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I don’t know if anybody else is playing with Google Spreadsheets a lot, but it’s driving me a bit nuts. I got into the idea of importXML, but the way it’s coming out is just driving me crazy. For example:

… say I import an XML document, like a list of transactions. And I want to get three or four characteristics from each transaction. I can get them all from a single importXML, but Google Spreadsheets puts each characteristic on a different row. I want them all in one cell! Of course, I could just do an importXML for each item I wanted, but …

… Google Spreadsheets is limited to 50 function calls per sheet. ARGH! Only 50? This reminds me of when the Google API came out in 2003 and you could only use your key 1000 times a day, and that for ten results each time. You have this great tool and your brain is bubbling over with ways to use it — and you can’t! I would pay money for the ability to have 200 or so functions per sheet.

And it’s probably because I’m used to using Excel, but I find the cell editing in Google Spreadsheets completely counter-intuitive. If you’ve got a long URL to edit it seems you have to scroll all over the place to get to the end.

Finally, I still can’t figure out how often the spreadsheets with feeds in them update. Some very clever people on Google Groups have been running experiments, and the consensus seemed to be every hour. But I have a couple of published spreadsheets with feeds in them, and I can’t see that they’ve updated at all.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the import option on the spreadsheets is an excellent tool. I just wish I weren’t bashing my head into the wall quite so much.

Continuing on with our “Wikis for Everything” theme, there’s InstallationWiki, at http://www.installationwiki.org/ . This is an open wiki with information on how to install software.

The front page has a variety of categories, including open source, content management, databases, Java, and PHP. Choose a category and you’ll get a list of software. Most of the pages I looked at were articles and tutorials published by Packt Publishing (which put the wiki together.) Some categories were better populated than others, though the Content Management category had instructions for programs like CherryPy and Moodle, instead of Movable Type or Drupal.

The content from Packt was interesting and a good start, but there’s not much here yet …

I bought my first flash drive in 2003. It was 32MB and I think it cost me about $150. Now you can buy 1GB drives for $15 if you look hard. And they’re so useful! Even more useful if you have some applications on them that you can run from the drive. That’s where PortableFreeware comes in, at http://www.portablefreeware.com/ .

The front page has the last 100 entries that you can browse through, or you can browse through all the available apps (over 1100 of ‘em.) Be sure to read the about page for an explanation of what’s considered portable and what’s considered freeware.

The listings contain an overview of the software, link to screenshot and Web site, how to extract it, where its settings are written, system requirements, applicable categories, etc. There’s also a space for comments in each listing, and the comments are unusually good. Comments may include pointers to more recent editions, some concerns about being truly portable (if the application writes to the registry, for example), requests for help (and help solutions), recommendations for other software, and so on. Be sure to read the comments before you make a decision on whether you’re going to download the software.

Almost as useful as what was listed is what’s not listed, as you’ll see when you do a keyword search. I did a search for editor and got 84 results. Before the results however I also got a link to forum topics containing the word, as well as applications that had been rejected from consideration and why (requires .NET runtime, writes to registry, etc.) This is great if you have a couple of applications in mind and you’re trying to get more information about them — perhaps you’ll find one of the ones you’re thinking about on the rejected list, instead of merely not finding it and wondering why it’s not there.

There are RSS feeds for the latest additions to the site as well as for the forums (moderately busy, interesting discussions) as well as a link list for folks wanting to know more about portable applications in general. Good stuff.

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