In November, during the SharePoint Conference 2012, attendees received a Public Preview of project codename “GeoFlow” for Excel, the latest business-intelligence (BI) functionality to be integrated with Microsoft Excel 2013 later this year. As an Excel add-in, GeoFlow provides interactive, 3-D geospatial and temporal data visualizations. It enables information workers to discover and share new insights from data through rich, 3-D data on a globe and fluid, cinematic guided tours—virtual cinematography moving through data.
Tag Archives: Microsoft Excel
The Perfect Desktop – OpenSUSE 12.3 (GNOME Desktop)
HowtoForge: This tutorial shows how you can set up an OpenSUSE 12.3 desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge.
The software I propose as default is the one I found easiest to use and best in their functionality – this won’t necessarily be true for your needs, thus you are welcome to try out the applications listed as alternatives.
I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!
1 Preliminary Note
To fully replace a Windows desktop, I want the OpenSUSE 12.3 desktop to have the following software installed:
Graphics:
- Pinta – open source drawing application modeled after Paint.NET
- KolourPaint – paint application with elemental functions
- The GIMP – free software replacement for Adobe Photoshop
- Shotwell Photo Manager – full-featured personal photo management application for the GNOME desktop
Internet:
- Firefox
- Opera
- Chromium – Google’s open-source browser
- Thunderbird – email and news client
- Evolution – combines e-mail, calendar, address book, and task list management functions
- Deluge – free cross-platform BitTorrent client
- Transmission BitTorrent Client – Bittorrent client
- qBittorrent – free alternative to µtorrent
- Marble – desktop globe similar to google earth
- GoogleEarth – Google’s desktop globe
- Flash Player 11
- FileZilla – multithreaded FTP client
- Pidgin IM Client – multi-platform instant messaging client
- Skype (only for 32 bit systems)
- Dropbox Client – cloud storage
- Gwibber Social Client – open-source microblogging client (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
Office:
- Adobe Reader
- Evince – document viewer
- Okular – document viewer
- LibreOffice Writer – replacement for Microsoft Word
- LibreOffice Calc – replacement for Microsoft Excel
- GnuCash – double-entry book-keeping personal finance system, similar to Quicken
- Scribus – open source desktop publishing (DTP) application
Sound & Video:
- Banshee – audio player, can encode/decode various formats and synchronize music with Apple iPods
- Amarok – audio player
- MPlayer – media player (video/audio), supports WMA
- Rhythmbox Music Player – audio player, similar to Apple’s iTunes, with support for iPods
- gtkPod – software similar to Apple’s iTunes, supports iPod, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, iPod photo, and iPod mini
- Sound Juicer CD Extractor – CD ripping tool, supports various audio codecs
- XMMS – audio player similar to Winamp
- Clementine – Amarok 1.4 fork
- VLC Media Player – media player, plays all kinds of videos (video/audio)
- Totem – media player (video/audio)
- Xine – media player, supports various formats; can play DVDs
- Winff – free video converter
- SoundConverter – free audio converter
- Soundkonverter – free audio converter
- K3B – CD/DVD burning program
- Brasero – CD/DVD burning program
- Audacity – free, open source, cross platform digital audio editor
- Kino – free digital video editor
- dvd::rip – full featured DVD copy program
- Multimedia Codecs
Programming:
- Bluefish – text editor, suitable for many programming and markup languages
- Eclipse – Extensible Tool Platform and Java IDE
Other:
- VirtualBox – lets you run your old Windows desktop as a virtual machine under your Linux desktop, so you don’t have to entirely abandon Windows
- TrueType fonts
- Java
- gedit – simple text editor
The software provided in the above list covers most of the basic tasks one might need to do on their desktop computers, sometimes there are multiple choices for same functionality. If you know which one you like best, you obviously don’t need to install and test the other applications, however if you like choice, then of course you can install more than one.
I’m using the OpenSUSE 12.3 Live-DVD in this tutorial to set up the system. You can download it from here: http://software.opensuse.org/123/en
I will use the username howtoforge in this tutorial, and I will download all necessary files to howtoforge’s desktop which is equivalent to the directory /home/howtoforge/Desktop. If you use another username, please replace howtoforge with your own username. So when I use a command such as
cd /home/howtoforge/Desktop
you must replace howtoforge.
2 Installing The Base System
Download the OpenSUSE 12.3 Live-DVD iso image, burn it onto a DVD, and boot your computer from it. Select Installation.
Continue reading this article at it’s original source:
http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-opensuse-12.3-gnome-desktop
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Linux Today
How Risky Are Your Bonds? Here's How to Tell
Filed under: Federal Reserve, Bonds, Interest Rates
At some point, the party is going to end: Interest rates are currently at unsustainably low levels — levels not supported by natural supply and demand, but by the Federal Reserve‘s aggressive policies.
Higher rates are generally good for people looking to put new money to work in the bond market. But what about those already invested in bonds?
As Dan Caplinger recently pointed out here on DailyFinance, this is an extraordinarily risky time to be in the bond market. If you’re holding onto bonds right now, when rates rise, the price of existing bonds will drop. And that, in turn, will knock out much — if not all — of the safety the bond buyers thought they were getting by buying them in the first place.
Just how far will prices fall?
While all standard, fixed-coupon bonds will fall when interest rates rise, each will fall a bit differently based on what’s known as its modified duration. It’s a formula, available in Microsoft Excel and online calculators like this one that figures out how many percentage points the price of a bond will drop for a one percentage point increase in interest rates.
The bigger the modified duration, the bigger the risk.
When $100 Is Only Worth $90.60
U.S. Treasury Bonds are a potent example of this danger in action. As of this writing, the longest-dated U.S. Treasury Bond matures in November 2042 — nearly 30 years from now. When those were issued last November, interest rates were even lower than they are today. Those bonds have a coupon rate of 2.75 percent, but their current yield to maturity is closer to 3.25 percent.
A half point rise in rates may not seem like a very big deal, but those bonds have lost nearly 10 percent of their market value on that tiny move. What was issued as a bond with a $100 face value can be picked up in the market for about $90.60.
Oh sure, Uncle Sam still guarantees that investors will get back the full $100 — in 2042 — and $2.75 a year in interest payments while they wait. But that guarantee is cold comfort for those who’ve just seen the value of more than three years’ worth of those interest payments vanish in just a few months on a mere half-point rise in rates.
Running the Numbers
Indeed, calculating the modified duration of investment grade bonds from well-known issuers, the numbers right now can be a bit scary. The table below shows the gory details:
| Issuer | Bond CUSIP | Maturity Date | Coupon Rate | Current Yield to Maturity | Modified Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Treasury Bonds | 912810QY7 | 11/15/2042 | 2.75% | 3.25% | 19.4 |
| Microsoft (MSFT) | 594918AR5 |
Microsoft's Excel Might Be The Most Dangerous Software On The Planet
By Tim Worstall, Contributor No, really, it’s possible that Microsoft’s Excel is the most dangerous software on the planet. Yes, more dangerous than rogue code running a nuclear power plant, than the Stuxnet that was deliberately sent off to sabotage Iran‘s nuclear program, worse, even, than whatever rent in the fabric of space time led to the invention of Lolcats. Really, that serious. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Review: SmartDraw 2013 Helps You Go With The Flow
A picture is worth a thousand words, or so the adage goes. Whether you need an Edward Tufte-type infographic, complex flowchart, or seating plan, the success of your graphics is often tied directly to your software. $300 SmartDraw 2013 aims to make visualization of data easy, even for users without a graphic design or drawing background.
When you run SmartDraw 2013, the program offers you five very different options: Create a visual, document a process, hold a meeting, manage a project, or make a presentation. Choosing to create a visual will allow you to choose from any of the many SmartDraw templates—from charts to seating plans to maps to SWOT analysis—which can be a little overwhelming. When you document a process, hold a meeting, or manage a project, SmartDraw will open a storyboard page and the typical items you need to create that type of project—process bubbles and arrows, for example—that you can drag and drop into position, or add using buttons. The option to make a presentation also opens a storyboard, in which you can plan out your slideshow. However, you will need to export to Microsoft PowerPoint to run the presentation.
You can automate many kinds of things with SmartDraw. For example, when you are creating a flow chart, the boxes will automatically line up unless you move them manually, and will connect with the arrows you choose. When you move a bar on a bar chart, the correct scale number will show and the scale will change with your chart. The canvas size also will change depending on the size of your graphic. All of these things make starting out with SmartDraw pretty easy. However, the number of graphics and chart types can be distracting, and some beginner users may notice the lack of a Wizard. For the over 40s set (and maybe some users under 40), the size and legibility of the type still is a problem. It can also be very difficult to create accurate technical drawings from scratch. When your graphic is complete, you can easily upload it to SmartDraw’s free cloud storage site: SmartShare.
SmartDraw can import data from a database file and automatically create charts and other info graphics. However, SmartDraw’s functionality in this regard is not much different from using the charting options built into Microsoft Excel or Apache OpenOffice Calc (free spreadsheet program.) If you have data that you want to crunch and display, SmartDraw may not be the best option: Tableau Public is free to download and will create stunning infographics using your raw data, without the need for you to do any additional math.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
Red October malware discovered after years of stealing data in the wild
A shadowy group of hackers has siphoned intelligence data worldwide from diplomatic, government, and scientific research computer networks for more than five years, including targets in the United States, according to a report from Kaspersky Lab.
Kaspersky Lab began researching the malware attacks in October and dubbed them “Rocra,” short for “Red October.” Rocra uses a number of security vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PDF documents types to infect PCs, smartphones, and computer networking equipment. On Tuesday researchers discovered the malware platform also uses Web-based Java exploits.
It’s not clear who is behind the attacks, but Rocra uses at least three publicly known exploits originally created by Chinese hackers. Rocra’s programming, however, appears to be from a separate group of Russian-speaking operatives, according to the report from Kaspersky Lab.
The attacks are ongoing and targeted at high-level institutions in what are known as spear-fishing attacks. Kaspersky estimates that the Red October attacks have likely obtained hundreds of terabytes of data in the time it has been operational, which could be as early as May 2007.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld