Wednesday, September 05, 2007

You know those people....

who cannot read maps and are for some reason, very proud of the fact that they say it to all and sundry. I used to wonder all the time who hangs out with these people, and today I have my answer. In fact, I even know who gets married to them. People who buy furniture from Ikea and then pay "assembly professionals" to assemble said furniture. Really. They deserve each other, don't you think?

In other unrelated news, the only thing (concerning work) that I know everything about, or rather, no one's accused me not knowing has become unrecognizable now. Microsoft's gone and done it again. Does anyone recognize this? (Please click on it to see larger picture in all its goriness..err..Macness)


No, its not iTunes people. Its Excel 2007. Bill (No, not you dammit, and no, you do not tell me to switch to Linux[1]), WHY? I take a break for a month and this is what you do?

[1] Anoop, that's for you too.

PS: On the bright side, all old keyboard shortcuts work. So all's not lost methinks.

8 comments:

Ravages/CC said...

Aha! You got wrappen up in the ribbon too, heh. Best of luck. In just a short while, it gets very familiar, though. And very usable.

Space Bar said...

ok, someone came to my blog from this particular post and I was torn between getting offended and wanting to bury my head in a pillow at being found out!

the last time i read a map was in my georgraphy exam in class 12 (yes! I admit it!) and -- assemble furniture?! How will the friendly neighbourhood carpenter make a living if people start doing him out of it every waking second?

pigudel said...

that's funny ... thankfully my firm is light years behind on tech, so we won't get to it till I never have to touch excel again.. one of my kids needed to use it though (300k rows do help), and cries everyday ... it's so built for idiots ...

Veena said...

Ravages: Usable? For who? :)

SB: Oh cmon, you can read a map. Don't fib now. And I have nothing against the friendly neighborhood carpenter, I personally have used him a number of times but using him to assemble Ikea furniture is an insult to him. Any self-respecting carpenter will actually refuse to do it.

Preeti: Yeah, its funny. Though now I am beginning to think that Bill is actually a genius. All he is trying to do is to separate real Excel users (like moi who never use the mouse) and the rest of the world.

Oh yeah, there are some pluses - way more than 300K rows and more than 3 conditions on cond formatting. Atleast I never have to use VBA again!

Tabula Rasa said...

i learned this summer that there's this fancy furniture store in bombay - i forget the name - that delivers knocked-down furniture and sends two handymen to set it up for you. i know because i had to read the ikea-style instructions and translate them.

Anonymous said...

I can read a map but I don't have any sense of direction. Whatsoever.

And of COURSE one gets someone else to assemble furniture. What next, baking your own bread? Painting your own house? Knitting your own sweaters? Its a slippery slope to DIY you know. And its people like you (says she heatedly) who set people on that slope thereby hastening the Decline of American Civilzation as we know it.

n!

Anonymous said...

Reg. assembling Ikea furniture - I am sure you have seen this.

Macness, iTunes, Excel, M$ ... tsk tsk..one word - GEEK.

And reminds me of the good ol' days when I used to be the will-assemble-for-food friendly 'hood assembly amatuer.

Veena said...

People, the point is not about getting someone else to assemble furniture. I am all for getting husbdands, friends and other connable creatures to aseemble while one's chilling on the couch. The point is if you are going to pay the assembly people twice as much as you paid for the furniture, you might as well buy some decent furniture na? Why go to Ikea in the first place? If friendly neighborhood carpenter has to be occupied, then get him to make the thing from scratch.