TechByter Worldwide

If you enjoy today's article, please share it!

Program Date: 13 Jan 2013

Microsoft Office 2013: Excel

Last week I began a series of reports on the new version of Microsoft Office. Released to manufacturing late last year, it will be on store shelves by the end of the first quarter. If you're a manufacturer or a member of Microsoft TechNet, you may already have a copy of Office 2013 and, if not, you can download the preview version that will work until the final version is released. I've been using the release version since last October and some of the refinements, particularly in Word, are most welcome but Microsoft gave Excel users some new toys, too.

Flash Fill is probably the most interesting of the new features and it shows how applications can be made to recognize patterns. In previous versions, users could write a function to split data from a single column into multiple columns. With Excel 2013, the process has changed so that the user can just show Excel what the result should be.

For example, if you've received a file that has several bits of information in a single column, you can fill in the appropriate values on a single line and then have Excel complete the process for the entire list. That's one of the capabilities that Microsoft illustrates in this video:

Source: Microsoft

To someone like me, this might appear to be a solution in search of a problem because if somebody sends me a messy file with multiple values in the same field, I'll probably fix the problem before importing it into Excel for analysis. That, however, might involve the use of sed, grep, or awk on a Linux system. It's probably fair to say that most people who depend on Excel have limited familiarity with sed, grep, and awk so this new capability is particularly welcome.

I'm a words person more than an numbers person but more than that, I'm an information person. Any program that makes sharing information easier is welcome and increasingly Excel is less about simple number crunching and more about information analysis.

Selecting the Right Chart

All too often, when Excel users want to create a chart that will illustrate the underlying meaning of data on a spreadsheet, they choose a chart type that's pretty instead of one that accurately reflects the data. Excel 2013 attempts to improve this situation. Although it's not always right, the program's selections at least can put the user on a reasonable track.

Select some data and hover the mouse over the selection. Excel will suggest chart types that match the underlying data. Additionally, Excel displays a message that explains why it selected the chart type.

Subtle animations are part of Excel, too, and these can help users understand what's happening. In earlier version of Excel, changing underlying data caused a linked chart to update but the change was instantaneous. In the 2013 version, the change animates and this calls attention to the change.

Or click a cell in a spreadsheet. The highlight doesn't just appear but it seems to flow into place. This is another way that this version of Excel uses animation to improve the user experience.

These interface changes may strike some as silly but I've found them to be helpful and definitely not silly.

The old adage about Microsoft products (and, truthfully, about products from most other publishers) is "Help doesn't." People will probably still say that but Microsoft is making that sentiment harder to express honestly. Diagnostic messages are better

A new add-in can seek out errors and inconsistencies between related worksheets. No matter how much of an Excel power user you are, it's still easy to introduce inconsistencies.

Overall, I think they have a winner here.

Will Your Applications Work with Windows 8?

Some earlier versions of Windows (particularly Vista) had a great deal of trouble running some applications and using certain hardware. Windows 7 eliminated many of the incompatibilities and Windows 8 has eliminated more. Even so, not everything works with Windows 8. The good news, though, is that if your hardware and software work with Windows 7 they will probably work with Windows 8. Key term: “probably”.

If you’d like to give yourself better odds, check Microsoft’s Compatibility Center to see for sure. The site has options that will allow you to check for compatibility with Windows 7, Windows RT, and Windows 8.

Windows RT runs on the low-powered Surface tablets or, as Microsoft describes them, the “thin and light PCs which have extended battery life and are designed for life on the go.” If you buy an RT device, it won’t run any of the legacy applications that you may currently run on a notebook or a desktop system. There are tablets that run the standard Windows 8 operating system and those will run applications such as Word, Photoshop, and Firefox.

Instead of using the Compatibility Center, you might want to try the Upgrade Assistant. It will scan your computer and create a report that lists any incompatible hardware or software. Additionally, the Upgrade Assistant provides guidance on any changes that might be needed to run existing applications.

Older applications, such as those written for Windows XP (keep in mind that XP was released in August 2001, more than 11 years ago) may be a problem. Some of these applications expected to have more permissions than modern operating systems will give them. The Windows Program Compatibility Troubleshooter can locate these problems and provide the guidance you need to run the program with enhanced permissions.

In many cases, you can simply upgrade device driver software for video cards and audio subsystems and they’ll work just find under Windows 8. In fact, the Windows update process is frequently able to find and install new device drivers without any effort on your part. Small updates called patches are available for many applications to improve their Windows 8 compatibility. Checking the software publisher’s website for a free update is an important step.

Although you might be able to trick an antique program into running under Windows 8 by running it under the Administrator account or having Windows 8 tell the application that it’s actually running on an earlier version of the operating system, you may also want to consider upgrading some of the applications you use. A 10-year-old application will be missing about as many features as a 1943 Studebaker.

If you really must run an old application and you can’t find a way to convince Windows 8 to play nice with it, it’s time to use the big hammer: Run it on a virtual machine. Windows 8 includes Hyper-V and and when you enable it you'll be able to run an older version of Windows in addition to Windows 8. For information on how to set this up, see the Hyper-V article on the Microsoft TechNet site.

When Things Go Wrong

I thought that I was channeling Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manor last week. Ever since the computer update in November, I've been seeing an intermittent problem that usually occurs when I'm trying to RIP a DVD, burn a DVD, or occasionally even play a DVD. The problem didn't have much of a signature and I couldn't reliably reproduce it. As a result, it wasn't possible to determine a cause. Hardware? Software? Operating system? Some combination. On Thursday, 3 Jan 2013, we found out.

Last week's podcast was without the standard opening, the closing credits, or the little musical bridges called "bumpers". At the time, I said that I would explain why and this is that explanation.

Thursday evening I was writing the final bits of the weekly program when the Dreamweaver stopped responding to the mouse or the keyboard. Using the Task Manager, I terminated Dreamweaver and started it again only to have the same thing happen. Some text was open in UltraEdit Studio, a text editor, and the same thing happened. I tried Notepad; same thing. Excel; same thing. I could open programs but they would all stall in a way that was reminiscent of what happened with DVDs.

So, thinking that something was amiss with system memory, I decided to reboot the computer. Windows 8 shuts down quickly but this time it didn't. After 10 minutes, I simply shut off the power. In the first few weeks after the computer upgrade, this would occasionally cause the solid-state boot drive to disappear only to reappear, eventually. A firmware update fixed that problem.

But this time when I tried to boot the system, all I got was a flashing cursor. This is an unmistakable sign that the boot drive is missing. And this time it didn't come back. Not in an hour, not in a day, not in two days. You might consider this to be a disaster but it was actually good news. Now we had a clearly identifiable hard failure. Intermittent problems must be identified before they can be fixed. Hard failures eliminate all the guesswork.

An early version of the week's program was already on the website. All of the changes I had just added were in a text file on an FTP site. Although the same files would have been on my local hot backup drives, I decided that it would be faster to redo the last updates on the laptop computer even though none of the podcast production files were there.

In the spirit of "the show must go on", I completed the writing on Thursday and then went on to record the program on Friday. The site had several inconsistencies such as some pages with the 2012 theme, which looks a lot like the 2013 theme—so nobody called me on that. But I had to hand-code a complicated section that controls the podcast. It took only 4 tries to get it right. The link to the "current" program calls "current.html" but the 2013 update uses "current.php". In the time available, I couldn't modify the template so I replaced the code in current.html with code that redirects to current.php.

On Saturday, I dropped off the computer and an external hard drive with an old image of the boot drive at TCR in Pickerington. I had planned to update the C image on 5 January but that never happened. This week's program is also being written on the notebook computer but now I've hooked up the hot backup drives and an external monitor. I've discussed the importance of backup previously but there's also the need for a recovery plan.

Click for a larger view.Backup doesn't really help in this case. Everything is fully backed up but I needed to continue working while the primary computer was in the shop. A notebook computer and the hot backup drives make that possible. By Saturday I had located a cable that would allow me to use one of the large monitors with the notebook computer and fortunately Windows 8 makes it possible to designate the external monitor (on the left) as the primary monitor and to use the notebook's screen as the extension.

TechByter Update Delayed

The technical problems also caused some delays in updating the TechByter Worldwide website. Last week's program used the new format but the non-program pages (the index page, the contact page, and such) still had the 2012 format applied. The e-mail link initially pointed to the wrong page until I set a temporary redirect for that page.

By Sunday I had been able to cobble together the remaining pieces and get them uploaded. What I expected to be a 10-minute task on Saturday morning turned out to be a 90-minute chore on Sunday afternoon.

As of the recording date for this week's program, I've migrated everything needed to produce the show from backup drives to the notebook computer and I'm even using a spiffy new device that makes it possible to record directly into Adobe Audition instead of to a digital recorder. By next week, everything should be fully back to normal.

Short Circuits

Newsweek: The End. Newsweek: The Beginning.

Remember when the nation had 3 weekly news magazines: Time, Newsweek, and US News & World Report? Only one of these will continue, after today, as a weekly print publication. As much as I like having the ability to read news publications online, I regret that we are losing the print editions. Time remains. US News and World Report has been shrinking for years. And, of course, Newsweek is now gone.

Starting in June 2008, US News and World Report reduced its publication frequency — first from weekly to biweekly, then to monthly, and finally (in November 2010) to online only effective in January 2011. USN&WR will still publish special issues in print on colleges, hospitals, and personal finance but the regular weekly magazine is gone.

The 31 December 2012 version of Newsweek was the last print copy and it will join US News as an online-only news publication. Yes, I know that this will mean tighter deadlines. Yes, I know that the killer for print operations is the cost of printing and distributing paper copies. Yes, I know that what I'll see on the screen will be higher quality than what I will see on paper. But I will still miss the print edition.

Click for a larger view.I believe that it was Newsweek, many years ago, when a new emperor was crowned in Japan, that included a message from the editor describing the process by which a photographer in Japan had used a digital camera to record an image from the scene. The image had been sent via modem (the Internet wasn't yet available outside the military) and had been processed for the magazine cover. When the magazine arrived in homes on Monday or Tuesday, the photo was there. Remarkable!

But today if a baby is born in Tokyo, the parents can sent a photo to relatives in New York, Chicago, and Bangalore. The photo will arrive in seconds and will be far higher in quality than those long-ago photos of the emperor. Times change.

Windows 8 is Selling, Microsoft Says

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that Windows 8 is in use on 60 million computers. The operating system has been on sale for about 10 weeks. If not outstanding, the number is at least a respectable start for Microsoft's new track.

When Windows 7 was launched in 2009, adoption rates were lower than those seen for Windows 8. In other words, those who are leading the "Windows 8 Will Fail" chorus seem to be being proved wrong.

Windows 7 averaged about 20 million sales per month in the first 9 months it was available. 10 weeks is about 2.5 months so dividing 60 million by 2.5 gives monthly sales of about 24 million copies. That's about 4 million copies per month more than Windows 7.

Some of the orders, of course, will be bulk purchases by OEMs for new computers. Microsoft has also generally been unwilling to talk about sales of its Surface tablets but only the lower-power RT version is currently available for sale. Tablets that run the full version of Windows 8 are available from other manufacturers, though.

Security Officials Blame Bank Hacks on Iran

The United States and Israel have launched several cyber-attacks against Iran, some aimed at the nation's banks and others at Iran's nuclear program. Now it seems to be payback time.

You may have noticed that your bank's site has been extraordinarily slow or even unavailable. Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks have been staged against several US banks including Bank of America, Branch Banking and Trust, Capital One, Citigroup, Fifth Third Bank, HSBC, PNC, US Bancorp, and Wells Fargo.

What's unusual about these attacks is that they appear to be coming from data center servers instead of from individual computers. This increases both the complexity and the threat level considerably and the consensus among security official is that the attackers are based in Iran even though another group, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters, has claimed to have pulled off the attacks.

The StuxNet virus attack that destroyed some of the equipment used by Iran's nuclear program has been definitively shown to have come from Israel and several other attacks are believed to have been joint US-Israel operations.

The bank attacks began in September of last year and are continuing. Ratcheting the problem up a few notches is the fact that the attackers' DDoS attacks use encryption, which makes each request in the flood more time consuming for the server that's under attack.

Google's Eric Schmidt Calls for Open Internet Access in North Korea

Google's Eric Schmidt was in North Korea this past week on a mission led by former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. It's billed as a humanitarian mission but at least some of the message is probably unwelcome. Schmidt says North Korea's government should allow more open Internet access. North Korea has an intranet that is available to a limited number of users but Internet access is granted on a case-by-case basis.

The US State Department is unhappy about the visit as is the case whenever Richardson takes a delegation to Pyongyang.

Schmidt toured some of North Korea's computer manufacturers and was shown Samjiyon tablet computers that run the "Red Star" operating system.

Richardson says the delegation's primary message is that a more open society would benefit both North Korea's citizens and its government: Give your people access to the Internet. Allow them to have cell phones.

Richardson's group is also trying to raise awareness about Kenneth Bae, a US citizen who is currently jailed in North Korea as part of an investigation of what the government terms "hostile" acts against the state.