The Hodge Blog

As it was wet last night I rattled together a model for the upcoming World Cup that allows you to set up a pool with friends and/or in your office with work colleagues to predict scores in the forthcoming World Cup in South Africa starting on Friday. It is pretty simple to use with an instruction sheet provided in each model and most of all it’s free!

They are written in Excel with one model for Excel 2007 or 2010 and the other for versions before then.

Everything you need should be in the instructions, but if not just leave a comment and I’ll take a look. If time allows I may develop it a little more, but the ones here should work for you. (again, if they don’t then leave a comment)

Enjoy the World Cup, enjoy the free sweepstake and Come on England!

Downloads (both contained in zip files):

Excel 2007 and 2010 version (xlsx)

Excel 97, 2000, XP, 2003 version (xls) (Now updated to fix comment No.1)

UPDATE: 13:33 8th June – Bug fixed where 0-0 prediction results in 1 point before match scores are entered/played. This would correct itself when the match was played and a score entered

MAJOR UPDATE: Sad that I am, I have updated the 2007/2010 version last night with auto functionality to sort the tables. I have also added an auto-updating group table so that as you enter scores the league table of participants is updated and sorted, but so is the tables of the participating nations! (This just leaves you to enter in the team IDs for the Q/F, S/F and Final (Not much to ask!). This only works in 2007/2010

Updated Excel 2007/2010 model

It was a hectic start this morning, so this had to wait until lunchtime.

Awaiting the arrival of a carpenter has delayed my usual departure until after 8am but the real reason I could not get this done is because some spammer has decided he/she likes the look of my site at www.excelusergroup.org and is sending trackbacks by the hundred. It was another four-hundred last night and that followed a similar amount on the weekend. It is not just as simple as deleting them though as there is not functionality to do that so it is a mixture of query writing and manual one-by-one deletion. Whoever you are you are a low-life troll and I hope you die a slow and painful death, hopefully before tonight and you start again!

The carpenter is fitting the five upstairs doors and two door liners downstairs. He is removing the liners today so i can fit the last few strips of floor and he can then drop the liners on top. That will just leave the two doors to hang on those liners and we edge forward a little more.

Last night saw me being a little more restful in the garden. I managed to plant out the cucumber and pepper plants, a couple of rows of cabbages, earthed up the potatoes and sowed another row of peas for succession. You can’t have enough peas. Add to that a load of watering and it was nigh on dark by the time I’d finished.

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = That’s just lovely!

Mood meter = We’re on with the week and it’s not so hot today.

Was a little fun stirring over at the J-Walk blog yesterday as John put his Power Utility Pak on an 80% off sale for just two hours. Now honestly for my readers, I don’t have the time to go into the geeky stuff but it was a roaring success as he sold 134 licences! Pretty good for 2 hours work.

Managed to get a little painting done last night, although it was a little, just undercoating the wooden window frame at the front door. Took about an hour I guess. Jo had done the coat cupboard and sanded some bits so we now just need to undercoat the games room door and frame and we will be set to start applying some wall and ceiling paint.

I was hoping that would get done tonight, but sat here I remember that Emma wants me to look over her car ready for it’s MOT on Thursday. That’ll be a tough job as it is so dark up here but I should be able to get it in the garage, check all the lights, horn, wipers, tyres, wheel bearings and stuff and then it’s just hope for the best. Lindsay has been gifted in this area in the past and I just hope Emma’s does the same as I could do without the fixing or the cost of the same as the likelihood is Emma has no money put by to do any work, especially as they were out last night celebrating three years, or some such thing.

Jo was also out last night with the girls, so it made for a pretty lonely existence. Actually though, it’s quite nice sometimes and allowed me to fall asleep in the middle of a TV programme without feeling guilty!

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s identical, but two degrees warmer than last year.

mood meter = Hump day’s here!

Well, the last couple of days could not probably have gone better. Again, the guys (and me) have run a great conference on Excel at Microsoft’s HQ in London. Around 85 people attended both days so the room was pretty full and most comments we got on the feedback forms was very positive. The challenge now is to change up the format for next year to make it interesting and different for what will likely be the same delegates. It also had the spin-off of starting the possibility of holding one in Cyprus for our ‘guest presenter’. That would be fun.

The weekend is almost here although it will likely be a strange one for me as we have the computer work to do at work, so I suspect I could be in both days and for significant parts of both days. Still, I suppose that’s my pay back for the last two days, although the last two didn’t seem much like R&R.

Stopped in Stalag 9 overnight on Wednesday. It was the Travelodge in Farringdon near Kings Cross. I made the mistake when asked where I would like my room by the receptionist of saying “as close to this reception as possible”. (Normally when I check into hotels in a town, my room appears to be in the next one!). He put me on the first floor, facing kings Cross Road and the window wouldn’t fully shut. Geez, that road never stops, screaming, shouting, ambulances, lorries, street sweepers, I don’t think i got a wink of sleep. That may of course had been a good thing as it made me concentrate on repairing my files for the presentation on Data Exchange the next day when i realised after rebuilding this machine I had no database to work with…oh dear.

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = That’s about as cold as it’s been. I think it may have been below freezing in Scotland?

Mood meter = Weekend coming up, but doesn’t seem like it

Hot news of yesterday, in fact it ended up in a comment from yesterday’s post is that I have been renewed again as a Microsoft MVP for Excel for another year. This will mean that, barring when Microsoft decided the program was not a good idea for about 7 days back in around 2001, or rather an over zealous legal employee did, I have been continuously awarded since 1999 a span of ten years. Actually, for good or bad, it seems much longer than that. I certainly remember my first summit back in 2001 in the US and meeting all these people who I had only met online and even then, unlike Facebook and stuff today, no pictures. It was fun thinking wow, I never thought John Walkenbach looked like that!

Thankfully it’s Friday. I have a really strange couple of weeks coming up. A single colleague arrives from the US on Monday, followed by two day using my award and presenting to 100 people at Microsoft in London with some fellow MVPs and on my return Friday there will be another two US colleagues and two from a vendor who will be working with us over the weekend to test install a new, more efficient ERP system to run the Company with.

Loads of stuff yesterday revolving around football. Firstly there was a BBC blog post about the full story behind the Saints’ takeover back in July and then an article which shows the rivalry between us and ‘them down the road’ headlined ‘Pompey fan ‘hung’ in Southampton’ and because of that a highly amusing one about their players not getting paid. It is laughable that they appear to have found a new owner who is the only skint Arab in the World! I have to say that whilst people would see me as a bit fanatical, John Westwood (Westie to his friends), so I’ll call him John, takes it to a whole new level. I really do get the feeling we are now destined to meet in the Coca-Cola Championship (one higher for us, one lower for them) next season and it will be great.

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s cold but the heating is on!

Mood meter = Well, at least it’s Friday

Thought I ached yesterday but it’s worse today but we are slowly piecing some of the front back together again.

The fascias along the single storey at front are done and I hope to get the gutters back on this morning. The ‘turret’ is gleaming in it’s glossy white splendour and we can how move on to coating the white parts of the walls. It would be nice to get a bit more than that don today and maybe move onto the back or gable ends else this will not get done in the week, or at least to the situation where we hoped it would.

Saints’ fan forum was on last night and it was really positive for the first time in a long while. I sense we are on the up. Let’s hope we can get into positive points territory on Saturday against Carlisle and then we will see what ‘the Pymm’s’ bring down the following Tuesday with in-form Bristol Rovers. (my second team only because I thought we wouldn’t have to play them any time soon!).

Rich of course may not make it as he has a similar ruptured disk in his neck as I had a few years back and as he has had this twice now and is seeing a specialist this morning, he may need to go under the knife. Not a pleasant thought, but certainly for me after months of agony it was the only course and in the main I was better for it.

Anyhow, I have a live meeting with Microsoft this morning on Excel add-ins. (I know, yawn, yawn), and loads of other stuff that won’t get done while sat here in my armchair…brb

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = The sun has just broken through

Mood meter = How can I smile when there’s so much to do?

Sorry, it’s a weekday and I’m late posting again. Just didn’t get around to it over breakfast and lunch didn’t last long as I had a conference call with someone from Microsoft who wanted to host a conference call for members of my excel User Group at www.excelusergroup.org. That should be fine and we’ll be moving over the next couple of days to do that.

One thing I have been trying to do for ages is to catch the announcement for the train that leaves the station one before mine. When the announcement for it starts, it goes on for ever as it lists the twenty one stops en-route to London’s Victoria station, a distance of around 70 miles. (It has already made four stops before getting to Hilsea) You must be bored with pulling in and out of stations and it must take forever. Surprisingly, my train which goes to London Waterloo, around 5 miles from Victoria with the best tube network in the World, makes just twelve. It must arrive earlier I am sure. Anyhow, the announcements have not been happening lately so it was in the station long enough to do a short video on my mobile phone (well, it was there long enough for the guard to hurry up three schoolgirls who were running along the platform try to catch it. Wouldn’t do that for me I bet!)…anyhow, enjoy and imagine all those stops. (It’s better if you read them out to yourself)

Anyhow, I’ll save a little up for tomorrow over breakfast as it is now gone 9pm and the tea is cooked….

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = The day has come and gone, but it’s a nice night…for DIY!

Mood meter = Got the Monday over and done with

Excel uses a date system based on it’s official start date of 01/01/1900. Days are whole numbers and decimals are time values, so, for example if you type 01/01/1900 12:00 into Excel and then go to Format it as ‘General’ you will see behind the date and time sits a value, which should be 1.5 (Day 1 and half a day in time).

Why all this nauseam? Well, today is 40,000. Having struggled with Excel through the 30,000′s today feels like the first day of the rest of my life

Caveat: It isn’t actually the 40,000 day since 01/01/1900 as Microsoft, to keep compatibility with Lotus 1-2-3 which was the leading spreadsheet of the day, duplicated the error that Lotus had that 1900 was a leap year and included 29th February. Of course it wasn’t so I guess day 40,000 is actually tomorrow????

It’s been one of those good and bad days. The sort that were going just too well.

The two days of the Excel User conference in London could not really have gone much better. The speakers were great and we had a very good turnout, despite it being free and the G20 in town. I think we had near one hundred for both days and certainly our MVP leads, a couple of evangelists (whatever they are, although great people) and a Microsoft PM all stayed longer than they intended. The delegates had a good time, both in the sessions and in the restaurant and bar last night.

We covered a multitude of topics and certainly think that everyone was surprised at how good it was and how smoothly in ran. So there is my high.

Spoke to Jo about the plumbing progress and we now have hot water everywhere and the zones are done. All we have to do now is get the system flushed and we will be done. The shower I fitted is fine and I have just had a shower in the bottom bathroom and it is powerful which was just what we intended. So there is another high.

Now the low. on the way back from the station Lindsay broke the news that one of the chickens is missing! I’ve just been down, in the dark with the torch and indeed we only have three roosting and there are some feathers strewn around the corner of the enclosure. I’m not sure what could have taken it as there is no holes under the fence and the fence is high, although I don’t underestimate Mr Fox, I’m leaning toward something burrowing like a badger or something from above like a buzzard. I’m not sure what other predators we have for chickens of that size, but honestly, I’m pretty devastated how it can happen so quickly and without the ability to see how it got on, so now I fear it returning…damn it!

 Saints sit on the verge of administration and if they fall into it they will be deducted 10 points and certain relegation. It’s hard to imagine how bad the last three years have been but we are now facing an abyss square on.

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s late, but still quite warm

Mood meter = It was , but it’s just dropped by a factor of 10!

It’s 5:30am…yuk. Up early this morning as I now have two days ‘off’. Two days to travel to London in the middle of the G20 summit to help run a conference and talk about Excel. Fun! Seriously, I’m sure it will be, it just doesn’t seem it at this time in the morning.

Got the shower fitted just in time for the water to go on today. (We’ll see). Now it’s just wether all the joints will stand up or not. It’s been a while since I did plumbing so I may get a few leaks this time, but with the bathrooms and all I have to fit, I’ll get the hang of it.

We were sat around waiting for one of my colleagues to get picked up yesterday and told a couple of jokes. this one rang pretty funny with me, hope you like it.

Man goes into a bank with a gun and full balaclava. Goes to the teller and tells her at gunpoint to fill the bag with money. She does so, of course and as he sets his escape a brave guy grabs his balaclava and pulls it off his head. The robber realising the guy had seen him, shot him dead. He looks at the teller, who has now also seen him and shoots her dead too.

He turns to look at all the customers who’s heads are bowed so as to not look at him and he exclaims, “Did anyone else see my face?”. No one said anything until a little frail old guy, still looking down, slowly raised his hand and said…”I think my wife took a peak!”

There, that made me chuckle writing it and is my input into April Fools Day. Gotta go!

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s getting better by the day, but cold at this time.

Mood meter = I’ll be ok once I get started.