For my next trick, I’ll restart a thread on the HP 12C. 
Posted on 12/15/2023 5:19:47 AM PST by DoodleBob
Absolutely! I used to spend an enormous amount of time cleaning this kind of thing up manually, and a woman I used to work with showed me how to do this...it has saved me literally DAYS of manual manipulation over the years.
(NOTE: I am going to go off topic here for a minute, because this was an interesting (to me) encounter with someone who totally did not see the world as I did in many respects)
Funny. This woman who showed me this trick was a real “Liberal” too...about as far away from my views as could be, but we respected each other and even socialized.
You will notice I make a differentiation between “Liberals” and “Leftists”. Leftists can be and almost always are Liberals too, but Liberals are not always Leftists. Liberals are often intellectually lazy or too busy to think in depth and therefore drift with the tide and can be reachable in many cases, whilst Leftists are not reachable unless there is a traumatic event (like a drunk reaching bottom) that forces them to re-evaluate who and what they are, and break with it.
David Horowitz, is the perfect example of a Leftist who is a die-hard, capital C Conservative today, but in 1971, he was as far Left as most people would ever go, and was serving in an executive role with the Black Panthers. But when a white woman he admired and worked with was raped and murdered by the Black Panthers because they thought she knew too much) he cut ties with the Left. But it took him nearly ten years where he drifted in between ideological moorings, until he fully embraced Conservatism. His book “Radical Son” is an excellent read on this subject of Leftism, and describes his journey.
Anyway, back to my anecdote...:)
In our systems, we have to put fake patients into test systems to facilitate testing, and back in 2008, while we were testing, I saw that there was a test patient she entered named “Sarah Alaska” which tickled me...she was throwing me a bone there as a joke, and I appreciated it with a grin. So one day, I am over in her office discussing these things, and a wiry, older woman, a lantern-jawed Irish woman came stomping in.
She said “What is all this about this test person “Sarah Alaska”? I have to look at it every day, and I hate seeing it!”
I looked at her and said “Well, I kind of like seeing it, and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of it.”
She gaped wide eyed at me, her mouth opened and closed like a landed fish, and she sputtered out in unfeigned horror: “You...you...you’re...you’re ONE of THEM!
I grinned with an evil grin, and said “Yes, I am!”
So this woman and I went out to dinner one night when we were involved in testing late into the evening, and while we were dining she said: “I know you feel differently about many things than I do...I don’t understand way. You seem intelligent (which was a high compliment coming from her, as I thought she was one of the brightest people professionally I had ever known) and I am curious as to why you feel this way about this subject. Can you explain it to me?”
So I said: “If you are willing to actually listen, not interrupt or cut me off (which I knew she wouldn’t) I can expand on it.”
And I did.
After I explained my views on economic freedom and personal freedom, how those two things were inextricably intertwined and could not be separated, and how the 2nd Amendment gave us the right to defend ourselves personally and those liberties among others, she just sat there and said: “Well, you sound like you have given it a lot of thought, and I have difficulty disagreeing with you.”
I haven’t talked to her in over a year now, but she was a logical, data-driven person, and I knew I connected with her on a logical and data driven basis. But I never connected on the emotional aspect of these things, and even though she couldn’t find it in herself to rebut my beliefs, I don’t believe she was ever able to change emotionally by embracing the logic. She just didn’t have it in her to do that.
It is that experience that has cemented the longstanding belief I have held that Liberalism is emotionally-based, and in even the intellectually strongest people, they may be unable or unwilling to allow logic and reason to overcome the emotional aspect of things in certain areas.
I regarded her as a “Liberal”, so in her case, I accept this may be true.
In the case of full-blown Leftists, it is something else altogether, an amalgam of arrogance, hatred, racism, sexism, ignorance, stupidity, greed (for power and control) all wrapped in a protective cloak of emotion that will not allow them to even question their beliefs.
And that is one of the main differences between “Us” (Conservatives) and “Them” (Liberals and Leftists): We engage in near constant introspection and examination of our beliefs, looking for the flaws in the foundations of our principles and the cracks in the edifices built on those foundations.
We have to, because we are told 24x7 by the Government, the Media, Entertainment, and Education, that we, as Conservatives, are not only flawed but Evil. So, we constantly examine and deconstruct our beliefs so we can ensure we are morally on the right track.
Leftists, except in rare cases, not only do not feel compelled to do this because they are validated 24x7 by the Government, the Media, Entertainment, and Education, but because they feel safety in the collective crowd of Leftists they occupy the same bubble with.
The good thing about Excel is it can work in the most simple way possible, or the most complex imaginable, depending on what someone wants to achieve.
Most never uncover all its power.
Back in the late 1990s we worked with different finance and accounting persons in our company and moved some of the most complex things they needed done from cumbersome mainframe programs that were under constant modification to Excel spreadheets and workbooks they could modify themselves. We also created a bridge from the main accounting and finance programs and database files down to their desktops. My programming staff was unburdoned and the finance and accounting folks had the results they wanted and with more control of their own. It also meant that mistakes became most often mistakes the finance and accounting people made themselves and not mistakes in the main computer programs and data files. Distriibuted computing = distributed accountability.
You are most welcome...every single time I use that method outlined (and it is often) I think of that woman who showed me, and say thank you to her.
I think I am going to contact her this Christmas season...:)
world geoguesser cup
that’s a real thing using a random google street view shot and name where you are.
Geoguessr is my new addiction.
UH OH. No black transexuals...
I plugged in “Bidenomics” in to my spreadsheet and it shows a massive loss the past three years and an infinite loop in the future.
At one company I was the only person who knew how Quattro Pro worked and so the person put in charge of a spreadsheet that was not even close to being in my department that no one else could use and no one knew how to update.
After about three months of doing it I asked why was this not switched over to Excel and updated with new product and the old product purged. They did not know that was even possible.
So I got authorization for some Saturday overtime and in two weekends had their new, updated spreadsheet running in Excel. I included a first page that told you, in detail, how to up date the sheet.
Somewhere there is some poor sap trying to use that thing and cursing my name no doubt.
I suppose a thread like this would find logical, data-driven people, even more than other FR threads. I agree that leftists are primarily emotion-driven, rendering themselves susceptible to deception, manipulation, and control.
In 1986 McDonald's had a promotion for the Olympics. A USA gold medal gave a free Big Mac, a silver free fries, and a bronze free soda. I tracked my coupons on a Peachtree spreadsheet and had almost every event covered. When the Russians pulled out, there were so many winners. We couldn't eat all the free food, and didn't think of freezing it. I haven't had a Big Mac since then.
I know-that is why I come here. You see just the angle I came at it from...:)
For my next trick, I’ll restart a thread on the HP 12C.
I’m gonna have to practice a bit.
I’ve been a fan of databases since Apple Works on our first computer...an Apple IIc. And Excel is great. Of course, I just do simple things...our ledger, various lists. Great tool.
How, if someone could tell me what MS Access does.
bttt
Google Sheets is STILL missing the most rudimentary feature of being able to indent cells to make them readable. It wants you to insert and empty column to add space between columns. That is the dumbest thing ever...and SO simple to implement. People has asked for it for years.
I cut my teeth on VisiCalc long before Lotus and Excel.
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