Spreadsheet

Los Angeles attorney David Chan has eaten at more than 6,200 different Chinese restaurants, and he can prove it . He studied accounting at UCLA and for about three decades he has kept track of each meal on an Excel spreadsheet with 6,297 entries.  Scrolling to the beginning of the spreadsheet takes you not just to Chan's first meal, but a time when the only Chinese food in Los Angeles was in Chinatown and less than 1% of the city's population...

Los Angeles attorney David Chan has eaten at more than 6,200 different Chinese restaurants, and he can prove it . He studied accounting at UCLA and for about three decades he has kept track of each meal on an Excel spreadsheet with 6,297 entries.  Scrolling to the beginning of the spreadsheet takes you not just to Chan's first meal, but a time when the only Chinese food in Los Angeles was in Chinatown and less than 1% of the city's population...

Borland May Get $50-Million Loan: Borland International Inc., based in Scotts Valley, Calif., will get the loan from Novell Inc. if the agreement for the Provo, Utah-based company to buy Borland's spreadsheet business runs into regulatory problems, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last month, Novell said it would buy WordPerfect Corp. for $1.4 billion in stock and pay $145 million in cash for Quattro Pro, Borland's spreadsheet business.

That new iPad is tempting. But what if you put the money in Apple stock instead? If the past is any guide, it might be more profitable to buy Apple shares instead of Apple products. For example, if in 1997 you had bought Apple stock instead of spending $5,700 on the PowerBook laptop, you'd be sitting on about $330,000. If these sorts of calculations are beyond your skills, Web developer and UC Berkeley computer science student Kyle Conroy has come up with an easy-to-read "Apple Product or Stock" spreadsheet on his website, http://www.

Lotus 1-2-3 has been surpassed. A new spreadsheet program, called Surpass, does everything the leading spreadsheet does, plus a lot more. Surpass is one of several programs designed to compete with 1-2-3, which has dominated the spreadsheet market since it was introduced in 1983. A spreadsheet program allows you to enter words, numbers and formulas on a grid of rows and columns. If any number is changed, all formulas that depend on that number are automatically recalculated.

Since the first electronic spreadsheet, VisiCalc, was introduced for the early Apple computer, all spreadsheets have been designed around the same fundamental grid of rectangular cells formed by the intersections of columns and rows. But not anymore. DS Group Inc. of Greenwich, Conn., ((800) 828-8760) is direct-marketing an Italian-designed spreadsheet that doesn't have the traditional cells housing labels, data and formulas.

By the time Lotus Development Corp. came out with the latest version of its best-selling spreadsheet program 1-2-3 last week--18 months behind its original schedule--a number of customers had switched to other products. They bought rival programs such as Microsoft's Excel, Borland International's Quattro and Computer Associates' SuperCalc5 for performing financial and other calculations. Lotus' sales didn't dry up, however. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company continued to dominate the spreadsheet market even though its offering was out of date.

Many people learned about Jazz, a new integrated program for the Apple Macintosh, during the NBA championships between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. A commercial depicted a businessman working at his Mac to the tune of "You Made Me Love You." The Mac and Jazz do make a great team. For some users, it may be love at first byte. Jazz is a product of Lotus Development, the Cambridge, Mass.

The surprising thing about the Peace Corps is that the institution still exists. After being formed by President John F. Kennedy on the fly in March 1961, it has endured Congressional challenges, internal political crises, skeptical Third World receptions and, perhaps toughest of all, Richard Nixon. Yet it's still there, providing a network of about 7,500 ground-level volunteers each year helping remote communities with construction projects, educational programs and healthcare delivery.

Google Inc. will introduce a spreadsheet program today, continuing the Internet search leader's expansion into territory long dominated by Microsoft Corp. Although it's still considered a work in progress, Google's online spreadsheet will offer consumers and businesses a free alternative to Microsoft's Excel application -- a product typically sold as part of the Office software suite that has been a steady moneymaker for years.

Google Inc. engineers on Tuesday unveiled a series of features showing that online searches are starting to yield much more than a bland list of text-based answers. According to Udi Manber, Google's vice president of search engineering, the company has leaped over many of the practical hurdles that dogged search in its early days, such as how to reliably store and access mind-bending volumes of digital information.

Nearly a year ago, Army officials and their allies warned that a "disaster is looming" because of congressional delays in passing a war spending bill. Within weeks, funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan would be "completely exhausted," they argued. Thanks to political wrangling, the funding didn't come in time. But the consequences were far less dire than predicted.

Google Inc. will introduce a spreadsheet program today, continuing the Internet search leader's expansion into territory long dominated by Microsoft Corp. Although it's still considered a work in progress, Google's online spreadsheet will offer consumers and businesses a free alternative to Microsoft's Excel application -- a product typically sold as part of the Office software suite that has been a steady moneymaker for years.

Sorting through the campaign argument over Bill Bradley's health care plan may seem as daunting as snapping together a toy with those three dread words: "Some assembly required." Al Gore, citing a study by Emory University professor Kenneth E. Thorpe, says Bradley's plan to cover the uninsured would cost $1.06 trillion over the next decade, more than the projected federal surplus. Bradley puts the cost at a (relatively) more affordable $65 billion annually. Who's right?

Using a simple spreadsheet on their personal computers, two Orange County prosecutors have created a novel tool for solving sex slayings that is helping local police take another crack at cold cases. The fledgling database has already helped connect several unsolved slayings to serial killer Gerald Parker, the so-called Bedroom Basher who is scheduled to be sentenced today.

Borland May Get $50-Million Loan: Borland International Inc., based in Scotts Valley, Calif., will get the loan from Novell Inc. if the agreement for the Provo, Utah-based company to buy Borland's spreadsheet business runs into regulatory problems, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last month, Novell said it would buy WordPerfect Corp. for $1.4 billion in stock and pay $145 million in cash for Quattro Pro, Borland's spreadsheet business.

Imagine a spreadsheet program that allows you to link up with a stock exchange. As the prices of your securities rise or fall, the figures in your portfolio spreadsheet change on your computer screen. At the same time, bright red bars in a small chart occupying one corner of your screen bounce up and down, instantly illustrating your fortunes (or misfortunes).

WASHINGTON - If you want to buy a house with minimal cash by using an FHA-insured mortgage, here's some sobering news: Because of an ongoing series of fee increases and underwriting tweaks, those mortgages are getting steadily more expensive and may not work for you. The Federal Housing Administration is the largest source of low-down-payment mortgage money in the country. Its minimum down is just 3.5%, compared with 5% to 20% or more from conventional, non-government sources. For decades, FHA financing has made homeownership possible for first-time buyers with modest incomes and credit history blemishes.

Since the first electronic spreadsheet, VisiCalc, was introduced for the early Apple computer, all spreadsheets have been designed around the same fundamental grid of rectangular cells formed by the intersections of columns and rows. But not anymore. DS Group Inc. of Greenwich, Conn., ((800) 828-8760) is direct-marketing an Italian-designed spreadsheet that doesn't have the traditional cells housing labels, data and formulas.

Borland International has handed its competitors a tough challenge. Its new Quattro Pro 5.0 spreadsheet programs for Windows and DOS not only set new standards of sophistication, they have an introductory price of just $49.95. That's like being offered a Lexus for the price of a Hyundai. The regular price of $99.95, effective after Jan. 15, is still a big cut from the $495 suggested prices of Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel, even if their prices are heavily discounted.