I met a friend recently that I hadn’t seen since high school.  I told her I was an economist.  “Oh,” she said in the nicest possible way, “I’m surprised, you were so creative in high school."  Sigh.

Creative Destruction?

Jane Galt posts her thoughts on Sony Vaio customer service. I bought a Sony Vaio a few months ago, at the recommendation of a friend. Fortunately [it now seems] it arrived at the Best Buy with a broken drive and I never had the chance to lay my hands on it. It was only last week that they gave me my money back. Best Buy wouldn’t give me the computer, and Sony wouldn’t accept the damage claim from Best Buy rather than from the customer.

I see two especially frustrating elements in bad customer service. First, the reward/pleasure centers of the brain are already turned on, anticipating that a longstanding problem – lack of a computer – was going to be solved. The resulting disappointment is especially acute, much worse than before you try to fix the problem.

Second, we don’t like the tension of not knowing when the problem will be solved, or when being put on hold will end. Going to the dentist with certainty stresses me less than some chance I might have to go.

I try to manage the former problem by not getting excited until the product has been working for at least a day. That means I remain a bit emotionally flat in some spheres of commercial life and I don’t go out shopping enough or with enough gusto. I try to manage the second problem by mentally capitalizing the worst case customer service outcome I can imagine. That means when something goes wrong I toss in the towel too quickly. Sometimes I just buy a new item rather than solving the problem with the old one, or working to get a refund.

On this matter, Natasha believes I am crazy, yet I persist in my ways.

What’s actually annoying about bad customer service?

paper dolls
paper dolls

Designers unknown

Off to the bookstore ASAP to find a copy of Like a Fiery Elephant; I have to know what’s happening on the spine and the back.

I’m pretty sure this edition of Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry is out of print, so if anyone knows anything about this, please leave a comment.

Both of these would stop me in my tracks in a bookstore.

One Book By, and One Book About, B.S. Johnson

Girls’ Love Stories #99
Girls’ Love Stories #99

Dude! Check it out!

Have you ever used Excel’s subtotal functionality?  It’s great for counting things.  For instance, I’m running some tests right now, where the output is a sequence.  If I run the test 10,000 times, then I have 10,000 sequences.  I want to know how many times each sequence happens. 

I copy the output into Excel, then sort the column containing the sequence into alphabetic order, thereby sticking like sequences with like.  Then, I use the subtotal feature to count how many times each sequence occurs.

It’s great – it does exactly what I want.  See the snapshot below.

The only problem I have is that sometimes I want to manipulate the aggregate information, say, calculate percentages, or compare it to some hand-created date from somewhere else.  So, what I really want to work on is the aggregate data, not the underlying information.

As you can see in the diagram, there are actually over 10,000 rows of information in the sheet, even though I can hide all but 20-some.  But, when I want to do a calculation on the data, I end up also doing the calculation on the *underlying* data as well.  I can’t even just copy the subtotal information to somewhere else, because all of the underlying data comes too!

There has got to be a way around it.  After some searching, and some bad suggestions (i.e., didn’t work for me), I discovered help in the form of Joseph Rubin’s ExcelTip.com.  You can follow his instructions.  It’s really easy.  Basically, all you do is:

1. In the view I have above, I just click on some cell in the data range, e.g., A260.
2. Press Ctrl+A to select all of the subtotal data (would also include the underlying data).
3. Magic Step: Press Alt+; (This selects only the *visible* cells.  Magic!)
4. Copy and paste as desired.

Wow, that little Alt+; step is pure magic.  You can also get there by using the F5 key (which brings you up the Go To Dialog), selecting Special… and then selecting Visible cells only.  Why you can select visible cells only by going through the “Go To” menu is completely beyond me.

As you can see in the screenshots below, selecting visible cells makes them look slightly different.  The shot on the left (first) is the Ctrl+A selection (all data, including underlying, hidden, data).  Notice the dark border.  The shot on the right (second) is Alt+; selection (visible cells only).  notice that the border is gone.  A good visual way to make sure you’ve selected exactly what you want.

 

An interesting sidebar: I’ve just gone through the Help for Excel 2007.  I originally went there, but had no joy when looking for information about copying and subtotals.  But, if you search for “visible data”, you can get to a set of instructions that will let you copy just the subtotals.  Funnily enough, there are no shortcut keys provided, just how to do the task with the ribbon.  And, there’s not even a listing discussing what the Alt+; keyboard combination is good for!  Shocking.  It really is magic 🙂

Categories: excel

Excel Tip: Copy Subtotal (Aggregate) Data Only

Things I Can’t Do: Use gmail properly, insert a non-distorted TextBox diagram into a Word document, drive a stick shift, attach a zip drive, explain the distribution of prime numbers, set up a directory in a Verizon cell phone.

Things I Can Do: Blog, order books on Amazon.com, drive and parallel park on the left side of the road, set up, use, and type on an iPhone.

Enough said.

My review

http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/542347/new_display.swf
Mona Lisa in MS Paint Video (via Metacafe)

Jean Le Pautre (Lepautre or Lepaultre) (1618-1682) has been described as the most important ornament engraver of the 17th century. His prodigious output extended to more than 2000 prints, mostly from his own original designs.

He was not only the originator of the grandiose Louis XIV style but was also responsible for disseminating and popularising its full lavish repertoire throughout Europe. Le Pautre’s often over-elaborate and flamboyant designs frequently included arabesques, grotesques and cartouches, together with elements from classical mythology.

His diverse range of subject matter, influenced by his carpentry/joinery architectural background, included: friezes, wallpaper, grottoes, alcoves, fireplaces, furniture, murals, ceiling mouldings, fountains and grottoes.

A 3-volume series of his works was released in 1751 by Charles-Antoine Jombert of Paris, under the title: ‘Oeuvres D’Architecture De Jean Le Pautre’ and was recently uploaded by the University of Heidelberg. (Hint: to get to the thumbnails, click on ‘Titelblatt’, then the ’-’ symbol and arrow across to reach the 147 illustrations) The sample of images above are from Volume One which concentrates on the grotesque/arabesque prints.

• Biography at Artnet.
• Antiquarian Booksellers’ listing.
• Getty Museum biography and inventory listing at OAC.
• Related: Tales of the Arabesque at Giornale Nuovo; Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Le Pautre and he shared a mutual respect) at Lines and Colors.

Ornamental Decoration in 17th Century France