About this blog
The Basics
Here at Codswallop we discuss how technology can be used to increase productivity. Codswallop is written by Chris Garrett and Yoav Ezer.
A bit more about the authors
Chris Garrett
Chris Garrett is a UK-based professional blogger and Internet Marketing Consultant. You might know him from such blogs as CopyBlogger and the Blog Herald, or his own blog at chrisg.com. Like Yoav, Chris also became a computer geek at an early age, first becoming addicted to his Commodore Vic20, then later making a career out of it. Since 1994 he has concentrated on all things internet, first as a developer and more recently as a consultant and writer.
Yoav Ezer
First things first. If you didn’t check out our PDF to Excel conversion software then do it now. This tool is what keeps our happy little blog alive (not to mention me and my lovely family).
I am in my mid thirties and have been programming/working with computers for the last 20 years.
Growing up I was a bit of a computer geek. So when it was time to join the army (everyone in Israel has to serve in the army for at least 3 years), I was drafted to the computer division (MAMRAM).
My first job in MAMRAM was instructing young programmers about programming, algorithms, basic system design, UI design, etc’. This was a very educating experience, because for the first time I had to interact with people – sometimes I would stand in front of a class for 45 hours every week. I did this for about 2 years.
During that time I wrote a book about system management in VAX/VMS systems. VAX/VMS was a beautiful operating system. Not as complex as the IBM MF, but very robust. A real beauty. It’s long gone now. Digital Equipment (the company that manufactured the VAX computers) made some wrong decisions and failed financially. It was later bought by Compaq, which was later bought by HP.
My second job in MAMRAM was to head the VAX/Unix unit within the MAMRAM computer school. I was in-charge of about 10 soldiers and we taught all the VAX/Unix courses and operated the Unit’s computers. Again a very educating experience. I was very young (about 20) and already had to manage 10 people and also had quite a lot of operative responsibility. I had to admit I was a bit over my head there, but the unit survived and so did I.
In my last job in MAMRAM I was appointed to oversee the definition of software development methodology in the computer school (a sub division of MAMRAM) and once such a definition was in place, I was to define a syllabus for teaching those methodologies in the army. This was a fascinating process. I worked with some of the best minds in Israel and together we created a series of courses and books on the subject, which are still in use today.
But eventually I was to much of a free spirit to stay in the army and so I left and started a consulting/programming practice with my second best friend Guy (Guy…please read this to the end). For about 3 years we helped start-ups define and implement their products. We worked mainly with Information Retrieval/Knowledge Management companies. Most of these companies don’t exist, but some have grown to become real businesses. Signed a lot of NDAs. Learned a lot about business and life.
Finally we started Cogniview with a group of friends and the end of this story is yet to be told.
Somewhere along the way I got married (my wife is my best friend and the smartest/most gentle/beautiful person I know) and had two kids (whom I love more then anything in the world).
I hope you enjoy reading our blog. Please leave a comment so I know you were here.
Contact us
You may send me email to yoav.ezer
cogniview.com
Or follow me on Facebook or Twitter
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[...] I can also be contacted through my email (see the About the author page). [...]
Hi Chris,
After 5 months in progress (with a lot of sweat, blood and tears!) today we are launching our new startup called FeedZa – A public RSS feed reader where the community will vote on the blog posts they find most interesting.
Over the last few months I have been searching hi and low for the best blogs on the internet that we can include on the FeedZa site, and I’m really happy to announce that your blog made it through!
Today we are launching a huge marketing campaign that should generate some nice traffic, hopefully to the selected blogs that we have chosen.
Feel free to check out http://www.feedza.com or our site tour for more information: http://www.feedza.com/learn
If you think that your readers will find FeedZa interesting, feel free to write about us on your blog. We can provide you with editorial/graphics and I can even arrange an interview with the founders if you think your blog readers would find this interesting!
I hope this is a start to a great relationship between you, myself and the FeedZa project. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Warm regards,
Alitta
Quality control
http://www.feedza.com
Yup, found your site. You sure get about Chris
Hi Chris and Yoav,
My name is Elizabeth and I’m the Marketing Coordinator for Techweb’s Mashup Camp, a three-day “unconference” event where IT pros, users and members of the mashup community come together for an open conversation about mashup technology (basically combining multiple sources like software to create a newer, cooler product). This year’s event will be held on November 17th-19th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. You may be familiar with some of our other event brands like Interop and Web 2.0.
After exploring Codswallop and reading some of your blog entries, I think that our event would resonate with some of your readers who would be interested to know how mashup technology can improve productivity. As a result I wanted to offer Codswallop the opportunity to become a media co-sponsor for Mashup Camp. In exchange for posting a blog entry (or as many as your heart desires) about our event, I would offer to:
• Promote Codswallop in each of our attendees’ folder materials
• Link Codswallop on the Mashup Camp “News and Coverage” page
• Link Codswallop on our all of our 6 remaining email blasts (40,000+ recipients each blast) targeted toward both prospective and registered attendees
• Feature your blog on our Facebook page
• Provide you with promotional Mashup Camp badges and graphics to post on your website
If you and/or your readers register to attend (it’s FREE), you will participate in Chalk Talk discussions, SpeedGeeking sessions, the Best Mashup Contests (with over $4,500 in prizes), complimentary meals and amazing networking opportunities with leaders in the mashup community.
I hope you agree that this could be a mutually beneficial relationship and I urge you to contact me for more details. I can be reached at 212.600.3025, or feel free to email me at eking@techweb.com. Thanks so much and keep up the great work!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth King
LoneWolf was here!
Just discovered Codswallop. Any info on where the name comes from?
Shalom
LoneWolf
Hi Chris and Yoav,
Codswallop !
While the word has grown to represent a less than accurate, or exaggerated account of a particular even or product. The word actually describes an action which represents clever use of (old) technology.
In the north of England a company called Hiram Codd produced soft drinks in glass bottles, each bottle contained an internal molded glass groove that acted as a type of ‘holder/restrainer’ the lid/cap of the bottle was a glass marble trapped inside the bottle.
In order to open the ‘pop’ bottle, one had to wallop or hit the marble lid into the bottle, holding the bottle at a specific angle/rotation ensured the lid/marble remained away from the neck. Wallop was also apparently slang for Beer.
As a kid, I once saw this demonstrated while being explained by Jack Hargreaves OBE (31 December 1911 – 15 March 1994) on his ITV program ‘HOW’ (Fred Dinenage anyone ?)
I enjoy your site, my own 25 year preoccupation has been with technology and creativity.
Folks,
this is the best blog I’ve seen so far – and I read quite some of them. I get updates via email, and my reading rate is well above 90%, and I nearly always learn a little bit, try something out or so.
I love your productivity tips as they help me get faster, more efficient and produce better quality.
THANKS!
Can we be added to your free web based applications?
We have created a free dhtml pop up (also known as the unblockable pop up) maker. This free web app is very easy to use, and integration is one small piece of code.
Our main goal is to re-invent the pop up, so it can be integrated into the user’s web experience, not as advertisement.
The website is http://www.hovclick.com.
Thanks again!
Blake
Hi guys… just found out about this blog. I have to say that the quality of the information is excellent. I’m signing up for the feed so I get your latest posts.
I thought your tips on productivity were great. I’ll let you know how they go as I will be trying a few this week. Thank you!
Dear Chris and Yoav:
I found your and as you too work in the larger MS Office ecosystem you may be interested in reviewing a new product.
Viney@rd is a spreadsheet automation and a business intelligence tool based on the Excel/SQL Server stack (http://www.straysoft.com).
Heavy Excel users are often trapped in a net of interlinked Excel files. These files, usually, form a rather messy complex where finding the right datum is hard and getting different visions of the same data is a time consuming process. This practice is also known as “Spreadmarting”.
The standard IT department reply to a demand of order and cleanliness is a database or, even in moderately complex cases, a true datawarehouse. This is costly, time consuming and deprives the users of the familiarity and flexibility provided by Excel. New tools must be learnt, not all the required data are inside the database, data are updated at the wrong time etc. More subtly, the human brain uses “handcrafted” categories extract the meaning of data which are hardly or ever built in a database, thus making to organize data accordingly impossible.
With Viney@rd, users can turn their files in an organized database in few clicks.
It is a 3 steps process.
First they can define dimensions and models rather intuitively. They can do it from Excel itself, so there’s no need for learning another tool nor to master the fundamentals of multidimensional analysis.
Secondly they can save their own data inside the database, just compiling an Excel table. Often data are available in raw formats (text files, plain queries etc.) that fit well with the format accepted by Viney@rd, so no or little reworking is necessary. Users fully control what goes in the database; they chose the fields, the formats etc. If they need to adjust or clean the data, they can do it by themselves. If they need to add dimension, group elements differently or even add their own notes, they can.
The third step is querying the data by the Viney@rd Excel Add-in. It does not replicate any of the functions already in Excel but provides a great deal of flexibility in placing data on the sheets. It is one of the few Excel query tools that can leave even the most complex layout untouched on refresh. Models are also exposed with connections suited to pivot tables creation.
This approach, of course, is not suited for the sales data of large corporation but in every business, large or small, there are areas where Excel holds all the data, and the data are complex enough to require a better organization.
The database created by Viney@rd is very simple. In this way those who want to create a more conventional interface with their systems do not need a business intelligence specialist to set it up.
Perhaps this hybrid approach is where Viney@rd gives its best; In my consulting career I had to “reinvent the wheel” many times to let the users enrich manually their transactional data; now this process can be easily managed by Viney@rd.
I hope you’ll find my product interesting. Just to let you test it with ease, please find below a 6 years key for 3 users.
KYW-170-PZM-GLN-392
You can download Viney@rd from this http://www.straysoft.com/download.html. Simply install it and use this code to unlock the application.
Please let me know if this is of your interest and do not hesitate to contact me for any further information. I’d love to hear your feedback soon. In the meanwhile, I’m linking your site from mine.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Best Regards.
Augusto Albeghi
StraySoft Founder
Just wanted to say, very rarely do I stumble across a blog like this.
Howzit (SOUTH AFRICAN Greeting)Hello codswallop,
As I have just found this programe I’am still finding my way around,of all the comments this seams to be a better help than other “HELP”program arround. many more happy birthdays.
Best regards,
Darryl Mclaren.
Happy Birthday
Hi, I’d like to submit a website that may be useful to the visitors of this blog.
http://www.niceletter.com is a website for writing letters online. It creates letters in PDF and RTF formats. The layout is handled automatically. Sample letters available and customizable through the letter wizard. It’s very straightforward and it’s not a word editor.
Hi, good evening, here I want to share a useful website in my bookmarks, http://www.autodwg.com is a professional website offers may converter software that capable to convert PDF to DWG and vise versa, so that I can edit PDF drawing in AutoCAD, helped me a lot. Enjoy!
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Your 100 webapps post was excellent. I have bookmarked it. Checkout navtango.com. It is a free web app I just launched. Simply, it allows one to access and manage their web bookmarks from any computer.
Initially I made it for me as their really was nothing out there that met my needs navigation-wise. Then I decided to do all the bazillion things one needs to do to make ready for others to use.
Just to say that I loved your 100 tools…. thank you so so much….
AJ DiMaio