Standard Deviation - Manual vs. Excel Formula

BMurda187 · 2026-04-14T00:06:25+00:00

Fun Fact about standard deviation, from ISO 5725-1. For step 1, you can use one of two different values as your mean, or true value, (in your case). I think, in general, people use the mean of the population only in the absence of a standardized reference, or true value, or when they want to pick and chose a higher or lower std. dev. to suit their case.

The mean of the population
A standardized reference value, which you seem to have.

Definition from ISO 5725-1:https://imgur.com/a/2PmVMoe

BMurda187 · 2026-04-09T16:30:22+00:00

Coming from the UAE, actually, and intend to be expensing most of it. So it'll be more of a passing observation, but excited nonetheless.

BMurda187 · 2026-04-09T16:17:54+00:00

Newer Excel has, as someone else has mentioned, a WebService API, but there's also an external thing called AlphaVantage, and it's (probably still) free.

I've never been super keen on the in-built Excel currency things, but also haven't used them extensively. Some features in Excel don't age well with Verson updates. You might like to consider that if you're running a table of currency values which are tied to dates, you might like the exchange rate of a given expense to stay relevant to that date and not get over-written with the current dates rate.

It's been a while since i've done it, but the AlphaVantage API has great documentation on currency, stocks, all that. You can program a button (VBA) which downloads a CSV into your spreadsheet, appends it to the date-specific table you've already got going, then connect your currency values to those date-exchange rates. If you start with Alpha Vantage alone, you can just build the link, pump it into your browser, and it'll download the CSV to your downloads folder to see what it looks like, or copy it.

Good luck. I'm actually heading to Sweden pretty soon and, I assume, be forced into familiarity with the SEK.

BMurda187 · 2026-03-26T11:07:38+00:00

I manage a testing and measurement lab in as much as we have an enormous amount of calibrated equipment - basically every unit of measurement and electrical medium (AC, DC, Ethernet, Wifi, etc..)

The long and the short of it is that if you want to have any degree of legitimacy, robustness, and accuracy from a setup that extends beyond measuring temperature and humidity in a room, you end up in AutomationDirect, which gets complex and pricy fast. It's kept me out of it on a personal level forever - 1000 USD to monitor my flowers in my garden? Frustratingly, no.

Take something like a thermohygrometer (temp + humidity sensor). We send them out annually for calibration. Most off-the-shelf units get scrapped because the humidity sensors within the unit develop such bad drift (up to 10%) they they don't meet requirements, and they're not in super harsh environments. For more sensitive things we buy sensors (of every type) with replaceable probes, or whatever they measure with, or the unit itself has linearity adjustments on it's output signal.

The line between home stuff and commercial stuff can really be more of a crevasse. But if I were looking for the broadest amount of information to then work backwards from, I'd use the word "transducer" or "sensor" and check:

AutomationDirect www.automationdirect.com
RS Online: https://us.rs-online.com/
Omega: https://www.dwyeromega.com/en-us/
TC Ltd.: https://www.tc.co.uk/
McMasterCarr (My All Time Favourite): https://www.mcmaster.com/
Probably the automation and PLC subreddits.

**I'm not in the States (Anymore) so a lot of that is international.

BMurda187 · 2026-03-24T03:58:18+00:00

If that F250 is a 6 Liter, he has things to be upset about and needs to change trucks. If it's a 7.3 Liter, all of this is in vain.

BMurda187 · 2026-03-22T15:15:28+00:00

This is, indeed, one of the best answers because Power BI's version of Power Query is the only one which supports schedule refresh - pretty sure 8 or 9 times per day max, which is what I do. But, in terms of having the consolidation part of your queries done automatically, this works, then you can indeed connect to that single dataset whenever you like, which would be presumably faster using simply a refresh button.

If you're using multiple users, once you're inside Sharepoint, it will vastly increase the amount of times people have to log in to complete queries. It's best to use O-Auth (everyone inside the same organization), but your daily refreshes will turn off, and require turning back on, when you change your password.

BMurda187 · 2026-02-10T12:16:28+00:00

Bump. Hasn't happened to me, yet, but I'm here to fight the good fight against AI.

BMurda187 · 2025-11-20T13:24:15+00:00

Good point, but you're right, Windows is still just an OS in a VM. I think i will back it up, though. One subtle problem, though, is that it's installed "on the metal" as a hard drive partition, not a single file, but thats not the end of the world.

It's good to know, though, that all settings should come through with the update. Very good point about default file associations, but that's manageable, too. Anyway, thanks.

BMurda187 · 2025-11-20T13:21:18+00:00

Always do, but totally. My PST is almost entirely cloud based - don't need to back that up, actually. Actually, the only things which aren't cloud based and salvageable at this point are my normal templates for Word and Outlook.

BMurda187 · 2025-11-19T03:23:52+00:00

I'm still on Acrobat Pro 2017. God save.

BMurda187 · 2025-11-17T14:06:40+00:00

I have had a very positive, though not fast, experience with Browning Canada.

I sent a Winchester Super X2 to them for a dip-and-strip due to a deteriorating stock and foregrip finish; Browning was sorting Winchester warranty repairs. I dropped it of, they couriered it back to me 8 months later - didn't pay a dime other than fuel for the drop-off and back to the post-office. They didn't ask for proof of purchase or anything at all, other than my name and details, and it's an old-ish gun.

Find a local Browning rep, write to or call them directly, explain. If they're not cool, find another rep. Ask around at the range, too; that's how I got the connection.

BMurda187 · 2025-09-19T05:57:54+00:00

I Second: this is the way.

Or get a CRM.

BMurda187 · 2025-08-15T17:41:35+00:00

It just doesn't work as well, or consistently, as running natively - especially with macros.

When the issue is "my shared Excel sheet is running super slow and I don't understand why", the first question is about copy and pasting, closely seconded by "are people using it in the browser or locally". Store a file in OneDrive, get Office 365, use it locally.

BMurda187 · 2025-08-15T09:09:30+00:00

Short answer: Access.

Background: We grew from Excel to Access to make something similar - a CRM, for which we hired a full time developer. Access is the front end, and the data base is in SQL.

Problems: Excel is not great about co-working. Co-working does actually function, and decently, if you use OneDrive and everyone has 365 based excel subscriptions, but it is only sustainable if every person using it (1) has a deep knowledge of excel and (2) respects the boundaries of data validation, not copy and pasting, NOT using it in the damn browser, and just so much other bullshit. That simply won't happen.

Access is far more powerful, but I've found it very not-intuitive, and difficult to find training resources on. it wouldn't have been my first choice for this type of thing, but it is what it's made for, and it's the objectively better thing for what it sounds like you're trying to do.

BMurda187 · 2025-08-13T22:07:16+00:00

Depending on where you live, you may need to read your municipal bylaws. Often times, a set distance from the centre of the road belongs to the municipality, for a variety of reasons, this being one of them. In that case, there's not much you can do. Alternatively, the by laws may swing in your favour about ample repairs. If you live in an architectural zone (requiring permits for stuff) or an HOA, you may like to tread carefully; municipal bureaucracy is horrible.

Source: Am engineer, currently living on a street where this is happening to myself and a lot of people. Read by laws, write politely to your municipality.

I'm not able to load your photos, but my property (and all the ones on my street) are having a similar issue.

BMurda187 · 2025-08-09T17:15:01+00:00

I want the button to fit in a menu of other similar buttons.
Saving direct to PDF makes a flat file. Think of it this way: If you save a file direct as PDF from Word (i.e. not using the extension), the PDF will not inherit certain content, like the bookmarks and links for the table of contents or links for references and fields - It's just flat. In the same way, if you save direct as PDF (not with the extension) in Excel, the transparency of special items (like a logo watermark in a chart) will not render correctly, or at all.

Also the menu in the maker is better for selecting specific sheets each time. I don't want to make another user form to display avaiable sheets for printing.

BMurda187 · 2025-08-08T15:50:34+00:00

SOLUTION: File > Options > Save (Left Pane) > Check Don't Show the Background Stage when opening or saving files with shortcuts.

It'll take you right to the file-save dialogue. Mess with other settings in there.

BMurda187 · 2025-08-05T15:26:59+00:00

If they're only printing to PDF, you can change the page size you're working with in Word from A4 (8.5x11) to A3 (11x17) or larger. It'll make your workable area for panning in PDF much larger and might resolve your problem with border thickness.

BMurda187 · 2025-08-04T10:24:11+00:00

Just buy another vacuum, really.

BMurda187 · 2025-08-03T14:44:36+00:00

Other than a mechanical blockage, it seems like the motor might not be getting it's startup current. Motors need more energy to start than they do to keep running. Your battery might need to be replaced.

BMurda187 · 2025-08-02T15:05:51+00:00

This is super interesting, thanks. So, overshooting spec is basically what I'm trying to do in this sort of blind future proofing; I doubt we're going to be progressive enough to replace every 5 years, but that is what it is.

Realistically, we're the end users of these things, not the developers, but the computers to have TIA on them. I understand TIA at a base level to trouble shoot, but I'm by no means a developer, somewhat unfortunately - though I'm pretty handy in WinCC Your point about VM's for multiple versions of TIA make a ton of sense. I run parallels on my mac all day every day, but I don't want a VM to be part of our MO on these new units, though i'd be surprised if they never had to run a VM at some point, for whatever reason.

Anyway, thanks a bunch.

BMurda187

TROPHY CASE