Showcased Google Docs Spreadsheet Does Not Compute
from the zero-problem dept
theodp writes "Recently, Google debuted its new Google Docs Template Gallery, showcasing a Shared House Expenses spreadsheet template in a pretty elaborate YouTube Video as an example of 'tools that just work.' Only problem is, the popular five-star template still doesn't work correctly. Thanks to its doesn't-handle-zero-correctly bugs, the spreadsheet fails to always divide expenses properly, allowing one roommate to get away with contributing far less than his "Fare [sic] Share." So did Google release the spreadsheet to gazillions of users without bothering to verify it worked, or did all those Googlers fail to recognize some pretty obvious mistakes?"
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: errors, math, spreadsheets, templates
Companies: google
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Nah, their code just plain sucks.
OpenOffice handles that stuff just fine, for a cost of $0.
Cost has nothing to do with it, this is a simple case of promoting code you haven't debugged yet.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
Wait, that sounds just like every OS as well...
There is a CONSPIRACY of software developers doing the same thing!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Showcased Google Docs Spreadsheet Does Not Compute
Well, for a couple of hundred bucks anyone can get a PhD. Or, if you're born into a wealthy family, you can buy a good one for a few hundred thousand bucks. The probability that someone with a PhD from one of the world's finest, post-secondary educational institutions will actually know how to read, write, and perform four-function arithmetic is still about the same as that of someone who purchased their PhD from a mill though:
Approaching zero.
Besides, most people who write code for a living don't have PhDs anyway. They're kids who play video games and work in cubicles in India, Russia, China, or some other low wage country. You can teach anyone to cut and paste, and if that's all they do, they're really, really cheap. It used to be people in those nations were better at math than their counterparts in the U.S. Apparently, the software industry has succeeded in dumbing them down as well. Oh well.
I found it interesting that today was the launch date of yet another, worse than useless, "free" POS (Piece of Software?) "developed" by some ex-Googlers with $33 million in VC funding: www.cuil.com
Free pizza to the first person who can make it work. You have to provide the pizza though. Sorta like how the software industry operates.... ;-)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Nice article thanks
that can help you visualize your data.
I also found an interesting product that connects directly to Google spreadsheets and allows you to create dashboards and reports quickly and easily its called Prism from SiSense
It suppose to be free as far as I know.
you can find it here:
http://www.sisense.com/google-spreadsheets.aspx
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]