Welcome to this blog. I have been using and ignoring and using this blog for a long time but now it is serving two purposes. It is my personal and my business blog at the same time.
The way I am managing this is that my personal posts are shown here as a Post whereas my business posts are all written o individual a Page.
This means that if you search for this blog, you come here and not to my business blog. However, the menu on the left of this page is my business blog menu ... the top level of the menu, at least. There are MANY more pages on this blog that are not included in any menu yet.
Please feel free to ask me about my other pages, there are hundreds of them, in case there is something in there that you want. Eventually, I will sort out this menu system and all will be well.
Since 1995, when I first connected to the internet, I have had web sites, blogs, I post prolifically to quora.com, I give away hundreds of files a year ... someone asks me a question and I do my best to answer it.
Unless I think a student has posted his homework question, hoping to get the work done for him, I answer questions honestly and in full. That can take me five minutes or even five hours, sometimes more. That's what I do.
Yesterday I posted a question on a discussion list about the ACF and PACF functions in R ... simple for anyone who knows R well but difficult for me I had spent a long time looking at the ACF and PCF help files, I had searched the web for answers, I had watched videos on YouTube. It could be that, in my ignorance, I didn't frame my question so well because the first two answers didn't answer my question. Of course, that can happen but one respondent said to me, before posting questions here, it is best to look at the help files first.
I was motivated to solve this problem by myself now and I did! I did it.
Blow me, though; but another smart alek posted an "answer" to my question by telling me that there are many tutorials I could search for and read ... and of course he didn't tell me where to find those tutorials or which tutorials I might find and read.
I doubt very much I will post another question to that list!
DW
I just saw a post on facebook in which someone shared their dashboard. Gushing comments followed: awesome ... fantastic use of screen real estate ... always love your work ...
There is a link to the video showing how the dashboard was created. He was also gushing about how he set it up to change things at the click of a mouse button. You know, linking one cell to another cell.
Here is my point: on every screen of this dashboard there are 12 or more metrics/values for each of seven departments ... 84 per screen. Given that he has used sparklines, images, sliders, values ... it is ludicrous to expect anyone to get any value from such a dashboard without having to zoom to, say, 50% or so, thus ruining the desired effect of the thing, surely.
Still, everyone else gushingly loved it. More than that, more and more Excel bloggers are adding more and more features to their own dashboards. Why? Because they can. Why is that so bad? Because it leads to clutter and will have performance implications. But more than that: what happens when Jack or Jenny breaks a link or changes something wrongly?
I suggest you go back to or stay with management by eye, from the old days. 15 ideas on an A4 page or equivalent was an excellent rule of thumb.
I have just found a few comments sent to me here dating all the way back to 2015. I just saw them!! I have approved all of them so if you suddenly find me popping up to say, thanks for a comment you had completely forgotten about ... now you know why!
DW
14/11/2020
People still come here from time to time, even though I haven't been posting here very often over the last few years and my main blog at the moment is my Excel blog over at excelmaster.co. Hoever, it looks like the covid-19 pandemic is forcing me out of that home and I will be using this blog as my main blog again.
You can always find me on www.quora.com, too, answering Excel and other questions. I work in fits and starts there but I have uploaded a lot more than 1,000 answers already.
So, welcome back here and I look forward to seeing more and more of you here as we move into the new year ... almost!
Duncan Williamson
14th November 2020
I write answers on various Excel topics at www.quora.com and this page provides links to some of my answers. They are not normally massively complex questions but I answer the ones that I think might be interesting to my visitors and readers. The pages are probably in reverse order: lastest pages first; but that should not matter!
My sister Fiona died over the summer and, as I usually do, I write a few words to help our family members on their way. Here are those words.
In Loving Memory of Fiona Christine
As we have all seen before when I have written tributes to our departed, I have usually been stuck in a time warp that ended in 1988. This is more or less the same but rather than relate a long litany of things, I decided to record just half a dozen things that Fiona did or said that are best known as Fionaisms.
Susan Greenwood featured large in Fiona’s life in their formative years and here’s a classic from that time:
With just Fiona and I in the room, Susan came and knocked on our back door.
For some childish reason, I shouted “We’re not in”
In a panic and as she dashed to answer the door, Fiona shouted back, “We are”!
I left home in 1974 for good or ill and, of course, returned home at the end of every term and sometimes more often. My dates were known so I was always expected. Apart from the time that a friend from Accrington was getting a lift home from his dad and they kindly offered to drive me home, too.
Providing I could go with them the day before the end of term. As if I wouldn’t agree to that.
I must have arrived around 6 pm or thereabouts and I opened the door with a ta daa, surprise … and Fiona, who’d have been about 15 at that time and who just happened to be in the middle of the room, saw me and announced “There’s no tea for you”!
Speaking of being given a lift, our Susan very kindly offered to give me a lift back to Sunderland from Tod one day and Fiona came with us. At about the half way mark we decided it was time for a cuppa. So, we pulled into a nice looking place in Harrogate, I think it was. We ordered one by one, whatever we ordered. This is Fiona’s order:
Waiter: What would you care for, madam?
Fiona: Tea, please.
Waiter: Black or white, madam?
Fiona: Wadam ... er, white, please.
I was told the following story and think it’s true but it could have happened to anyone. I don’t remember the exact conversation, so I have invented that part.
Fiona and Danny going around Madame Tussaud’s Waxworks. La la la. Ooh, look, that’s Tom Cruise. I didn’t know Arnold Schwarzenegger was so short …
Then they either got lost or wanted some information and saw someone sitting at a desk near by so Fiona sauntered over and asked them for directions.
Turns out the person behind the desk was another exhibit so there was little surprise when it didn’t answer.
Don’t forget, now that Carol and Fiona have left us, there is only one arch cheese and onion pie maker left in the family. That’s a big burden, Susan!
This final story follows on from Fiona’s baking skills. When I was living in Kazakhstan, I asked Fiona if I could make a video of her making a cheese and onion pie. She agreed and we did it and it was a good video: sadly lost to technology.
Anyway, when I got back to Almaty, I thought it would be a cracking idea to get some of our English teachers to use the video for our students to learn about English pies and to listen to a native speaker speaking.
Remembering that foreigners are usually taught to speak Cambridge or Oxford English, listening to Fiona’s West Riding accent caused a few in the audience to ask, “What on earth is she saying? Where is she from”!
That’s no reflection on Fiona at all but I thought it was an enlightening experience.
Anyway, light hearted moments at the saddest time in someone’s life. They leave so much behind and since everyone else has been with her and around her since 1988, there must be thousands and thousands more stories to tell. Or just to remember as you walk down the street, gawp at the telly or when sitting in a vacant mood one day.
Sorry you had to go so soon and it is absolutely, copper bottomed guaranteed that you are going to be missed.
You might well have read my small rant on Brexit from earlier this year. In the final sentence of that post, I concluded by saying, it can only go wrong.
Last week, our ridiculous Prime Minister set her resignation date and then we have just had the most monstrous EU MEP election charade. She made Brexit go from bad to far worse.
The Man from Mars test would conclude that the UK is going to hell in a handcart and we're all doomed. Well, many a true word as the follow up to the resignation of the Prime Minister story is that she needs to be replaced. It must come as no surprise that the leading candidate for that job, who will be elected by a tiny number of people from within their political party, is a serial arsehole of the greatest magnitude. The Man from Mars will be asking himself how the laws of nature can be used to stop yet another anomaly.
I get involved in discussions online about all sorts of things via newspaper comment threads and the one that has been getting my goat is anything to do with the Great British disease Brexit. This is the monstrous boil on the arse of a country that has done and created so much for the world and now, because of the power of the shyster, the liar and the self seeking, it is being dragged down by grossly incompetent politicians as they seek to leave their mark on history whilst claiming they are fulfilling the wish of the people.
What these wretched people have done is set out massively disjointed, unprovable, unscientific arguments that favour their own personal agendas but what they have not done, not one of them, is to provide leadership. Their crime is that they have set out one side of an argument and left it at that. You will say, that is democracy and I say yes it is. What has then happened, however, it that the monstrous carbuncle of a Prime Minister has done nothing whatsoever to provide the missing leadership: she has not in any way attempted to balance the arguments and provide a reasoned conclusion on the proper way forward.
No, Theresa May, started out two years ago by saying Brexit means Brexit and since then has done deal after stupid deal to keep her minority government in office such that Brexit means goodness knows what.
Happy new year to everyone who stumbles across this infrequent blog: I used to write as often as every day or so but there are so many things to do these days.
Here is a link you need if you want to try a fantastic egg (or mushroom or tofu) curry that takes a bit of time but is not difficult: Chef de Home Delicious Egg Curry
I just came across a couple of pages on hbr.org that you need to know about and forgive me if these are behind a paywall: I subscribe to the HBR so I went straight to every page.
Firstly, 10 Excel Functions Everyone Should Know by Adam Lacey and Deborah Ashby. I prefer DGET to their INDEX-MATCH function but otherwise, this is a good start to learning the top 10. Top 10 Excel Functions
Marc says this, "You’ll find the quickest wins in the bottom-right quadrant, which we’ve labeled “Learn it right away.” In here we have time-saving shortcuts that can be applied frequently, like Ctrl-Y (redo) and F2 (edit cell) and a nice combination formula that cleanses your spreadsheet of errors (IF(ISERROR))." Of course, IF(ISERROR) is way out of date and should be replced by IFERROR()
What is it about being on or near an aeroplane that makes people come out with the biggest BS on the planet? Last night, we landed and as we waited for the door to open, I heard this exchange.
Man 1: Better than a 7 hour drive, eh?
Man 2: Yes!
Man 1: Where are you going now?
Man 2: I am changing airports
Man 1: Me too. Want to share a cab?
Man 2: indistinct!
Man 1: Where are you going, Shanghai?
Man 2: Dhaka
Man 1: Dhaka? What are you doing there?
Man 2: Working ... got a short term contract there.
Man 1: I worked in Dhaka and Shanghai and somewhere else
Then man 1 built on his BS this way
Man 1: Was it easy to get a visa?
Man 2: Indistinct
Man 1: They gave me the run around for a month
Man 2: No! I didn't have any problems like that. It all went well.
Man 1: The problem is, all of our people don't know squat.
Thankfully the door opened and I didn't have to eavesdrop any more.
By the way, if you want to go from one Bangkok airport to another and you have your flight details with you, you can take a free shuttle bus from door to door. Your flight cane even be 24 hours in advance and you can still take the shuttle!
If you have stumbled across this page hoping to find a cheap Business Class seat on Singapore Airlines (SIA), sorry! What you have arrived at is a page that explains how I found a superb result to my analysis of the last 19 years of SIA's financial results.
The Data
As I was using Power Query to help me to analyse SIA's financial results, I downloaded their last 19 years' worth of Annual Reports and Accounts and from there I downloaded everything you see here:
The question is, what can I do with all of that? What I often do as part of my financial analysis is to create a Net Income model. That is, I make Net Income the dependent variable and have one or more independent variables.
The First Model
My first model comprises Y = Net Income = All Other Variables in the above table, all six of them. I used the Data Analysis ToolPak for this and here is my output:
A Correlation Matrix of all variables and I have conditionally formatted the results to highlight the extreme values and the mid range values. For example, Revenue and Fuel Costs are very highly correlated as are Passengers and Rev Pax Km (Revenue Passenger Kilometers). Rather oddly, there is virtually no correlation between Staff Costs and the Number of Employees.
The Regression output are as follows:
Let's note that the Adjusted R Squared value is high at 0.6755, the F statistic is significant at 7.25 but of the six independent variables only Staff Costs are significant, with a t statistic of 3.3287 and a P Value of 0.0060.
I think this is a superb result: Staff Costs being the only significant variable as its coefficient shows that a unit change to Staff Costs leads to a 2.5913 million SGD increase in Net Income.
The residuals plots show that everything is probably fine although we are only dealing with 19 data points or years of data:
Conclusion
On the one hand, this model fails because only one variable is significant and using just Staff Costs to predict Net Income is not rational. This says that we need to refine or replace the model to find something better. That being true, why do I think I found something superb?
SIA is famous for its recruitment of and investment in high quality cabin crew and other members of staff. Whilst they don't pay the highest salaries, they do reward well overall, training is high level and frequent, they use more cabin crew per flight than most, if not all, of its competitors to maximise customer satisfaction.
Out of all of that, the data contain the relationships that I just mentioned and regression analysis has brought them out! That is superb in my opinion!
I want you to replicate my work here so, whilst there is a spreadsheet to download, it only contains the data I have extracted and used. Feel free to ask for advice and guidance here but I am not providing the full spreadsheet file.
It is really not convenient when your travel plans are disrupted. Today, my flight has been delayed by about 8 hours. We got on the plane then we were thrown off.
Well, these things happen. It's what happens next that I find fascinating. Some people are just born bullshitters and being cooped up with a new, captive, audience is meat and drink to them. They can tell their old, tired, boring stories to other victims.
Then there are the people who want to know what if ... what if we don't leave today ... what if I want to transfer to another airline... what if ...
Then there is the food and drink voucher for an amount of money they can buy just about nothing. It's a big, price inflated airport for goodness sake!
Don't forget the passengers who know how to run an airline better than any airline and the passenger who knows all about ticketing and refunds ... la la la.
However, it is still true that this airline, along with most others, is rubbish at keeping their passengers informed. Rubbish.
As I travel into and out of Thailand, I often have to stay overnight in Bangkok. These days, I choose affordable places to stay since I travel alone and might spend as few as 8 hours there: who needs to pay a lot of money, including paying for a breakfast I cannot eat?
My latest arrival took me to a more expensive hotel and even though I knew they would want 1000 Baht deposit, I knew I didn't have it! I had just flown in from KL and had 300 Baht. I also had Ringgit and Dirhams and offered them instead. Not good enough, apparently!
I told the receptionist that I don't have a credit card and that is true. So when she said I should go to the ATM to get the Money, I said I don't have a card. How did I pay for the room, then, she asked? Online, I replied ... yes, I've got a debit card account but not the card! Again, that is the truth.
I took out my foreign currency notes and asked: what would you like? Notes from many countries. She asked, why do you have so many foreign notes and I replied, because I don't have a credit card!
She settled on 50 Singapore Dollars and I could now, after midnight, get to bed.
I have this kind of discussion in hotels everywhere: hotels do not trust us, they don't care that you have stayed there incident free for years, they treat us as if we are liars.
What I find irritating is that I often arrive so late. I will check out within 12 to 15 hours. I will get the deposit back.
It's stress I do not need and do not appreciate.
Incidentally, I rely on WiFi for my business and personal life when I am travelling so you can understand further frustration when the WiFi did not work in my room until 10 am ... 10 hours after I checked in.
At a completely unrelated hotel, they overcharged me by about £200. They put the credit on my bill. I said, when do I get that back. Glibly, I was told, two to three weeks. Can you believe that? I stood my ground and although three separate people argued with me and assured me they would PERSONALLY see to it that I would get my money back quickly, I said, you won't. I got my money but was made to feel like a thief. I didn't care!
I am at an airport and I am hungry so I went in search of food. There are only two cafes here and as one was very busy, I went to the other one.
I studied the menu, made my decision and joined the queue comprising one other person.
My joint queue friend was waiting patiently as ... you will not believe this ... the cashier played a game on his phone. As he ripped himself away from his phone to do whatever was no priority at all, I left.
Non Dairy Milks
As I turned vegan to a large extent recently, I have been trying different, non dairy, milks.
I tried Almond Milk but I found that as I left this milk in the fridge for a couple of days, once I had opened the packet, it got thicker and thicker. Made my breakfast cereal unpalatable.
I then switched to Soy milk but the main brands here are very sweet, even the low sugar versions. Then I found an Australian brand that is only slightly sweet and switched to that!
Every now and again I come across reports that Soy is bad for us, so I went back to Almond milk from the Australian company I just referred to: very good, no thickening, not too sweet. Almost twice the price of Soy milk, however.
Over the weekend I tried some Walnut milk and I like that.
I will probably alternate between Almond and Walnut milk although I have yet to try Pistachio milk!
Carageenan
By accident, I learned about Carrageenan, a thickening agent that can be found everywhere. It sounds dangerous although I found a reference to a study that said food additive Carrageenan is not harmful. Better safe than sorry, I wrote to the Australian company and they assured me that they have replaced Carrageenan in their products. The producer of the Walnut and Pistachio nut milks say on their packets, Carragenan Free.
I have watched another few online videos/webinars and in addition to the most horrendously long introductions, the other major crime comes when the presenter surprises him/herself with an error or unexpected result.
Please rehearse before you create and please edit before you publish.
If you really are trying to train a novice, they WILL get confused as your cursor flies all over the place and your words do not match your actions.
The other day I attended a webinar and even though it was only scheduled to be an hour long, they spent 12+ minutes introducing themselves.
Last night I went to another webinar, completely different people; and they spend 24 out of 85 minutes introducing themselves ...
If you do presentations and webinars, learn from this. I attend these things to learn about the technicalities and not so much about the presenter ... put that stuff on a blog if you have to!
The other day I was travelling and saw something that I found disheartening.
A very large man was travelling with someone else and they were sitting together and chatting. Then this morbidly obese man left his friend and came and sat next to me. He carried a bag with him that he opened and started to take food out of: greasy burgers and chips with lots of coleslaw. He ate this food as if he had hardly eaten for weeks. After he had gorged himself he closed his bag and clearly wanted to clean his hands before he returned to his friend. So he wandered to the toilet to get clean and then went back to sit next to his friend.
I think I felt sorry for this man: clearly he has an eating disorder of some sort that includes hiding his consumption from his friend. I hope he can find some peace that will allow him to stop this long, slow suicide that he's in the middle of.
The place of Todmorden in the Annals of the Nobel Prize! as at the end of December 2017
Introduction
My home town is Todmorden in West Yorkshire, England and throughout all of my childhood we were proud to say that Todmordian John Douglas Cockcroft had won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1951: it was a joint award and he won it with Ernest Walton of Dungarvan, Ireland. We are told they were the first to have split the atom!
In 1973 another Todmordian, Geoffrey Wilkinson won the Chemistry prize along with Ernst Otto Fischer for their work on sandwich compounds: they were working independently of one another, it seems.
This put us in the stratosphere: which other town or city on the planet could boast TWO Nobel Prize Winners? Moreover, in spite of the 24 year age gap between them, Cockcroft and Wilkinson shared the same science teacher at Todmorden Grammar School.
This article sets out to answer a series of questions I have never seen answered before which includes, is Todmorden unique in respect of it Nobel Prize achievements? Is Todmorden at the top of any Nobel list? Has any other town or city produced more than two Nobel Prizes. Has any town of the size of Todmorden or less produced two, or more, Nobel Prize winners? … all low level stuff but I could not find anywhere THE source that would tell me everything I wanted to know.
Yes, the Official Web Site of the Nobel Prize, https://www.nobelprize.org, contains a massive amount of detail but it didn’t tell me, for example, if Todmorden is the smallest town to produce two Laureates and so on.
My File
I have produced an Excel file that contains all of the basic details of every Nobel Prize there has been: from 1901 to 2017. My list includes every Laureate, date of the award, dates of birth, dates of death, male or female and more.
Since I was trying to make Todmorden the centre of attention, I had said in a Todmorden based Facebook forum last week that I felt it is probably unique in producing two Laureates relative to its population size! I had long since given up the notion that Todmorden was top of the pile in all respects, of course; because we must expect the University cities of Oxford, Cambridge (UK and USA), Paris, Bonn … to outshine little old Todmorden!
By the way, Todmorden is not a University town so Cockcroft and Wilkinson belong to us by rght of birth: they are Tod Lads!
I went to various sources to find the populations of the cities for which there are two Nobel Laureates. I did not look for the populations of cities that had 1 or 3 or 4 or more Laureates since Todmorden is not competing with them by my reckoning!
You can download my file from the link at the end of this article (ths link will appear in the final version of this article) and for Excel warriors, you will find that I have used a wide range of techniques in there that includes various functions and formulas as well as Get & Transform/Power Query, including some programming in M.
How Many Prizes?
Todmorden has claimed two prizes: how many other towns and cities have claimed the same or more or less? Examples
New York is top of the pile by a long way, London is third and as you can see, Todmorden is there with two Laureates.
Overall, the number of cities by number of prizes is as follows:
Todmorden, then, is one of 44 cities around the world to have claimed two Nobel Prizes: one of just 91 cities to have claimed more than one Nobel Prize.
Ages of Laureates
John Cockcroft was 54 years old when he won his prize and Geoffrey Wilkinson was 52 years old. For a Physics Laureate, Cockcroft was almost two years younger than the average and for a Chemistry Laureate, Wilkinson was over six yearsyounger than the average.
By the way, the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901, a relatively modern institution; but take a look at the dates of birth of the first Laureates, from 1901 and 1902:
The second ever Nobel Literature Laurate, Theodor Mommsen, was born on 30th November 1817: there was no other Laureate born before Theodor Mommsen!
By the same token, the first 20th century born Laureate did not appear until Frederic Joliot-Curie was awarded the Chemistry Prize in 1935. Frederic was born on 19th March 1900 and was part of the famous Curie family! For interest, here is the Curie family Nobel history:
To date, the youngest ever Laureate is Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan who was a mere 17 years old when she won the 2014 Peace Prize: Malala was born 180 years after Theodor Mommsen! Until then, the youngest ever Laureate had been the 25 year old Australian William Lawrence Bragg who won the Physics Prize in 1915. The oldest prize winner to date is Russian born Leonid Hurwicz, who was 90 years old when he was awarded the 2007 Economics Prize.
Sex of Prize Winners
Up until the end of 2017, women have won just 49 Nobel Prizes, men have scooped the other 847: almost 30 prizes have been awarded to Organisations, so they are gender neutral!
Marie Curie’s award in 1903 was the first by a woman and in the first 20 years in which the Prizes were awarded, only four went to women. In the 20 years to the end of 2017, women have been awarded 21 Prizes.
I will attempt no answer to suggest why more women have not earned Nobel Prizes and I have to say that over the last 20 or so years, women have been actively lobbying for more women Laureates. Since they clearly cannot create scientific achievement out of thin air, the majority of prizes for women have been the Peace and Literature Prizes with a further 12, Physiology or Medicine, Prizes having been awarded to women!
Please note, the relatively small number of Prizes for Economics reflects the fact that the first Economics Prizes were not awarded until 1969. Moreover, the title of this Prize is, in full: The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
Populations and the Final Answer
For me, this is the big question: person for person, is a Todmorden Nobel Prize worth more than anywhere else on the planet? In other words, is Todmorden the smallest town in the world to have been awarded two Nobel Prizes?
Please note, I have not gone back to the dates of the award of the Prizes to find the populations of the cities concerned: in some cases that would be impossible anyway. What I have done is to take the latest figure I can find on the internet as at 8th January 2018 for all of the cities of interest.
Well, a two Prize city has a mean population of over 960,000 and a median of almost 388,000 inhabitants. Yay! Tiny Todmorden has around 15,500 inhabitants. The largest two Prize city is Mexico City with 8.9 million people, Halifax, 12 miles from Todmorden also has two Prize winners and has a population of 88,000 or thereabouts.
So, the smallest two Prize city is … Rendcombe in Gloucestershire with a population of just 354 people. More than that, their two Prizes came from one man, Frederick Sanger who won the Chemistry Prize outright in 1958 and outright again in 1980. Hats off to Frederick!
Conclusions
There you are: good news, bad news! Todmorden is in the elite Nobel Prize World by having two Nobel Prize winners in its history. It is the smallest town to have two Prize winners. Alas, it is not the smallest village! Let’s give due credit to Frederick Sanger and Rendcombe (or Rendcomb) for not only winning two Prizes but winning them both outright: a very rare achievement.
Sanger helped to answer another of the questions that was raised on the Facebook page I mentioned earlier and that is: is Todmorden Grammar the only school to have produced two Nobel Prizes? Again, no! However, let’s find a winning angle for Todmorden: Sanger won two prizes but he is only one Laureate, albeit Laureate and bar!
So, for having two Laureates from the same school, Tod is Tops!
E&OE
Finally, this article took me several days both to research and for me to carry out the analysis in my Excel file: I humbly apologise if there are any errors here and if you do find something amiss, please let me know and I will correct it! I have made very few changes to the basic data but I have had to make a very small number of minor tweaks to place names/locations to prevent misrepresentation. Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the Nobel Prize organisation for making their database freely available and for the various sites that provided me with population and other data: in that regard, mainly www.wikipedia.com
Duncan Williamson
9th January 2018
Excel file for download: the link will appear here in the final version of this article
I have loved having a garden for as long as I can remember and I first owned my own garden in 1983. It was tiny and I went from complete tripe to overwhelmed by one kind of flower to mediocre.
My garden in Malawi was fantastic: real credit to our garden boy and, of course, my estate management skills. Ahem!
I am taking back control of my garden here, now. We inherited some trees and bushes and they are still here. I laid a lawn front and sides of the house and whilst they don't sell what I call grass here, it looks like a lawn and I mow it from time to time to keep it neat.
I love kitchen gardens and have now taken control of that aspect too. Mrs W is prone to planting a hundred seeds of one plant that then grows and overwhelms us with a harvest we cannot appreciate: she gets things to grow, at least. I am taking a more measured approach now and have planted a lot fewer seeds and bulbs but will plant again in a few weeks' time to get a proper flow of plants going.
Let's see how it all works out. I will report back from time to time.
DW
I bought the DVD of Love Actually at least twice and I watch it just about every year. So, it's time to watch it again. Except, of course, Windows 10 in all its fantastic glory will not allow me to play it. Who knows what the problem is?
Genuine DVD. Played several times already. Not scratched or damaged in any way.
Very frustrating
DW
We live in a rice farming area which is, not surprisingly, very flat. No hills, hardly a slope in sight. So far a weekend away I insisted that we went somewhere hilly. Goodness, did we find some hills. And so VERY steep roads!
We can to Khao Kho in central Thailand. It's a very nice area with lots of twisty roads and some scary hill climbs.
My legs were rewarded with the resistance I was looking for and there are some interesting things to do here and interesting things to see.
By the way, even on the top of a couple of hills, on sloping ground, we saw rice being grown!
DW
Waiting to check in for my flight from Istanbul to Doha when a man carrying a very young baby walked in front of me on his way to another counter.
A short conversation that I could not hear took place, after which the check in clerk laughed heartily as she said for all the world to hear, No, not to check in the baby, check in the baby stroller!!
The man went past me again as he took his baby away. He came back within a few minutes minus baby, plus pushchair!
Some entertainment at least.
It's hardly the most important thing I ever thought about but I could not abide that television programme, Scooby Doo. It really got on my nerves.
In my inbox today I received my usual OED word of the day message to find the word Scooby ... here is the entry:
scooby, n.
[‘not to have a scooby: = not to have a clue at clue n. 2e.’]
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈskuːbi/, U.S. /ˈskubi/, Scottish /ˈskubɪ/
Forms: 19– scoobie, 19– scooby.
Origin: Formed within English, by clipping or shortening. Etymon: proper name Scooby.
Etymology:Short for Scooby Doo, the name of a cartoon dog which features in several U.S. television series and films (which typically include the name of the dog in the title), as rhyming slang for clue n.
The fuller form scooby doo is also sometimes found.
colloq. (chiefly Sc.).
not to have a scooby: = not to have a clue at clue n. 2e.
1993 Herald (Glasgow) 14 May 16 Your lawyer telling youse that he husnae a scooby and youse can jist take a wee tirravie tae yersel.
1999 C. Dolan Ascension Day(2000) vi. 120 Mum, trying to be businesslike, quizzed Morag about blood counts and bone marrow suppression and other such matters about which of course she didn't have a scooby.
2006 Daily Record (Glasgow)(Nexis) 12 May 33 Isn't research meant to ask questions we haven't a scoobie about?
May the saints preserve us!!
DW
I saw a question on quora.com today that piqued my interest so I answered it: it concerned the British view of Irish people. Since I have worked and admired several Irish people over the years, I responded to say so. Following on from there I thought I would try to find the Irishmen I worked with by way of a google search and was saddened by what I found.
I read a story online about my old Irish friend Liam Coughlan. We met and worked together in Yeravan then Tblisi and then as I was posted to Bishkek, Liam was posted to Tashkent: we both still worked for the same organisation in the same project but we were countries apart. We met briefly in Croatia when Liam invited me to run a one weekcourse for him there a while after we had finished our Central Asian gig. We lost touch after that!
Liam was one of the smartest men I have ever known: highly qualified in his field; holding high level positions in a variety of organisations. Liam was generous, friendly, open, talkative, informative, supportive, helpful, down to earth, very well read on Ireland and Irish history and politics. Liam was also politically very astute.
Liam also had a fantastic sense of humour and any time spent with him was bound to entail his endless blarney and endless anecdotes. He knew or had met countless people: honest johns and downright rogues and he had stories about them all.
Liam was educated by the Christian Brothers in Ireland and what they did to him and to others is beyond the pale. Stories of brutality, sexual activity, paedophilia and possibly murder seemed to haunt every waking hour of anyone who was in the throes of anything to do with that outfit. I was transfixed by his stories but never doubted them. Strories in newspapers, books and online match what Liam told me.
He regaled me with stories of when he stood for Parliament in Ireland and how he realised how stupid he might have been to try. He was certainly clever and honest enough but maybe a little idealistic. In any case, at or around that time he gave a lift on the back of his motorbike to Charles Haughey, now the late and unlamented Taoiseach whom Liam branded a cheat, liar, thieving arse.
At the time I knew Liam I reviewed every book I read on my web site and he not only read my reviews but he commented on them: normally constructive and supportive … apart from the book I reviewed on Haughey. Let me confess that Liam lent me the book and I didn’t read all of it so my review was a little short of proper insight. I got an email from Liam setting me straight and I never admitted my shortcomings but I published Liam’s correction without hesitation!
Of the two of us, I was the qualified teacher but Liam was by far the better educator. Because of his intelligence and diligence, he took subjects apart and rebuilt them. He had a learner’s insight and a teacher’s gift and his students were definitely the better for it. He had two women ACCA students in Tblisi and they both sailed through every exam because of Liam and they became qualified accountants in double quick time.
If ever a beggar or a hawker came anywhere near Liam or the people he was with, he would be the first or the only one to buy what they were selling or to give them something to eat or just to hand over a few coins or notes. I have known no one else like that.
In terms of the question on quora.com, Liam was very clear about that: he liked and respected British people and if anyone tried to say there was hatred between the two nations, he would easily strip out the rumour and gossip and explain who the haters were, where they were, what they wanted and how few of them there were! He could have been an ambassador for Ireland.
The story I read about Liam online this morning said that he had died from natural causes in Austria, as testified by the Austrian police: aged 51. I knew his partner had had a baby shortly after we went our separate ways but it seems there was another one after that. The crux of the story I read today concerned the woman who passed herself off as Liam’s first wife who claimed no knowledge of the second wife. Let it be known, I knew about both women and I met the second one several times as she was in Tblisi and elsewhere with him. I never met the first wife but I heard a lot about her and their son. Liam never hid from his responsibilites and I imagine he was a fantastic father but he has died tragiccally very young and I wish his children well.
One of the last times we met face to face was in Ireland. At the end of our Central Asian work I said I was looking for somewhere to go on holiday and he suggested Ireland so that’s where I went. From South Wales to Waterford by car ferry and then a week doing a grand tour of Ireland, ending up in Belfast. Liam met me in Waterford and we had a jar or two of Porter there. Grand craic was had during that week and Ireland is a place well worth visiting: Waterford to Cobh, Limerick, Kerry, Knock (Liam had a story about that, too!), Galway and across to Belfast. Excellent drivers in Ireland I have to say: very corteous.
I noted the speed signs on the roads as I went from the ferry to the hotel where I met Liam and I asked him, are those signs in miles per hour or kilometers …he replied, you decide! Typical Irish, typical Liam.
I am sorry I lost touch but these things happen and I am very sorry to hear that he has died: by the way, no surprise as he smoked like a chimney and eschewed just about every form of exercise known to man! I shoud say, I don’t know what killed him but he did smoke a lot and I know he was treated from time to time for possible skin cancer given the type of skin he had.
Nevertheless, ave atque vale Liam. It really was a pleasure and a privilege to have known you.
Duncan
October 2017
Lightly fry the following:
Medium sized onion, sliced
Clove of garlic crushed and chopped
Stick of celery chopped
Button mushrooms sliced
Fry the onions and garlic for a minute
Add the celery for two minutes
Add the mushrooms with some ground black pepper, a pinch of salt and 6 or 7 splashes of Worcestershire sauce and keep cooking for another two minutes
Meanwhile
Toast two slices of your favourite bread and after they have cooled for two minutes spread hummus on both sides of each slice
Pile half of your onion mix onto the first slice of bread. Put the second slice I top of that. Now pile the rest of the onion mix on top of the second slice
Serve with a salad of your choice if you wish but I couldn't wait!
I make my own hummus but shop bought is normally just as good.
DW
11th September 2017
I worked with Mrs W over the last few days to write an introductory piee on American Food: here it is!
The USA is the richest country in the world and it has the biggest, most expensive and often the best of everything. There are about 300 million people living in the USA and apart from Native American Indans, they have come from all parts of the world.
As these people arrived from Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and elsewhere, they brought their ideas, cultures and cuisines with them. We know about Little Italy and Chinatown in New York, there is the Latin Quarter in New Orleans. All over the country, the food comes from here, there and everywhere.
• Jerky
• Dutch Baby Pancake
• Jersey Breakfast
• Shrimp and Grits
• Hoppel Poppel
• Scrapple
• Tex Mex
And a lot more
A lot of these imported dishes are good quality, nutritious dishes that everyone can eat but there is downside to food from the USA: fast food.
Since the 1940s the USA has been the leader in creating food and restaurants that cater to speed and greed. People who either cannot cook or who cannot be bothered to cook. Food portions that can be carried away in buckets, not just on plates. Beefburgers made to be the size of a man’s head. Deep fried food. Food with lots of fat and sugar and carbohydrates. Burgers, fried chicken and pizzas.
At least two generations of Americans have been brought up on fast food and the result is that more than half of all Americans are not just overweight, not just fat but they are obese … very fat. No surprise when a single meal at MacDonald’s can contain 1,600 calories and many grammes of fat as well.
As countries develop and get richer, the more its people get fatter: it’s time to stop and think. We admire the development in the USA but we do not need its fast food and its obesity.
DW
26th August 2017
Last night I made the best leek and potato soup I have ever made and the secret is the potato!
Serves TwoIngredients
small onion, sliced
one medium sized leek, washed and sliced
small potato, washed and chopped ... peeling is optional, I did not peel it
half a vegetable stock cube
or add real stock or water ... about 15 fluid ounces/400 millilitres
dessertspoon of vegetable oil
Method
Heat the oil in a pan ...medium heat ... and add the onions ... sweat them for a minute
Add the leek ... sweat them for a minute
Add the potato and continue to sweat all of the veg for another two minutes
Add the stock cube and stir it in
Now add the liquid/stock
Bring to the boil
Simmer until the potatoes are soft ... maximum 10 minutes should be enough
At this point, take the soup off the heat, pour it into a blender and blend it thoroughly
If it is too thick for you, simply add more water or stock
It is ready now. Add any adornments you like such as a sprig of parsley or coriander leaves ... as you wish
The potato secret? Don't add too much otherwise it dominates the taste
DW
Flick a switch and the light comes on. Have you ever thought about the cost of light throughout history?
I found a table of the cost of lighting per million lumen hours in the UK in British Pounds for the period 1301 to 2006.
In 1301 The estimated cost of lighting for one million lumen hours was £33,042.9 whereas in 2006, the cost was ƒ2.89 per one million lumen hours. Oddly, the cost in 1301 had rocketed to £40,820.58.
Take a look for yourself at this page from DER SPIEGEL/Statista, where you can read:
"One hour of light (referred to as the quantity of light shed by a 100 watt bulb in one hour) cost 3,200 times as much in 1800 in England as it does today, amounting to 130 Euros back then (or a little more than 150 dollars). In 1900, it still cost 4 euros (close to 5 dollars). In the year 2000, we arrived at a cost of 4 euro cents (5 US cents)."
The following chart shows how much work we have to do to be able to switch the lights on: one second now, 400 hours in 1750 BC!
You will find more statistics at Statista
Fascinating stuff!
DW
I last flew on an Air Malawi aeroplane in the middle of 1993 as I finished a five year posting to the University of Malawi in Blantyre. They had bought two new planes shortly before I left the country but I flew on neither of them. I flew on the BAC111 and the turbo prop plane that used to frighten me to death as it bounced around the skies!
Today I will fly from Lusaka in Zambia to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania via Lilongwe in Malawi on Malawian Airlines.
I am looking forward to seeing how Malawi Airlines has changed things in the last 23 years and I can see from the web that they fly some smart planes now. My plane today will be the Dash 8 Q400, for both legs of the journey ...
Dash 8 Q400
And here, a Boeing 737-700:
Boeing 737-700
I have seen a Boeing 747 in Air Malawi livery but I don't see that plane on their web site now where they say they have just the two planes you see above.
See you there and muli bwanji in advance!
DW
Visitors to this Blog come from all over the world and all are equally welcome. I abhor what has happened to George Floyd and I stand in solidarity behind the movement for greater peace and equality
27th October 2020: Logit regression is the order of the day today. If you are using 0 and 1 style dummy variables in a regression model then you need to read my page on this subject and then experiment with the four examples in my Excel file, also downloadable.
5th October 2020: As is often the way with this blog, there are no posts for a while and then three posts come along in three days. This time, I am sharing my PowerPoint Slide Deck that shows how to get Excel materials into a PowerPoint Presentation. There are probably a few more ways than you thought possible.
4th October 2020: I have significantly updated my page on Gantt Charts. This makes the page easier to read and it demonstrates the use of Microsoft 365 and not a much older version of Excel. There is an Excel file to download with the page, too.
3rd October 2020: Covid-19 has brought out the idea of exponential growth and yet the term is being abused. I have created a page called Exponential that illustrates some of the Covid-19 data and contrasted that with an Exponential modelling template. There is a video to go with this page and an Excel file.
22nd August 2020: Dates in Excel can be a right royal PITA, can't they. Here is a sorry tale with a happy ending. Dates downloaded that were formatted either as General or Date ... both formats in the same column. Read here how to solve such a problem.
31st July 2020: Today I did something really interesting with Data Tables/Dynamic Array Functions. I was answering question about compound interest and then decided to answer it by using a Data Table and then I used the new SEQUENCE() function, a dynamic Array Function, too. That gave me three different ways of answering the question.
I tried an experiment and bulk copied some of my work from Quora ... bad idea as they all copied over as pages and had no title ... not helpful.
16th June 2020: There is no page on this blog for this, just follow this link for a fantastic Excel resource. There are links that are good for Excel and links that point out weaknesses and dangers of Excel. As far as I know, all links are free of charge and be ready, some of the links are dead now.
5th June 2020: as promised, I have uploaded some specimen materials to my course outline page for my online courses. See the link in the 30th May entry ... my slides and my working Excel file. More to follow soon.
30th May 2020: I have been busy over the past month running online classes for a client and they have gone very well. The course was an Introduction to Financial Modelling and was a comprehensive guide to many of the tools available in Excel as well as reviews of modelling best practice and many other insights along the way. Here is my course outline and invitation to attend my other offerings online. I will be sharing some of my course materials here over the next few week and that will help you to make your decision to attend or miss out!
27th April 2020: the RANDARRY() is a huge leap forward for random number generation in Excel. I have created an extensive review of how to use the function here.
26th April 2020: The GESTEP function ... you use it every day, right? Me neither. I had never heard of it until an hour ago, so I created an example to show what it is and how it can work. Go to my page here.
22nd March 2020: Along with many other Excel bloggers, I am spending a lot of time on making Excel the go to software to gather, store and communicate the covid-19 data. I have done something that no one else is doing, again. I am demonstrating how to turn text into tables, pivot tables and pivot charts. You will hardly believe it's possible but you can see what I did and then download my Excel file and do it yourself. This will take you time to learn and set up but it takes just a minute a day to update. Here is my page on Data From Text
17th March 2020: If you are Irish, have as happy a St Paddy's Day as you can! Otherwise, two pages on the Append function in Power Query. Brilliant pages for everyone with page two being relatively advanced.
7th March: This is a treat for anyone who is using Power Query and needs some relatively advanced insights into using them to create Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts, when using Connection Only Queries. There is neither video nor Excel file but the page is so good and has such good graphics that the keen reader will not mind that they are not here! Go to this page ... Pivot Table for a Connection Only Query?
6th March: [Data.Format.Error]We couldn't convert to number ... If you ever receive this error message when creating a Query in Excel or Power BI, you might find there is not enough help on the internet to help you ... until now! Read this page for the solution.
5th March 2020: this is a moderately interesting problem you might come across. See the page entitled Percentages Disappeared from Power Query to see what can happen when Excel chooses the wrong Data Type for you. It also shows you how to correct that mistake.
3rd March 2020: this is epic! Sorting a Pivot Table by TWO columns. It cannot be done ... until you find Helgi and www.stackoverflow.com and she helps you to achieve the impossible. Read on!
7th February 2020: Here is a fascinating article: fascinating for two reasons. Reason one is that I have used some of the latest new Excel functions, RANDARRAY() AND XLOOKUP(). Reason two is that I caught someone out in a porky pie by means of programming a spradsheet. Go and have a look at Infinite Monkey or Porky Pie. You will also learn about the infinite monkey theorem while you are there!
23rd January 2020: I have previously written three pages on Sparklines and here is a fourth: it's fascinating and so easy to do. However, if Sparklines are new to you, do note the links to the other three pages at the bottom of the page of this latest post. Have fun with Sparklines! Sparklines with the Camera Tool.
16th January 2020: I started this blog in 2011 and since then, this is where you all come from ... a map showing where my blog is viewed from and I have highlighted the top ten countries. Looks like I cover the world!
This is where YOU are!
15th January 2020: You know that I am a regular contributor to www.quora.com. A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to open and use what they call a Space: it's essentially a blog inside Quora. You will see that I put things there that could easily go here. So, do yourself a favour by following this link and signing up with me there as well as here ... meaning you will miss nothing!
5th January 2020: Happy new year to everyone, first of all! Here is something you might not have seen yet. If you take a look at the Review Ribbon in your version of Excel you might see something new: in the Proofing section on the left of the ribbon there is something called Workbook Statistics ... click on it and see what it tells you about the file you are currently in. Is it useful? Will you use it? Who will use it? Also today, I have added a new page, on the very important topic of Accessibility in Excel: that page is here
12th December 2019: A video ... a video and a file to download. How to use a checklist to solve the problem of dirty data. It's a smaller problem than I have dealt with before, so we did not need to use Power Query. Still, solving these problems is a skills that we all need. The file is here where the video and Excel file are waiting for you!
6th December 2019: Today's contribution to this blog is a page I have written on the XOR function. This is something of an odd function since I don't think I have seen it in action. Never mind that, it is not difficult to use and understand and there are clearly many uses for it. As a bonus, I have included the ISODD() and ISEVEN() functions in this article and, hot on the heels of yeseterday's post on IF, IFS and CHOOSE, this is a totally topical page! You can find the page here and there is an Excel file to download, too.
5th December 2019: If you have ever wondered about the use of Nested IF, IFS and CHOOSE, look no further because I just created a page for you. Two of the examples are easy and the third example is much more of a challenge. Go here to see the page https://excelmaster.co/nested-if-ifs-and-choose/
5th November 2019 For the benefit of all Brits ... have a happy and safe Bonfire Night. Secondly, look out for my NEW page, Quora Questions. Just scroll down from here and you will see the heading, just click it to open and read what I am doing. Simple concept with some very useful ideas.
26th September 2019: I have created this page to show how I went from an image on a web page, via OCR software, to a relatively sophiticated Excel file creation that uses Data Types ... Stocks, Excel Tables, Pivot Tables, Conditional Formatting and more.
13th September 2019: a fantastic page on corporate bonds and their analysis. How to program a table using dates, the IF(), AND(), MONTH(), YEAR() functions and arithmetical calculations. If you find difficulty using dates, consider this page.
11th September 2019: a friendly introduction to the setting up and use of a Training/Testing Model in Excel. It is an introduction but it is a good one. The page does not, however, carry out any detailed analysis of the validity of the model you will read about. The data are real and you can replicate what I have done very easily. The page is here.
22nd August 2019: As you all know, this site is free of charge and always will be. Every now and again, I announce something like the publication of one of my books. Sometimes my books are not free of charge because they are professionally published. Whilst that is true of my latest book, it IS free of charge, at least for a while. The title of the book is EXCEL POWER QUERY, AN INTRODUCTION: BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE PART I.Click on the title to go to the site where you can download it free of charge.
1st August 2019: I have already created two pages (Flash Fill, Flash Fill and Quick Analysis) on Flash Fill, both for Excel and for Power Query and here is another one. In this case, I am introducing even more ideas on how Flash Fill (FF) can be used very effectively. Firstly, by using FF to extract, combine, extract and combine; and secondly, I watched a video of a highly respectable Excel practitioner who tried to sell us the idea that there are times when FF is just not good enough and neither is Power Query: in that case, he said, use a formula ... he demonstrated a relatively complex formula. The formula worked but I am showing here that that presenter is wrong and that FF will do exactly what we want without programming anything.
14th July 2019: A different approach but the same quality. I have just posted my latest two videos to YouTube. Video 1 is about Flash Fill and Quick Analysis in Excel. Video 2 is about Flash Fill in Power Query and Quick Analysis in Excel. The aim is to illustrate how it is possible, even with dirty data, to create a basic dashboard within 10 minutes! Video 1 ... Video 2
19th June 2019: BOOKS ... Since I was last here, I have completed writing two books on Excel and I will announce publication details here when I have them. The first book is the fourth in my Excel Solutions for Accountants series and the second book is the first in the series on Power Query, Power Pivot, Power BI. These books are the only things I talk about here that are not free of charge.
CASES ... in addition to books, I create case studies and for courses I am running at the moment, I am sharing four such cases with you, in a PDF file. There are two cases on financial analysis, one case on budgeting for buying and running a private jet and a case on exchange rates. Look at the page to see the outline of each case and what you need to know about Excel to work through them.
5th May 2019: If you are serious about learning VLOOKUP in the Power Query and Power Pivot environments, look no further. I have created two videos, one of PQ and one for PP to help you. Just go to this page and take a look at my detailed explanations.
20th March 2019: One file, two videos. This page outlines what I did after downloading some World Health Organisation data on DTP3 vaccinations (Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis), covering the period 1980 to 2017. From a health point of view, what you see here is fantastic. From an Excel point of view, what you see is intermediate level but there are enough features illustrated to make it well worth your while to take a look at it! The page is here
6th March 2019: This page ends with an Excel file but it is really a discussion of how I created some Power BI files that I then used to create the Excel files by copying M Language code from one to another. What I describe here is magical and I have used the departures and arrivals information for both of Bangkok's two international airports as the basis of my work. The page you want is here and there are two bare bones Excel files to download ... Word Press will not allow me to share Power BI files, I am sorry to say.
15th February 2019: Let's watch a video! I have created a video showing you how to use Data Types Stocks to pull in share prices, Beta values, market capitalisations of potentially thousands of different companies from around the world. There is a video to watch and a spreadsheet to download. The page is here: Data Types ... Stocks
7th February 2019: I know you have read my pages on Sparklines and therefore you know how clever they can be and how you can format the cells they are in, you can add text/formulas to the cell they are in. Well, now, you are about to learn to use Conditional Formatting Icons in them. As far as I know, you can find this technique nowhere else on the web! Here is the link to the page Sparklines with ICONS
9th January 2019: This is a fabulous page ... not because I am so brilliant but because I have just learned how to combine array constants with a VLOOKUP function. It has been around for years but it just filtered down to me. You can thank me later! Here is the page you need: https://excelmaster.co/vlookup-with-array-constants/
8th January 2019: Happy New Year Everyone. Secondly, the purpose of this update is to share with you my solution to creating a histogram for any one of àbout 90 possible line items in a ratio analysis worksheet. The data relate to Netflix and comprise a ten year view of the ratios that come from the morningstar.com web site. The file also includes my Positive Skewness Test that I have recently started to program and use. There is a file to download too and if you find it useful, please tell me how you are using it. the file is here: https://excelmaster.co/one-histogram-90-choices/
If you'd like my help and guidance on something, just ask and I'll do what I can.
