Hands-On

The Power of Paper in Business Communications

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ October 22, 2008 ⋅ One comment

Confucius was wrong – it is good to live in interesting times … I’m deep-diving into a number of projects at work, while juggling a sudden surge in business travel (the majority of my tweets of late). All of the work involves significant change – different tools & process, or reworking process “traditions” that have [...]

Excel 2007 is a BOB system (Bag’O'Bugs)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ October 5, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

I am getting seriously aggravated with the flighty behavior of Excel 2007. Yes, I acknowledge that the spreadsheets in question is quite complicated … shared VBA modules in an XLA file database read/write using ADO array-manipulation for ranges of cells (see this post) lots of macro (VBA) logic to control look/feel of the tabs code [...]

Agile Methods in a Waterfall World: Speaking In Code

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ September 29, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Starting up a new project, and I’m definitely having fun with it. At first glance, it looks like a fairly small, departmental application, but it is actually part of a web of disconnected processes and local databases (ie. “a mess”) that support some fairly important master data. Also, the folks I’m working with are much [...]

Does Excel 2007 VBA have Sneaky Hidden Issues?

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ August 25, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

I’ve done a lot of coding over the past few years, on a number of platforms – but since I’m not a full time developer, it’s typically limited to VBA, PHP, SQL, some simple web stuff. Still, I’ve developed some tools that people use – and need to carry forward as the underlying technology moves [...]

Home Development Workstation – Part 3

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ May 18, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

See also … Home Development Workstation – Part 1 Home Development Workstation – Part 2 Ok, here’s where we put the rest of these boxes, switches, wires, and other assorted doo dads in their place. Again, the witty reader will note that I am following along with Jeff Atwood’s Build a PC posts from last [...]

Home Development Workstation – Part 2

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ May 15, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

See also … Home Development Workstation – Part 1 If You Build It … For starters, I give major props to Jeff Atwood’s series on building a PC, because the step-by-step assembly notes, and the overriding “calm down, it’s like Legos!” tone … all very comforting. I tend to be a “ready, fire, aim” kinda [...]

Home Development Workstation – Part 1

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ May 13, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Why I think that every techie should go through the experience of building up a desktop workstation from the ground level. Maybe it’s because I date back to the days of the PC XT, when computer support duties regularly had us tearing down cases, changing jumper settings and plugging in individual chips for memory expansions. [...]

IMAP Gmail Reinforcing the Drive to Web-based Productivity Applications

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ November 3, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

I’ve noted in the past that I’m trying to move to browser-based productivity tools, and Google’s recent announcement in support of IMAP access for Gmail just gave me a little shove. Historically I’m a POP3 kind of guy, preferring to download all messages from my “external” e-mail accounts to my hard drive. In retrospect, this [...]

Rare event: Design problems with my Blackberry Pearl

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ May 24, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

I’ve finally found a design issue or two with the Blackberry Pearl. That’s an accomplishment of a sort – I’ve written about how I like this thing, it’s been quite handy. However, today I was calling for technical support for something (not the Blackberry …), and I was prompted by an Automated Voice Response (AVR) [...]

Web-based Applications Crawling To Respectability

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ April 12, 2007 ⋅ One comment

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to move to a browser-based office productivity suite. I toyed with the idea of using my annual Performance Objectives to force a significant switch in my personal software use. At this point, I’m kinda glad I didn’t – I need features like AutoSave, AutoCorrect, and SpellCheck. I was using [...]

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