Excel is Microsoft’s spreadsheet, and users of other spreadsheets like Lotus 123 may well disagree that Excel is good.

To expand on my last blog entry, which had definitions of what spreadsheets and databases are and what they do, I’ll concentrate on spreadsheets.

Currently the top-selling commercial spreadsheet is Microsoft Excel. There are other spreadsheets available, like the aforementioned Lotus, or Calc, which is the spreadsheet program in the free OpenOffice.org office suite.

Although some of my first experience with computers revolved around databases, the first time I saw a spreadsheet I was really impressed at what it could do. Spreadsheets are easy to set up. It doesn’t take much to have a spreadsheet up and running to track or calculate small amounts of data. Often I use a spreadsheet just for tabular information which is going to be formatted and printed.

I’ve been trying to think of some rules of thumb as to when you should use a spreadsheet instead of a database. While researching this question I came across a very interesting article online called “Spreadsheet Addiction“, in which it is claimed that the overuse of spreadsheets is a major problem. It makes for interesting reading…

One way to find out is to go on a general database course, then an Excel course. In the absence of that I’ll trying to explain the best I can…

The definition of a database from WhatIs.com is “A database is a collection of information that is organized so that it can easily be accessed, managed, and updated. In one view, databases can be classified according to types of content: bibliographic, full-text, numeric, and images.”

The Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing has a fairly good definition of a database:
“One or more large structured sets of persistent data, usually associated with software to update and query the data. A simple database might be a single file containing many records, each of which contains the same set of fields where each field is a certain fixed width. A database is one component of a database management system.”

The main point is that a database stores data, and software is required to retrieve the data from a database. Microsoft Access 2007 is a database.

The Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing also has a fairly good definition of a spreadsheet:
“A type of application program which manipulates numerical and string data in rows and columns of cells. The value in a cell can be calculated from a formula which can involve other cells. A value is recalculated automatically whenever a value on which it depends changes. Different cells may be displayed with different formats.”

Another simpler definition, from TekMom is “A spreadsheet is a document which helps you organize data in rows and columns of cells.”

So a spreadsheet contains data in columns and rows, as well as formulas which manipulate that data.

I was trying to find a reference to most of the Apple iPhone App store applications being priced around $9.99. Instead I came across the following interesting information. Developers cannot charge more than $999 for a single application, and the maximum size of a single application is 2GB (see Mobile Magazine.com). I’m trying to imagine an application which would run on the iPhone and cost $999, it would have to be a very specialized vertical market application.

According to Techcrunch.com, when “iPhone App Store launched last Friday” (Friday July 11, 2008) “along with the new 3G iPhone, free apps made up 24 percent of the 552 apps available“. The article is bemoaning the low availability of free (or freeware) applications, but that isn’t a bad percentage, considering that the majority of the applications seem to be priced at or below $9.99.

If you had to look at a website selling mobile applications for Windows Mobile or Palm, the prices would be generally higher, as these are more mature platforms. In the case of Palm, which is unfortunately in decline, a number of shareware (not free) applications have simply been discontinued.

Now the Apple iPhone/Touch has become a platform worth targeting for mobile applications. With 6 million first generation and 1 million 3G iPhones shipped it is already a customer base to be reckoned with.

There is a catch though. Although the iPhone SDK (Software Developer’s Kit) costs $99 a year, there is another cost. The SDK requires an Intel Mac running Mac OS X Leopard. For software developers who have been focusing on Palm and Windows Mobile development, this almost certainly means buying new hardware. Fortunately with Boot Camp (included with Apple Inc.’s Mac OS X v10.5) developer’s can dual boot their Mac’s into Windows XP or Vista, which makes it more of a multi-purpose development machine. Parallels Desktop for Mac allows running of Windows XP or Vista in a window on a Mac.

There are a couple of companies which have announced software for the iPhone. They already have their software running on numerous other mobile platforms.

Since networking really isn’t my specialty, I spoke to an acquaintance at work to find out more about hubs and printer servers. I had to start with a solid wireless router though, and he recommended that I get a Linksys router (no model was mentioned). He probably meant the predecessor to the Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless Router that was on special at a local retail chain. After reading up about it - several user and expert reviews, mainly positive, I purchased the router. It was easy to setup, with a step-by-step installation. It is also faster than my previous wireless-G router, this through a wired Ethernet connection. My next challenge - which would have to wait until another weekend, is to add a print server.

The Dell Studio comes with two screen sizes – the Dell Studio 15 with 15.4 inch screens, and the Dell Studio 17 with 17 inch screens. I’ll concentrate on the more portable Studio 15. which weighs in at 6 pounds plus.

The Studio line features Intel Core 2 Duo Processors up to 2.5GHz, with a maximum of 4 GB of RAM, and hard drives with capacities up to 320GB. A biometric fingerprint reader appears to be standard. The Studio has a slot-loading optical drive and an Express Card slot that doubles as a holder for a small media remote. It also has a built-in 2.0 Megapixel webcam. The optical drive can be upgraded to a Blu-Ray drive, and the notebook has HDMI output to connect to a HDTV.

The Operating System is a choice of either Windows Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate Edition (I guess you can’t have it all).

There are several settings for Windows Update (I’m referring to Windows XP only, I haven’t seen how patches are handled in Windows Vista).
The recommended one is “Automatically download and install“.
I tend to choose one of the next two options:
“Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them” or “Notify me, but don’t automatically download or install them“.
The last option, “Turn off Automatic updates“, is not a good idea, despite the following story:

When Windows Update reminds me that there is an update, I usually apply the patches to one machine and see what happens. On Tuesday this week there didn’t seem to be any problems. That was until I rebooted the PC and found that I no longer had Internet access! So I went through the updates, chose one and uninstalled it. It turned out to be the right one - KB951748. After a reboot my internet worked again.

It turned out that it was a clash between the changes made by the security update, and the ZoneAlarm firewall (see “Check Point Provides ZoneAlarm Customers Solution for Loss of Internet Access Which May Occur after Installation of Microsoft Update KB951748“) Oh well, just another software conflict.

Occasionally though, I come across one that is quite unique. This time it is the Corsair 16GB Flash Survivor USB Flash Drive. This flash drive is water resistant up to depths of 200 metres (almost 219 yards) and has shock protection. Housed in a cylindrical aluminum casing, it comes with Corsair dog tag (to wear along with the Flash drive). Also, the flash drive has a generous 10 year limited parts and labor warranty, and will be replaced if you somehow manage to destroy it (as long as you have the broken pieces). From what I’ve read it has withstood being run over by a car, boiled in water, hit with a hammer several times and thrown off a building. If you want to keep your data safe this is definitely an option.

Another Corsair USB thumb drive, the Corsair 16GB Flash Voyager USB Flash Drive, apparently does even better at being thrown off buildings, as it is entirely encased in rubber (and tends to bounce a lot!). However it will not survive being driven over by a car.

Currently I’m trying to de-gunk a Dell notebook which had two anti-virus programs (one expired and just working as a firewall), but no Anti-Spyware program. It really needed one, because it was infected by one worm, and three key-loggers of various flavors – very nasty stuff. For a relatively new PC with 1GB RAM and Windows XP it was running as slow as molasses.

Just having an Anti-virus program is no good, unless it is a Security Suite which includes an Anti-spyware component. Symantec Norton Internet Security 2008 is one such Security Suite.

Unlike Anti-virus programs, you can run more than one Anti-Spyware program. Experts recommend running a commercial anti-spyware program, and also running one of the many free anti-spyware programs. Here it really helps to read reviews of the anti-spyware program, as the top program from two years ago may just not have kept up with technology, even though gets regular signature updates. I have run into minor conflicts while running two anti-spyware programs which both do background (real-time) scanning, but they were very minor.

Also, beware of fake Anti-Spyware programs. The Spyware Warrior website has a list of “Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites“.

On at least two occasions when I’ve looked at computers that were either having errors on startup, or running very slow, there was something immediately obvious. In the mistaken belief that the more anti-virus programs the better, more than one anti-virus program had been installed. This is a case of two not being better than one.

Brian Krebs’ blog at washingtonpost.com has a transcript of a security question and answer session, and he says this is response to the question of running two different anti-virus programs on the same machine:

“…Having two anti-virus programs running at once is at the very least asking for your system to slow to a crawl. At worst, each could identify the other as a potential threat…”
There are a few exceptions; some anti-virus programs like ClamWin Antivirus “…don’t load when Windows starts up, …and they don’t do real time protection… If you felt you really wanted that, I don’t see the problem with it…”

My advice is - don’t even try to have more than one anti-virus program running on your computer. It will save a lot of headaches.

I noticed that on Pricegrabber.com, the Anti-virus with the highest User Rating currently is Kaspersky Lab Anti-Virus 7.0. Hmm, maybe I’ll try that one once my current anti-virus subscription runs out.