End of Blog

This is my last post on Blogger/blogspot. It is my 401st post, since I started blogging in November 2011.

I think it's fair to say that I have been disappointed with this service.

The most disappointing thing by far is that when I search my blog using the built-in search widget, it does not find all of the posts!

And Blogger is owned by Google!

My new blog is in WordPress on my own virtual server.

Check out peter.mccullagh.ninja.

Spreadsheets with Rulers

In a recent post I mentioned that I think that Excel should have better support for panes.

The backdrop to this is that you can only split Excel windows on the same workbook.

The backdrop to this is that when you set a column width, or hide a column, or set a background colour for a column, that setting applies to the whole column!

That was bad when a sheet could have  8K rows. It was worse when a sheet could have 64K rows. It is even worse now when a sheet can have 1M rows!

This limitation of columns is another thing which hasn't changed much since the far off days of VisiCalc! Another stark example of a lack of innovation.

Can you imaging a Word Processor where you could only have one ruler for a whole document? It's unthinkable!

So if we combine these two ideas, why couldn't we insert a new ruler at any point in a spreadsheet?

Then you could control columns widths, and hiding, and colours independently every time you have a new ruler.

The mock-up below shows how this might look. Notice that:

• It's a single worksheet: the rows go from 1 to 19.
• The background colour changes with each new ruler
• The column widths change with each new ruler
• Column B is hidden in the third section without affecting the first two sections.

Another Excel Limitation

Wouldn't it be great if you could easily arrange "panes" of content within Excel, each pane being taken from a different sheet.

And you could lock some of those panes so that they don't scroll.

So you have one pane which where the user enters data, and other panes where the effects of those changes are displayed.

Here's a simple mock-up of what I would like to achieve:

And when you reopen the workbook, the layout which you defined is redisplayed.

And if you resize the overall window, the panes resize as you prescribe.

And maybe you can even have a different "zoom" setting for different panes.

Basically it helps you to create an application within Excel.

Sounds reasonable?

Unbelievably after all these years of spreadsheets, the limitations of what you can do in terms of splitting a window seem to be more or less the same as was the case with VisiCalc!

BTW: I have played with "Windows" and "Workspaces" within Excel and have been unable to achieve the result I desire. Additionally "Save a Workspace" has been discontinued in Excel 2013.

Star Wars - The Force Awakens

Teaser Trailer 2 has been released.

You can hear Luke and you can see Han!

Roll on December (and fingers crossed this won't be a disappointment)

Triumph of the Nerds

I mentioned VisiCalc and Dan Bricklin in my last few posts.

Anyone wanting to know more about the birth of the personal computer industry should watch Robert Cringely's excellent three part documentary "Triumph of the Nerds":

Dan Bricklin

I mentioned Dan Bricklin (inventor of VisiCalc with Bob Frankston) in my last post.

Included below is a video where Dan discussed the rise and fall of VisiCalc along with lots of photos of his company and other people in the industry at that time. Obviously Lotus (where I used to work) is mentioned a number of times.

It's a nice walk-through of those times.

Excel - Using IF with multiple conditions

I mentioned Visicalc in my last post.

The Visicalc manual from 1981 has the following to say about the @IF function:

@IF takes three arguments . The first must be a logical value ; the second and third can be any value . The function evaluates to the value of the second or third argument, depending on the value of the first.

So fast forward to Microsoft Excel in 2015.

I tried to enter an IF function with multiple conditions into Excel today. Here is something similar to what I entered:

=if(a1="y","day",a2="y","week",a3="y","month,"year")

You get the idea:

IF cond1 THEN res1 ELSEIF cond2 THEN res2 ELSEIF cond3 THEN res3 ELSE res4

What could be simpler?

Guess what: after all of these years, the Excel IF function still only takes 3 arguments!!

So people have to resort to "nested ifs":

=if(a1="y","day",if(a2="y","week",if(a3="y","month,"year"))) 

Unbelievable! Talk about a lack of innovation!!

Visicalc

I have been planning to do a post on Visicalc pretty much since I started blogging.

I have mentioned it in a couple of posts before, including one on the "Most Influential Software Programs".

In my opinion Visicalc was the most innovative software program of all time. It did not reproduce anything (although there may be some similarities to old ledgers). It did not build upon anything (as most software does). It was simply invented.

And then it was copied: 1-2-3, SuperPlan, Quattro, Multiplan, Excel, and others. And of these Excel is still in incredibly wide use today.

I have huge admiration for the accomplishment of Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. In all of the years since they invented Visicalc in 1979, nobody has created anything in software which (IMHO) has that level of creativity and innovation. Truly remarkable.

The reason I mention it today is that I came across this video on the two guys and their achievement.

Bruce Lee versus Bruce Lee

I was taking a quick look at Vimeo today and I came across this video which shows Bruce Lee fighting himself.

It is very well done.

Watch it to the end - it is surprisingly moving.

Kudos to all involved.



BRUCE LEE VS BRUCE LEE from Antonio Maria Da Silva AMDSFILMS on Vimeo.

Leonard Nimoy/Spock

Before I leave the subject of Leonard Nimoy, I would like to add the following.

For me, Nimoy/Spock is the cornerstone of Star Trek. Here are some stats:

• He appeared in all 80 episodes of TOS, which nobody else did.
• He appeared (if that is the right word) in all 22 episodes of "The Animated Series".
• He appeared in 2 episodes of "The Next Generation", which no other TOS actor did.
• He appeared in 8 of the movies, including the two most recent movies.
• He directed 2 of the movies, which no other Star Trek actor did.
• His son, Adam, directed 2 TNG episodes.

The man is a legend.

Here is an interview he gave to Pharrell Williams. Towards the end, he had the following to say:

The Spock character opened up my life,  personally and creatively. It created great opportunities for me to do work that I chose to do, rather than work that I had to do to make a living. I had choices for the first time in many years. And still, to this day, I consider it a great opportunity and a blessing to live a creative life; to live a life that has to do with finding ideas and expressing ideas; and hopefully making a contribution to the human condition.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

I have a huge amount of fondness for ST:TMP. I know lots of people dislike it or dismiss it, but I am not one of them. Obviously I am aware that it was very slow, and perhaps ponderous, but I like it nevertheless.

I think there are a few reasons for this:

1) I was so delighted at the time to see the characters I loved appearing on the big screen.

2) Apart from the pace, I think there was a lot to like. The movie looked great. The visual and sound effects were great. The score was great.The development of the Spock character was great.

3) When I was on my way to an interview for my second job (back in 1981) I stopped off in the Brown Thomas shop (then called Switzer's) and they were playing the movie on a LaserDisc player. I was early for my interview so I stayed for a while and watched some of the movie. When I left and headed off the the interview I was feeling great. No wonder I got that job!

One of the people who doesn't seem to have great things to say about that movie is Leonard Nimoy. Here is what he had to say:

I think he [Robert Wise] and Gene Roddenberry were looking for a [2001: A] Space Odyssey kind of thing, like [Stanley] Kubrick had done. A cold, cool “we’re out here in space and it’s kind of quiet and things move very slowly.” [laughs] There was a lot of that and a lot of cerebral stuff. There wasn’t enough drama. It just wasn’t a Star Trek movie really. It had the Star Trek people, but it didn’t use us as Star Trek characters very well.

And here is the video where he said this (starts at  5:39)

Leonard Nimoy Interviews (1966, 1967)

The following video shows two interview which Leonard Nimoy did during the filming of Season One and just before the start of filming of Season Two.

I had never seen them before and they are quite interesting. He even speaks of his singing career!

Nimoy and Quinto Together (Great Ad)

Here's a fantastic advert featuring Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto.

The punchline (and there is no need for a punch!) is excellent.

New Spock's Tribute to Old (Real) Spock

Zachary Quinto appeared on Conan and had some really nice things to say about Leonard Nimoy.

He spoke very nicely about him.

You can see it here:

Live Long and Prosper, Spock

Star Trek (the original series) was one of my favourite TV shows of all time.

And Mr Spock was my favourite TV character of all time.

The first episode of Start Trek was "The Man Trap" and was broadcast in October 1969. I remember watching it on Irish television. I'm not sure if it was broadcast in October or if there was a delay. If there wasn't, then I was 7.5 years old. I remember seeing ads for it in advance and looking forward to it. And I remember that episode scared the heck out of me (but didn't stop me from watching subsequent episodes!)

As I watched the show, I wanted to BE Mr Spock.

As I look back on it now, it is clear that he was like a superhero for that time: he was stronger and smarter than the humans around him. And he had the Vulcan nerve pinch, and the Vulcan mind meld".

But the thing which impressed me most was his ability to control his mind, and to control his emotions. How I wanted to be able to do that!

I was particularly impressed by an episode called "Operation: Annihilate!" where Spock was able to resist the control of a parasite which was causing him extreme pain to force him to do what it wanted. And then (to cap it all) Spock was blinded and then had his sight restored because he had a special Vulcan extra eyelid.

So the coolest thing for me would have been to have been able to exert that kind of self control. I didn't manage to achieve that, of course, although I did manage to master the Vulcan salute and the single raised eyebrow!

Here are some photos of Mr Spock and Mr Nimoy, mostly from the original series. Inevitably Captain Kirk appears in a few of them as well. Interestingly, the one with him holding the model of the Enterprise seems to be related to the picture I included in my posting on ASCII Art some time ago.

Leonard Nimoy Passes Away

I was very saddened to hear of the passing of Leonard Nimoy today.

Famously he wrote a book called "I am not Spock" (which I have) but for me he always will be Spock.

Star Trek (the original series) was one of my 2 favourite TV shows of all time. And Spock was my favourite TV character of all time.

I mentioned Spock once before in this blog, in relation to "ASCII Art".

By coincidence I watched an episode of the TV show during the week. I watched the second pilot ("Where No Man Has Gone Before"). I did not watch it because it is one of my favourite episodes (it is not) but because the DVD has a text commentary by Mike and Denise Okuda and I was interested to see what information was included in it.

I also started watching the first movie ("The Motion Picture") during the week. I know other people didn't but I really liked that movie. I guess I was so glad at the time to see my beloved characters coming back to life.

And, of course, the second movie has the fabulous scenes relation to Spock's death. All so very well done. Spock famously says to Kirk: "I have been, and always shall be, your friend".

As well as being a great actor, he was apparently a very nice man.

He has been, and always shall be, my hero.

Here is his last tweet, which finishes with the acronym for "Live Long and Prosper":

Irish Bands

I mentioned recently that U2 are better than ever.

And I mentioned previously that Westside are a brilliant Irish band.

And I mentioned that I love The Script.

Well now I have a few more bands to add to the roll of honour. All of the links below are to performances on "The Late Late Show".

The first is The Coronas. Here is a link to them performing "Just Like That".

And here are Kodaline performing "High Hopes" live and acoustic:

And I couldn't finish this post without a link to Hozier performing "Take me to Church"live and acoustic.

An amazing  time for Irish music indeed.

The Gleesons in "The Walworth Farce"

I went to see Brendan, Domhnall and Brian Gleeson (along with Leona Allen) in "The Walworth Farce" last week.

The play was weird but excellent and the three boys were just brilliant.

It was amazing to see a father and his two sons playing a father and his two sons. And when those three people were Gleesons...!

And the play was beautifully structured, with all three of them getting their moments to shine.

It was a chance too good to be missed. Who knows if anything like that will happen again.

Here is a picture of the three boys obviously have a good time in rehearsals:

Airplane!

At dinner this evening I was reminded of, and quoted, a line from the 1980 movie "Airplane!". It was just the "What's our vector, Victor" line (but it got a laugh anyway).

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that none of my kids (ages 16, 12, and 10) have ever seen Airplane!

Oh the joy they have in store!

The AFI have rated it #10 in their list of the "100 Funniest American Movies Of All Time".

For the sheer number of jokes, it would deserve a higher rating!

When I went to see the movie in the cinema, I went with a friend (and workmate) who had already seen it. He spent the whole movie either saying the lines along with (or just before) the cast, or telling me that there was a great one coming up! And I still managed to enjoy it.

Later, when 3 of us who worked together had all seen it, we spent our time quoting lines to each other! Happy memories.

Here is a clip which includes the "vector, Victor" line:

Ken Takakura Passes Away

I mentioned previously how much I like the 1974 move "The Yakuza".

I meant to blog previously to mark the passing of one of the starts of that movie, Ken Takakura, who passed away last November, aged 84. RIP.

Apparently he was known affectionately as the Japan's "Clint Eastwood" and "Ken-san".

His passing means that the director and all of the lead actors have left us, with the single exception of Keiko Kishi, who played Eiko.

My (late) New Year's resolution, therefore, is to watch his second last movie which was called "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles", was made in 2005, and was directed by the great Yimou Zhang.

Here is a fairly recent photo of the great actor:

U2 - At the height of their powers

It's kind of embarrassing as an Irish man not to be crazy about U2.

Don't get me wrong: I have always like some of their music, and admired what they have achieved. But I wasn't as mad about them as I knew I should be.

Especially as a fellow northsider!

But their new stuff has reached a new level. And their unplugged performances have been just amazing. Here are a few links:
The Miracle of Joey Ramone
Song for Someone 

And here is an unplugged rendition of "Every Breaking Wave" which I think is a fabulous song:

Jack Reacher Novels

In my last post I mentioned how dissatisfied I was with the "wimpy" character of Hari Sheldon in Asimov's Foundation novels.

In a direct response to this, I decided to try reading a Jack Reacher novel (having seen, in the movie with Tom Cruise, that Reacher is not a wimpy character).

I started (as you do) with the first novel in the series. I really enjoyed it. Reacher is indeed a great antidote to Sheldon.

As I write I am nearly finished the tenth novel (isn't Kindle great!)

I read novel nine ("One Shot") on which the movie was based. I enjoyed the movie and then I enjoyed the book. Surprisingly the movie ends with a more "Jack Reacher" climax than the book does! Kudos to Christopher McQuarrie who wrote the screenplay).

It is an absolute pleasure to read about a character who is so capable and in control (almost) all of the time. And I love the way he constantly analyses everything going on around him. And he is so critical of himself when he doesn't figure everything out right away (even though he's much smarter than all of the people around him).

I see that Tome Cruise will be working on a second Reacher novel, apparently based on book 18, "Never Go Back". I know that fans of the series were upset when it was announced that Cruise was to play Reacher in the first movie (because of his stature if nothing else). Probably because I saw the movie first, I had no such reservations and I am looking forward to seeing the second movie. I hope I will have read the novel first but, at the rate I am going through them, I can't imagine that will be a problem.

To show just how little problem I have with Cruise's portrayal, I'll finish this post with a still from the movie:

Looking Back: Asimov's Foundation Series

I mentioned in a previous post that I read Asimov's "Foundation Trilogy" when I was a kid and that I had decided to read all (15!) books in the series.

In September of last year I blogged that I was on the last book in the order in which I decided to read them: "Forward the Foundation".

The last two book, Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation, were, unfortunately, was the weakest books in the series in my opinion.

I was surprised to find the character of Hari Seldon very annoying. He seemed to spend the whole novel moaning and not knowing what to do.

And, as if that wasn't bad enough, the other main character,  Dors Venabili, was even more annoying. I couldn't elaborate on what I thought of her without getting into spoilers.

So for me the last two books I read ended the series on a very low note. If you are planning to read the series then I would advise you to read these book in the right place in the chronology rather than leaving it for the end. You don't want to finish up that way.

So I read the 15 novels as I planned. And, to be frank, they did not live up to my expectations.I think the original three novels were actually the best.

Outline of a Lady

I took the picture below the other day in our kitchen.

The curved line is a shadow cast by the power cable of our electric iron which was sitting on the ironing board (you can see a little of both in the picture). This is just the way it fell naturally.

I think it looks amazingly like the outline of a woman's head.

In fact, it reminds me of the young lady in Vermeer's "The Girl With The Pearl Earring".

Stupid, Pointless Traffic Lights

In Ireland we have too many traffic lights.

As if that wasn't bad enough, we have stupid traffic lights.

The diagram below shows the sequence of 6 transitions that we have in a set of lights close to where I live. It is as you come to a T-junction (from the bottom of the letter if that makes sense).

The light spends most of its time in position 1 (red for us).

Then it goes to position 2 for a while, with a filter for cars turning left.

Then it goes through positions 3 and 4 on the way to 5: a full green.

Then it goes to position 6 on the way back to position 1.

Here's my point: positions 3 and 4 have no purpose whatsoever. They just stop the cars filtering left before allowing them to go again! The lights could go directly from 2 to 5. I'm sure in most counties they would do exactly that.

How is it possible that the people who designed and installed those light did not know that?

Microsoft Excel - Performance Opening and Saving

I recently discovered a way to help people who are experiencing performance problems opening and saving large Excel workbooks over a WAN connection.

The solution is to switch to a more efficient (smaller) file format. So instead of saving the workbooks as XLS or XLSX, you need to save them in XLSB format.

The "B" stands for binary, and it means that the file is saved in an optimal binary format, as it was before the trend to use XML to make file data more "open". So the files would be harder to read in other applications, but much faster to read by Excel.

XLSB format supports all of the functionality of the other file formats, including macro and VBA code.

And because the files are much smaller (down from 10 MB to 2 MB in one case I tested), they can be read/written over a WAN connection much more quickly.

One thing to watch out for, of course, is that you will be changing your filenames. So if you're using external links they you will have to reconnect them to the new filename. External links work faster too, of course.

Note: They may also be a problem with "Custom Ribbons" and "Personal.XLSB" which you need to watch out for but I have not experienced this.

Dan Fogelberg - Same Old Lang Syne - Truth or Fiction?

I mentioned in a recent post that the fabulous "Same Old Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg was based on a true story.

Here's a link to an article about  Jill Greulich (née Anderson) who was the second player in that short Christmas Eve drama.

She tells that most (but not all)  of the details were true.

Backing Up Your Blog

What would happen if you accessed your blog one day and all of the posts were going? Or the blog itself was gone?!

I don't know how likely this is, but I decided to make a back-up just in case.

I did this in two ways:
1) I exported the blog (using Settings, Other, Export Blog)
2) I used Wget to capture a copy of the blog

The command I used for this was as follows:
wget -rH -Dpetermccullagh.blogspot.ie,bp.blogspot.com -k -l 0 http://petermccullagh.blogspot.ie

The parameters are as follows:
-r tells Wget to work "recursively", i.e. to get the pages and files that are references in pages which it is processing
-H means that it is not limited to the same host. This was needed because my images (which I wanted to fetch) are on a different host
-D told Wget which hosts I wanted it to include. The second one is for the images
-k converts the links to refer to local (relative) addresses after the download
-l 0 turns on "infinite recursion", so Wget will fetch pages, which fetch pages, which fetch pages etc.

So now I have a local copy of my blog with relative links to other pages and images from the blog.

Ray D'Arcy leaves Today FM

I blogged last year about the incomparable pairing of Ian Dempsey and Ray D'Arcy on Today FM. Ian and Ray are Ireland's two best radio presenters (don't make me pick which of them is #1!)

Imagine my surprise then when it was announced that Ray has left Today FM and will be rejoining RTE. He is going to present an afternoon (3 PM) show on RTE Radio 1 starting on the 2nd of February. Apparently he's going to do TV work too.

I think the 9 AM slow on Today FM worked well with Ray presenting. I remain to be convinced that a 3 PM slow will work as well.

This is a HUGE blow for Today FM. I hope they will be able to recover from it.

Christmas FM signs off for 2014

Christmas FM signed off at 7 PM on St. Stephen's Day.

We were listening to them when they started and we were listening again when they closed down.

They did a great job again this year.

Apparently they reached their target for their chosen charity. The following was one of their last messages on Facebook:

"And we have just got word that we achieved our overall monthly target of raising €100,000 to enable Age Action our 2014 Charity Partner to carry out 30,000 home care & repair jobs and visits for older people who need help across Ireland".

Well done to everyone involved. Look forward to listening to you in Christmas 2015.

Progress on getting the Fry Model Railway to Casino in Malahide

In August of 2013 I mentioned that there were hopes that the Fry model Railway might re-open in Malahide (in Casino specifically) during 2014. Unfortunately that did not come to pass

But just before Christmas, Fingal Country Council took possession of the building and apparently there are now hopes that the project could be completed in 2015.

So progess has been slow but hopefully Micháel Gaffney's wishes will come to fruition later this year.