Now bring your spreadsheet to the beach and make your friends to also work on it!

Tech - Now bring your spreadsheet to the beach and make your friends to also work on it!

I was surprised when I came to know that many of my friends dont use/know of office suites and applications like notebook.google, reader.google and google apps and OpenOffice.org . Understandable. We have had access to Microsoft Office all the time ( I am making a point here if you understand what I mean ;) ).

Now I buy a new laptop. I need an office suite. So what do I do? Financially drained from buying the lappy and unable to buy an MS Office suite, I am left with 2 choices now:

1. Get a net connection and start using docs.google apps


2. Get OpenOffice suite.

docs.google is really simple and quite convenient - you dont need to have it installed in your pc. You just need an internet connection and start using it a regular speadsheet/document application. Your data is on the net and can be shared for collaboration and such - this might also be a negative point. You are placing your data on the net. So most probably you would avoid using the service for official purposes. But consider the following use : - I am placement coordinator for my college. I need data of my batchmates such as semester scores and company preferences. I simply upload a template and share it with my friends. They fill in the required data. This can be tailored and further shared with recruiters and linked in many ways possible. Simple and sweet!

OpenOffice.org gives a neat package of fully functional Office tools like the Word equivalent - Writer. Pretty much the same functionalites, you can enhance it with further Open add Ons like EuroOffice Dictionary. You end up saving tons in money buying a set of Office tools and come on now its high time we started getting into the Open movement. The only thing that kept us from doing this is we never bought much of the software. Issues like compromising security and Microsoft blanking off your screens if you buy its pirated stuff ( yes now it can ...Huhuhuhahahahaha..) has turned many away from the lure of pirated software.

Well two points I needed to drive home so that my friends can start using the best stuff the net has to offer out and try some reliable FOSS ( Free and Open Source Software ) . Bottomline - we need to start exploring the net better.

Anyone heading for the beach? I will get my laptop...

Solutions to improper usage of meeting rooms (MRs).

( I was going to post this in my intranet blogosphere but I dont think this suits the forum)

Now I am gonna do something taboo! write about the office........

Office - Solutions to improper usage of meeting rooms (MRs).

Another meeting, another booking and yet again somebody other than your team occupying the room. They seem pretty busy to bother checking the availability of the room. Quite understandable. Hence occurs the idea – something to tell people that this room has been booked from so and so time. It is really rude if you occupy the room in someone else’s slot and going on a break while the team which has booked the room stands outside wondering whom to inform to take away their laptops and their papers from the room.

Ok, the last incident was a personal experience, true though. This prompted me to shoot some ideas to my team mate “What if there was a big LCD displaying the occupancy schedule for the meeting room”. He responded “Hey, great idea. Why don’t you put that up on intranet?”

What followed was my email to some of my friends with some genuine ideas and some humorous ones to solve to problem of ‘Solutions to improper usage of Meeting Rooms (MRs) ’ but to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Here some of the collective ideas, with some pitfalls mentioned:

1. An application which pops up on the system screen inside the room which displays the details – basically the above idea without the Hardware and it requires the system in the room to be kept switched on all the time.


2. A scrolling LED display board which displays the time, who has booked the room and the event/meeting. – Hardware cost and the interfacing of any scheduling software with the display (a project all in itself ! )


3. A printout posted with the details and stuck on the venue by the person booking the room. – wastes paper, will required the person to come in advance and is pretty messy.


4. A poster stuck inside the meeting room which says “Please adhere to the official schedule to avoid disturbing the booking schedules” – creates a bad impression.

And some really interesting ones by the more disgruntled than usual:

1. Keep a Doberman in all the meeting rooms and wire their brain to a central server which attacks all unauthorized users of the room. The dogs can also attack in case the meeting gets very boring – Dobermans require a lot of room, so can be implemented in larger board rooms only. Suggest replacing them with Pomerians.


2. Automate the doors of the MR such that they shut close whenever there is any unauthorised usage, quite useful if co needs to add resources like Dungeons - have to recruit dungeon keeper and costumed prison guards, rather can be replaced by harrowing hours of 'training'.


3. Finally, Use the (favorite disruptive political outfit) approach. Start pelting stones in case there are some ‘non native’ users of the MR – stones are not easily available.

Now I wonder where I can find some Pomerians…