PLEASE READ IF YOU PROGRAM: Help Continue Visual Basic

[aaron.kempf]

spreadsheets dont use DATA

databases use DATA.

spreadsheets use NUMBERS. copy and paste is obsolete, kid.

olap doesn't take 'a lot of time to generate'.

offline cubes--- included with excel-- are some of the most exciting
things in the world.
i just claim that keeping your DATA in a DATABASE and using OLAP (and
PivotTables of course) allows us to automate you out of a job.

You guys dont need to sit around making the same XLS week in and week
out.

We make webpages that do all the work; and you can still drag and drop
fields around.

I just dont like having 100 copies of the same formula. I dont like
having 1000 copies of the same XLS. I mean-- it's not an efficient way
to do anything.

-Aaron

 

[Harlan Grove]

(e-mail address removed) wrote...

spreadsheets dont use DATA

databases use DATA.

spreadsheets use NUMBERS. copy and paste is obsolete, kid.

So numbers aren't data? Or data includes information other than
numbers? If the latter, you're not aware that spreadsheets can contain
text?

olap doesn't take 'a lot of time to generate'.

Not the impression I've gotten reading web pages, but I have no
first-hand experience.

offline cubes--- included with excel-- are some of the most exciting
things in the world.
i just claim that keeping your DATA in a DATABASE and using OLAP (and
PivotTables of course) allows us to automate you out of a job.

....

Aside from the small fact that pivot tables only perform simple
calculations. Until you show you know how to do anything other than
count and sum, why would anyone believe you know how to calculate
anything moderately complicated?

I just dont like having 100 copies of the same formula. I dont like
having 1000 copies of the same XLS. I mean-- it's not an efficient way
to do anything.

Apparently you also don't like trying to figure out how to calculate
the inverse or determinant of a matrix stored in a database. It's been
a few weeks, where's your code? Or do you just find it easier to rant &
rant & rant?

 

[aaron.kempf]

pivotTables with a super-dooper backend can do better math faster than
you can

and again, for the record.. all math--- anywhere in the world-- breaks
down into simple operators
i mean.. SQL is more powerful than excel.. it can handle real-life
datasets.

it can index.

it can recover. you can back it up.

and you can make ONE report for 100 different customers instead of 100
spreadsheets for 100 different customers.

I mean-- it's all about the big picture of thigns; do you want to cut
and copy and paste all day every day, the same data again and again and
again?

i just have seen-- firsthand-- a hundred situations where people have
ugly ugly XLS infections; and the only thing to do is to throw it all
away and start from scratch.

with databases, you have a migration path-- you can grow a database
from Access to SQL.. or from Access or Oracle; or whatever you want to
do.

What do you do when you have an XLS that is too complex, heavy to fit
inside of Excel anymore??

YOU HAVE TO REWRITE IT FROM SCRATCH


-aaron

 

[Harlan Grove]

pivotTables with a super-dooper backend can do better math faster than
you can

OK, use a PivotTable to invert a matrix. Just show us the details.

There's a remote chance databases can perform arithmetic faster than
spreadsheets (unlikely though). However, if LIKE YOU some poor naive user
knows squat all about how to string arithmetic operations together to, say,
invert matrices, then wouldn't it be faster just to use Excel's MINVERSE
rather than spend weeks ranting and not performing? Of course that assumes
said poor naive user wants to do something useful UNLIKE YOU.

and again, for the record.. all math--- anywhere in the world-- breaks
down into simple operators

True. All it takes is knowing how to string those simple operations
together. Something you evidently DON'T know how to do.

i mean.. SQL is more powerful than excel.. it can handle real-life
datasets.

it can . . .

apparently do anything EXCEPT the matrix operations I've asked you to do. So
is SQL deficient or is Aaron deficient or both? The world may never know
about SQL, but in your case the answer is clear.

What do you do when you have an XLS that is too complex, heavy to fit
inside of Excel anymore??

YOU HAVE TO REWRITE IT FROM SCRATCH

Not necessarily. If it's doing a lot of data management, then it's time to
put the data management into a database. But it it's calculation-intensive,
databases aren't necessarily the way to go. SAS, S-Plus or R, maybe, or
MatLab.

 

[aaron.kempf]

hahahahahhaha

you really are funny.. you know that?

you honestly think that poeple need to use Excel with PERL or SAS

you're a friggin crackhead harlan
matlab.. shit kid..

yeah.. you're right.. i mean.. databases can't possibly handle the hard
math; what in the hell was i thinking

shhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttt harlan

spreadsheets are for babies and all you excel dorks should be drinking
wine out of a brown bag; living on the streets.

 

[Harlan Grove]

(e-mail address removed) wrote...
....

you honestly think that poeple need to use Excel with PERL or SAS

Where did I mention 'with'? Instead of Excel. In terms of calculations,
there's nothing Excel can do that complete stats packages can't do,
including arbitrary optimization like Solver (and, more simplistically,
IRR). Myself, I can live without SAS, but if I need to work on my
company's mainframe, SAS is unavoidable. But I could see using R for
calculation-intensive models that have outgrown Excel. Never used
MatLab, so I can't comment on it.

you're a friggin crackhead harlan
matlab.. shit kid..

Should have realized. Out-of-the-box Access can do anything MatLab can
do faster and more easily, but you just don't have the time to scrape
together any VBA code for Access to calculate, say, matrix inverses or
determinants.

yeah.. you're right.. i mean.. databases can't possibly handle the hard
math; what in the hell was i thinking

....

Databases that can access outside modules or DLLs maybe could handle
complicated math. Heck, all it'd take in Access would be instantiating
an Excel application instance and using its WorksheetFunction.MInverse
property.

On the other hand, you yourself are incapable. Using a metaphor, a 747
can travel from LA to NYC faster than a bike, but as you're too
clueless to get a 747 off the ground, a bike would be the better
vehicle for YOU. In other words, if YOU have no clue how to string
together the simple arithmetic operations needed, it doesn't really
matter how powerful and capable your database may be, YOU ain't getting
it to produce the required results.

More rants, no code. What we've come to expect from you.

 

[aaron.kempf]

you're the one that's driving the bike kid

with one flat tire; and a limit range of 65535 feet.

lol


i just dont agree with you at all harlan. all of your super-duper
complex math is easily broken down into plus, sum-- those types of
functions.
and Access IS more extensible than Excel. That is the reason i live
and die by access.

I automate more for breakfast than you have in your whole life.



-Aaron

 

[Harlan Grove]

you're the one that's driving the bike kid

I'll take me driving the bike over you *SITTING* in the airplane with your
head up your ass clueless about what to do next so just shouting as loud as
possible.

i just dont agree with you at all harlan. all of your super-duper
complex math is easily broken down into plus, sum-- those types of
functions.

....

So show us how you'd use those simple operations to invert matrices.

It's simple for me because I know enough to use appropriate tools. It seems
to be impossible for you because the only thing you do on the rare instances
when you pull your head back out into the sunshine all you can do is rant.

 

[aaron.kempf]

uh.. id just make a matrix and invert it

select 1/@myvalue

lol

i just think that it's hilariuous.. you seriously have this idea that
your math is 'too complex for a database'

you're not arguging that it's too complex for access.. you're not
arguging that it's too complex for SQL.. you're not arguing that the
math that you 'DO'-- by remembering the NAME of a function (ROFL) is
too complex

shit.. what do you eat for breakfast, a bullshit sandwich??

 

[Harlan Grove]

uh.. id just make a matrix and invert it

select 1/@myvalue

Brilliant! Aaron can invert 1x1 matrices!

How about the 4x4 matrix I posed a few weeks ago?

i just think that it's hilariuous.. you seriously have this idea that
your math is 'too complex for a database'

Too complex for (rather, ill suited to) SQL queries, yes.

And evidently way too hard for you.

 

[Harlan Grove]

You'll appreciate this. Your worst nightmare about to come true.

http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2005/11/30/498747.aspx#comments

 

[aaron.kempf]

technically; it means that excel is entering the 20th century-- as in
this puts this in about the same league as access was in 1900.

access can spit shit out to a webpage in about 100 different ways. I
mean-- it's all about being able to consume your data in other apps
keeping it from excel to sharepoint to sharepoint to excel-- what's the
frigging point kids

keep your data in a database; you can CONSUME your data in 100
different places