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[Nov. 11th, 2009|04:00 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  working | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Half Truism, The Offspring | ] |
I broke the progress bar!
Well, fancy that. Apparently Excel doesn't like it when you paste 400-odd cells, and then it has to recalculate the entire 30MB spreadsheet. Oops.
-Mmaster |
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[Sep. 16th, 2009|03:23 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Don't Stop Believing, Glee | ] |
In the database tables I'm migrating, "UK" means "Unknown".
One of the departments listed is "USA", and there's no map as to what it translates to.
...It's vaguely entertaining to map "USA" to "UK". Most people think it's the other way around.
-Mmaster |
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[Sep. 1st, 2009|02:38 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Mother And Child Reunion, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes | ] |
Has the definition of "Comma Separated Value" changed while I wasn't looking?
It seems that Excel interprets CSV files as tab delimited by default, even though I can't see any uses of tabs in the entire document.
Sigh...
-Mmaster |
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| Don't worry, I renamed it "@StringLength". |
[Aug. 26th, 2009|04:18 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Callisto, Tom Smith | ] |
Naming an integer variable "@MagicNumber" is probably a bad idea, right?
-Mmaster |
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| One more for the footpath, then we walked home holding hands. |
[Aug. 12th, 2009|08:15 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | To Absent Votes, The Lucksmiths | ] |
Today felt incredibly long. I'm having trouble even remembering what day it is; Wednesday, right?
Plugged my new 1TB hard drive into my hard drive enclosure (with intent to let it format the drive while I was out for the day), only to discover that either the drive or the enclosure is busted and I have very little in the way of finding out which. Sigh. Anyone got an enclosure I could borrow?
Nine o'clock SITP lecture, that didn't really tell us much we didn't already know. Except when / where to meet our tutor.
Ten-thirty tutorial that kind of went in circles as we realised that our respective schedules were hopelessly incompatible.
Two hour brainstorm with SITP team mates that also went kind of in circles, but slightly more productively.
Fifteen minute break in the ProgSoc room chatting to Rob, who was looking very dapper for an interview.
Two hours standing in the photo lab trying to catch up on the stuff that's due Monday. Nothing worked, and then I managed to scratch my negative. :@. Great.
Dropped my photo gear off at ProgSoc, then headed to McDonald's for a quick bite of lunch. By this point, it was nearly 4pm.
Headed to work to complete something Fabian wanted done. Two hours later, finished and headed out the door.
...Also? Still coming off a cold. Just to make the day even better.
...*collapses*
-Mmaster |
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[Aug. 11th, 2009|11:25 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  blah | ] |
| [ | music |
| | We Are Not Alone, Karla DeVito | ] |
Access is... uh... interesting. I don't think I've heard of anyone else use "-1" as the default value for "True", though I suppose it's just a creative interpretation of "0 is false, everything else is true"...
-Mmaster |
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[Jul. 28th, 2009|10:24 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
| [ | music |
| | World Falling Apart, Bowling For Soup | ] |
Everything is fast for small n.
I have a macro that was okay for small n (300 rows - maybe 5 minutes; not efficient, but if you're only going to run it once, it isn't a big deal), but got awful at an n even a little larger (1000 rows - I'm estimating, based on as much as I could stand to watch of the process, 10 hours).
So. Optimisation time!
Step 1A: Toss in the standard "Don't refresh the screen" instructions everywhere.
Step 1B: Discover that the script is still slow, funnily enough.
Step 2: Toss in lots of Print statements to figure out what is taking time that shouldn't. Answer: the macro consists of a set of four sub macros, each of which performs a similar set of operations: empties a series of cells and then inserts updated values. Both steps were unreasonably (and untenably) slow.
Step 3: Change the way the first half of the script operates. Its previous implementation was a loop that goes from i to n and changes the value of three cells in the row to empty to a set of three "Empty this column between x and y cells" operations. Each iteration of the loop (for n iterations) was taking 4 seconds. So this brought this particular step down from a theoretic hour-long task, to a less than one second task. And that type of thing was happening four times! (Hooray for modularisation!)
Obviously, Step 3 had cut out an awful lot of the time taken for the macro to run; but the second task for the script was harder to optimise simply: it's another set of loops (at the most vicious level, three nested loops - two of which are decrementing rather than incrementing), and there's no included functionality that will perform the same sort of task built-in, as far as I know.
So, how to improve the second step?
Step 4: As the macro doesn't rely on progressively updated values (unlike some of my other ones), I simply disabled automatic cell recalculation (and then re-enabled it at the end of the script). Suddenly my multi-hour script takes less than a second. Whoo! Go me!
Bow before glory! ...I detect lack of bowing!
-Mmaster |
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[Jun. 22nd, 2009|03:25 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The King Of Wishful Thinking, New Found Glory | ] |
Amusement! I was checking the syntax of VBA's constants, and this was the first link to come up:
http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=285380
"Is there any way that I can change a constant in VBA?"
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
-Mmaster |
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[Jun. 5th, 2009|03:26 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Sunshine, Evermore | ] |
Whoo, my numbers now agree with each other.
They may or may not be the right numbers, but at least they're now the same numbers!
-Mmaster |
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| We all enjoyed the brutal youth; we'd like it back to tell the truth. |
[May. 7th, 2009|02:25 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  stressed | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Mandy, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes | ] |
I think part of why I'm tired is that I'm fairly stressed. Yes, stress is a part of life, but that doesn't mean I have to like that it is.
Work is chaotic, too many things to do, too little time, sometimes too little communication between the people that want things.
Databases is frustrating; I'm not terribly good at it, and this seems to disappoint the lecturer ("I can't believe you only got 85%!"). Also the fact that Semps got 94 and spent the entire evening whining about it didn't help; or the fact that the other guys got 100 and 101 respectively. Also also that when I try and go to the tute to work on the tasks, he's much more interested in chatting with those who already know how to do it about random stuff instead of helping those who are struggling (though I probably could more actively ask for help). Oh, and the next assignment is supposed to be a group task that those three have banded together for. Whee!
PMP, on the other hand, is typified by the following:
Chris S: PERT Charts are wonderful and useful and brilliant! There are only two reasons that they aren't used any more: One, that they're too big to print, and two, that Microsoft Project does them so badly!
Student: If MS Project can't do PERT charts, what can?
Chris S: I have no idea.
Student body: ...
I've found an open source alternative to MS Project that claims to be able to create PERT charts, which I'm hoping does as well as or better than MS Project. Assuming I can get the damn thing to run - it installed happily but then complained I didn't have some specific version of JRE installed (which doesn't strike me as a good sign).
I get it, planning is good. I have a feeling I'm going to commit murder before I finish the assignment, since I really can't translate it at all. Most of it seems to be database definition.
Does anyone have Visio? Aman sent me his translation of the PERT process, but unfortunately it was a bunch of DOCX's accompanied by a couple of Visio diagrams. I found a copy of Word 2007 to open and print the DOCXs, but now I have some Visio diagrams sitting there taunting me...
Meanwhile, having already done the content Photography is covering, I'm doing well in that - but they do things ever so slightly differently to what I was taught, so I have to resist the temptation to run ahead. Sigh.
And now to play around with that open source app for a bit then maybe try and do some DBP without screaming. I make no guarantees.
-Mmaster |
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| My typing is screwed tonight. I'm guessing exhaustion. |
[May. 4th, 2009|10:22 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Poison, Alice Cooper | ] |
Today felt long. Probably longer than it actually was, but what can you do?
First stop, Basement Books. I was wandering around, trying to find a gift for Jeremy Allen; in all honesty, I don't know him all that well, which made picking something somewhat more difficult (though I had vague recollections of him saying he had a very fast reading speed, which were later backed up). I wound up picking 100 Selected Stories by O Henry; never heard of the author, but I couldn't find any books of quotations, so I figured short stories would give plenty of opportunities to choose. And "classics" are considered good by at least someone.
While I was there, I missed a phone call from Fabian; it turned out that the meeting for work was actually in an entirely different location to where he'd told me previously. I wandered around lost a little, and finally called my father in desperation.
Attended a three hour meeting. Cue varying amounts of arguing about a number of topics.
Had dumplings for lunch with work people at some noodle place on the edge of Chinatown.
Caught a cab over to SVS with work people.
Went to the AH department; since it was quiet when we arrived, I took the opportunity to duck out to visit Jeremy. Spent a half-hour or so chatting with him.
Headed back to AH and helped people with ABC till around 6PM.
Wandered over to one of the pubs near SVS for an after-work drink. Once Aman joined us, we shifted for dinner to the French restaurant across the road.
Unhurried dinner, chatting etc.
Managed to catch a 437 home with no wait.
Got home at 9.30ish to discover the Internet is still capped. Semi-patiently loaded pages, read through them, etc.
It's now quarter to eleven. I'm going to bed.
-Mmaster |
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| No, I didn't actually say it. It was far more tempted than I should have been, though... |
[Apr. 23rd, 2009|06:09 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  irritated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | It's Over, Mest | ] |
"That's about it. Do you have any questions?"
"Why am I here?"
-Mmaster |
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[Apr. 13th, 2009|09:51 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  frustrated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Burn Baby Burn, Ash | ] |
There is something deliciously meta about making a pinball machine for The Who's film Tommy.
Blue Mountains was fine, except for when Chris went to sleep an hour earlier than I did and woke up an hour later than me, and still complained about lack of sleep. And the traffic jams were less than fun - yay for roadworks and accidents.
Canberra is cancelled, because Liz had another commitment she couldn't escape from, nobody else we asked was free, and Chris doesn't want to do more distance driving.
I have managed to lose something between us getting home and me putting it away. Dammit.
It's non-teaching week this week. So instead I am working, probably all four days. Whee. I have a feeling I really should take a day off to de-flip, but I'm needed (most likely).
I am not in the best of moods, though the above is about all I have in the way of justification. Which doesn't really seem enough. But it seems to work.
-Mmaster |
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[Mar. 22nd, 2009|01:25 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | drained | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Let That Be Enough, Switchfoot | ] |
I'm falling to pieces.
I knew this would happen.
-Mmaster |
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[Mar. 16th, 2009|09:49 am] |
| [ | music |
| | The Tension and the Terror, Straylight Run | ] |
A guy wandered into the office, trying to sell print services.
When we told him that no, we didn't need it, since we barely ever print anything, he continued to try and give us a flyer.
When he finally did wander off, he still left one of the flyers on the water cooler.
Recycle bin time!
-Mmaster |
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| I am the lizard queen! |
[Feb. 24th, 2009|04:26 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  jubilant | ] |
| [ | music |
| | There Is A Boy That Never Goes Out, The Lucksmiths | ] |
I can break the universe!
-Mmaster |
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[Feb. 9th, 2009|11:54 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | frustrated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | You Found Me, The Fray | ] |
Mm: Gah! *shakes fist at SQL Server* I hate you I hate you I hate you
Blondie: hehe
Mm: This thing worked last week :'(
Mm: But now it's giving me errors by the dozen, sigh
Blondie: this is my surprised face
Mm: Just because it's a Microsoft product... :p
Blondie: Microsoft make great hardware!
Mm: Oh yeah, the Zune was a real winner
Blondie: that was because it was running microsoft software ;)
Mm: Especially with the being incompatible with 2009 thing
*Mm shakes head
-Mmaster |
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| Of course, someone will probably tell me LaTeX can do this, or Office 2007, or something. |
[Dec. 17th, 2008|02:37 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | frustrated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | High School Musical, High School Musical 3 | ] |
You know what I want in a word processor?
It to understand the concept of a 'text block' - a section that should all be glued together. But it paginates them automatically as required.
For example, imagine you have a 'block' of text half a page long. You indicate the end of the first 'block' somehow, then start typing a second 'block' directly under the first. The second block should stay on that first page until becomes longer than the half page and is hence jumping over the page - and then acts like a page break, moving onto its own page. If the text in either block gets shortened enough that the total text is less than a page, then it should stop being a page break and move back into a single page.
I don't know if I just explained it in any decent capacity, but anyway. I covet this functionality.
It would save so much time while trying to format tetchy documents.
-Mmaster
PS: Can you tell I'm editing three documents at once that all have slightly flaky formatting? |
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[Dec. 17th, 2008|11:54 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | frustrated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Brand New Colony, The Postal Service | ] |
On my work computer, I have a text file with a list of words I hate trying to write/type - because I make the same typo every single time.
It's accumulated into quite a list by now, though admittedly some of them I haven't had to write in a while and might not get wrong any more. Cases where I can remember the typo are listed.
* Department (Deptartment)
* Longitude (Longtitude)
* Orthopaedics (Orthapedics)
* Surprised (Suprised)
* Furniture (Furniature)
* Latest (Lastest)
* Exercise (Excercise)
* Paediatrics
* Anaesthesia
* Attached (Attatched)
* Distinct
* Referral (Refferal)
* Thunder (Thundre)
...Gah! It's a wonder I manage to produce any presentable documents. My fingers love to type phonetically, particularly when I'm tired.
-Mmaster |
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[Dec. 16th, 2008|04:49 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  giggly | ] |
| [ | music |
| | I'm So Worried, Monty Python | ] |
In our system at work, it has DUMMY codes, which are stub input to be replaced with NODUMMY codes when you have the actual input to hand.
If you fail to do a NODUMMY code, the system bombs out, because it currently doesn't have the logic to handle the error gracefully.
If you do a DUMMY code, but no NODUMMY code, the system spits the dummy!
:D:D:D:D!
-Mmaster |
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