The Joy of Spreadsheets

[robinturner]

Some very obvious things are learnt late in life. Today's addition to the list of Things I Should Have Figured Out A Long Time Ago is that if you are adding up long columns of figures on a computer, the best way to do it is to open a spreadsheet, type them all in, then put a nice little sum formula at the bottom of the column. This means that if you make a mistake, you can just rewrite the previous cell, rather than swear profusely and bang your head against the wall.

Comments

[circumambulate.livejournal.com]

yeah, but how often do you get to tear off a really satisfying string of profanity?

[solri.livejournal.com]

That's the funny thing. I've been using spreadsheets for things like entering grades for years, but when I have to do something simple, like add up a bunch of numbers (receipts for a VAT rebate in this case) old habits take over, and I click on the calculator icon. I'm sure if computers had log tables on them, some of us old pharts would use them ;-)

*huge smile*

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

Give a person a few hours with a good fractal microscope and that person will realize that a spreadsheet is actually a crystal ball.

My first speadsheet was the one I typed in from a program I found in a Commodore 64 machine, adapting as I went for the Basic used in my 1.2MHz Z80 NEC "Trek". (8KB + 16KB expansion!)

Entire regiments of technocrats have learned to keep their eye on the "bottom line" while twiddling individual cells ... roll your own reality! It's an operational paradigm for the anti-realists who are informing the Bushites world view, doncha know!

Re: *huge smile*

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

"I found in a Commodore 64 machine" should have been "I found in a Commodore 64 magazine".

Re: *huge smile*

[solri.livejournal.com]

Roll your own reality indeed. The main thing I use spreadsheets for is calculating student grades, and it's very hard to resist the temptation to fiddle: "Hmm, if I give him 8/10 for participation instead of 7, he'll go up to a B+ ...." The appeal of mundane programs like spreadsheets is that they give an illusory feeling of power. Except, of course, for those people for whom it is not an illusion - they're the ones you have to keep an eye on.

Re: *huge smile*

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

"Hmm, if I give him 8/10 for participation instead of 7, he'll go up to a B+ ...."
Just so, that's the ticket!!

I think the jury is still out on "appearance is reality" ... but that's foundational to the politicos' praxis.

"The appeal of [computer applications]is that they give an illusory feeling of power."
Ahh: how illusory is that feeling? How is it so different from real power? Dark, nae?

When the mirage enables me to sell others the water, in what way is it illusory? (Tantra taught me a while back that it is only the water that's illusory; the mirage is quite real. huh huh huh huh huh)

BTW: I pay attention as much as I can to how and when I get a buzz from something I'm doing on the PC ... that buzz is definitely psycho-active, and most likely highly addictive.

[kristian.livejournal.com]

in excel you don't even need a formula! there's a thing at the bottom near where the "INS" and "DEL" thing shows up that does an auto-sum! of course, people like you think you're too good for microsoft!

[solri.livejournal.com]

It's been so long since I've used Excell, I can't remember how it does this, but in OpenOffice, there's a sum button next to the data entry box. It does a pretty good job of guessing which cells it's supposed to sum.