Posts in category "google"

Thankfully, I dont have cause to use Microsoft Excel much. My kids can produce pretty charts about the demographics of pet ownership in the classroom better and quicker than I can.

Excel is a very powerful product but the sheer size and complexity of the software is just overwhelming which makes it difficult (for novices) to accomplish straightforward tasks.

For example, people are kind enough to send me gargantuan, complex spreadsheets where I want to freeze the header row while scrolling data down to the sole point of interest on row 23,538. A seemingly simple task.

Microsoft Excel

Exhaustively search all Menu options. Look in online help. Ask that irritating paperclip wizard: 'So what is it you are trying to do, you idiot ?'. Try some random control key combinations. Plaintively ask for the data in Oracle DMP format.

Slump over the keyboard, weeping in despair, randomly striking keys which unexpectedly reveals a buried Easter Egg (a fully fledged Doom clone). No wonder Excel is so bloated. Search the Microsoft Web site. Search using Google.

Finally, admit defeat and sheepishly ask a (Microsoft Certified) colleague who sneers 'God - don't you even know that ? Place the cursor on the row you want to lock. Hit Windows-Freeze Panes. There you go. Oh no - sorry - you place the cursor on the first row you want to scroll normally.'

Google Spreadsheets

Sort - Fix Header Rows - Freeze 1 row. Screen updated to reflect user action (1 row frozen). Done.

Sometimes, less is more.

What could be worse than forgetting to bookmark the obscure page you found that maps out the perfect walking tour of Venice ?

Well I can think of one thing. Going on a lovely, romantic weekend city break and getting lost (and wet) in the narrow backstreets of Venice. Then I eventually find an Internet cafe but am horrified to discover that the computer is locked down and I can't install Google Browser Sync. My wife would be absolutely livid.

Google have some innovative products but I honestly can't see this one being 'disruptive'. Blinklist, anyone ?

Inevitably, Google enters the online spreadsheet market to provide competition for ThinkFree. No charts (yet) and limited invite only but it's coming.

As an aside, I don't use Excel much. My kids are much more proficient at producing pretty, colourful pie charts and histograms than me.

However, I also find it quite staggering that many sensible, intelligent adults spend their lives in Microsoft Excel. A gentleman once emailed me a spreadsheet and I hunted high and low across all tabs for any relevant table data, pretty charts and forumlae.

Finally, I had to admit defeat and called him rather sheepishly. It turned out the 'data' was simply plain, good, old fashioned text (words) in various cells (paragraphs).

Important message to all you bloggers contemplating a migration to WordPress.com.

Google has just launched Google Pages - a Web site builder with lots of 'Looks' and 'Layouts' available to choose from and a nice, friendly easy to use WYSIWYG interface.

Like all Web 2.0 applications, it is still a beta version.

However, this seems an odd product to launch in 2006. As Mark E. Smith once said 'Are you still doing what you did 5 years ago - Yeah ? Well - don't make a career out of it'.

Here is my effort to show you what is possible with minimal effort and no knowledge of HTML whatsoever.

If you like my style, I am available at evenings and weekend for commissions.

Tonights Money Programme ( The world according To Google) on BBC2 was about the history, the success and the possible future diversification of the popular search engine, Google.

Now I use Google a lot and to me it is an excellent, fast, free service. I can hardly ever recall clicking on an ad that was presented alongside a search (even if I am actually looking to buy something).

I use Google Groups for searching for technical information as someone, somewhere at sometime has probably encountered the same problem as me and better, someone, somewhere at sometime has probably, kindly, provided the solution.

I don't particularly care if they track all my searches ever, aggregate them or give them to the UK authorities.

I am quite interested in innovative developments like Google Earth. I have a Google Mail account which I don't currently use but might do in the near future to replace my spam ridden Yahoo! email account.

I can remember when AltaVista was the most powerful, standard choice for a search engine and they were discussing a flotation. I respect Google, being founded by two students, coming from nowhere? to a position of virtual monopoly, immense power and wealth.

I don't care if Google staff are all geeks with 5 million dollar houses and rocket lava lamps in the Google colours scattered everywhere.

What I do care about is people continually discussing 'Google O/S'.

Google have a suite of powerful software applications. Google may have (ambitious plans) for an operating system. Google does have links with other computer companies that develop operating systems (Sun Microsystems).

IBM develop operating systems (AIX). Hewlett-Packard develop operating systems. Microsoft develop operating systems. Linux in all its various flavours is an operating system.

However, the last time I looked, Google does not have an operating system.

Google have launched an online RSS Reader. Like most developments from Google, this looks very professional and fits in with their rapidly growing suite of software products. Although I currently use Thunderbird for reading (a very limited number of) RSS sources and blogs, the use of a Web based service to manage all my information sources, accessible from anywhere, is appealing.

I experimented by setting up one source (BBC News) and one thing about the interface immediately struck me like a thunderbolt !

The use of the 'j' and 'k' keys to move the article list up and down. It is just like the good old trusty (and much maligned) Unix editor 'vi'. Now this may appeal to Unix users but I am not sure whether the new generation of IE users will make of the 'oh but for touch typists, it is so much faster' argument.