Power Query + Power Pivot + M. I don't use formulas in cells. The sheets are just a canvas for Pivot Tables, final tables, and charts connected to the data from Power Query and Pivot.
I deal with hundreds of API integrations involving various JSON, CSV, TSV, and XML files with mixed validity. My workflow: Notepad++ for a visual check -> Prototype everything in Excel. I give users a "visual", connect it to real data, and only then migrate the final logic to BI dashboards or databases.
Nothing else delivers results this fast. SQL, BI tools, and Python are too slow because they generally need "clean" data. Cleaning and validation take too much time there. In Excel, it's mostly just a few clicks.
PS: I spent 2 years (2022-2023) using LibreOffice Calc. I didn't touch Excel once, thinking I needed to break the habit. In the end, I did break the habit, but it was replaced by a pile of scripts and utilities because Calc couldn't do what I needed (or do it fast enough). The experience reminds me of testing Krita for 2 years (2018-2020) — I eventually returned to Adobe Photoshop (but that's another story).
PS2: About (Query + Pivot + BI). This allows you to process millions of rows (bypassing grid limitations). It also allows you to compress everything into an OLAP cube, taking up little space and working quickly with data.
Interesting. I'm not experienced in data cleaning.
About Python vs Excel:
Isn't manual cleanning of data in Excel prone to permanent error? Because:
- it's hard to version control/diff
- it's done by a human fat fingering spreadsheet cells
- it's not reproducible. Like if you need to redo the cleaning of all the dates, in a Python script you could just fix the data parsing part and rerun the script to parse source again. And you can easily control changes with git
In practice I think the speed tradeoff could be worth the ocasional mistake. But it would depend on the field I guess.
> - it's hard to version control/diff
As I mentioned, this is only prototyping.
After that, we move on to implementation in code, knowing what we want to see in the end and understanding the nuances of the data itself.
> - it's done by a human fat fingering spreadsheet cells
No one is entering anything into the cells, please reread the message.
> - it's not reproducible. Like if you need to redo the cleaning of all the dates, in a Python script you could just fix the data parsing part and rerun the script to parse source again. And you can easily control changes with git
And that's what I said above. That it takes longer. Why use git/python when I can do it in a few clicks and quickly see a visual representation at every step?
> In practice I think the speed tradeoff could be worth the ocasional mistake. But it would depend on the field I guess.
Another sentence that shows once again that you haven't read what was written.
Even if we get there, will there be any benefit to civilization, maybe there are no habitable worlds there and it is not possible to profitably extract valuable resources for future travel.
In my opinion, the most realistic thing is to come to an understanding of how our body/brain works. Then learn how to transfer consciousness from a living shell to a machine (with an emulsified environment for nerve endings, and so on).
To learn how to print bodies, even if it takes as many years as it takes to grow in natural conditions.
Between solar systems or even galaxies, our digital consciousnesses will travel, maybe even copies and once in n years, synchronized in some exact or not. That is, to achieve immortality in a “digital” way, then time will not play a role.
Another problem is spacecraft, so that they can travel with sufficient autonomy for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years (this is probably the main problem).
I was tempted by the ratings and immediately paid for a subscription to Gemini 2.5.
Half an hour later, I canceled the subscription and got a refund.
This is the laziest and stupidest LLM.
What he had to do, he told me to do on my own. And also when analyzing simple short documents, he pulled up some completely strange documents from the Internet not related to the topic.
Even local LLMs (3B) were not so stupid and lazy.
Exactly my experience as well. I don't get why people here now seem to blindly take every new gamed benchmark as some harbinger of OpenAI's imminent downfall. Google is still way behind in day-to day personal and professional use for me.
I'm thinking about starting a blog. I often write detailed comments, but they are often limited because I can't add many images, or just the number of characters is limited, I can't add graphics.
I mean, I'm already generating some content, but it's drowning somewhere in the comments. And then I can't find what I wrote myself.
I prefer to use it as my own library, but share some research with others.
Most (though maybe not all) tech sites will publish a post about the release of the next motherboard and so on 20 times a day, but there will be no news about, for example, PCIe 7.0 and Molex, and if there is such a post, it will be just dry, here is the release and that's it. All the additional information is about it and why it will be useful to incite the audience to expectations, and possibly wishes for potential use. Even on the relevant branches or subreddits where it would be useful, no one even mentions it.
Everything is aimed at a quick release, getting paid for the publication, and that's it.
The further I go, the more I look for small blocks and re-read them once a month.
How much news did you see about another motherboard or GPU with a modified bezel and how much news was there about the development of microled (with its many applications). And in the last two years, something new and interesting has been happening in the microled field.
But where are the tech sites before this... it is better to consider another QHD OLED screen, which is not far from FHD. It's just the same old, same old every day, week, month.
>> they don't support system calls to dialog windows.
It's a little unclear what you mean exactly. Do you want the browsing experience changed for the system's file open/save dialogs? i.e. a third-party file explorer opens instead with all of it's features.
1. Search site.
As a separate product, it would need to earn money.
Improve filtering and the search itself.
It would be able to host ads from other advertising networks (like any other large site).
Make an additional API or tool to regularly update data by certain filters)
You can charge money for all these things.
2. Ads. As a separate advertising network, for which google.com will be just one platform/site, like thousands of others.
3. Mail as a separate service, leave the ability to log in to other sites through this account, so you keep one login for everything (who needs it).
It can also be an advertising platform for any advertising network. You can offer better services for a fee, while keeping the basic functionality free.
4. YouTube as a separate service, as well as a platform where many other advertising networks or advertisers will compete for advertising space. Introduce paid plans for creators, where there will be a certain volume limit after which you will need to pay for the service.
5. Cloud services. Separately.
6. Google Docs. As a separate online document service, you can charge a subscription fee for certain features as in 365.
7. Browser. No need for Manifest v3.
Improvements to the extension store.
You can also sell advertising space and make integrations with various tools, as Opera does, for example.
You can even make some kind of subscription, or make paid extensions that will speed up sites, improve the look, and cut out ads.
This is the first thing that came to mind. This can be thought out better.
This will create competition for other players and for these potentially divided campaigns.
General improvement of products. And all of this can be kept "under one login, in one ecosystem," with the ability to make "one system and one login" in conjunction with other tools.
What Framework could really do.
A keyboard like Lenovo legion/thinkpad, not something neutered in the style of Apple.
Don't make a terrible proprietary video card slot, but use pci-e/u.2/oculink, etc.
The battery charging controller should be a separate module, with only +/- and i2s/usb going to the motherboard (for charge information and control/firmware). And it should be quick-replaceable.
The idea with external connectors needs to be refined. Still, it is worthwhile to output one high-speed USB on both sides as standard, 1 USB-A, 1-LAN, 1-DP
Then allow 3-4 slots to insert some additional connectors.
It's good if you want proprietary connectors. Then it's worth it, like for a video card.
Then it is worth doing this more globally for CPU, RAM (CAMM), PCI-E. So that you can insert either high-speed memory or a so-dimm adapter. So that you can replace the processor, not the entire motherboard (no one will resell the old board, it will be in the garage like garbage).
Develop 3-4 cases: light, medium, heavy gaming, heavy workstations. Make it an open standard so that it can be imposed on other manufacturers or enthusiasts.
In general, we will get a square motherboard with connectors, to which you can attach or not attach connectors/slots.
Today I have enough money only for ryzen 5, 16gb so-dimm, 1 m.2 and 3 usb.
After 4 years, I would be able to replace with a ryzen 7, 64gb, 2 m.2 and 6 usb-c, and connect a modern graphics card at that time.
As a startup, you have slow change and innovation, you already act like a corporation, although you don't have the burden of supporting many devices and compatibility.
So for me, the "framework" looks like a typical greenwashing, which so far generates more garbage than a typical laptop (because no one changes anything there, like in your laptops with fake upgrades).
It all depends on global and legislative initiatives.
Only restrictions on the production of plastic and cardboard (!!!) work.
Personal initiatives are just romanticization and a philosophy that shifts the problem from the producer to the consumer (who has no choice).
Metal is an alternative to many things.
Plastic is only for containers and things with a long cycle of use. It has its advantages. It is more resistant to impact than metal (falls, bumps) and retains its shape.
Glass is not an alternative at all, it is not comfortable, it breaks, leaves fragments that you will not find on the ground or in your body. It is not resistant to falls, shocks, frequent temperature changes (just pour hot into a cold cup, or vice versa).
And it's not pleasant to the touch, with limited use where it really is the best choice.
But this is not a problem in itself, we need to localize food production more so that it doesn't have to be stored for a long time and therefore use a lot of packaging. We need it to travel quickly from the producer to the store to the consumer, without plastic packaging as much as possible.
Over the past 4 years, I have been horrified to see that the amount of plastic waste I generate has increased dramatically, without changing my consumption and habits.
>>Only restrictions on the production of plastic and cardboard (!!!) work.
Agreed. we need to price in the externalities into the cost of manufacturing, else it will always be a tragedy of the commons
I used to use Premium, but then I stopped because I don't get anything in return.
Now it's just extortion from a criminal who says "pay money or you'll watch a lot of terrible ads".
What I get is third-party clients (on my phone) or plugins on my PC:
- can be removed from the subscriptions feed: community messages (I came to watch videos, not read posts).
- remove premieres (announcements, when it comes out then I'll watch it).
- remove short videos
- delete broadcasts
- choose to download h264 (because few laptops and phones support AV1, which is currently decoded by the processor, heating the device and draining batteries)
- disable video track downloading if you need only sound (including in the terrible YouTube music)
- view dislikes
- disable translation of video titles. It's annoying when the title is in English or, for example, my native language, and the video turns out to be in Vietnamese, Indian, and doesn't have an additional audio track or at least subtitles.
- Blocking video channels I don't like
- blocking videos with titles in a language that is not interesting or pleasant to my ears (for example, Indian or Vietnamese).
- sponsor block (integrated advertising, as in ltt, half of the video is advertising), and this is with mediocre content that is better prepared by blockchain games with a much smaller budget.
- selection of video quality, without resetting the settings
- setting the subtitle position (top/bottom)
- downloading videos in open video and audio formats (for offline viewing on the go in a convenient player)
- And finally, blocking the usual YouTube ads.
There are many more small features in the mobile apps.
What's in it for me with YouTube? Nothing!
- YouTube could create several levels of subscriptions.
- Create your own sponsor block. If a video has embedded ads, skip them and show your own. Or in the settings, give the author a choice: either he earns only from integrated advertising or YouTube advertising.
- All the other functions provided by plugins (and this is on the client side, there are no costs on the server side).
- warnings about deletion or skimming of videos in my playlist (I have 40% of videos in my music playlist for 5 years, and I don't know which videos were deleted to find the originals).
- YouTube can reduce its costs by banning uploads, or by strictly moderating stupid videos of 10 hours, which are looped 10-second snippets and the like, videos for cats, dogs, snails and fantasy animals that will never buy anything from ads.
- For podcasters, making it possible to download audio and previews is already a savings, because there is no need to store a meaningless "video".
And also big problems with YouTube:
- terrible search and filter.
- It takes a lot of computer resources.
- You complain about the channels not being shown to me, but they are shown anyway.
- videos/channels are blocked automatically for unknown reasons and complaints from the left heel of some offended mama's son
- the same thing is shown in shorts
If YouTube closes the api and pushes through a manifesto so that adblockers don't work, or work terribly. Then I will use YouTube as a regular site that I will visit once or twice a month, that is, it will definitely not be a premium subscription, and there will be a meager viewing of ads. AMD has also introduced a new streaming board, and more of them will appear, and separate blogger communities will be formed that are independent of YouTube, and YouTube will have an outflow.
Among my friends and acquaintances, almost no one uses YouTube anymore because it's not convenient. More of them are on social networks, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. That is, most of them will not even notice the death of YouTube, because it is almost dead for them, and they go there only when necessary.
