Really insightful article about the difficulties of writing correct software - particularly in the realm of numerical calculation.

Also references an Excel 2007 calculation (display) error where the formula 850*77.1 is displayed as 100,000 (instead of 65,535)!

refaving darrellp

Quoted: Most of the VB/VBA web service examples out there demonstrate SOAP interfaces, but it is often easier to call them through REST.

Marc Olson, another of my Microsoft Office buddies, crashed his plane yesterday (this is close to the 1 year anniversary that Jeff Harbers was killed in a plane crash).

Mark apparently walked away from the crash, which is pretty amazing given the pictures of the damage to the plane at the crash site (just N of Paine field).

Quoted: EVERETT, Wash. -- A small plane crashes into trees as its pilot was trying to land at Paine Field in Everett. Monday, July 9, 2007.

Daylight Saving Time is defined in the US Code. But it has not been updated to reflect the change made in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Historical Daylight Saving Time:
First Sunday in April - Last Sunday of October

As amended by The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (begins 2007):
Second Sunday of March - First Sunday of November

The effect of the law is to give us 238 days of DST. Depending on the year, the old rules gave us either 203 or 210 days of DST. The Energy Policy Act adds either 4 or 5 weeks to DST (theoretically saving energy since we'll be up earlier in the day and go to bed earlier at night).

The following Excel formulas calcuate the start and end dates of Daylight Saving Time, following the new rules:
=DATE(Year,3,MOD(1-WEEKDAY(DATE(Year,3,1)),7)+8)
=DATE(Year,11,MOD(1-WEEKDAY(DATE(Year,11,1)),7)+1)

The change may NOT be permanent.

Quoted: ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2005, SEC. 110. DAYLIGHT SAVINGS.
(a) AMENDMENT.—Section 3(a) of the Uniform Time Act of 1966(15 U.S.C. 260a(a)) is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘first Sunday of April’’ and inserting ‘‘second Sunday of March’’; and
(2) by striking ‘‘last Sunday of October’’ and inserting ‘‘first Sunday of November’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Subsection (a) shall take effect 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act or March 1, 2007, whichever is later.
(c) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 9 months after the effective date stated in subsection (b), the Secretary shall report to Congress on the impact of this section on energy consumption in the United States.
(d) RIGHT TO REVERT.—Congress retains the right to revert the Daylight Saving Time back to the 2005 time schedules once the Department study is complete.

Charles Babcock, of InformationWeek picks the greatest softare ever written.

12. The Morris worm
11. Google search rank
10. Apollo guidance system
9. Excel spreadsheet (wow - I got on the list!)
8. Macintosh OS
7. Sabre system
6. Mosaic browser
5. Java language
4. IBM System 360 OS
3. Gene Sequencer - Genomic Research
2. IBM System R
1. BSD Unix 4.3

Quoted: With great insight, I've assembled this, my list of the greatest software ever written, from Colossus to the present. I've consulted software guru James Rumbaugh; Stuart Feldman, president of the Association of Computing Machinery; venture capitalists Ann Winblad and Gary Morgenthaler; Web site scripting software (PHP 3.0) authors Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans; and my little brother, Wally.
...
That axiom certainly applies to VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet software. It's great because it demonstrated the power of personal computing. The software put the ability to analyze and manipulate huge amounts of data into the hands of every business. But VisiCalc itself, despite representing a breakthrough concept, wasn't great software. It was flawed and clunky, and couldn't do many things users wanted it to do. The great implementation of the spreadsheet was not VisiCalc or even Lotus 1-2-3 but Microsoft Excel, which extended the spreadsheet's power and gave businesspeople a variety of calculating tools. Microsoft's claims that it makes great software are open to dispute, but the Excel spreadsheet is here to stay. Nearly everyone is touched by it.

Excel Splash Screens through the ages.

History of Windows at 20th anniversary. Some quotes by Charles Simonyi.

Rich and Judy Kaethler's home page. I see them about once a year at a mutual friends annual Christmas Cookie Party. This year, I was amazed to learn that they had traveled to Ladakh in India to visit a Buddist village.

Quoted: This page contains a number of tips for optimizing your Excel/VBA code for Microsoft Excel 97 and 2000.