Wednesday 5 December 2007

Excel: Dynamic drop downs using Names

Part A: Set up the NAME
  1. Set up a DropDown xsheet
  2. Add some values into the DropDown xsheet to form a list - say in column A and using the first row for headings
  3. Start defining a NAME (Insert->Name->Define)
  4. Enter a name for the NAME (e.g. ListOfXXXX)
  5. Enter the magic formula =OFFSET(DropDown!$A$2,0,0,COUNTA(DropDown!$A:$A)-1,1)
  6. This defines the NAME as everything from row 2 to the first empty cell in column A.
  7. To add extra values, just add to the first blank cell at the bottom of the list
  8. Notice the hardcoded sheetname and the references to the column, also that the list starts at row 2; any changes to these will mean the name needs to be redefined.

Part B: Use the NAME to create a drop down via cell validation
  1. Go to a data sheet and highlight the whole target column - then define a data validation (Data->Validation) with Allow of "List", Source of "=ListOfXXXX" (ie. the defined NAME)
  2. Don't forget the "=" sign in the source
  3. Press OK - job done.
  4. Tidy up by Edit->Clear->All on the top heading rows
Part C : Extras
  • You can define a static name using hardcoded references in the NAME instead of the black magic formula, but adding additional values will mean re-editing the NAME
  • A NAME can be used in multiple validations
  • The DropDown sheet can be hidden (Format->Sheet->Hide) and protected
  • To allow blanks remove the -1 (minus one) from the end of the black magic formula to allow the range to include the first blank cell

Thursday 1 November 2007

Firefox Screen Real-Estate

Save screen space by auto-hiding the Bookmark toolbar in Firefox - thanks Lifehacker.

WooHoo Dell XPS 710


Looky what the postman bringeth - course I did order it and I still have to pay for it sometime.

I got home to find the usual enormous Dell box, but was rather shocked to find that there was very little packing and it was mostly full of an truly enormous aluminum XPS case. When it comes time to de-commission maybe I'll convert it to a kennel for Fido.

As usual I trawled Dell Outlet and yes - this is the 710 model that has very recently been superseded by the 720. But its Quad Core and 4Gb and when it boots it growls and then quietens down to a slight purr. The dual drives have been striped with an Nvidia Raid card - not sure if I want stripes (or how I'll roll it back if I decide I don't).

After sitting through the Vista set up it was too late to play with it much - but I had to boot it as the badge said Core Duo and I wanted to check the CPU spec. I can see the Vista learning curve is going to be frustrating.

In other pictures it is often shown with a garish red fascia - this is the effect of four LEDs mounted under the front cowling which thankfully can be turned off (or colour changed) from the Bios. A bit bling but it will impress the neighbours should they stroll round, or the kids friends. It even has a light at the back to illume the connectors.


Friday 26 October 2007

Magnatunes Music in Slimserver

Already a big fan of LastFM - I have just come across Magnatunes - an independant music web site with a free-to-play,pay-to-download attitude.

The site boast 500 albums to play for free over the web - plus there is a slimserver plugin - double huzzah.

I'll give it a whirl...




Thursday 25 October 2007

N73 Annoyances (Collected)

I'll collect the little annoyances with my N73 here, plus solutions where applicable
  1. A message on there screen after a call saying packet data - it's to do with the fact that you have the option
    to be connected to the internet whilst making a call - menu - settings - connection - packet data - set from when availible to when needed.
  2. More to come

Saturday 20 October 2007

Runescape Verboten

Well it only took 12 minutes of post-tutorial play for a some trailer-trash to raise a 'kill the nube' battle-cry and I had to vacate the hill-side smartly.

My youngster had heard about Runescape from school friends and although he is under the 13 year age limit I thought I should give it a proper test drive before positively turning him down. Being an avid D&Der in my teens I must admit a soft spot for swords and sorcery, so maybe that is my excuse for giving it a whirl.

The interface was above expectation - a responsive 3D landscape, animated avatars and an acceptable level of detail; the controls extensive, intuative, responsive.

But I have been knocking about in virtual dead-ends not to recognise one. With the account sign up so straight-forward (and with no verifications of any kind) the world was just about as full of nubes and nube-vampires as you could expect.
After the tutorial sequence I found myself wandering through a town of carnage, with characters shouting advertising, killing each other randomly and wandering around bored and aimless in equal measures. A sort of medieval housing estate with all the hoodies decked out with swords and beards.

The gaming system seems designed to reward long hours spent performing aimless activity to accrue experience, with the highest rewarded activity being random violence against other players. I have no desire in spending long long long hours to reach the status of 32nd Level Half-elven Mugger myself (or promoting the vocation to my descendants).

I explained this to my youngster and told him that whatever his friends' parents may allow, this was not acceptable to me. I did say I would play it with him if he really wanted, but that I really believed a conventional and off-line adventure would be more rewarding.

Even if he was within the official age range I would set a hard (and low) limit to the time spent on this site - and enforce it.

Reading through the parents guide and googling about a little I am rather amazed to to see the site promoting itself as educational with a straight-face.

Runescape is a phenomena - no doubt about it, but it's a money making phenomena

More later...

Friday 19 October 2007

Babylon Hiccups



Babylon is my Centos 5 server which streams music to my brace of squeezebox, but lately it has suffered from occassional hiccups and reboots unexpectedly, mostly when trying to stream Wogan (using the excellent AlienBBC).

Now I'm putting this down to a mildy damaged hard drive (suffering last year from a tempestuous fuse box turning it off and on frequently and at short notice), and usually running a file system check fixes the problem (for a while).

But I tend to run the server headless, and it's a faff hooking up a screen and keyboard just to hit 'Y' at the correct moment of the boot sequence

So is there a way to have the system forced to automatically fo the filesystem check every time it boots up ?
Yep -
echo "AUTOFSCK_TIMEOUT=5" > /etc/sysconfig/autofsck
echo "AUTOFSCK_DEF_CHECK=yes" >> /etc/sysconfig/autofsck

If a problem is encountered during the fsck, will the system automagically fix it?
No but it can get additional options from the /fsckoptions file, so (dangerous possibly as the entire filesystems may end up in lost+found!) :
echo "-p" >/fsckoptions

I'll give it a whirl...

Oracle BI Jam Tomorrow

Over the last few months the Old Day Job (ODJ) has lead me into the murky depths of real-world implementation of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Suite (what a mouthful = OBIEE+).

It is a marriage of convenience between the Oracle incarnation of the wildly lauded (by whom?) Siebel Analytics (a demo-pretty web -delivered dashboarding and adhoc querying tool) hitched to the oh-so-flexible BI Publisher (xml-based pixel perfect web reporting). I am ignoring the recent Hyperion gate-crasher (aka plus) for now.

The main issues for us have been

  • Overlap and lack of integration - in various places such as multiple schedulers, multiple office add-ins, mutliple delivery approaches, odd rules on sharing content, a combined security model where one component leans on the other, architectural differences etc.
  • Filesystem based repositories - which makes backup a pain after so many years relying on Oracle sticking everything in the database.
  • Single installation on a single physical server - rather surprising in a web interface and a pain as I want multiple dev/test environments on the same server.
No help with this at present, but an enlightening teleconference with the US steering wheel of OBIEE provided the usual corporate promises of jam tomorrow.

So setting aside the usual corporate jaw-wagging, the bottom line was continued moves to integrate, combining the schedulers/delivers (possibly more of Publisher optionally delegating to external services I bet), no plans for a db based repository but the ability to install multiply on a single server (this one did not seem so vehement).

And what of poor old Disco (Oracle Discoverer) - well it will get some integration crumbs from the table - Disco queries on the dashboard (already inside Publisher), delivery via the Delivers and (ultimately?) a migration tool for those ditching for a move into Answers.

Thursday 18 October 2007

Towards a Weblog Taxonomy

In no particular order....
  • The Insider. Aka 'Tales from the Inner Circle' or 'Preaching to the Ignorant'. If done well the readers join the circle of initiates (in their own head at least) while the author cements his place amongst the deeper mysteries.
  • The Jock. This relies on the force of the authors personality/wit/opinions to turn the everyday into the exceptional.
  • The One Trick Pony. Aka The Novelty Box. A Clever idea exercised repeatedly (ad nauseum?).
  • Aggregator-Curator. Done badly this is a list of other peoples work, done well it can be a sum that is greater than its parts.
  • The Wave Rider. Catch the moment to catch the audience, but probability makes most of these history by tomorrow/next week/next month.
  • Engineering. Geek-style, these weblogs push the technical envelope, sometimes at the cost of the content.
  • The Shopping Trolley. Browse for material enrichment from the comfort of your own keyboard, a good vehicle for web adverts too.
  • Under the Stone. Slice of life personal (and impersonal) diaries.
    • Postcards from an Edge (subclass). Extreme lifestyles and mindsets
    • Speaker Hiss (subclass). Nothing to see here except the minutiae of some drabs (inner) life, irrelevant for all but the closest of friends.
  • The Public Convenience. Aka Web-Two-point-zero. Providing the readership with a chance to generate their own content and take the pressure off the authors.
  • The PR Department. Officially sanctioned corporate mouth-pieces - often allied to The Insider.
More to follow...