holder. The artist's conception many others are showing doesn't look as realistic.

.. before posting this only one article, /. potential material on patents:

• Patents and Software
• Patenting VisiCalc

Laurent

.. before posting this only one article, /. potential material on patents:

• Patents and Software
• Patenting VisiCalc

Laurent

Well, I don't know him, but he looks like he has things to say, so may be he'll accept the idea. Laurent

Get it here. It works fine under dosemu.