Clarke Ching - Split Infinitives and Beyond.

The only thing wrong with the New York Times is ...

I like reading the New York Times on-line but ... I hate the "feature" they've added which pops up a dictionary whenever I doubleclick on a word - something I do lots, no idea why.

If you use firefox then here's a greasemonkey script to remove this "feature": http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/7721

Hallelujah!

Need some help - water flow

Tell me please, if you know the answer, in less than 20 words, why does water flow faster out of a upended bottle if you poke a whole in the bottle above the waterline.

I know that it gets rid of the vacuum so that the bottleneck doesn't have the water flowing out compete with the air rushing in to replace the vacuum. But I don't have the words to say that properly without making myself look foolish. (Of course, you already know that I am foolish so I've nothing to lose).

I'm writing an article - guess what it is about? - so if you can lie convincingly then you could also use this as an opportunity to make a fool of me to a very wide audience.

Clarke

.oOo. Sent from my BlackBerry www.ClarkeChing.com +44(0)7920114893

Spam

I received letter from spain the other day. It had a stamp on it as you'd expect. Apparantly I have won the European lottery. All I have to do is give them my bank details and they'll send me the money.

I'd love to this spammers business plan. How many little old ladies have to fool to become rich? .oOo. Sent from my BlackBerry www.ClarkeChing.com +44(0)7920114893

Q&A with John Ricketts - author of Reaching the Goal

If you pop over to the tocThinkers blog, you can read part one of a Q & A with John Ricketts, author of the new TOC book "Reaching th Goal".

http://www.tocthinkers.com/2007/09/q-a-with-john-r.html

btw: if anyone has anything to contribute to the blog then please feel free to contact me.

Working with multiple Excel sheets in a single workbook - part ii

Oh and while we are at it: ctrl-PGUP and ctrl-PGDN move between sheets in the same workbook.  Bet you didn't know that!

Working with multiple Excel sheets in a single workbook

There used to be a time when the help in word and excel was ... ummm ... helpful.  I remember writing an assignment when I was at University in 1991; we'd just switched from word perfect to ms word; the help was fantastic.  But nowadays ...

Anyway.  Today I found out how to arrange 2 (or more) sheets from the same workbook so that I can see both at the same time.  It's easy to do with two different spreadsheets, but look what you have to do when they're in the same workbook.

Here's what you have to do:

View multiple sheets or workbooks at the same time   

• Open the workbooks you want to view.
• To view multiple sheets in the active workbook, click New Window on the Window menu.
• Switch to the new window, and then click a sheet you want to view. Repeat for each sheet you want to view.
• On the Window menu, click Arrange.
• Under Arrange, click the option you want.
• To view sheets in only the active workbook, select the Windows of active workbook check box.

Multi-tasking Exercises

"Multitasking" is often seen as a desirable skill - I'm crap at it, btw, I have to turn the radio down when I go around a roundabout - yet multitasking is a very bad idea.  Why? Because it makes each and every task take longer to complete, than necessary.

One of the most obvious (but, by no means the worst) causes of delay is the time lost when switching between tasks.

I love the following example, from Jon Cook, on the Critical Chain yahoo list, because it is so simple and concrete.  It will take longer to read the instructions than it will to execute them.

Take a blank piece of paper and draw 3 columns.

You are going to execute 3 projects, first using multitasking, then not.

The three 3 projects  are (1) write the letters A-J in the first column (2) write the numbers 1-10 in the next column (3) write the Roman Numerals I-X in the third column.

The end result is three columns filled like this:

A  |  1   |  i

B  |  2   | ii

etc

Start with the multitasking scenario - write in three columns,  working row-by-row, across the page, starting with A then 1 then I, i the the first row, working down the page until all three projects are complete.

Now start the non-Multitasking scenario - write down the page A-J in the first column,  then 1 - 10 in the next, and finally, I - X in the third column.

Try it and you see - it only takes 1 or 2 minutes - and observe how you save time by not multitasking.  You won't need to time the scenarios - you'll just feel the difference.

All good things must ...

We'd just boarded the plane and buckled ourselves into our seats.  All 4 of us - Mum, Dad, and 2 daughters.  We were - yipee! - on our way to Ireland for our summer holidays. 

"Daddy, why is there a picture of a cigarette on the "NO TALKING" sign?", asked my 4.5 year old daughter, Aisling.

Damn the nursery school and their "if you smoke you will die" campaign.  If I didn't think fast, our little white lie would end over two years of (relatively) silent flights.

In an instant, I explained to her that it was not a picture of a cigarette, but a picture of a little girls tongue which had caught on fire at the tip because she talked too much during the flight. "And that", I said, "was why it was called the no talking sign".

Aisling looked towards her Mum suspiciously, like she does when ever I tell her something vaguely doubtable, "It's not is it Mum?".

Her Mum - who favors honesty over peace and quiet - said "No" and then told her the truth.

So I told her about Santa.

[But, of course, I didn't:  I favor peace and quiet over truth].

QI - transcripts of TV show

Some folks, thankfully, have too much time:

http://www.freewebs.com/qitranscripts/transcripts.htm

Not as funny as watching the show, but worthy of your time.

RollingRocksDownhill: 200 pages of 2nd draft available

If you'd like a copy of the first 200 pages of the 2nd draft of my business novel then send me an email to rollingrocksdownhill@gmail.com.

BTW: If you are wondering, the vasectomy went fine.  Not something I would do twice though.