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?"
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Filed Under: errors, math, spreadsheets, templates
Companies: google


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2008 @ 10:35am

    Hence the Beta tag.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2008 @ 10:51am

    Re:

    It'll let you get away with anything.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Ima Fish, 28 Jul 2008 @ 10:57am

    Google has more PhDs than anyone else, they know more than anyone else, so quite obviously, the laws of mathematics as we know them are wrong.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2008 @ 11:07am

    You get what you pay for.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Trerro, 28 Jul 2008 @ 11:14am

    Nah, their code just plain sucks.

    "You get what you pay for."

    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 ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2008 @ 1:14pm

    Re: Re:

    Well better than most EA Games in the past where the quality is Beta but it's all okay until the patch comes along.

    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 ]

  7. identicon
    Unit1, 28 Jul 2008 @ 1:56pm

    Showcased Google Docs Spreadsheet Does Not Compute

    Google has a lot of PhD's? Really?

    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 ]

  8. Nice article thanks

    I would also like to add the there are many new gadgets
    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 ]

  9. identicon
    دردشه, 5 Jul 2009 @ 4:02pm

    There is a CONSPIRACY of software developers doing the same thing

    link to this | view in thread ]


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