Thoughts on many things

  • Excel: Find average based on multiple criteria

    Last week, I showed you how to find an average based on a single criterion. That works well enough, but what if you want to find an average based on multiple criteria? In that case, the AVERAGEIF-function will fall short. In its place, you must use the AVERAGEIFS-function. This time, we want to find the […]

  • Excel: Finding averages based on a specified criterion

    One of the many things I do in my capacity as a union representative is to assemble my own statistics based on raw numbers I get from my employer. One of the stats I calculate is the average pay in each section. As you might remember, last week I assembled a list of forty seven […]

  • Excel: Finding unique values

    In complex datasets, finding the unique values can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. While you can often simply remove duplicates, if you intend to create a lookup-table, that isn’t an option, and you need to do it differently. Enter the UNIQUE-function.

  • Excel: Adding multiple axes in a chart

    One of the many things I do as a union representative, is negotiate wages with management. I argue my point using a number of tools, not least of which is the change in pay over time. I have one set of data which is what we use when negotiating, which represents the estimated change. I […]

  • Excel: Visualising pay differences

    As I’ve mentioned more than once previously, I’m a union representative. Among my many duties in this role is wage negotiations. While we negotiate collectively, I also make sure to dive into the numbers to look for the unexplained outliers, and to have them addressed.

  • More recruitment spamming

    As much as I maintain that showing the world how these spammy folks operate, they still keep trying. Here’s another example which is a mixed bag of good and bad:

  • PowerShell: Find many users using their name

    This time around, I take the basis that I created last week, add a way to catch any users that is not found, as well as a way to run it on multiple users.

  • PowerShell: Find User based on partial name

    Some time ago, I needed to look up the account names of a handful of users in Active Directory. The information I had beforehand was their names. I did not have ADUC available to me, but I did have PowerShell. This is an excellent use case for the Get-ADUser cmdlet when combined with the -Filter […]

  • Unpacking an extortion scam

    I have zero patience or compassion for people who spend their time scamming others. I usually ignore the multiple scam attempts that find their way to my inbox (or more usually spam folder), but I wanted to highlight this one to show just how inept it often is, and just how many red flags it […]

  • PowerShell: Finding host name from IP address

    In tech support, resolving IP addresses to host names can be something you do on a relatively frequent basis. While I’ve always used the CLI ping command with the -a option, I have also been working towards higher proficiency in PowerShell. Frankly, for a single IP address, I prefer sticking with CLI. When working with […]

  • The trifecta of recruitment hucksters

    Posting about recruitment hucksters doing recruitment has a number of purposes. First and foremost, I believe raising awareness about these things is important, and this is a good way to do so. Secondly, I think it’s also important to showcase how I evaluate (and how I’d suggest others evaluate) recruiting overtures. Thirdly, it’s proven to […]