New Video! - Mean, Median and Mode in this Introductory Presentation

An introduction to measures of central tendency: mean, median and mode. We use Excel to discuss this topic and there are three exercises in this presentation. http://ift.tt/1xS5gnV

New Video! - find & replace

The Find&Replace menu in Excel contains some hidden gems. Things that you might never have seen before. Take a look here to see what you've been missing. http://ift.tt/1JrisW3

New Video! - ctrl+enter with the correlation function in excel

This video shows you how to use the =CORREL() function in Excel with the Ctrl+Enter technique. This is especially useful for Mac users who do not have access to the Data Analysis Toolpak http://ift.tt/1yWlzFO

Death of a Tree

We call it a shelf tree because we don't know its real name. It's a shelf tree because its branches stick out like shelves! Anyway, we bought a nice shelf tree and planted it. We cared for it. The cat learned to climb up it. Then the insects moved in. The tree lost a lot of leaves over a few days we we found the cause: insects. We bought insect spray and the tree revived. Then we noticed a top branch was looking a bit sick but we couldn't get at it. Today I was watering the garden and noticed a lower branch had weakened in the middle and was hanging loose. I told Mrs W and by the time it was time for a break she'd dug around the root and the tree had to go. We huffed and puffed a little bit and got the tree out. Dead branches allright. Sticky blobs on the bark. Holes in the trunk. I investigated one piece and found a lot of 2 mm sized ants inside. two MILLIMETRE ants had killed our 4 - 5 metre tree. When humans have been wiped out, I am sure that ants will rule the world. Here's what's left of our big shelf tree ... there are two smaller ones in the garden and I hope they grow and survive. DW

Hasselback Garlic Potatoes

Ever heard of Hasselback Garlic Potatoes? I just made them ... see my photo. They are very good.

I got the recipe from a friend on Facebook.

DW

Stewart ... Stewart!

Stewart is part of the family and has been since is birth.  He lives with his mother and although his father and brother met untimely deaths,  he seems happy and lively, if a little shy.

Stewart is young but is fully grown: that means he is fit and slim given his adequate diet.

I have to say that I have had misgivings about Stewart for a while now.  You know, when something happens and it's a bit off key. Or someone does something and you wonder,  did they really do that?

It all came to a head this morning for Stewart.  I was just looking out through the dining room window when I saw him and another young lad. They were engaged in the kind of activity that no one should see but between members of the same sex: well, it's just not right.

I didn't feel to be in a position to intervene in any way and the matter was over rather quickly. I did discuss what I saw with Mrs W but she was not so concerned as I was.

After all, Mrs W has been around dogs all her life and Stewart is just another dog as far as she is concerned, gay or straight!

Still, you don't see many gay dogs do you!

DW

First of January 2015

My diary. I have kept a diary since I was 14 years old. I kept all my diaries too and read them every now and again. Some trivial things. Some memorable things. Some sad things, some happy things.

When I moved to Thailand last year I threw away my diaries. Over the last few years I have relied more and more on electronic notes and journal items so my diary had become less important. Still, when my blog service provider disappeared without a trace a few years ago I realised that I need to have a diary strategy which is why I have this blog and it is why I use twitter and to a much lesser extent Facebook.

Like many people I take photos of food and people, buildings, landscapes and animals. I include some of them here from time to time. Here's a photo I took about an hour ago ... mother and two week old calf!

Anyway, I bought a diary for 2015 and I will use it for business rather than personal reasons. I think.

DW

Happy New Year

Hello everyone!

It is 20:35 on 31st December where I am and that means new year celebrations have started or are very shortly about to start somewhere.

I wish all of you a happy and peaceful new year. It is my resolution to post more pages here in the coming year. As you know, I post something as often as I can and I try to ensure everything is of high quality.

I have upgraded my screen capture video production software and intend to create and post more of them.

Do feel free to write to me at any time, by the way: I always reply to my messages and comments.

Best wishes

Duncan Williamson

Happy New Year

Hello everyone!

It is 20:35 on 31st December where I am and that means new year celebrations have started or are very shortly about to start somewhere.

I wish all of you a happy and peaceful new year. It is my resolution to post more pages here in the coming year. As you know, I post something as often as I can and I try to ensure everything is of high quality.

I have upgraded my screen capture video production software and intend to create and post more of them.

Do feel free to write to me at any time, by the way: I always reply to my messages and comments.

Enjoy the photo of the individual cheese cakes I have just made!! And the English trifle that has already been eaten!!

Best wishes

DW

Khan Academy

I am learning all sorts of things this year and will continue next year as well.

One of my sources of learning is the Khan Academy and I recommend it to you for all sorts of things including mathematics … plus science and computing. It’s FREE too!

Here my link to take you there, please take a look.

 

Duncan Williamson

Two Videos … more to come

The menu system on this blog has fallen apart for some reason and until I get it sorted out I will communicate this way as well as through the home page and so on.

Anyway, two new videos in case you missed them that can be found in my OneDrive Public folder

how to create a positive and negative chart/graph. That is, making the positive numbers blue and the negative numbers red … or any colours you wish

Introduction to setting up a Pivot Table and drilling down in a Pivot Table. Pivot Tables are vital for anyone dealing with numbers and analysis and if you haven’t learned them yet … spend about 10 minutes with me.

You should see the respective Excel files there too!

Stop and start these videos as you wish until everything is clear.

 

Duncan Williamson

21st December 2014

Testing the Menus

I am not at all sure of how the menus are working now … testing, testing …

 

Dw

True Kindness

I was buying a diary and postcards in WH Smith in Muscat airport last night and wanted to pay in US Dollars.  It came to $6 and I had a $5 note and a $50 note.

I knew I would get the change in Rivals but I agreed to pay with the $50 note.

I hadn't seen her but suddenly a woman in the queue behind me said, you don't want to break that $50 note and handed over an Oman Rial note.

That was so kind and it has never happened to me before. I thanked her profusely and for the record, English accent.

DW

True Kindness

I was buying a diary and postcards in WH Smith in Muscat airport last night and wanted to pay in US Dollars.  It came to $6 and I had a $5 note and a $50 note.

I knew I would get the change in Rivals but I agreed to pay with the $50 note.

I hadn't seen her but suddenly a woman in the queue behind me said, you don't want to break that $50 note and handed over an Oman Rial note.

That was so kind and it has never happened to me before. I thanked her profusely and for the record, English accent.

DW

Impressive for an Ancient

At the end of today's session one of the delegates said my knowledge and skills are impressive.

Then another one said it's so unusual to see someone so old and aged knowing so much about computers!

Pass the walking frame nurse!

DW

Did you Check the Safe?

These days many hotels have a safe in the room that doesn't work. So itq's sometimes rare for me to put things in a safe but yesterday I did. This morning I got ready for my 6 am departure and checked out.  As I waited for my bill they came and said, your safe is locked, did you forget anything?

Well, I had: money and passport.

Praise their checking system and note that I have never left anything in a safe before.

I am in the taxi to the airport as I write this, sunrise ahead of us; and a five Baht coin has just skittered down the back of my seat. Mega photo!!

Dog Happy. Cat Says Where do you think you've been?

We are on our way home after a three plus week trip. When we arrive, the dog will come to say hello then run around excitedly for a while.

On the other hand, the cat will drift over and give us a look that says ... and where do you think you've been?

DW

Deaf or Super Confident ... Maybe Daft

We are in rather a nice hotel in Dubai and on the first morning we went to breakfast as is our wont. Some very tall men in the restaurant when suddenly one of them boomed in the direction of a fellow diner, Hi ... I was in your country recently ... I was in your parliament. I thought, poor man, he's deaf so the tall man has to shout. Then they stood closer and the tall one mentioned how everything was going really well and how he'd met so and so. We carried on. Tall man then shouted at someone else: another greeting. The whole restaurant and lobby areas heard this greeting. It went on like this. Then there was a lull until someone else arrived and saw tall man, who was now hovering over one of the food serving areas ... The new arrival asked tall man, how are you and how's things? Tall man replied, for us all to hear, good, good, good (machine gun style) goooooooooooooooooooooooood ... that final good lasted two seconds if not three. Then he announced he was very hungry but running late: may be an entreaty not to talk to him and leave him alone? Super confident? More front than Selfridges or really rather shy? These people inhabit the planet and of course he could be a really good man with a string of achievements to his name. Why do they shout at each other though? I wish I'd known it was coming and I could have recorded it to share with you! DW

Maputo Done!

I have just finished presenting a course in Maputo, Mozambique,  entitles Accounting and Finance Principles for the Oil and Gas Industry.  The evaluations from the delegates were good with many 10 of 10, 9 out of 10 and 8 out of 10. Of v ourselves,  there was one delegate who was not satisfied but she was just one of 18.

I saw a little bit of the city on the way back to the airport as I had to find A a Western Union branch so that I could send some money home. I did it! It started with the driver having a long confab with a hotel porter as to where I wanted to go. I thought, he doesn't speak English and he's never heard of WU.

We set off and could not find the WU shown on the map. The driver's English was excellent now and he was very helpful.

I saw an exchange place, we stopped, I got out, dashed over there and found there was WU in IBM bank. We found a branch and I went in. The receptionist said our conversation would be difficult because of her poor English but she was being modest. She came with me to talk to the driver and explain where the IBM bank branch was which did have WU inside and we found it.

It seemed like a lifetime of filling in and signing papers, all for about 60 quid. WU took 20% by way of a fee. Thieves. Still, I needed them in this mini emergency.

When I left the building, no mini bus, no driver.  I thought, what the hell do I do now? I moved around a bit and found the van parked behind another van that had stopped at the lights ... I had forgotten that traffic lights are called robots in this part of Africa.

That was it, now we carried on to the airport. Interesting to see the city. All low lying buildings all the way to the airport. Many cars. Pavements. Kerbs.

Maputo do be!  A good few days. I chatted to a young Peace Corps volunteer who had just finished his stint in irrigation up country. Good luck to him.

I'm Doing it

I know you're asking, where are you?

I am here and working and in the next couple of days there will be a post on monthly as opposed to annual financial ratio analysis, on THREE ways to solve simultaneous equations using Excel methods including array formulas and SOLVER and more.

So, where have I been? I've been to a graveyard. My Macbook Pro graveyard.  It died on me at a really inconvenient time, taking a backup drive with it, causing me massive inconvenience and waste of time.

Something seems to have overheated and burned out and having bought a replacement Windows laptop, the Macbook will have no more money spent on it. Dead. Bereft of life. It is no more.

My macbook journey was enlightening but I will not be repeating the experience: they are premium products with a premium price and I have reverted to my cheaper strategy of buying something decent and serviceable that doesn't need a mortgage to buy it.

So, watch out for the updates.