rodarmor
Joined 10 years ago
Karma
233
Submissions
94
Member since
Mar 25
Recent submissions
Comment · 1 month ago
Very compelling and thoughtfully written article. Thank you!
Comment · 2 months ago
Spreadsheet-defined functions are a way for spreadsheet users to define reusable functions in a way that reuses the existing spreadsheet user-interface and features that they already know.
I came up with the idea a while ago[0], but it turns out that they were actually independently invented much earlier. With [this paper](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/...) being the canonical origin of the idea.
The idea is that you create a new tab in your spreadsheet, mark some cells as inputs, some cells as outputs, and use existing spreadsheet functionality to derive the output value cells from the inputs. You can use arbitrary formulas, as well as define intermediate values in other cells.
I thought it would be fun to make a demo of sheet functions using IronCalc, which you can try out here:
https://casey.github.io/IronCalc/
The demo was written by an LLM, so I have no idea if the code is any good or not, but it seems to work!
I like the name "sheet functions", since it's a bit less verbose.
The spreadsheet contains a bunch of demo sheet functions, all called in the first `Demo` tab, with the rest of the tabs being the function definitions.
Sheet functions use the first column for input, the first cell of the second column for output, and any spreadsheet can be made into a sheet function by selection the `Function sheet` option in the spreadsheet tab drop down, which makes it callable in formulas by its name.
Hopefully it illustrates the power of sheet functions. If you scroll through the tabs all the way to the right, you can see the `Fractal` spreadsheet, which renders the Mandelbrot set using a sheet function.
This is just a demo, the code is probably horrible, and I'm slammed working on other stuff, so I probably won't take it further myself, but I wanted to share. So far, sheet functions haven't made it into any spreadsheet program intended for actual use, and it's something could be an interesting differentiator for IronCalc.
[0] And made a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WkMpa5zfTA
Comment · 3 months ago
There’s an easy solution: Bruce should place large bets on the prediction markets right before publishing the relevant data. It is legal, ethical, and, for him, risk free.
Comment · 6 months ago
I wish that Opera Omnia, also by Stephen Lavelle, got more attention. It is mind-blowing exploration of the idea of propaganda and revisionist history, which somehow also manages to be engaging and fun, with an incredibly unique core mechanic.
Comment · 8 months ago
It would be hilarious if people wound up snorting or boofing their GLP-1s (≧▽≦)
Comment · 2 years ago
The best example of managing expectations of all time is in the Time Zone Database documentation:
> The tz database predicts future timestamps, and current predictions will be incorrect after future governments change the rules.
Comment · 2 years ago
General-purpose deduplication sounds good in theory but tends not to work out in practice. IPFS uses a rolling hash with variable-sized pieces, in an attempt to deduplicate data rysnc-style. However, in practice, it doesn't actually make a difference, and adds complexity for no reason.
Comment · 2 years ago
This is stupid good advice. I use quicksilver as a launcher, and by putting bookmarks in a folder, I can index them and launch them like any other app or document on disk. Thanks for writing this up!
Comment · 3 years ago
I definitely don't think Just will ever unseat Make. Just doesn't have file-based dependencies, so it's not a build system, just a command runner.
As far as unseating Make as a command runner, I think that might just take Just being available in more places, since one of the main advantages of Make that many users cite is that it's available everywhere. Just is already available in a lot of package repos, but not all of them. Finally packaging Just for Debian[0] would help a lot.