Manage Group Projects with BaseCamp

Sometimes, less is better.

For the past month, I have been using an amazing web-based project management system called BaseCamp. It is really easy to use. You can try it out for free for 30 days - but I have to warn you - by the end of the 30 days you will not imagine being able to live without it.

Take a quick tour of how to use BaseCamp to manage a budget rollup project in this article.

Dice Simulation in Excel

In episode 166 of the Learn Excel from MrExcel podcast, I talked about using the RandBetween function to create a pair of dice in Excel. I quipped that if you wanted to play Monopoly but were missing the dice, this trick would come in handy. The podcast was an improvement on the technique discussed on page 170 of the book Learn Excel from MrExcel.

There is always a better way of doing something in Excel. I received a nice note from viewer Peter Marcaurelle a few days later. He offered up a worksheet that actually had dice that looked liked dice. I've taken Peter's formatting idea and adapted it with my formula.



Read the complete details for both methods in tip119.

Pop-Culture Sighting of Excel

One of the popular new sitcoms in the USA this year is My Name is Earl. In the January 19, 2006 episode (#1ALJ14, written by J. B. Cook) - there is a funny scene involving Excel.

In the scene, Earl (Jason Lee) has faked his way into an office job in order to get back at a large corporation who burned down Pop's Hot Dog stand. Earl's new boss - a smiling fast talker named Brad has this interaction with Earl.

Brad: You bring up the middle section in Excel. (Earl nods) Then you bring up the Word document from pages 4 through 6. (Earl nods again) Part of this will be networked, so leave the weblinks embedded. (Earl nods) Oh - and put them on a disk for me. Thanks.

Earl: Will do.

Earl (voiceover): Since I had no idea what the hell an "Excel" was, I decided to hide out in the elevator for a while.


Sounds like the same way that many of us began our first job where we had to use Excel. Some fast-talking manager gave us just about that much training in this complex program.

I also thought this episode was cool because a recurring storyline was Pop's Hot Dog Stand. Being a fan of pop culture kitsch, I made sure to stop by the real Tail o' the Pup in Los Angeles back in July 2004. The guy behind the counter even looks like the actor who played Pop in the episode.

My Name is Earl airs in the US on Thursday nights - 9PM Eastern. I doubt that Earl will ever encounter Excel again - but check out Earl's continuing battle to regain karma in this well-written sitcom.

Spirograph in Excel

I was cruising around Jon Wittwer's Excel site today and ran across this cool Excel workbook that simulates the Spirograph set that you used to play with when you were a kid.

The workbook uses no macros. Simply enter the size of wheels to use and use the slider to select hole spacing. Very cool.

Download the workbook from http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelArticles/fun-with-excel.html

Teach Macro-Economics with Excel

When I was first learning how to program a computer (a TI-994A with Extended Basic!), a high school teacher asked me to attempt to program a macro-economic simulator that could be used in the classroom to teach economics.

I thought this was a pretty cool site - Francisco Blasques is doing the same thing, with three games in Excel. Your goal is to reach a GDP of 200 in 90 turns or less! If you are a teacher trying to teach economics, or merely want to relive the days of high school econ, check out these simulations from Francisco. The descriptions are here, and the downloads are here.