Question on protocol

Hey guys, I've had a great time with the "Where are you and your Miata" thread. I'd like to post the results. I've entered them into an excel spreadsheet. What's the best way? I can attach the spreadsheet but not everybody has excel. I can print it, scan it and send it as a .jpg attachment. As a black and white document scan I think it'd be a pretty small file. Are either of these methods acceptable?

Input please.

PS, if you haven't added you and your car to my info, do it now! The thread is just down a bit on the list. Date started was 11-13-07.

Thanks again, Chris

Reply to
Chris D'Agnolo
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This MicroSoftbrain Excel does not output in ASCII? And you paid money for that?

If you to send it to me, I will probably be able to load it into

*free* (still stupid) OpenOffice, which can at least export them into CSV ASCII. (As well as html, if you want me to put them as a web page on my site. At least it is less bad as jpg or xls, but it will not archive properly.)

Leon

Reply to
Leon van Dommelen

I'm sure Excel will export into CSV, and, of course, OpenOffice (StarOffice) will.

The really cool trick would be to create a GoogleEarth overlay (a .kml file) from the location data. It could probably be mechanized pretty readily with a little homework (Chris, email me offline if you're interested in giving it a try).

Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

What one earth makes you think Excel cant output text files (it can)?

Reply to
Frank Berger

Leon, I have used Excel for many years and have never once needed to export the files into ASCII. I have done it with MS Word because some places still want resumes sent in that format. I was vaguely aware that Excel would export in ASCII, but perhaps Chris was not? We are not all computer geeks here. That is probably why he was asking for input.

As far as MicroSoftbrain, I think that a company that has absolutely dominated the PC operating system market for most of my adult life probably had some clever thinking as opposed to soft thinking going on somewhere along the line.

Pat

Reply to
pws

Might be. In OpenOffice, you just select Save-As from the menu and select the CSV ASCII format appropriate for non-binary groups from the list. As far as I know, OpenOffice is just some clone of the MicroSoftbrain stuff.

I do not. Operating systems were an unstable equilibrium, since so many people had only the resources to write for the biggest OS, and others wrote for the biggest OS first. People buy the OS that runs the software that they want to use. This expands the market share of the biggest OS even more, reducing the incentive to write for other OS even more, creating an exponential run-away process until all the people, that are at least willing to consider the OS, run it. You may note that many big software suppliers do not even bother to port their stuff to apple or unix.

The reason that MicroSoftbrain ended up with the chips was not because MS DOS was particularly good, it was poor, but because IBM stupidly gave them the initial advantage through their name and market share. Of course, after MicroSoftbrain had the monopoly on the OS, they used it to muscle in on related areas. But that does not require intelligence, just lack of scruples.

Leon

Reply to
Leon van Dommelen

Same is true for MS Excel. Just click Save-As and you get to choose from a long list of file formats. See list below.

Gus

What file format do you want to save in? Excel Microsoft Excel 97-2000 & 5.0/95 Workbook

What happens when you open and save an Excel 2000 workbook in Excel 97?

Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 Workbook

Microsoft Excel 4.0 Workbook

Microsoft Excel 4.0 Worksheet

Microsoft Excel 3.0 Worksheet

Microsoft Excel 2.x Worksheet

Lotus Lotus 1-2-3 Release 4 (WK4)

Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3 (WK3)

Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3 (WK3, FM3)

Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.x (WK1)

Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.x (WK1, FMT)

Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.x (WK1, ALL)

Lotus 1-2-3 Release 1.x (WKS)

Other HTML (HyperText Markup Language)

Quattro Pro for MS-DOS (WQ1)

dBASE file formats (DBF 2, DBF 3, DBF 4)

SYLK (Symbolic Link)

DIF (Data Interchange Format)

CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv)

Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt)

Text (Unicode)

Formatted Text (Space delimited)

Template

Reply to
nosfatsug

The same with the software on my Tec3 computer in my Miata. The software for it is written to use with Windows, because the company knew that it would be by far the most likely operating system that the customer would have on their computer.

I am not arguing that they created a gigantic monopoly, they clearly have.

It actually requires both. Windows did not end up on most of the computers in the world by accident. Microsoft has some smart and unscrupulous people working for them, like any hugely successful company does. They won the fight, regardless of tactics. We don't have to like it, but it is the truth, the numbers don't lie.

Pat

Reply to
pws

We also don't have to put it on our computers. I believe Leon uses some type of Unix, as do I. OpenOffice is great--I use a Mac-specific variant called NeoOffice. (There's even a version for Windows, so you too can read/write Office documents without the malware exposure.)

Reply to
Lanny Chambers

Of course not. I have used Macs before, and have dabbled with Linux.

When I started to see that almost every single job I considered required Windows experience but almost none of them cared if I knew any other operating system, including Mac, I got the hint.

Now Windows 95/98/SE/2000/XP & Vista are very familiar to me. Windows 98 or up is what almost everyone I know who owns a computer is using. Since I get paid to help set up and maintain a lot of these systems, I am very glad to be familiar with Windows rather than a less popular operating system.

I know someone who is about as anti-Microsoft as possible and uses Linux on one machine, but interestingly enough, she has Windows XP loaded on another computer and has used Windows since the early days....

Pat

Reply to
pws

">

You are correct on this one. I know enough to be considered a 'computer guy' in some circles (insert rude comment here please ;-) but, in this group, I have to plead ignorance quite often when it comes to the computer.

Thanks so far guys, I know we've got plenty of expertise here. Several have already offered.

Did ya'all see Australia and Ireland chimed in?

Cool stuff, Chris

99BBB
Reply to
Chris D'Agnolo

Makes sense, avoid them when you can and use them when you can't avoid them.

Chris

99BBB
Reply to
Chris D'Agnolo

If a person does not play a large number of video games or use Windows at a company, they can get away without using Windows at all.

One reason that so many people use Windows is because that is what they learned at work. My jobs have required Excel knowledge, so it was kind of hard for me to write that one off.

She also has XP for the same reason that I do, to be able to help other people running the same software, which, like me, is most of the people she knows who are online. Anyone running Unix or Linux probably would not need my help even if I knew it, and I have no real desire to learn additional operating systems when what I have works for me.

Macs are intuitive enough that I get by quickly on the rare times when I use them.

Pat

Reply to
pws

I am claiming no expertise, just basic knowledge, enough Excel experience to get me by. There are people here who will eat my lunch at it. At the same time, there are probably some people who probably have no idea what ASCII even means, which is what I was pointing out.

I like Dana's idea. That would be cool to spin the globe and see each person's location. Also, I would keep it going a bit longer, people are still chiming in!

Pat

Reply to
pws

i would dump microsoft in a second but some of the software i need to do what i do only runs on microsoft platforms.

-------- "any words spelled incorrectly are probably typing errors"

Reply to
barry

What software is that?

Reply to
Alan Baker

The best way really is to put all the data (or rather to have us do it ourselves, all over again) on a map at Bravenet.com. In fact, I've just set one up - here we go:

formatting link
78466946 If everyone heads on over there and puts themselves on the map that's probably the best way to view it for everyone.

Sorry Chris, should have said this much earlier...

Eric

Reply to
Eric Baber

One of my happiest days was when someone who always came to me with PC questions bought a Mac and so had to go to someone else.

If I wrote software as reliable as Microsofts, I'd be out of a job.

Microsoft (and our government for that matter) is the logical result of a bunch of people asking "Can I?" while not asking "Should I?"

Always remember - Very Important This!!! We need to segment because it's important to be compatible with 8080 code, and most likely no one will ever need more than 640k. Yeah, brilliant they were.

miker

Reply to
miker

i trade foreign currency at home, and certain charting packages are currently microsoft specific.

-------- "any words spelled incorrectly are probably typing errors"

Reply to
barry

perhaps, but if microsoft made miatas, we have to:

1) expect them to stop for no apparent reason and have to reboot them to get them to run again; 2) have to upgrade them constantly just to get them to continue to work; 3) have to buy a new miata when they stop servicing/suppporting the version you own

in other words, we'd all be cursing bill gates.

-------- "any words spelled incorrectly are probably typing errors"

Reply to
barry

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