David Croushore

3 Things Metro Could Do (for free) To Make it Less Miserable

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:28:09 -0500

The Washington DC area metrorail system is probably the cleanest public transportation system in the US. That’s about as far as I can go on complimenting it.

Metro is horribly run. Trains don’t run on a schedule, the staff is rude and sometimes threaten passengers with violence, there is no way to report incidents that occur on the trains, and the metro police don’t seem to do anything productive. Yet there are 3 things that metro could do for free (or at least for really, really cheap) that would make the metro-riding experience a thousand times better overnight.

1. Only show relevant information on information boards

Each metro station has at least one light-up information board. 90% of the time, this board reports stations where elevators are out. The other 10% of the time, it shows information that most riders find meaningful (i.e. when the next train is coming). If these boards just listed the next train, the metro experience would improve dramatically. Station managers (who, as far as I can tell, do nothing) could alert individuals who clearly require the use of elevators about elevator outages.

2. Improve the train operators’ communication

I have never heard a metro train driver make an announcement that was beneficial or helpful to the passengers. Most of the drivers’ announcements criticize riders for queuing up at the doors instead of spreading out (which usually isn’t possible anyway). The other announcements are generally lies (“this train will be moving momentarily”; “there is another train directly behind this train”). Meanwhile, at every transfer station, passengers are left guessing about the arrival of transfer trains. If drivers simply announced when the next train in each direction was expected (this is information that metro has, as I can often access it from my phone), passengers would benefit significantly. Because of the uncertainty, people push and shove, run, and generally panic. Armed with useful information, people would manage themselves more civilly.

3. Give people tickets for playing music too loud

I can think of no easier way to make metro more enjoyable. Have the metro police, who currently do nothing, write a few tickets for people playing their music at a level so loud that it can be heard from each end of the train car. Not only will this deter the anti-social behavior, it will also bring in more than enough revenue to cover the costs.

————————

These three suggestions would be nearly free to implement. Given some budget, there are many other issues that could be fixed, but I’ve focused on the low-hanging fruit to show just how easy it would be to improve this awful public transportation system.

Principal Components Analysis Just Blew My Mind

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 07:44:39 -0500

I like to think of myself as a pretty data-savvy individual. I’m a 3-star black belt in spreadsheet jujitsu and I’m becoming more and more of a SAS-hole, but it turns out that there was a huge hole in my game.

Principal Components

I had heard the term “principal components” before, probably while reading a paper about some super-sexy analysis that someone else did, but I’ve never really known what the heck it meant or how to use it myself. In fact, I’ve sat and struggled with the very issue that principal components analysis is meant to solve without ever realizing that the solution was oh-so-simple and intuitive.

The big idea is this: when you have a lot of independent variables, you start to run into problems because most statistical techniques require uncorrelated inputs. When you start to see high levels or correlation between variables you have to either drop some variables (and lose the information they contain) or risk corruption in the model due to the correlation. At least that’s what I thought. Then along came a spreadsheet… (isn’t that how all romantic comedies should start?)

Principal components analysis lets you create a new variable that contains the information from multiple, correlated, independent variables. This eliminates the issue of correlation while preserving the maximum amount of information.

So how does it work?

In a simple, 2-dimensional context, think of principal components as fitting a new set or axes to a scatterplot (as shown above) to minimize the variance along one axis. This is similar (intuitively, but not mathematically) to fitting a linear regression line. The resulting vector becomes the first principal component, and the new axes are called eigenvectors. After finding the eigenvectors, each point can be translated to create a new variable, thus limiting the number of variables for consideration in the model. This results in a set of uncorrelated variables that capture the largest amount of variance possible.

The math behind principal components analysis is scary looking, as you can see on Wikipedia, but luckily, just about every statistical software package will do the calculations for you.

So there you have it. How many problems will that solve for me? Tons. How many will it solve for you?

The $1 Billion Challenge

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:38:21 -0500

In a recent article for The Economist, Ron Conway outlines fields where he expects to see the next billion dollar companies emerge. While I generally agree with his prognostications, one line in the article struck me more as a challenge than a prediction.

“Perhaps 2012 will see a company develop a $1 billion business inside 12 months.”

That line got me thinking about a new paradigm for viewing business ideas. After spending the last two years diving head first into the world of tech start-ups, I’ve seen some patterns emerging. Everyone wants to be Google or Facebook (obviously), but at the same time most accept that they probably won’t be.

What has struck me most when talking with entrepreneurs “on-the-ground,” trying to get their idea ready for the world, is how few of them are willing to pursue really big ideas. Most of the (pre-launch) founders I’ve met are working on something that sounds like a nice feature to add to an existing platform. Then there’s the Groupon clones or the “Facebook of” crowd.

The common characteristic is that these entrepreneurs are thinking small. Yes, We Are All Weird according to Seth Godin, and niche marketing may very well be the wave of the future, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for more big companies. Groupon (regardless of what you think of their prospects on the stock market) got so big so fast because it appeals to a broad audience. Sure, each deal might target a niche, but the service is bigger than that.

The $1 Billion Challenge

But, what if some of us stopped thinking about the ideas, the technologies, and the things we wish Facebook would do. What if we got a group of really smart people together and asked a simple question: Is it possible to build a $1 billion business in 12 months?

That’s exactly what I want to try. At worst, it will be a thought exercise that guides the development of participants’ business models. At best, we’ll change the world.

I’m not proposing a startup weekend, though I think those are fantastic. I’m proposing drawing a blueprint for how a company that could scale that fast would have to look, and if the big idea and the disruptive business model come together, then we’ll worry about starting up.

If you’re interested in joining, drop me a line in the comments, or shoot me an email.

Are you up to the challenge?

Race Report: Ironman 70.3 Eagleman

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 08:32:48 -0400

Yesterday I ran the Ironman 70.3 Eagleman in Cambridge Maryland. I finished in 6 and a half hours, a shade above my goal of 6 hours, but not horrible. Here’s how it all went down.

The river was a warm 82 degrees which made wetsuits illegal for the swim. My tri-gear is not exactly swim friendly, which caused me to have some extra drag on the swim. The buoys were really far apart at this race, so spotting was extremely difficult. On 2 occasions I started heading for the wrong buoy until I realized no one was around me. I probably added an extra 300-400 meters to my swim by going off course, and in choppy water that really adds up.

Coming out of the swim, the water gets really shallow about 100 meters from the finish. Everyone stood up and walked, but every step was really painful as you have to fight through waist-deep water to move your legs. In the hopes of saving my legs for the bike and run, I swam until I couldn’t swim anymore, which meant about 30m of walking through the water. It was kind of a cool scene seeing 30-40 people walking through the shallow water and descending on the beach. The early-morning sun made for a cool background. For me, that was where the race started: after the swim, when it was time to hop on the bike for 56 miles.

I took my time in transition. No need to hurry when the race is still over 5 hours from finished. The one or two minutes I could save there were just not that important. Started biking out and felt pretty good. Had some tightness in my hip adducters for the first 10 miles or so, but thankfully that loosened up. Held my 18mph goal pace for the first 7 or 8 miles at a nice low RPE, probably a 12 or 13 (out of 20). I decided I could stand a little more, so I pushed it up to about a 14 and rode the next 20 or so miles at between a 19 and 20 mph pace. Hit the one hour mark at 18.6 miles, which was right where I wanted to be. My fastest 10 miles were miles 25-35. I rode the two 5-mile splits there in a little over 15 minutes each, just a shade under a 20mph average.

Every 5 miles, I took a sip of Accelerade and water. At mile 30, ate a zone bar which was melty and disgusting. Probably needed a couple hundred more calories on the bike and definitely should have drank more water. I only had two bottle holders, so I had to skip the first two water stops, which was a mistake. I should have grabbed a bottle and drank at least half of it each time.

After mile 45, I slowed down to prepare for the run. The last 10 miles were my slowest by far, going over 17 minutes per 5 mile split, but that was part of the plan. I finished the bike in just a shade over 3 hours, just above my goal pace of 18 mph. I felt really good about the bike leg; I had some fatigue in my legs (to be expected) but I didn’t think I overdid it, so I would have some energy left for the run.

Took my time in transition again. Decided not to wear the ankle brace I had brought (my left calf has been giving me warning signs of a strain for a couple weeks, but held up for the race and feels fine the day after). Came out into the run strong, but after about three quarters of a mile, my quads started to cramp pretty bad. I realized that I had needed to hydrate more on the bike, and needed to make up for it on the run. Walked until my quads relaxed, then ran again until they cramped back up. At the first aid station, I grabbed 2 cups of gatorade and pounded both in an attempt to get myself re-hydrated enough to end the cramping. Around mile 3 it worked, as my quads relaxed and I was able to run a bit more. My legs were not with me on the run, though. I could run about a half-mile at a time before they would fatigue to the point that I had to walk for a minute. Each water stop I took in a couple cups of water or gatorade, and threw another cup of water on my head or down my back. It was 90+ and there was a 3 mile stretch that was completely exposed, with no shade, just hot asphalt. You could see the heat rising off of it. Brutal.

I took a rest stop shortly before the turnaround. About that time I realized my attempt to rehydrate was causing problems. I just had a ton of water in my stomach sloshing around with each step, and was afraid I might have hyponatremia issues if I kept up that pace. I decided to forgo the water at a couple aid stations, opting to just ice down to stay cool instead. I hit the turnaround at mile 6.6 at 1 hour and 20 minutes into the run. On the way back, I was able to sustain my running pace a bit more, and found some friendly running companions to talk to, which made it easier to keep going. Feeling the calorie deficit hitting me, I had to do something at the aid stations. Solid food seemed like a bad idea, and I couldn’t do gatorade. I opted for the pepsi, which is pretty calorically dense for very little liquid. That worked really well (the caffeine may have helped a little as well).

I have to give a shout out to the huge party I went by three times (near the finish of the bike, and on the out and back on the run) - these people knew how to have fun, and they made the race so enjoyable. Lady in the white dress drunk off your ass and dancing in between the two columns of runners, you are a rock star. Thanks for the high five. Guy who decided to play the lead-in to the Black Eyed Peas “Let’s Get it Started” on loop (“runnin’ runnin’ and runnin’ runnin’…”), nice touch.

I came around the corner with about a mile and a half to go, and could see the finish line across the inlet. I got a goosebump or 200 from that. About a half-mile out decided I wasn’t stopping until I crossed the finish line. Came in strong - negative split the run by about 6 minutes for a 2:30something half marathon on the end.

My right shoe was completely soaked in blood from my toe, which must have gotten cut early in the run. It was already scabbed over by the time I finished. Sunburn around my right shoulder where my tri-top didn’t stay in place is really bad. Also have sunburn on my lip, which just sucks. Beautiful tri-top tan lines will make me look like I’m wearing white suspenders for the next few weeks.

Many thanks to my wife and my parents for coming out. I don’t know if I’d have made it without the support. Also, thanks to my wife for taking care of me after the race. She carried my bags to the car, drove me home (through a ridiculously scary thunderstorm that hit right as we crossed the bay bridge - terrifying), made me dinner and poured me a couple (much-needed) glasses of wine.

Morning after - everything is sore, but nothing feels injured (fingers crossed). Sunburn and random chaffing can be treated. Blisters will go away with time. Muscles will recover. The feeling of having raced 70.3 miles in one day will never go away.

To quote one of my running companions, “Pain, blisters, and death are all temporary. Glory lasts forever, and so does this fucking run.”

Five Years Ago

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 08:39:16 -0400

Five years ago I was finishing my junior year of college, going to work as a swim coach for the second summer in a row, and generally missing the point of being 21 years old. It turns out that drinking beer and playing FIFA soccer on playstation 2 every night by yourself isn’t the most meaningful existence… who knew?

I’d love to go back and tell myself that I was going to NCAAs the next year, so to work out a little more (1 tenth of a second would have made me a national champion 9 months later; 3 more days in the weight room that summer could have made me 1 tenth of a second faster). I’d love to tell myself that I should start thinking about my career and that I wasn’t going to stay in school forever. I’d love to tell myself that I should start to work on building the life I wanted. I’d love to tell myself to watch out for a trap here, to avoid a mistake there.

But I wouldn’t tell myself any of those things. I’d just let the life I’ve lived play out the way it did. For every wrong turn I made five years ago led me to find a new path that brought me to where I am today. And today I am in a very good place.

Am I as far along as I would like to be in my career? Do I have all the skills I would want to have? No. But I do have a great career ahead of me and plenty of time to make up the gap. I have a loving wife and a deep understanding of myself, neither of which I would have if I’d not made my mistakes in the last few years.

What I can tell myself, the me of five years from now, is that now was the time that I kicked my life into high gear. I took care of the foundation in the last few years, and now it’s time to fly.

See you in five years.

#Trust30 is an online initiative and 30-day writing challenge that encourages you to look within and trust yourself. Use this as an opportunity to reflect on your now, and to create direction for your future. 30 prompts from inspiring thought-leaders will guide you on your writing journey.

My Personal Message

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:48:12 -0400

I have a favorite personal mantra:

Everything in the world is perfect, including my desire to change it.

Obviously not everything is perfect - dictators lash out violently against their citizens who ask for freedom, politicians cheat on their wives and post it all on twitter, and the Phillies sometimes lose - but the point is that these imperfections create meaningfulness for our lives. If no problems existed, we couldn’t spend our time trying to solve them. That would make for a pretty boring life.

So accept imperfection as a reality, but don’t accept it as an end-state. Work to change the world, but remember that the obstacles you encounter, the imperfections of the world, are the very things that make progress possible.

The Difference Between Vectors and Pixels for Scalable Design

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 21:20:58 -0400

I’m not an adobe user, except for acrobat, and even that I try to keep to a minimum. It’s not that I’m opposed to adobe products, it’s just that they are insanely complicated and make my little brain hurt.

That said, both this site and my new Team Disruption website (coming soon) need logos, and adobe is the industry standard, offering 30 day trial periods to beginners like me so we can make our once-in-a-lifetime logos and then go back to fearing adobe products again (note to adobe: maybe make an amateur version? Or just tell us to use Microsoft paint and come back when we’re serious, idk).

Anywho, I did not realize that there was a difference between designing a logo using pixels (photoshop) versus designing one using vectors (illustrator). I saw a great lynda.com video today though that illustrated the difference.

It comes down to scalability. When an image is designed in photoshop, it is rasterized, meaning that it is defined by pixels. That means that as it gets scaled up into a larger image, it begins to look “hairy.” You’ve probably downloaded an image from the web and stretched it out before; note the little lego-block effect that happens and that’s what I mean.

An image designed using vectors, however, does not have this issue. When the image is resized to something larger, it maintains the same quality. That’s a nice feature, and something I’ll be looking for as I design these sites.

To Fly

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:48:00 -0400

The setting couldn’t be better: 5am in an apartment in Brooklyn, and wind-up fish toy hanging from Jay’s lapel, because why not?

Late night discussions tend to turn to philosophy, at least for me. Maybe that says something insightful and not altogether flattering about me, or maybe it doesn’t say anything at all. That night, I decided I could fly.

Not that I could fly in a literal sense of learning to pilot aircraft, or of growing wings and flapping them to create lift. Rather that I could overcome any obstacle, and that the impossible is the only thing worth trying.

Entrenched industries with deep pockets can be scary. Who could take down Exxon or Coke? Those are big challenges worth pursuing.

That’s why today I decided to start a new group, which I’ve temporarily named Team Disruption. The “Team” part is a little bold, since right now it’s a team of one, but I plan to change that soon. The goal of Team Disruption is to take on the most powerful, entrenched, and “unbeatable” industries in America, revolutionize their businesses, and take down Goliath.

Follow Team Disruption on twitter. Meetup group in the DC area coming soon. Facebook group coming soon.

Rational people and realists not allowed. Dreamers and Doers only.

Happy disrupting.

Waiting to Live

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 07:10:00 -0400

For those of you who haven’t heard, Tim Ferriss’s The Four Hour Workweek is a must read. It turns out, though, that the main idea isn’t so original after all.

Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Huzzah!

No matter who is telling you to live now, instead of waiting, it seems that almost everyone chooses, what Ferriss calls, “the deferred life plan.” We work all week to get to the weekend, and work for 40 years to get to retirement, and THEN we’ll live a little. The problem, of course, is twofold.

1) A lot can happen in 40 years.

2) By the time we hit 65, we’re not quite so up to the task of livin’ it up.

Most of us spend 40+ hours a week working jobs we hate, with people we don’t like, to buy things we don’t need. Of course, that isn’t everyone. Some people love their jobs and their coworkers. But if you aren’t one of them, take this page from Hugh MacLeod’s excellent book, Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination:

What the Jibberish After the ? in URLs Means

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 21:05:18 -0400

I never really gave it much thought, but when I see a URL pop up with a ? and then a bunch of jibberish behind it, I usually just assume it’s something totally arbitrary. Turns out I’m wrong (who knew). Not only does that jibberish contain valuable information, but now I can actually use it too. This probably shouldn’t be exciting.

Let’s talk about a fictitious webpage:

www.davecroushoreisawesome.com/index.php?dave=awesome&response=totally

If you went to that link, and that was a real webpage, it’s possible to pull in the values “awesome” and “totally” which are stored in an array, with the names “dave” and “response.”

Awesome!

Totally!

One Place to Visit

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:45:30 -0400

There is one place that I absolutely must visit before I die: New Zealand.

I don’t really know why, but there’s something alluring about New Zealand. The landscape looks like nothing I’ve ever seen before (at least in Lord of the Rings), and the people sound great, too. I once heard that they consume more ice cream there per capita than any other country in the world (a fact that Google validates quickly).

Of course, getting to New Zealand is no easy task, and in order to make the trip worthwhile, I’ll need to go for a while (and probably stop by Australia along the way).

My next big international trip will be to China this winter (to kick butt in a business plan competition), but after that, my next jaunt overseas will have to be New Zealand.

A Fun Fact About Prime Numbers

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:42:59 -0400

Take a random integer: let’s say 17783. Is it a prime number? (yes)

If you had to go about checking whether or not that was a prime number, how many numbers would you have to divide it by before you could be sure it was prime? That’s a more fun question.

The first instinct is to say, 17782, since you need to be sure that every number lower than 17783 doesn’t divide it.

Of course, it quickly becomes obvious that you only need to test other prime numbers, since those would necessarily show up in the prime factorization. Even then, that’s too many. Why test, for example, 17761 (the next prime below 17783) since it can’t possibly divide a number so close. It’s tempting to jump to the idea of testing primes below n/2. Even that turns out to be more than necessary though.

In fact, you only need to test up to the square root of n in order to determine that n is prime. In the case of 17783, that turns out to be only 32 numbers (the 32 primes below 133, which is close to the square root on 17783).

Then again, you could always just look it up here.

Project Euler is Awesome

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 21:42:08 -0400

Learning to program is hard damn work. Luckily, today I found an awesome site that helps make it more enjoyable. While I’ve been using lynda.com and w3schools to pick up the basics, today I stumbled upon projecteuler.net, a site that offers hundreds of problems that can be solved with programs that take less than one minute to run.

The first problem (and the easiest problem) is this: find the sum of all the numbers below 1000 that are divisible by either three or five.

This is a pretty easy problem from a programming standpoint. The logic is simple, and there are a few different ways to go about it. The best part is that once you get the correct answer, you receive access to a forum where other people share their own solutions. My solution, for example, was rather inefficient (naturally). Others were able to solve it in one line of code, whereas mine took 9 (different languages are also a factor here). However, I was able to solve the problem in just a few minutes using PHP, which is something fairly new to me.

While I can’t give you the answer (go solve it yourself), I can tell you that the process of solving a real problem makes learning much easier than simply hearing about the concepts and then trying to invent scenarios where they are used.

Don't Forget Your Curly Braces

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:29:40 -0400

PHP functions don’t like it when you forget curly braces.

function love($lover, $object){

if $lover = “I” {

echo “{$lover} love {$object}”;

} else {

echo “{$lover} loves {$object}”;

}

love(“I”,”curly braces”);

love(“Everyone”,”curly braces”);

How My Search Box Works

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 21:33:17 -0400

You may not realize this, but there’s a search box hidden under the title of this page. You can’t see it, because the CSS for the search box has a “display: none;” tag on it.

There’s also a bit of javascript that makes the search box appear if you click on the “search” link in the navlinks bar.

Try it out…

The tumblr theme that I have on this blog right now is pretty fancy. I’m stealing a lot of tricks from it as I build my own design for this site. Since you could just right-click and select “View Source” and find this out, I feel free to share:

Want to make this fancy search box feature work on your own site? Here’s the CSS:

     #frmSearch {
        padding-top: 20px; 
        display: none;
     }

     #txtSearch {
        background: url(http://static.tumblr.com/bpryy0m/6lRl6gmys/search.jpg) left no-repeat;
        width: 225px;
        padding: 2px 0 0 20px;
        font: 12px/12px Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
        color: #222;
        border: 0px;

}

And here’s the javascript:

<script>
     $(function() {
        var search = $("#txtSearch").val();
        var placeholder = "Search...";
        var fadeToOpacity = 0.4;
        $("#txtSearch").fadeTo("normal", fadeToOpacity);
        if (search == "") {
     $("#txtSearch").val(placeholder);
     }
     $("#txtSearch").blur(function() {
        search = $("#txtSearch").val();
        if (!(search != "" && search != placeholder)) {
        $("#txtSearch").val(placeholder);
     }
     $("#txtSearch").fadeTo("normal", fadeToOpacity);
     });
     $("#txtSearch").focus(function() {
        search = $("#txtSearch").val();
        if (search == placeholder) {
        $("#txtSearch").val("");
     }
     $("#txtSearch").fadeTo("normal", 1);
     });
     $("#btnSearch").click(function() {
     $("#frmSearch").slideToggle("normal");
     $(this).toggleClass("active");
 //  $("#txtSearch").focus();
     });
     });
script>

One Strong Belief

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:18:33 -0400

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

Security is a kind of death, and perhaps the worst kind there is.

I do not mean physical security. As someone living in Washington DC, a city with a high crime rate and a pathetic and corrupt police force, I understand the necessity of physical security. What I mean is the type of security that stands in the way of personal development. The security that says “go ahead and watch another episode of your favorite TV show, there’s nothing risky about that.” The kind that says “you’re tired, forget that event you RSVP’d for. You never meet anyone interesting at those events anyway.” Nothing bad can come of these thoughts and actions, and in that way they are secure. But nothing good can come of them either.

Every day I face a trade-off between the secure path and the risky path. I do not always make the right choice. However, I strongly believe that happiness in life will come not from security, but from the growth that comes from shunning security often, and letting the wind blow me wherever it may.

Using Negative Margins in CSS

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 16:43:59 -0400

My first wedding anniversary is coming up in just a couple weeks. Last year I made a website for the wedding that looked great, but had one tragic flaw. In some browsers, the content would end up all the way at the bottom of the page, under the sidebar. I had no idea why this was happening, and ultimately just let those with that browser suffer.

Today I found out the problem. In CSS, when two floated elements don’t have enough space to fit next to each other, the one that shows up later in the document gets pushed to the bottom. To get around this issue, it’s possible to add padding to one element (padding is like an internal margin in the CSS box model) and a corresponding negative border value to the other. This allows the elements to overlap and gets rid of the nastiness.

At this point, I think I’ve got enough CSS to turn this site into a design of my own. Now I just need to go about designing the site so that I can create the CSS for it.

Today

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 07:40:04 -0400

Time is a difficult concept to deal with. As humans, our life flows at varying speeds. At times, we reach a state of flow where events happen in quick succession, while at other times events are sparse and we stagnate. Yet time moves on with cool consistency. Every second comes, and then is gone. Without fail.

Today is a day like any other. It begins and ends and it is up to us, individually us and collectively Us, to determine the events that do or do not take place today. A day with few events of progress is a day that can never be fixed. When it ends, it is gone, along with the potential progress that was not realized.

So let today’s potential be realized, because when today moves us forward, it moves Us forward.

People like to say that “today is the first day of the rest of your life,” but it is also the last day of your life so far. It is an opportunity to change the negative as much as it is an opportunity to embrace and enhance the positive.

Whatever today brings or whatever We put into today, it will be, until it is not.

An Excel Workaround for Conditional Formatting That Shouldn't Be So Hard

Tue, 31 May 2011 18:09:00 -0400

Dear Microsoft,

I use the conditional formatting function in Excel for pretty much only two reasons. To flag invalid data entry and to identify outliers. Why is that so damn hard?

I’d like to be able to tell you “if the first digit of the military time is above 2 or the 3rd digit is above 5, flag it as invalid,” but I cannot. Maybe this is possible, but it’s really hard to figure out. So here’s how I did it:

First, take the cell in question, then tab over into the margin (or any other blank space, in my case, I needed to do this for two cells on every row). Next, set up a nested formula that checks for the conditions you want and returns a boolean. In my case that formula was:

=IF(cell<>”“,AND(Value(Left(cell,1))<3,Value(Left(cell,2))<24,Value(Right(Left(cell,3),1))<6,Len(cell)=4),”“)

In other words, if the cell in question (“cell”) is empty, return nothing, otherwise return true if the first digit is less than three, the first two digits are less than 24, the 3rd digit is less than 6, and the length of the string is 4. That is, only proper military times can be entered.

Next, having coded all the conditions into that cell, I select the conditional formatting menu on the target cell and set it to have a red background (my preferred flag) if the value of the other cell is “FALSE.” I would prefer to use data validation to reject this entry, but the red flag has to do, because I can’t use validation to check the value of a child cell, this should also be possible.

This workaround is annoying. Please make this easier to do, either in the data validation menu (the “custom” criteria are not intuitive, and I am fairly certain specifying the value range of digits is not possible) or in the conditional formatting menu (again, the rules are not intuitive with respect to this goal).

Thank You,

—Dave

Fifteen Minutes to Live

Tue, 31 May 2011 07:26:06 -0400

Muscles burning, lungs straining, stomach cramping. My head feels loose and heavy as it slumps to the side. I am unable to hold my body rigid and my military-esque posture fades to a puddle of slop.

Each step I take is painful and seems, on its own, pointless. The line will never come, and I have already broken down.

But the line always comes. No matter how painful, how hopeless it feels to strive after that line that sits so far away, the line always comes.

From the starting horn, caught in a mass of humanity reaching forward in a million directions, I establish a path. Eventually the chaos subsides and an eery silence falls over us. In silence we continue on, doing the hard damn work to get to the next junction.

Chaos again as our path must adapt to waves and currents, navigating obstacles to stay on course. Feet search for solid ground while we all strain to find our balance. Disoriented and confused, we climb onto the land and set off for the next leg of the journey.

Smooth loneliness now, as our legs churn endlessly into the open expanse ahead. Always feeling strong, momentum carries forth greater effort, the internal battle begins. Some energy must be saved for the last leg of the journey, but caught in the moment of incredible power, only short-term thinking can prevail. Struggling mightily against the urge to struggle too mightily, on and on over the next hilltop and into the next valley.

Then it begins: the finish line in site on the final leg of the journey. The body breaks down. The mind begins to lose hope. One more step.

One more step.

When all hope is gone, the line appears. Re-energized, I find the strength to drag myself across. On the other side there is only love.

And the line always comes.