“Microsoft Excel conditional formatting feature to work on cells based off what other cells contain”

Since decades now, Microsoft Excel’s conditional formatting feature is applied on cells based on what those cells contain. However, one often comes across situations where this feature limits you from what you’d like your Excel to do for you. The idea is for MS Excel to enable conditional formatting to work on cells not only … Read more

“Microsoft Powerpoint to add a metric for white space percentage on slides”

For those of us who build presentations as part of our day jobs, it is important that we find the right balance between information (read overload) and design (read visual appeal). The idea is for Microsoft Powerpoint to add a metric in their status bar which calculates the percentage of white space on the slide. … Read more

It’s time for media platforms to go beyond their subscription-only revenue models by enabling microtransactions

It is no secret that the media industry is in trouble. Human beings have moved away from scheduled consumption of content, whether it’s television or print media, to a world where news is live and everything happens in real-time. The advent of the Internet and the proliferation of mass media consumption that happens through our … Read more

“Amazon to enable peer-to-peer lending & borrowing of Kindle books”

As a consumer, I’ve usually been at the forefront of the digital revolution that has taken over the world in the past 2 decades or so – an early-adopter of technologies, if you may. When it comes to Amazon, this means that all my book purchases have been on Kindle since a while now, and … Read more

Going beyond just character names in the Wikipedia plot description

They say elephants never forget a face. And dogs never forget a name. Scratch that… I think the latter isn’t true. In any case, it turns out that humans are a lot more varied in their ability to remember faces, names or context. Personally, I’m terrible at remembering names, especially after I’ve just been introduced … Read more

“Pubs & bars should test exiting patrons with breathalyzers to prevent drunk driving”

I understand that bars and pubs are like any other establishment – they cater to a certain type of demand, and profit off the product / service / experience that they provide. However, unlike most other establishments, it can be said that bars & pubs do have a bit of an association (and hence, some … Read more

“The flip side of Google’s always-on single sign-on experience is the lack of privacy when you need it the most”

Most people who use personal laptops stay signed in to their email & social media accounts, and Big Tech firms like Google encourage & enable this behaviour – for instance, Chrome asks you to ‘sign in’ to your browser by using your Google account credentials. That allows Google to keep all your content & browsing … Read more

The 3 Rs that Microsoft Powerpoint needs – Rearrange, Resize & Reorder

As time goes by, most of us corporate slaves find ourselves spending more time with Microsoft Powerpoint and less time with Microsoft Excel. I must also admit that after a lifetime of being in love with Excel, I’m definitely warming up to Powerpoint, slowly but surely… And as all relationships go, after the initial honeymoon … Read more

Get Google’s help to influence road quality improvement around the world

We can all agree that road conditions all around the world (most cities in most countries) could do with a lot of improvement. The problem gets exacerbated in overcrowded cities with poor road quality (e.g. India and other developing nations). We all use Google Maps most of the time, not just to navigate, but also … Read more

Apart from Mobile Internet in India, is there anything else you pay a 1600x price differential for?

Those of you who know me in real life know how important a role the Internet plays in my life. Over the years, I’ve ended up building simple Excel models that allow me to check which broadband plan offers the best value for money, viz. how much bang for the buck am I getting when … Read more