[quote]...Other Microsoft experts convened to arrive at an explanation published by TechCrunch: that the great complexity of Excel can enable users to create misleading spreadsheets that appear legitimate, but actually hide major accounting errors....[/quote]
digiclip and edslunch, if they haven't hit enter yet, why does the value show up in the pie chart? Maybe the pie chart is anticipating the value that would be entered?
So these "market share" analysts must be using Excel, that would explain the ten million tablets that magically appeared from one year to the next.
Ok, enough about the Excel 'error' already. It obviously was someone entering a value but not saving it yet. Does it look bad in an ad, sure, but let it go already it's not an Excel bug. I love AI but often your bias is taken to new levels of hubris
I don't think it was a case of someone entering a value, but not saving it yet because Excel recalculates on the fly. I think that someone at the advertising agency didn't know how to use Excel, so instead of summing the column by formula, they simply did a quick calculation in their heads and manually entered the sum, thinking no one would notice. And no one would have had they gotten the sum correct.
It's relevance is not that there's a bug in Excel (because if there are any bugs in Excel, summing columns is not one of them), but that the sloppiness in the ad may reflect Microsoft's sloppiness in their approach to developing new products. While this could have happened to anyone, I think other companies would have caught it before it became a billboard.
Having said that, I'm actually surprised that the Surface has done as badly as it has. While I've only fooled with one for a minute or two in a retail store, it just doesn't seem that awful. Several developers in the firm I consult for have purchased hybrid machines (laptop/pad) and they seem to love them. I think there is a case to be made that you can't do real work without a real keyboard. I wouldn't want to be typing even these three paragraphs on a touch screen. And I think there's a case to be made that a hybrid machine is not a bad solution if executed properly.
Ok, enough about the Excel 'error' already. It obviously was someone entering a value but not saving it yet. Does it look bad in an ad, sure, but let it go already it's not an Excel bug. I love AI but often your bias is taken to new levels of hubris
Well, I’m not saying it’s an Excel bug. That’s almost beside the point. The ad reflects on the company brand (it’s called a Brand Touchpoint in the biz, and they are crucial to a brand’s overall identity and credibility).
I also use spreadsheets. Why would someone manually “enter a value” for a SUM of numbers above it? Why was (an incorrect) sum typed in manually at all, awaiting a keypress (as you allege)?
In both Excel and Numbers, when I want a cell to display the sum of a group of other cells, I use @SUM for that. I don’t type in a (random?) number and hit Enter. Why would I do that? So there should be no number in that cell at all (yet) if it’s awaiting an Enter keypress.
Your rationalization makes no sense. Of course, I don’t suspect a “bug” in the @SUM function. But it was a huge blunder on the part of a lax and (possibly) incompetent marketing team. I spent many years in advertising & marketing. I guarantee you things like this don't happen if your process is being managed correctly.
By the way, it isn’t only the ad agency to blame. It’s also whoever works at MS that signed off on the final artwork. You’d think with all those people in the chain, someone would have noticed, eh? MOre than one person seriously dropped the ball. It’s quite clear from that billboard just how important it is to get it right...
Ironically, if Microsoft had released a "real" version of Excel for iOS after iPad 1 was released, they would have made a few billion off it by now
Office is barely usable on a desktop, go figure on a tablet. You can have a taste of it with CloudOn. You will be lucky to find some place where to write words or formulas, in the middle of all those icons.
Microsoft does work for work -- all over the world. And that's something nobody has been able to replicate.
There's a car dealership that's in my area and they ditched their Dell computers for nothing but Apple iMacs, iPhones, and iPads and they love the change. I think they might be using Office, but most of them are using other apps that are specifically designed for the auto industry. They were using a terminal emulation to connect to a main system that the mfg uses, but I think it's Unix based.
There are plenty of specialized industries where it's common for certain users to use Macs or Linux computers and actually not have much in the way of Microsoft apps running. Go to a recording studio, chances are they are using Pro Tools, Pyramix systems and they aren't running Office on their DAW systems, which is what they use for their business. If they have a computer running the front office, they can easily use Macs with MYOB and if they don't want to use Office, they can use iWork 09 (soon to be the latest version) or another Office compatible software.
Microsoft just was successful at brainwashing people into buying Windows based computers, Office, and Exchange, but there are companies out there that don't.
I've used both Windows and Macs in business, and the Macs worked better. I might have run Office just because I was used to it, but I could have easily used something else instead. But for most of what I did, I actually didn't use Microsoft products, or didn't NEED to. In some cases I was forced to, but the company could have easily used something differently.
The problem is that people are easily brainwashed. obviously, you are one of them.
I know plenty of companies that were 100% Microsoft and they ended going out of business. My cousins had a investment banking company that was "SUPPOSED" to be a successful business, but they ended up shutting their doors down unexpectedly. They were too Microsoft centric and the CEO was spending most of his spare time fixing and setting up his own servers instead of running his business. He's now working for another company in a position that isn't the CEO. They won't say what happened, probably too embarrassing.
So, it's not always good to be a 100% Microsoft shop. LOL...
If you look at the trends in the server market, more and more Linux and Unix servers are being implemented every day as they are eating a LOT of Microsoft's business. I don't know how many people are using Microsoft data bases for transaction processing, that's usually Oracle and IBM to do that, and we all know those two would prefer Unix or Linux to handle that since they both have their own versions of both.
Don't get brainwashed with thinking that you NEED Microsoft because it's been proven that you don't.
There's a car dealership that's in my area and they ditched their Dell computers for nothing but Apple iMacs, iPhones, and iPads and they love the change. I think they might be using Office, but most of them are using other apps that are specifically designed for the auto industry. They were using a terminal emulation to connect to a main system that the mfg uses, but I think it's Unix based.
Every year or so when I go to renew my car registration or licence in NSW, Australia, I am amazed to see that there is still one of these behind every counter:-
Ok, enough about the Excel 'error' already. It obviously was someone entering a value but not saving it yet. Does it look bad in an ad, sure, but let it go already it's not an Excel bug. I love AI but often your bias is taken to new levels of hubris
I totally agree - drop it already, AI, it's bogus.
I totally agree - drop it already, AI, it's bogus.
What’s even funnier than the quarter million dollar billboards with errors or the facing posters begging to be taken seriously are the posters admonishing AI to stop poking fun at an incompetent corporation with billions of dollars to proofread or even sanity check its ads.
And who then turn around and enter into mass histrionics whenever AI has a typo of near-zero consequence.
I totally agree - drop it already, AI, it's bogus.
No way, and to think it was Intel who got the blame for the inaccurate maths co-processor when they switched from 486 to Pentium, when all along it was Excel that was the culprit.
The old jokes like what do you get when you add 100 to 386, 486 and 100 to 486...
Every year or so when I go to renew my car registration or licence in NSW, Australia, I am amazed to see that there is still one of these behind every counter:-
They must not be worried about security then, that version of OS X hasn't been patched for a long time
Comments
Honestly, it works for embezzlement.
So these "market share" analysts must be using Excel, that would explain the ten million tablets that magically appeared from one year to the next.
'Excel enabling number fudgers since 1985'
yeah they are shockers, Apple are much better at BS no doubt.
You signed up to join an Applecentric site just to say something negative?
Sad.
Excel: The New Adobe Flash
Correction, Microsoft Office: apologizing bad programming since 1984.
Ok, enough about the Excel 'error' already. It obviously was someone entering a value but not saving it yet. Does it look bad in an ad, sure, but let it go already it's not an Excel bug. I love AI but often your bias is taken to new levels of hubris
I don't think it was a case of someone entering a value, but not saving it yet because Excel recalculates on the fly. I think that someone at the advertising agency didn't know how to use Excel, so instead of summing the column by formula, they simply did a quick calculation in their heads and manually entered the sum, thinking no one would notice. And no one would have had they gotten the sum correct.
It's relevance is not that there's a bug in Excel (because if there are any bugs in Excel, summing columns is not one of them), but that the sloppiness in the ad may reflect Microsoft's sloppiness in their approach to developing new products. While this could have happened to anyone, I think other companies would have caught it before it became a billboard.
Having said that, I'm actually surprised that the Surface has done as badly as it has. While I've only fooled with one for a minute or two in a retail store, it just doesn't seem that awful. Several developers in the firm I consult for have purchased hybrid machines (laptop/pad) and they seem to love them. I think there is a case to be made that you can't do real work without a real keyboard. I wouldn't want to be typing even these three paragraphs on a touch screen. And I think there's a case to be made that a hybrid machine is not a bad solution if executed properly.
I think there's a case to be made that a hybrid machine is not a bad solution if executed properly.
Knock yourself out.
Well, I’m not saying it’s an Excel bug. That’s almost beside the point. The ad reflects on the company brand (it’s called a Brand Touchpoint in the biz, and they are crucial to a brand’s overall identity and credibility).
I also use spreadsheets. Why would someone manually “enter a value” for a SUM of numbers above it? Why was (an incorrect) sum typed in manually at all, awaiting a keypress (as you allege)?
In both Excel and Numbers, when I want a cell to display the sum of a group of other cells, I use @SUM for that. I don’t type in a (random?) number and hit Enter. Why would I do that? So there should be no number in that cell at all (yet) if it’s awaiting an Enter keypress.
Your rationalization makes no sense. Of course, I don’t suspect a “bug” in the @SUM function. But it was a huge blunder on the part of a lax and (possibly) incompetent marketing team. I spent many years in advertising & marketing. I guarantee you things like this don't happen if your process is being managed correctly.
By the way, it isn’t only the ad agency to blame. It’s also whoever works at MS that signed off on the final artwork. You’d think with all those people in the chain, someone would have noticed, eh? MOre than one person seriously dropped the ball. It’s quite clear from that billboard just how important it is to get it right...
*cough* Netflix, Halo and Shazam on the home screen *cough*
Ironically, if Microsoft had released a "real" version of Excel for iOS after iPad 1 was released, they would have made a few billion off it by now
Office is barely usable on a desktop, go figure on a tablet. You can have a taste of it with CloudOn. You will be lucky to find some place where to write words or formulas, in the middle of all those icons.
Microsoft does work for work -- all over the world. And that's something nobody has been able to replicate.
There's a car dealership that's in my area and they ditched their Dell computers for nothing but Apple iMacs, iPhones, and iPads and they love the change. I think they might be using Office, but most of them are using other apps that are specifically designed for the auto industry. They were using a terminal emulation to connect to a main system that the mfg uses, but I think it's Unix based.
There are plenty of specialized industries where it's common for certain users to use Macs or Linux computers and actually not have much in the way of Microsoft apps running. Go to a recording studio, chances are they are using Pro Tools, Pyramix systems and they aren't running Office on their DAW systems, which is what they use for their business. If they have a computer running the front office, they can easily use Macs with MYOB and if they don't want to use Office, they can use iWork 09 (soon to be the latest version) or another Office compatible software.
Microsoft just was successful at brainwashing people into buying Windows based computers, Office, and Exchange, but there are companies out there that don't.
I've used both Windows and Macs in business, and the Macs worked better. I might have run Office just because I was used to it, but I could have easily used something else instead. But for most of what I did, I actually didn't use Microsoft products, or didn't NEED to. In some cases I was forced to, but the company could have easily used something differently.
The problem is that people are easily brainwashed. obviously, you are one of them.
I know plenty of companies that were 100% Microsoft and they ended going out of business. My cousins had a investment banking company that was "SUPPOSED" to be a successful business, but they ended up shutting their doors down unexpectedly. They were too Microsoft centric and the CEO was spending most of his spare time fixing and setting up his own servers instead of running his business. He's now working for another company in a position that isn't the CEO. They won't say what happened, probably too embarrassing.
So, it's not always good to be a 100% Microsoft shop. LOL...
If you look at the trends in the server market, more and more Linux and Unix servers are being implemented every day as they are eating a LOT of Microsoft's business. I don't know how many people are using Microsoft data bases for transaction processing, that's usually Oracle and IBM to do that, and we all know those two would prefer Unix or Linux to handle that since they both have their own versions of both.
Don't get brainwashed with thinking that you NEED Microsoft because it's been proven that you don't.
There's a car dealership that's in my area and they ditched their Dell computers for nothing but Apple iMacs, iPhones, and iPads and they love the change. I think they might be using Office, but most of them are using other apps that are specifically designed for the auto industry. They were using a terminal emulation to connect to a main system that the mfg uses, but I think it's Unix based.
Every year or so when I go to renew my car registration or licence in NSW, Australia, I am amazed to see that there is still one of these behind every counter:-
They must, just work for work.
Ok, enough about the Excel 'error' already. It obviously was someone entering a value but not saving it yet. Does it look bad in an ad, sure, but let it go already it's not an Excel bug. I love AI but often your bias is taken to new levels of hubris
I totally agree - drop it already, AI, it's bogus.
I totally agree - drop it already, AI, it's bogus.
What’s even funnier than the quarter million dollar billboards with errors or the facing posters begging to be taken seriously are the posters admonishing AI to stop poking fun at an incompetent corporation with billions of dollars to proofread or even sanity check its ads.
And who then turn around and enter into mass histrionics whenever AI has a typo of near-zero consequence.
I totally agree - drop it already, AI, it's bogus.
No way, and to think it was Intel who got the blame for the inaccurate maths co-processor when they switched from 486 to Pentium, when all along it was Excel that was the culprit.
The old jokes like what do you get when you add 100 to 386, 486 and 100 to 486...
...doh, stuff it Pentium.
They must not be worried about security then, that version of OS X hasn't been patched for a long time