samh

Sailormoon,

I can't answer your question but interesting things I have learned reading around this subject :

- Since WWII in most of the west house prices have risen in real terms (meaning as a percentage of average wages, compared the food bills etc, so not just inflation.

So many people think that's the way it works, but data on the price of housing going back to the 1600s says this isn't the normal state of things, house prices stay constant in real terms.

- Check whether you are relying on the 'bigger fool' principle. If you could rent a nicer place for less (don't forget maintenance and taxes) but are only buying because you think someone else will be willing to pay even more, even though they could rent somewhere nicer. Question whether that's sustainable.

This is Peter Schiff's prediction.

The financial crisis becomes a currency crisis when the politicians keep trying to pump up a false boom by printing money until the rest of the world wakes up to the loss of value in the US dollar leading to massive inflation.

Check out his Economics blog at : http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/

The most interesting thing is that he diagnoses the problems in a very similar way to Peter Schiff, but comes up with almost opposite conclusions.

I'm glad you said that because for a short time only I can sell you a guaranteed value-making proposition for 3 low charges of $19.95* Act now because you seem to be the sort of person who values value above all else.

* actual charge may be $29.95 plus corkage

Credit goes to a poster on forum.bodybuilding.com

I was inspired by Erik's 'no prisoners' extreme rationalist writings on usenet.

I was very surprised to find out how young he was and very saddened to hear about his death.

Thanks

Hey Peldi,

Congrats. I've read your marketing advice in your blog. Do you have any other tips for small software companies getting their product reviewed or mentioned in the press / blogs ?

Cheers

Well maybe. But I don't see a lot of hype about voice communication on the web. I am really surprised it's so poorly supported by browsers.

Even voice chat had privacy and umm appropriateness issues, but video chat, fuuurgedaboutit.

Fair enough. I think there is a reasonable argument that Schiff's common sense explanations of the economic crisis is of interest to hackers.

But yeah the title is definately against the guidelines.

Let the market decide.. voted up or down... FTW

Thanks for the fantastic feedback roundsquare.

I will definitely keep the idea of more Excel parallel examples in mind for future tutorials.

gsiener : Do you mean you wish you could use it to bring data from a SQL database into Excel rather than use SQL on Excel data ?

I have considered adding this functionality, allowing the user to connect to any data source. It become pretty complex pretty quickly though, supporting a query that joins tables in different databases, with their different types, would be a big challenge.

Thanks for the feedback JimmyL, food for thought.

Thanks for the feedback.

I considered introducing surrogate keys but thought it was probably not a good idea in the first tutorial. I will have a think about adding them in or covering them in the next tutorial.

Excellent.

Do you have any particular topics you would like covered ?

I think the next tutorial will cover different kinds of joins and perhaps aggregate functions and inserts. But I will cover what people ask for.

Thanks for the feedback.

Hi,

I've got an add-in for excel product that allows the use of SQL in Excel, so I have created a basic introduction to SQL tutorial.

I would appreciate any feedback you have.

It aims to be practical and doesn't worry too much about relational theory or the more intricate aspects of databases/sql.

Although I'm planning to get into the more complex uses of SQL in later tutorials.

Cheers Sam H

Great,

Join the meetup group and we will be sure to let you know what's happening.

Yes I think there is an above average amount of geekery in Canberra. Startup / entrepreneurial spirit I am not so sure about. Although I am hoping to be shown otherwise.

Appreciated.

I listen to podcasts and I hear someone mention how their buddy had started company A and their ex-roomate was going will with startup B etc etc I think "gee, maybe I'm missing out here. :)

Excellent, 4 votes and someone has joined the meetup.

Thanks for the support Hacker News :)

Hi, There is a new group at meetup.com for people in Canberra Australia to get together to discuss Software/Web Technology/Startups and Hacker News related tom foolery.

If you're in the area you are invited to join up.

Cheers

yeah yeah, we all make mistakes :)

Hi,

I have put together a site that allows people to submit, check out and vote on match ups.

There is a scenario presented and two options, users can vote on their preferred option and leave comments justifying why their choice is best.

It can be used for pure fun / escapism eg. "You get a supercar for the weekend, do you take the Ferrari or the lamborghini".

But it could also grow into a place where substantive issues are discussed.

Obviously if it does actually grow into a community there will be work to be done to make sure it doesn't turn into a flame war heaven.

I'd be interested in your feedback.

Cheers Sam H

I enjoy Jason's work (although he is an aquired taste) and think he is very smart, but my completely-legally-untrained intuition is that he is wide open for a law suit.

The distinctions he makes between what he does with his conference and what the people he is attacking at doing may not seem so clear to people in a legal setting.

But my opinion isn't worth much on this one.

Prof Steve Keen FTW http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2009/09/27/it%e2%80%99s-h...

The popup div idea was probably a bad one, baah :)

I meant anthropic, and have changed the post and link title.

I modified the title to Anthropic on the post and here.