Build 4.0.0.75 of xlsgen fixes a problem related to importing large CSV files, where large means wide columns.

Build 4.0.0.74 of xlsgen improves the compatibility with XLSB files when it comes to preserving the following objects :
- slicers, table slicers, OLAP slicers
- timelines, OLAP timelines
- conditional formattings (O14 and O15)
- range protection
- sparklines
- web extensions
- data validations (O14)
- pivot table references and decoupled
- workbook properties (O14 and O15)
- data model (power pivot)

O14 = Excel 2010
O15 = Excel 2013

I really don't give a shit about Microsoft but I have to warn those who have bought a computer running a recent version of Windows with Windows Update enabled that :

- Microsoft is unable to ship security updates, to a system that gets patched at least ten new holes every month. Do you trust guys like this ?

- Microsoft is ramping up their user privacy theft by doubling down on personal data capture in addition to purchasing companies whose only merit is to have built a personal data database (linkedin is one, but a number of others, think those calendar apps for instance).

Why isn't a freaking country sueing those guys to death already?

Are not governments supposed to enforce the law? Isn't the law written explicitely to make it a crime to steal personal user data and by doing so prevent any form of privacy ?

What will it take? to throw your smartphone or computer in the trash bin ?

Wisen up people ! Microsoft is NOT your friend !!

Build 4.0.0.73 of xlsgen adds the Windows 95/98-compatible version of xlsgen to our 32-bit Setup, zipped in the install folder. This Windows 95/98-compatible version proves useful for some of our customers and we recently broke the compatibility by having a DLL dependency unknown to Windows 95/98, and a number of Unicode-based WIN32 api calls that either do not work or are not available at all using Windows 95/98.

In the 32-bit Setup, the main binary file (xlsgen.dll) isn't compatible with Windows 95/98 since it's built with a version of Visual Studio C++ that is unable to produce an image that is compatible with Windows 95/98 (courtesy of Microsoft). That's why the Windows 95/98-compatible version is a separate binary, built with a much older version of Visual Studio C++, with the same name (xlsgen.dll) and the same API, i.e. no need to recompile your client code.

Build 4.0.0.72 of xlsgen is a fix pack including the following :
- custom theme correctly preserved in XLSB files
- sparklines correctly preserved in XLSB files
- font color in header/footer of XLSX /XLSB files : read/write and rendering

Build 4.0.0.71 of xlsgen adds form controls to our automatic source code generator which creates the source code for any Excel file in the programming language of your choice.

This addition to the source code generator is particularly useful because positioning form controls in the sheet may prove cumbersome and thanks to what we are making available, someone can now create a dialog-based user interface in Excel by hand, then pass the resulting file in the automatic source code generator in order to get the corresponding source code, and most notably the positions of each form control, complete with properties.

Build 4.0.0.70 of xlsgen makes it possible to compute the Gini() coefficient of a vector of values. The Gini() coefficient (Wikipedia) measures the dispersion of values, as a ratio between 0 and 1. For instance, if all values are the same, the Gini() coefficient is 0. The is a measure used in a number of markets.

The Gini() function is not an Excel function, which means it isn't part of any existing Excel version. It is an addition that only computes the value in the context of xlsgen.

Les journalistes d'aujourd'hui sont tellement peu vertueux, ceux qui sont le plus en vue fonctionnent par le recel qui est pourtant en principe puni par la loi, qu'il suffit, lorsqu'on regarde une émission (télévision, radio, ...) de compter le nombre de journalistes pour en déduire l'intérêt intellectuel et précisément vertueux inverse de l'émission.

Autrement dit, plus il y a de journalistes dans l'émission, moins le populo du quotidien a intérêt à regarder l'émission.

Faites le test, vous verrez ça marche !

Je n'ai aucun compte Twitter mais je vois ce service perdre en crédibilité année après année, c'en est ridicule.

La dernière annonce en date vise à ce que Twitter, de son propre chef, va mettre sous le tapis des tweets qu'ils jugent abusifs, inappropriés.

Erreur majeure ! cette censure vaut automatiquement à Twitter d'être qualifié d'éditeur et non juste d'un tuyau de communication. Et donc Twitter devient automatiquement juridiquement responsable pour tous les tweets qui sont postés sur la plateforme, y compris ceux de Daesch (pour autant que cette entité existe vraiment, j'ai de sérieux doutes là dessus).

Bref, avez-vous envie d'utiliser une plateforme qui a l'intention de censurer vos tweets ? Ce n'est plus votre compte et vos fils d'intérêt. Ce n'est plus qu'un produit fade destiné à complaire au politiquement correct. Décidement...

De toute façon il faut être clair sur le sujet, Fillon n'est pas plus à sa place aujourd'hui que Hollande ne l'était en 2012, alors qu'il prenait la place de Strauss-Kahn, ni Hamon qui a pris la place de Valls. Les gens, en particulier de gauche, se sont fait un plaisir lors des primaires de droite de sortir Sarkozy en votant pour Fillon.
Mais Fillon n'est pas un type pour le job. Il n'a pas les réseaux et donc il peut se faire pourrir facilement et ne trouve pas les relais pour éteindre l'incendie.
Ceci en dit long sur la démocratie en France. Il n'est pas possible de se présenter au poste de chef d'état si on n'a pas des réseaux d'influence derrière (dont les médias font partie intégrante). C'est d'ailleurs la raison pour laquelle le FN ne pourra jamais arriver au pouvoir.

Les primaires n'étaient pas dans l'esprit de la cinquième république. Alors peut-être quelqu'un prendra l'initiative de les effacer toutes les deux et de laisser ceux qui veulent se présenter se présenter.

La seule chose qui m'intéresse, après la déconfiture de Valls, un candidat des médias et de l'élite, c'est le vote des immigrés. Et avec près de 60% en faveur de Hamon (un peu à la mode de Fillon versus Sarkozy), cela laisse peu de possibilités que les immigrés n'aient pas voté Hamon comme un vote non pas d'adhésion, mais un vote anti-Valls. Un vote anti-média, anti-élite.

Maintenant, tout se paye. Les médias et l'élite, qui se voient désavoués en public, vont nous faire payer cette gifle contre leur poulain.

Qu'a fait Valls depuis son arrivée en tant que premier ministre? Construire un état de peur France, avec le soutien des médias (et des chaînes d'information en particulier). Il était temps qu'il dégage, la France n'a pas de temps à perdre avec ce fauteur de trouble. Ca a marché avec Sarkozy (émeutes orchestrées de 2005 précédant son arrivée au pouvoir), mais ça s'est vu...

Build 4.0.0.69 of xlsgen adds a VBA macro association property for a number of existing objects including :
- pictures
- text boxes
- vector shapes
- charts
- and also pictures, text boxes and vector shapes inside charts

This VBA macro association lets a user click on the object and trigger a macro. This was introduced in form controls earlier this year and has now been extended to all other objects in Excel.

Lets say you have an existing VBA macro called process in the spreadsheet in a VBA module. There is a property in the text box interface, called VBAMacro which you can invoke with mytextbox.VBAMacro = "process". And that's all it takes.

Build 4.0.0.68 of xlsgen includes several fixes :

- when processing XLSX/XLSM/XLSB files with VML streams (comments, ole objects, form controls, ...), there could be HTML fragments right within the XML stream which can cause havoc to parsers. This fix correctly handles <br> tags and so on.

- table copy maps internal formulas correctly. Internal formulas are formulas in tables referring to one or more of its columns by name (also called structured reference in Excel speak language).

As the now famous Lavabit email service relaunches with a new architecture aimed at plugging holes in security and deterring surveillance, I can only add my contribution which is to ask that passwords never be sent back again when they are lost. It is known that the good way to do this is to store only password hashes, very long ones, so that the service cannot send a lost password, and puts the burden where it belongs, the actual user. My 2 cents on the subject.

Build 4.0.0.67 of xlsgen makes it possible to add Form controls to spreadsheets.


Form controls in xlsgen

Any of 11 form control types can be added :

• Buttons
• Check boxes
• Radio buttons
• Labels
• Edit boxes
• Spin controls
• Scroll bars
• List boxes
• Combo boxes
• Group boxes
• Dialog boxes

They can be added to XLS as well as XLSX/XLSM and XLSB files, so you do not have to worry about the underlying file format.

Each form control has a number of custom properties to it and xlsgen exposes them. One of the most powerful ones is the ability to attach to it a VBA macro by its name.

Here is how to do add a button control and a list box (C++) :

// create a button and attach it an existing VBA macro

xlsgen::IXlsWorksheetPtr worksheet = workbook->AddWorksheet( L"sheet1" );

xlsgen::IXlsFormButtonPtr button = worksheet->FormControls->Buttons->Add(L"my button",2/*row1*/,2/*col1*/,5/*row2*/,6/*col2*/,0,0,0,0);

button->VBAMacro = L"=myButton_Click";


xlsgen::IXlsWorksheetPtr worksheet2 = workbook->AddWorksheet( L"sheet2" );

worksheet2->Label[2][7] = L"item1";
worksheet2->Label[3][7] = L"item2";
worksheet2->Label[4][7] = L"item3";
worksheet2->Label[5][7] = L"item4";

// create a list box and preselect two items

xlsgen::IXlsFormListBoxPtr listbox = worksheet2->FormControls->ListBoxes->Add(2,2,9,6,0,0,0,0);
listbox->SelectionType = xlsgen::listboxtype_multipleselection;
listbox->InputRange = L"=$G$2:$G$5";
listbox->SelectItem(3);
listbox->SelectItem(1);
listbox->LinkedCell = L"=$G$10";  

Build 4.0.0.66 of xlsgen adds support for Web functions, namely =ENCODEURL(string) and =WEBSERVICE(string). Support is read, write and calculation.

WEBSERVICE() takes a regular internet url as parameter and fetchs content off the internet. Internally the fetched content is converted to Unicode-2 so xlsgen can expose the result as a string and let a client application parse it. The fetched content can be virtually anything, a web page, an XML stream, a RSS feed. The WEBSERVICE() function has been introduced in Excel 2013.

ENCODEURL() takes a string and returns a string with some of its characters replaced with ones compatible with regular internet urls. Anything which is not a number or a letter is replaced a hexadecimal encoded value prefixed with a percent sign, as in %35. ENCODEURL() is often used to encode an url before it is passed to the WEBSERVICE() function. The ENCODEURL() function has been introduced in Excel 2013.

Build 4.0.0.65 of xlsgen fixes the localization of all Excel functions supported by xlsgen, which means 500+ functions, in 6 languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.

The formulas page in the documentation reflects how any function is called depending on the language of your choice (English by default).

As an example, a function such as AVERAGEIFS() in English was still called AVERAGEIFS() in German even though according to Microsoft Excel, it's MITTELWERTWENNS().

This did not affect how xlsgen stored formulas in Excel files, particularly XLSX/XLSM/... where formulas are stored in plain text, because formulas are supposed to be stored in English.

But for every other scenario, improper localization would add friction to someone used to Excel functions in their language. xlsgen fixes this with this build, at least for 6 languages.

Reminder : in the automatic source code generation tool which ships with xlsgen, you can choose which language to use for formulas.

Je suis très en dehors de tout ce qui est appareils mobiles, et par conséquent encore plus des services de banque en ligne. Mais je me disais quand même qu'avec les trous de sécurité manifestes depuis 15 ans, les gens qui se lancent dans la création d'un tel service, ainsi que ceux qui mettent le tampon "banque agréée" dessus, ont une idée ou deux de ce que c'est que la sécurité.

Il faut croire que non. L'une des pure players des banques en ligne nées en Europe l'année dernière, N26, et très en vue, est un exemple parfait que l'interface utilisateur d'une application mobile cache une misère en terme de protection des données et de validation sure des étapes des procédures.

Lisez cet article de nextinpact, et visionnez la vidéo de ce chercheur, c'est édifiant.

Après plusieurs jours d'aller-retour et autres infirmations d'affirmations sans preuves au sujet de supposés hacking par les Russes de l'administration américaine, on apprend par le journal à l'origine de la fuite :

extrait : "“We know the Russians are a highly capable adversary who conduct technical operations in a manner intended to blend into legitimate traffic,” the official said."

Les Russes sont tellement forts qu'ils arrivent à cacher leurs méfaits à travers des activités parfaitement licites. Ce qui sont des propos que l'on attribue habituellement aux conspirationnistes...

Google is in full swing for the identity war, without much fanfare. According to John battelle, who runs an online ad business, Google recently changed their licensing terms and removed the sentence where it says they are not combining their data with DoubleClick's, a previous acquisition which uses cookies to track people online through ads.

There you have it. To do yourself anything good, you can either filter out all HTTP/HTTPS requests with doubleclick in it (and all the variations, such as doubleclk), and you can configure your web browser to delete all cookies after a session. Of course if you are using a mobile device, chances are you won't be able to do any of this.

Which means mobile devices are 1) a trap and 2) a tool of ultra-capitalism in all its incarnations (surveillance being one of them).

At some point, you will probably have to go online only when absolutely necessary and stay offline the rest of the time. Or, even more radical, take a hammer and smash those mobile devices of yours.