LeaderBoard - August 27, 2007

[Laura F.]

This LeaderBoard is up-to-date as of August 27, 2007.

The format has been changed to a tab delimited text file at Ben's request.  Ben, please let me know if this is better for your trending program.

Regards,
Laura
Web Support & Operations
National Instruments

[Ben]

HI Laura,

Thank you soooo much for complying with my request but I have to ask that you go back to CSV.

Clicking on your link in the tab delimited version makes the report very difficult to read.

Rahter than accomodate my request, can you post it again so it is readable.

SORRY!

Ben

PS: What if you posted it with a ".xls" extension?

[Laura F.]

Hi Ben,

I figured everyone would open the file using some sort of spreadsheet program.... Do you prefer just to click on the link and to view the raw file format?  I am attaching the csv file format, but not xls because if you have Excel, clicking on the csv file link should prompt you to open the file using Excel (I think).

Question to everyone else that views the LeaderBoard:  Do you have a preference for what format I post the file in?

Thanks,
Laura

[shoneill]

Tabs are fine.

Save as, and then everything's fine.

Better than csv anyway.

Shane.

Message Edited by shoneill on 08-29-2007 12:52 AM

[RavensFan]

I think the .txt file you posted works better.  I was able to "save target as" to my desktop, and then right click Open with Excel to view it.  It opened fine.

The .csv attachment acts weird.  If I Save Target As, it wants to save it as an .xls by default.  If I let it, then open up the saved .xls file, it doesn't view right.  All entries for one row are are saved in a single cell comma separated.  (IE 6.0 and MSExcel 2002).  I have to change the file type to All Files and change the extension to .csv in the "save target as" dialog box.  Then it downloads fine and views properly in Excel when I double click it.  So why would an attached .csv want to download as a .xls and not .csv?

By the way, I've almost always found Excel to be rather bad at formatting text files properly just by double clicking or doing an Open With Excel.  Most times, Excel only seems to handle text files properly if I open Excel, then do a File/Open which causes the dialog boxes to come up so you can pick delimiters and the such.  Why can't Excel handle text files better by default whether they are comma delimited, tab delimited or space delimited?  It shouldn't be that hard for it to figure out which is the most likely delimited character and pick it.

[Ray.R]

Both formats are fine for me!

[shoneill]

Ravens Fan,

That's Microsoft for ya!

If possible, gve Firefox 2 a try.  It's a whole different experience.

Shane.

[Ray.R]

Well said Shoneill!

I am now using Thunderbird for emails, because of its spam filter which are better than out-look (rather look-out!!! for spam!!!).

As I will start migrating to Linux, I may consider Firefox (again)..

[Wayne.C]

Laura

The tab delimited .txt file is fine.  Those of us forced by our employers to use Microsoft have learned to cope.

[tst]

Not that I want to start a flame war, but I personally prefer IE 7 over FF, but that's mostly because of the annoying behavior FF has for some sites I regularly use.

That said, my uses are very basic. I don't install any of the 5,342,456,453,876,234,453,192,324,623,236,342,174 add ons available for either IE or FF. I don't use my browser as an RSS reader or as a mail client, so I'm fine with IE.

I also think the tab delimited format is preferable, since it's still relatively simple to open (right click->Save as->Excel->Open->OK).

The real problem is the content. Back during the days of the E-List, CC used to give amusing and interesting commentary with each update. There was also a social aspect, since the breakpoint wasn't around (at least not at first). Just seeing the positions might be useful for some people, but I don't really see the point. It doesn't seem to me that my position will change any time soon (either up or down  ) and I can see the number of my posts in the main page without downloading a large file.

Allowing the users to see trend data might help, but I don't think that would be what would save this either. The question should be "what would cause people to be interested in something like this on a regular basis?".