On Mon, 11 Feb 2019 09:43:52 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 2/11/2019 1:51 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 10 Feb 2019 16:18:57 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 2/10/2019 3:08 PM, rbowman wrote:


I'll admit in the '80s I wasn't too sure what Joe Sixpack was going to
do with a PC anyway. They were tools for me and what I was developing
was for industrial or embedded applications. When I bought an Osborne I
it came with SuperCalc and I never figured out what you're supposed to
do with it. 35 years later Excel still is a mystery. People do
impressive things with it but it reminds me of using a screwdriver for a
chisel.


The PC has many uses. For instance. instead of a $10 timer, you can use
a $2000 PC to turn a light on and off.

Excel has many uses too. You can track your utility bills every month
and eliminate the need for a pencil that has to be sharpened on occasion.

I do use Quicken though. It really does make banking easier and more
accurate than the old checkbook.

My main contact with excel is the data I get on water quality from
DEP.
It is OK if all you want to do is re sort columns and such but if I
really want to crunch numbers I still export it as a CSV, stuff it
into a dBase file and write a script. I assume I could do that with
Excel but this dog is too old too learn a new trick for the little I
need it.

At work I used Excel quite a bit. With a macro it was easy to do
production reports, inventory changes, and the like.

At home, I only had one practical use. About 9 years ago I had a new,
higher efficiency boiler installed. The idea was the savings would pay
for it over time. I tracked oil use and degree days for two years with
the old boiler, then started tracking the new one. I used the same
weather station for degree days. In seven years, the cost of the boiler
was saved, then I started to come ahead. Then we sold the house anyway
so the new owner gets the majority of benefits.

There are Excel people who can do wonders with it but it is the tool
they know. I am the same way with dBase. I have done dBase tricks like
writing out a loan table and printing payment coupons that I am sure
would be better suited to Excel but I use what I know.