Free Republic

The FBI declassified a spreadsheet that the bureau used in trying to review allegations put forth in the salacious and unverified anti-Trump dossier authored by ex-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, which further revealed that the bureau had little corroboration of the claims. Fox News obtained the document, which spans over 94 pages, and was declassified by the FBI on Oct. 8, as part of the latest directive from President Trump to declassify all documents related to the Trump-Russia investigation. The document, according to sources familiar, was used in an effort to figure out which Steele allegations the bureau could corroborate.

Some in the news media have tried in recent days to rekindle their long-lost love affair with former MI6 agent Christopher Steele and his now infamous dossier. The main trigger was a lengthy interview in June with the Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general, which some news outlets suggested meant U.S. officials have found Steele, the former Hillary Clinton-backed political muckraker, to be believable. “Investigators ultimately found Steele’s testimony credible and even surprising,” Politico crowed. The Washington Post went even further, suggesting Steele’s assistance to the inspector general might “undermine Trumpworld’s alt-narrative” that the Russia-collusion investigation was flawed. For sure,...

Launched a million business plans, sank Lotus... Thirty is a ripe old age, maybe older than a good chunk of Register readers. Even for those of you for whom Excel is a spring chicken, how many applications or even operating systems are you still using of a similar age outside the Office suite? Is Windows 10 the same OS as Windows 2.0? Is that still your grandfather's axe, now that you have replaced the head and your father replaced the handle? Microsoft's legendary spreadsheet software was born in November 1987. Note to both of you Apple-non-fanbois out there, there was...

Tired of listening to Pollsters/Pundits give their take on something they don't know anymore than we do? Wondering how one poll shows a candidate up 5, and another showing the same candidate down 6? Well now's your chance to look at the data yourself and make your own predictions, sniff out fraud, and beat the pollsters to the punch with the new Official 2013 VA Governor Vote Prediction Spreadsheet. This is the home game version because instead of myself filing in the data in the prediction columns, I've left them empty so that you can fill in your own predictions...

The evidence of a cover-up is becoming clear, thanks to information recently released about what happened at Benghazi. Doug Ross of Director Blue has pulled together information from Stephen Hayes and the House Oversight Committee that leads to, in his words, "four inescapable conclusions": a) Hillary Clinton lied under oath to Congress. b) Barack Obama went to sleep knowing that a U.S. Ambassador and other Americans were under terrorist attack. c) Barack Obama awoke refreshed the next day to begin fundraising. d) The entire Executive Branch lied repeatedly to the American people to save Obama's chances for reelection. Here's the...

Though Kenneth Rogoff has written some fairly obtuse op-eds over the years, the book he co-authored with Carmen Reinhart, This Time Is Different, was very much a worthwhile read. If their Keynesian, Phillip's Curve ideology is ignored, they offered some really interesting statistics. Most useful to this reader was their soberly introduced point that Greece has been in default half of its modern existence. About government defaults more broadly, they similarly clarified that defaults are rarely an all or nothing thing, rather they generally involve slight ‘haircuts' for creditors. And while they didn't tie this to modern times, they made...

Sorry for the vanity post. I have put together an election spreadsheet and figured I would share it with you wonderful folks. It's a Google spreadsheet, so I'm not really sure what the best way to do this would be.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands... This outrageous power grab by the Federal Government thankfully requires a vote of confidence. The election of 2010 is our best opportunity to peacefully, legally, and constitutionally THROW THE BUMS OUT. There's 123 House of Representative seats and 34 Senate seats in play. That's one third of the whole congress. Did somebody say change? Here's some results from last time around; Chris Dodd (D) 66.35%, Harry Reid (D) 61.08%, Chuck Schumer (D) 71.16%, Patrick Leahy (D) 70.63%, John McCain (R) 76.74%. What...

Advice needed from the Brain Trust: I'm hoping some computer geeks better than I can find an answer to this Excel problem. Basically, I've used Excel to calculate grades before, and that's fine. I usually have 3 exams and I drop the lowest score. Again, that's easy. However, this marking period, I have been informed that I should give a cumulative grade for the first and second marking periods. (It is math, after all, which builds upon itself.) Now, to be fair to the students, I would like to drop their lowest two tests out of the six, not just...

Google is going back to the future by reinventing the spreadsheet as a Web-based application, seeking a simpler on-ramp for consumers to input data into databases, the company said on Monday. The Web search leader will begin a limited trial on Tuesday of the classic software application defined by its grid of rows and columns and simple calculating capabilities that allow users to enter and organize information in structured form.

The latest round of "found" votes, plus the rate that counted counties compare to the previous recount, has our spreadsheet predicting a Christine Gregoire victory by ONE SINGLE VOTE. This all, of course, is mathematical projection and assumes that all the "found" votes will be included (which isn't at all a sure thing), but it clearly demonstrates how close the election for Governor of Washington is. Go get the latest version of the spreadsheet (1.56) and watch it unfold. There's also an updated screenshot on that post for those unable/unwilling to download the spreadsheet.

Well, it's been a few weeks, so I guess it's time to count ballots in the Washington governor's race again. As usual, you can track the recount with a nifty spreadsheet developed by my smarter brother.

My smarter brother has redone his sheet to cover the recount of the Washington governor's race. Counties will not report anything until that entire county has been recounted, so instead of trickling in the votes will appear in chunks. Otherwise, the spreadsheet works as before to tabulate votes (re)counted and to project the final tally based upon county-by-county percentages. Of particular note is the "Change since first count" on the right, which reflects the change in the recounted totals from the original results in the counties recounted so far. I think this is the number everyone will be watching.

My smarter brother has redone his sheet to cover the recount of the Washington governor's race. Counties will not report anything until that entire county has been recounted, so instead of trickling in the votes will appear in chunks. Otherwise, the spreadsheet works as before to tabulate votes (re)counted and to project the final tally based upon county-by-county percentages. Of particular note is the "Change since first count" on the right, which reflects the change in the recounted totals from the original results in the counties recounted so far. I think this is the number everyone will be watching.

* = Projected, at least. This should help put some of those worried about King County at ease. A little. Right now Rossi, taking the trends in each county into consideration, is going to win by 1,036 despite leading by a mere 304. This is all mathematical projection, but take a look. I've got an Excel spreadsheet designed by my brother that tracks all counted votes, results by county, and ballots outstanding to project the winner. It updates every 10 minutes. Available at http://www.murdoconline.net/archives/001729.html

Does anyone know of a shareware/freeware/ or commercial product that can automate the process of retrieving a set of data from a relational database or a comma delimited file or spreadsheet (ie. Excel) then populating all relevant data fields into a an Oracle Application form?I would also appreciate any comments on experiences others may have had with such products, and any good informational websites that may discuss these types of programs. Thanks!