Thoughts and Ramblings

General things I find of interest.

Why I Hate Microsoft Software

So, I occasionally get asked why I hate Microsoft software so much, and today was a great example of my rationale. I was working with a tremendous amount of data within Excel. Due to how the data was generated, I actually needed the transpose of the data in the spreadsheet. I spent nearly an hour trying to find the transpose function which used to be in the “Paste Special” function, but now appears to have been removed.

Posted by Thoughts and Ramblings on Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Digital TV Delay

As I am sure many are aware, the digital TV changeover has been delayed. Several broadcasters elected to change to their digital transmissions on Feb 17th anyway, while others delayed. So what are the results of this delay? While I was at my parents’ in the country, I did a quick scan of the analog and digital transmissions. My parents are about an hour or hour and a half drive away from two large cities, and before Feb 17th, they could only receive one station in digital (because it was more local).

Posted by Thoughts and Ramblings on Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Bad DVD Packaging

The Simpsons has packaged their season DVDs in unusual ways before, but the eleventh season takes the cake in being both cheap and destructive to the media. The DVDs are wedged in between two pieces of cardboard so tightly that one has to pinch it with two fingers to pull it out, scratching the disk’s surface in the process. What possessed these people to be so callous with delicate media? Do they secretly hope you destroy the disk and have to buy a new one?

Posted by Thoughts and Ramblings on Monday, January 5, 2009

Fighting with Sync by Microsoft

My Grandfather just bought a new pickup, which he enjoyed showing to the rest of the family. Since Ford spent months trying to fulfill his order, he was about to give up when the dealership found a vehicle similar to what he wanted, but included several features he did not want, and thus didn’t pay for. (With behavior like this, no wonder the auto companies are failing, but that’s another discussion).

Posted by Thoughts and Ramblings on Sunday, December 28, 2008

How to Not Recruit

A few weeks ago, the Student Engineers’ Council held their Career Fair, which they do every semester. Basically, hundreds of companies reserve a table in an attempt to find people to fill their positions. In the many career fairs I have attended, I have notice a few different method of recruitment. Collect as many resumes as possible, moving on to the next person as quickly as possible. Direct the person to apply for a job on their website.

Posted by Thoughts and Ramblings on Wednesday, October 22, 2008