One of the most common usages I see of Excel is for documentation. Someone decided this was a good way to document anything and everything: project statuses; schedules; contact lists; et. al. All this, and no use whatsoever of the functions and number crunching powers of the spreadsheet.
I'd be willing to bet of all of the functionality and capability available in Excel and other spreadsheets is used at most to about 1 or 2% (a subjective quantity, but tangible).
Ironically, when people need to do specific number crunching, they often if not invariably turn to specific-targeted software in lieu of the perfectly capable spreadsheet.
Each Sunday, I would comb the circulars, looking for a computer (started out looking at desktops, eventually looked for laptops). I would invariably spend over an hour picking "candidate" machines meeting my CPU, disk, memory, price, etc requirements.
And, invariably, I would give up rationalizing to myself I could go yet another week without getting that machine.
The problem? So many choices, so many configurations, so many prices, so many rebates (instant, and otherwise), I would just give up in frustration in trying to get a reasonable deal while meeting my needs (NOTE: I did not say "get the BEST deal", I just wanted to be sure I was getting a good deal).
All this while also continually searching the net for machines and prices.
While I all along had a vision of my requirements, the marketing sleight of hand, with the infinite "choice" kept me from making a decision for almost 2 years! (About one month ago I finally decided.)
I find this claim of compatibility funny... Microsoft is not even compatible with itself!
I've often attended meetings where many were unable to print/view the pre-distributed documents because they had incompatible versions of Office. Compatible indeed.
The airwaves DO belong to the public, and therefor some balance must be struck. Whether or not *I* am offended by the F-word is not necessarily relevant.
I've always tried to look at things in the perspective of a continuum. Many times it provides a perspective.
In this context, I would anchor either end of the continuum with what I'd consider extremes that define the continuum reasonably well. So, on one end of the continuum I might describe a person on TV (or radio) simply saying, "Hello" to the audience. That seems extreme enough to define a highly INoffensive use of the public airwaves.
On the other end of this continuum I might describe some reality TV show whereby the goal is to survive in the real sense -- and the way a contestant survives is by being the last contestant alive. Each contestant must avoid being killed by the others. AND, the killing must be done with 6-inch knives... and this would be broadcast live and un-edited.
I would believe that would describe pretty wide ends of a spectrum/continuum. I also would submit that almost everyone would agree that somewhere between scenario one, and scenario two, a line is crossed whereby the material has become universally unacceptable. Where exactly that line is noone really knows, nor will anyone ever know.
In the meantime, for the sake of having standards, a line gets drawn. Being somewhere between my two extreme points, obviously some will cry foul. Get over it -- there will never be a way to make everyone happy.
Remember, a democracy is the worst form of government, until you consider all of the alternatives...
coding in mono is okay, except..., I really hate having to wear those special glasses! You know, the ones with a green right lens, and a green left lens. (sorry, couldn't resist.... mod me down)
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting anyone go out and do this, but wouldn't it be an interesting scenario to protest and demonstrate against the recording industries' treatment of the customer as a pre-supposed criminal, and show what devastating effects losing the customers altogether can wreak?
For example, wouldn't it be interesting if all owners of CD's just decided after making sure they had ripped and encoded and backed up their existing CD's under the auspices of "fair use" suddenly decided to sell their CD's... say, maybe for $1? Now, of course, the most important thing in this transaction is the seller remember to destroy existing "fair share" stock...:-)
I would think if some organized mass effort like this ever grew legs, the recording industries would maybe understand better the repercussions of their disdain and disregard for the integrity of their customers. (I, myself, have about 1300 CD's )
I work for a large company (50,000 employees), and the directory lookup site of choice is driven behind-the-scenes by about 6,000 lines of shell script (bourne). Having written this application, one of the most common back-handed compliments I get is when users ask what I did to optimize this application to make it SO FAST! I just smile.
(btw, this lookup tool does more than simple fill-in-the-blank lookups -- it has a first-name-alias lookaside table (so I can find "Sue", even though she's in the database as "Susan", it is case insensitive (yawn), order insenstive, field insensitive (there's only ONE input box), and more than returning just the phone number of the employee, it draws the entire hierarchy around the employee (direct reports, peers, management chain). And, there are buttons for each person on the page to: send page; send e-mail; generate and org chart..., and much much more)
Don't mean to make it sound like an ad for the application -- just thought it might be reassuring to other shell programmers that a shell script can be a major corporation's tool.
Think of what Google does as generating an "Internet Table of Contents". While we may disagree on how well Google does this (I happen to think they do an amazing job, considering the complexity of the task), they essentially are giving us "pointers" into the internet.
A TOC represents a tiny fraction of a book, yet yields a powerful tool to gain access to specific and targeted pages in the book. A TOC need not "crawl" every word of every page of a book to be useful. Similarly, Google has developed their methods to give a reasonable representation of the WEB and at the same time a powerul tool to gain access to the part of the WEB relevant to your request.
I know this isn't a perfect analogy, but I think Google has gotten it close to right. I'm not sure what additional depth would gain for the effort invested.
I'm a little confused by the article... It states that this is a plus for U.S because all of these outsource sites buy Compaq computers, drink Coca Cola, etc. So, are we to believe those same centers here would not?
Slashdot Mirror
One of the most common usages I see of Excel is for documentation. Someone decided this was a good way to document anything and everything: project statuses; schedules; contact lists; et. al. All this, and no use whatsoever of the functions and number crunching powers of the spreadsheet.
I'd be willing to bet of all of the functionality and capability available in Excel and other spreadsheets is used at most to about 1 or 2% (a subjective quantity, but tangible).
Ironically, when people need to do specific number crunching, they often if not invariably turn to specific-targeted software in lieu of the perfectly capable spreadsheet.
I submitted this as a story 4pm yesterday.... need I be Timothy to get it accepted?!?
Each Sunday, I would comb the circulars, looking for a computer (started out looking at desktops, eventually looked for laptops). I would invariably spend over an hour picking "candidate" machines meeting my CPU, disk, memory, price, etc requirements.
And, invariably, I would give up rationalizing to myself I could go yet another week without getting that machine.
The problem? So many choices, so many configurations, so many prices, so many rebates (instant, and otherwise), I would just give up in frustration in trying to get a reasonable deal while meeting my needs (NOTE: I did not say "get the BEST deal", I just wanted to be sure I was getting a good deal).
All this while also continually searching the net for machines and prices.
While I all along had a vision of my requirements, the marketing sleight of hand, with the infinite "choice" kept me from making a decision for almost 2 years! (About one month ago I finally decided.)
I find this claim of compatibility funny... Microsoft is not even compatible with itself!
I've often attended meetings where many were unable to print/view the pre-distributed documents because they had incompatible versions of Office. Compatible indeed.
Here's a great video... if you'd like some info about how innovative and agile Google really is: Google Linux Cluster
SSLKJM SSDOL! MKLWPYQ, LKJYXMK. TAFN.
The airwaves DO belong to the public, and therefor some balance must be struck. Whether or not *I* am offended by the F-word is not necessarily relevant.
I've always tried to look at things in the perspective of a continuum. Many times it provides a perspective.
In this context, I would anchor either end of the continuum with what I'd consider extremes that define the continuum reasonably well. So, on one end of the continuum I might describe a person on TV (or radio) simply saying, "Hello" to the audience. That seems extreme enough to define a highly INoffensive use of the public airwaves.
On the other end of this continuum I might describe some reality TV show whereby the goal is to survive in the real sense -- and the way a contestant survives is by being the last contestant alive. Each contestant must avoid being killed by the others. AND, the killing must be done with 6-inch knives... and this would be broadcast live and un-edited.
I would believe that would describe pretty wide ends of a spectrum/continuum. I also would submit that almost everyone would agree that somewhere between scenario one, and scenario two, a line is crossed whereby the material has become universally unacceptable. Where exactly that line is noone really knows, nor will anyone ever know.
In the meantime, for the sake of having standards, a line gets drawn. Being somewhere between my two extreme points, obviously some will cry foul. Get over it -- there will never be a way to make everyone happy.
Remember, a democracy is the worst form of government, until you consider all of the alternatives...
actually, for the EU, it's Cheques and Balances
coding in mono is okay, except..., I really hate having to wear those special glasses! You know, the ones with a green right lens, and a green left lens. (sorry, couldn't resist.... mod me down)
hope you're using a trusted Digital Camera
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting anyone go out and do this, but wouldn't it be an interesting scenario to protest and demonstrate against the recording industries' treatment of the customer as a pre-supposed criminal, and show what devastating effects losing the customers altogether can wreak?
For example, wouldn't it be interesting if all owners of CD's just decided after making sure they had ripped and encoded and backed up their existing CD's under the auspices of "fair use" suddenly decided to sell their CD's... say, maybe for $1? Now, of course, the most important thing in this transaction is the seller remember to destroy existing "fair share" stock... :-)
I would think if some organized mass effort like this ever grew legs, the recording industries would maybe understand better the repercussions of their disdain and disregard for the integrity of their customers. (I, myself, have about 1300 CD's )
Just my 01
I work for a large company (50,000 employees), and the directory lookup site of choice is driven behind-the-scenes by about 6,000 lines of shell script (bourne). Having written this application, one of the most common back-handed compliments I get is when users ask what I did to optimize this application to make it SO FAST! I just smile.
(btw, this lookup tool does more than simple fill-in-the-blank lookups -- it has a first-name-alias lookaside table (so I can find "Sue", even though she's in the database as "Susan", it is case insensitive (yawn), order insenstive, field insensitive (there's only ONE input box), and more than returning just the phone number of the employee, it draws the entire hierarchy around the employee (direct reports, peers, management chain). And, there are buttons for each person on the page to: send page; send e-mail; generate and org chart..., and much much more)
Don't mean to make it sound like an ad for the application -- just thought it might be reassuring to other shell programmers that a shell script can be a major corporation's tool.
Think of what Google does as generating an "Internet Table of Contents". While we may disagree on how well Google does this (I happen to think they do an amazing job, considering the complexity of the task), they essentially are giving us "pointers" into the internet.
A TOC represents a tiny fraction of a book, yet yields a powerful tool to gain access to specific and targeted pages in the book. A TOC need not "crawl" every word of every page of a book to be useful. Similarly, Google has developed their methods to give a reasonable representation of the WEB and at the same time a powerul tool to gain access to the part of the WEB relevant to your request.
I know this isn't a perfect analogy, but I think Google has gotten it close to right. I'm not sure what additional depth would gain for the effort invested.
RIAA claims lack of success in creating working autonomous vehicles caused by illegal file downloading and file sharing.
RIAA claims decrease in Encarta due to illegal downloading and swapping.
I can't recall a single time that truly random memorization has been neccessary or useful.
However, if you had the amazing recall of these masteres, you WOULD recall!
If it's alright with you, I'd like to hate your job for $100K/year.
I'm a little confused by the article... It states that this is a plus for U.S because all of these outsource sites buy Compaq computers, drink Coca Cola, etc. So, are we to believe those same centers here would not?
uh, you now owe me $.75 for reading that.
I've always wanted to publish my methodology but could never find a publisher willing to publish a one-page book.
So, I've decided to publish it here on /. for free:
My Methodology
Find someone who knows what they want, find some people who know how to do it, put those people together in a room, and it'll get done.
Look for future URL for download.