Minutiae

  • On finding out you are not Australian

    https://www.raeallen.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/rae-interview-2017-08-15-16-09-29.mp3?_=1

    With discussion about dual citizenship, Fred Hooper used my experiences as an example in an interview on Drive, broadcast on ABC Northern Tasmania on Tuesday 15 August 2017

  • Rae Allen gave 5 stars to: A Girl in Time

    Rae Allen reviewed:

    A Girl in Time by John Birmingham

    Five Stars, January 18, 2017
    Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
    This review is from: A Girl in Time (Kindle Edition)
    Terrific and timely cross dimension urban fantasy

    from Customer reviews on Amazon http://amzn.to/2k1HTrK
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  • Single leaf

    DSC02652 - autumn leaves

    “If I pick up a single leaf and go into the city, I move the whole mountain.”
    ~ Yuan wu (1063-1135)

  • Rae Allen gave 4 stars to: Tech, Lies, and Wizardry

    Rae Allen reviewed:

    Tech, Lies, and Wizardry: a Space Opera Fantasy Short Story (Black Ocean Book 0) by J.S. Morin

    Imposing his will on the universe, July 17, 2016
    Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
    It is hard to review any of the Black Ocean series on their own as the fit so neatly together. It is certainly easy to read them as stand-alone novels but the body of work J.S Morin is putting together hear is as interesting as the characters which make up the series

    from Customer reviews on Amazon http://amzn.to/29FlSyy
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  • Rae Allen gave 5 stars to: Ceres (Universe Eventual Book 3)

    Rae Allen reviewed:

    Ceres (Universe Eventual Book 3) by N.J. Tanger

    1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
    Escape from Hel, July 17, 2016
    Ceres (Universe Eventual Book 3)
    I was sent a review copy of the third book in the Universe Eternal series, which reminded me I hadn’t read the second book. Since I’d enjoyed Chimera, the first book so much I decided to binge, buying Helios, and then diving into Ceres.

    One of the fascinating parts of this series I’m finding is that we are talking youthful characters stepping up to take on big roles in their worlds. This continues as the Chimera travels to find an older colony ship, Ceres. The first book laid out the generational reasons for the ships crews to be so young, and in a way this latest episode develops the characters as the young people would be developing in their own right.

    Add in another world, a lost society, another psychopath, and a couple of new young characters and Ceres is a gift to sci-fi. I can’t wait until the next in the series.

    from Customer reviews on Amazon http://amzn.to/29GN9wX
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  • Rae Allen gave 4 stars to: Helios (Universe Eventual Book 2)

    Rae Allen reviewed:

    Helios (Universe Eventual Book 2) by N.J. Tanger

    Hard sci-fi combined with psycho thriller, July 17, 2016
    Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
    Following Chimera, this second book in the series follows most of the same characters and has a similar set of features including the rites of passage. That said, we shouldn’t expect this to be just an update on book one as some of the characters gain significant depth, and some just die.

    In Marcus you have a complete psychopath, comfortable at manipulating others to get to his goals, and killing them if they threaten him. Of all the characters Selena’s and Theo’s develops the most, though in very different ways.

    Being only the second book in a series don’t be looking for ‘happily ever after’ but do expect gripping hard sci-fi.Helios (Universe Eventual) (Volume 2)

    from Customer reviews on Amazon http://amzn.to/29GCL8f
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  • Split data into multiple Excel worksheets based on column with VBA code

    I regularly get a block of data with 45 different entries in the first collum, repeated for each time a month appears in column 2. I wanted to split the data based on column value quickly and automatically

    The following VBA code from extendoffice.com worked well

    1. Open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window. I used the Developer > Visual Basic commands from the toolbar

    2. Click Insert > Module, and paste the following code in the Module Window.

    Sub parse_data()
    Dim lr As Long
    Dim ws As Worksheet
    Dim vcol, i As Integer
    Dim icol As Long
    Dim myarr As Variant
    Dim title As String
    Dim titlerow As Integer
    vcol = 1
    Set ws = Sheets(“Sheet1”)
    lr = ws.Cells(ws.Rows.Count, vcol).End(xlUp).Row
    title = “A1:C1”
    titlerow = ws.Range(title).Cells(1).Row
    icol = ws.Columns.Count
    ws.Cells(1, icol) = “Unique”
    For i = 2 To lr
    On Error Resume Next
    If ws.Cells(i, vcol) “” And Application.WorksheetFunction.Match(ws.Cells(i, vcol), ws.Columns(icol), 0) = 0 Then
    ws.Cells(ws.Rows.Count, icol).End(xlUp).Offset(1) = ws.Cells(i, vcol)
    End If
    Next
    myarr = Application.WorksheetFunction.Transpose(ws.Columns(icol).SpecialCells(xlCellTypeConstants))
    ws.Columns(icol).Clear
    For i = 2 To UBound(myarr)
    ws.Range(title).AutoFilter field:=vcol, Criteria1:=myarr(i) & “”
    If Not Evaluate(“=ISREF(‘” & myarr(i) & “‘!A1)”) Then
    Sheets.Add(after:=Worksheets(Worksheets.Count)).Name = myarr(i) & “”
    Else
    Sheets(myarr(i) & “”).Move after:=Worksheets(Worksheets.Count)
    End If
    ws.Range(“A” & titlerow & “:A” & lr).EntireRow.Copy Sheets(myarr(i) & “”).Range(“A1”)
    Sheets(myarr(i) & “”).Columns.AutoFit
    Next
    ws.AutoFilterMode = False
    ws.Activate
    End Sub

    Note: In the above code:

    vcol =1, the number 1 is the column number that you want to split the data based on.
    Set ws = Sheets(“Sheet1”), Sheet1 is the sheet name that you want to apply this code.
    title = “A1:C1”, A1:C1 is the range of the title.
    All of them are variables, you can change them as your need.

    3. Then press F5 key to run the code, all data in the active worksheet are split into multiple worksheets by the column value. And the split worksheets are named with the split cell names.

    Note: The split worksheets are placed in the end of the workbook where the master worksheet is in.

  • Spreadsheet formulas: Prepend by concatenation

    Have had to delve into some formulas for processing text files so needed someplace to jot them down

    Prepend the word GET and a space to front of a string by the concatenation method
    =CONCATENATE(“GET “,B1)

  • Parse RSS feed with Google feed api

    This is a fully commented method parsing a mediarss feed using the now deprecated Google Feed api

    http://www.abc.net.au/landline/test/news-rss/

    <html>
    <head>
    <!–load the google javascript api – now depricated–>
    <script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://www.google.com/jsapi”></script>
    <script type=”text/javascript”>

    google.load(“feeds”, “1”);

    function initialize() {
    //load the rss feed
    var feed = new google.feeds.Feed(“http://www.abc.net.au/news/feed/7234284/rss.xml”);
    //set the number of entreies you want from the feed
    feed.setNumEntries(10);
    //load the results
    feed.load(function(result) {
    if (!result.error) {
    //look for the container div
    var container = document.getElementById(“feed”);
    //inside the container div creat a ul element
    var ul = document.createElement(“ul”);
    for (var i = 0; i < result.feed.entries.length; i++) {
    var entry = result.feed.entries[i];
    var li = document.createElement(‘li’);
    //for each item, appent an li element to the ul
    ul.appendChild(li);
    //creat and anchor element
    var a = document.createElement(‘a’);
    //give the anchor element the href attribute and the value of the entry link
    a.setAttribute(“href”, (entry.link));
    //append that anchor as a child of the li element
    li.appendChild(a);
    //append the entry title as a chiled of the anchor tag
    a.appendChild(document.createTextNode(entry.title));
    //finish by ending the ul tag inside the container
    container.appendChild(ul);
    }
    }
    });
    }
    google.setOnLoadCallback(initialize);

    </script>
    </head>
    <body>
    <div id=”feed”></div>
    </body>
    </html>

  • Rae Allen gave 5 stars to: The Chronicles of Benjamin Jamison

    Rae Allen reviewed:

    The Chronicles of Benjamin Jamison: Call Sign Reaper (Book 1) by Thomas Wright

    the Benjamin Jamison series is a great addition to your library, February 11, 2016
    Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
    For fans of military sci-fi, the Benjamin Jamison series is a great addition to your library. A well presented character as the centre piece but with a supporting cast which are strong in their own right.

    from Customer reviews on Amazon http://amzn.to/1TgfgWF
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