Excel how-to

June 3, 2003

This is an entry more for my record keeping than any other reason. The question is how to best create summary tables in Excel. The data I have has a row for each customer and sets of columns for each month. Each customer row had data in only one set of columns. Subtotal gives an easy way to consolidate this data onto a single line. The problem comes in that if you copy the excel data with the sub-rows hidden they show up in the pasted data

The solution: This only happens if you paste into Excel. Paste into a text editor, select all and paste back into Excel and voila. All is good.

Consequences of Microsoft's Change and other nits

June 1, 2003

According to the project manager for Internet Explorer Microsoft will stop releasing IE outside of the operating system. This will apparently mean that users will have to upgrade their OS to get a new version of IE (and the impacts on Macintosh users is unclear). However it seems this same decision may also be a boon to other browser developers. Certainly Micro$oft will work to ensure their browser integrates tightly with the operating system. But shops who are slower to upgrade (my company for one is plenty happy with Windows 2000 and XP is not on the roadmap). Will this enable other browsers such as Opera to gain ground as they can be updated between OS updates?

Also as a frequent user of both Mac and Windows keyboards I want a way to easily switch the position of keys. The Control key is in the same position on both keyboards but it's function is different. As my main uses of Windows are light I'd rather have it where the ALT key is so that copy and paste work "properly" in my book.

What is a Blog?

June 1, 2003

The Harvard Law Blogging site has the beginings of an essay attempting to define what weblogs are. I'm not sure I agree with all of the "technical" aspects of what is required to be a weblog. However it's an interesting start at quantifying what blogs are.

Hart joins blogging community

May 31, 2003

This isn't really "news" as much as a topic I'd meant to touch on a while back. Gary Hart senator and former presidential candidate has joined the blogging world. It will be interesting to see how successful a high-profile politician in the real world will be in the cyber-realm. While he didn't claim to invent the internet he is one of the first high profile politicians to move to the first-person world of blogging.

Meanwhile elsewhere in political space Coyote Gulch has been keeping up on the political races in Denver.

News Updates

May 31, 2003

The news section of the 1998 Ramline.com website was updated today. There is no new news but many missing old articles were added and the site refreshed. This was an exercise in going back to get back into Userland's Frontier as several verbs that were used in the previous version of rendering the site are no longer supported in the carbonized version of Frontier.

Marvin Pistrang Obituary

May 28, 2003

The following is an obituary written in celebration of the life of Marvin Pistrang who passed away May 8th of this year. Marvin led the safari we took to Kenya in 1986.

Marvin Pistrang, 75, beloved husband of Temma, father of Larry, Jan and Mark Pistrang. Grandfather of Jenny, Molly, Nikki, Tasia, Kalli and Christopher departed on May 8th on his final safari. A geologist with the USGS for 29 years, Marvin began a second career, leading Safaris to Kenya, volunteering at Camp Hancock for OMSI, and teaching for the Heritage Institute and the Life Time Learning Center. He put in over 500 hours with the Aquarium and throughout his life led hikes and field trips for Audubon, the Sierra Club, Mountaineers, and the Issaquah Alps Trails Club. He reviewed books and even wrote a few. A talented artist and musician, and avid naturalist, he loved studying plants and birds and led over 300 people to Africa over a period of 20 years. Throughout his life he was a member of many conservation organizations and a 3 night a week contra dancer. He served in the Peace Corps with his wife and family from 1972 to 1974. He touched so many people and all were enriched by having known him. All are welcome to come and celebrate his life.

Only Criminals will have Guns

May 28, 2003

There is a good article in INC this month about protecting corporate data. In the last two paragraphs it talks about securing demo software. MindBridge, the article reports, won't send demo instructions to free e-mail addresses in order to help prevent it's competitors from getting the demos and reverse engineering them. Something tells me that the competitors capable of reverse engineering these products don't even find this a hurdle. However, the potentially paying customers who genuinely want to demo the software - perhaps somebody considering starting out on their own after years in the corporate world - have a tougher time getting their demo. Just such actions tend to push consumers towards P2P networks and other sources so they can "demo" the software they can't get legitimately. From there it's a short step to "forgetting" to pay for the software. Note that I'm not condoning P2P. I'm commenting on the unintended consequences of companies actions. As a graduation speaker recently reminded graduates in telling the story of Prometheus - beware that what you do to help the world doesn't have unintended consequences.

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