Smart and Gets Things Done: Joel Spolsky's Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent
Author: Joel Spolsky
A guide to attracting, recruiting, interviewing, and hiring the best technical talent.
- A comprehensive system for hiring top-notch technical employees
- Packed with useful information and specific advice written in a breezy, humorous style
- Learn how to find great people--and get them to work for you--in an afternoon!
The top software developers are ten times as productive as average developers. Ten times. You can't afford not to hire them. But if you haven't been reading Joel Spolsky's books or blog, you probably don't know how to find them and make them want to work for you.
In this brief book, Joel reveals all his secrets--from his years at Microsoft, and as the co-founder of Fog Creek Software--for recruiting the best developers in the world. You'll learn:
- How to create a pipeline of excellent developers using internships--and why this is not optional
- How to build a workplace where the best programmers want to work
- The secrets to reading resumes, interviewing technical people, and deciding when to make an offer
If you've ever wondered what you should be looking for in a resume, if you've ever struggled to decide whether to hire someone at the end of an interview, or if you're wondering why you can't find great programmers, stop everything and read this book.
Read also Spirituality Health and Healing or Death in Slow Motion
Excel 2007 Data Analysis For Dummies
Author: Stephen L Nelson CPA MBA MS
• Shows ordinary users how to tap the rich data analysis functionality of Excel, make sense of their organization's critical financial and statistical information, and put together compelling data presentations
• Now revised with over 30 percent new content to cover the enhancements in Excel 2007, including the completely redesigned user interface, augmented charting and PivotTable capabilities, improved security, and better data exchange through XML
• Provides thorough coverage of Excel features that are critical to data analysis-working with external databases, creating PivotTables and PivotCharts, using Excel statistical and financial functions, sharing data, harnessing the Solver, taking advantage of the Small Business Finance Manager, and more
Table of Contents:
Introduction 1About This Book 1
What You Can Safely Ignore 1
What You Shouldn't Ignore (Unless You're a Masochist) 2
Three Foolish Assumptions 3
How This Book Is Organized 3
Where's the Beef? 3
PivotTables and PivotCharts 3
Advanced Tools 4
The Part of Tens 4
Appendix 4
Special Icons 5
Where to Next? 5
Where's the Beef? 7
Introducing Excel Tables 9
What Is a Table and Why Do I Care? 9
Building Tables 12
Exporting from a database 12
Building a table the hard way 12
Building a table the semi-hard way 13
Analyzing Table Information 15
Simple statistics 17
Sorting table records 19
Using AutoFilter on a table 21
Undoing a filter 23
Turning off filter 23
Using the custom AutoFilter 23
Filtering a filtered table 25
Using advanced filtering 26
Grabbing Data from External Sources 31
Getting Data the Export-Import Way 31
Exporting: The first step 32
Importing: The second step (if necessary) 36
Querying External Databases and Web Page Tables 45
Running a Web query 45
Importing a database table 47
Querying an external database 50
It's Sometimes a Raw Deal 56
Scrub-a-Dub-Dub: Cleaning Data 57
Editing Your Imported Workbook 57
Delete unnecessary columns 58
Delete unnecessary rows 58
Resize columns 59
Resize rows 60
Erase unneeded cell contents 61
Format numeric values 61
Copying worksheet data 61
Moving worksheet data 62
Replacing data in fields 62
Cleaning Data with Text Functions 63
What's the big deal, Steve? 63
The answer to some of your problems 65
The Clean function 65
The Concatenate function 66
The Exact function 66
The Find function 67
The Fixed function 68
The Left function 68
The Len function 68
The Lower function 69
The Mid function 69
The Proper function 70
The Replace function 70
The Rept function 70
The Right function 71
The Search function 71
The Substitute function 72
The T function 72
The Text function 73
The Trim function 73
The Upper function 73
The Value function 74
Converting text function formulas to text 74
Using Validation to Keep Data Clean 75
PivotTables and PivotCharts 79
Working with PivotTables 81
Looking at Data from Many Angles 81
Getting Ready to Pivot 82
Running the PivotTable Wizard 83
Fooling Around with Your Pivot Table 88
Pivoting and re-pivoting 88
Filtering pivot table data 88
Refreshing pivot table data 92
Sorting pivot table data 92
Pseudo-sorting 94
Grouping and ungrouping data items 95
Selecting this, selecting that 97
Where did that cell's number come from? 97
Setting value field settings 97
Customizing How Pivot Tables Work and Look 100
Setting pivot table options 100
Formatting pivot table information 103
Building PivotTable Formulas 107
Adding Another Standard Calculation 107
Creating Custom Calculations 111
Using Calculated Fields and Items 115
Adding a calculated field 115
Adding a calculated item 117
Removing calculated fields and items 119
Reviewing calculated field and calculated item formulas 121
Reviewing and changing solve order 122
Retrieving Data from a Pivot Table 123
Getting all the values in a pivot table 123
Getting a value from a pivot table 124
Arguments of the GETPIVOTDATA function 126
Working with PivotCharts 127
Why Use a PivotChart? 127
Getting Ready to Pivot 128
Running the PivotTable Wizard 129
Fooling Around with Your Pivot Chart 134
Pivoting and re-pivoting 134
Filtering pivot chart data 135
Refreshing pivot chart data 137
Grouping and ungrouping data items 138
Using Chart Commands to Create Pivot Charts 139
Customizing PivotCharts 143
Selecting a Chart Type 143
Working with Chart Layouts 144
Working with Chart Styles 144
Setting Chart Options 144
Chart titles 145
Chart legend 146
Chart data labels 147
Chart data tables 149
Chart axes 150
Chart gridlines 152
Changing a Chart's Location 152
Formatting the Plot Area 154
Formatting the Chart Area 155
Chart fill patterns 155
Chart area fonts 155
Formatting 3-D Charts 156
Formatting the walls of a 3-D chart 156
Using the 3-D View command 156
Advanced Tools 157
Using the Database Functions 159
Quickly Reviewing Functions 159
Understanding function syntax rules 160
Entering a function manually 160
Entering a function with the Function command 161
Using the DAVERAGE Function 165
Using the DCOUNT and DCOUNTA Functions 168
Using the DGET Function 170
Using the DMAX and DMAX Functions 172
Using the DPRODUCT Function 174
Using the DSTDEV and DSTDEVP Functions 174
Using the DSUM Function 176
Using the DVAR and DVARP Functions 178
Using the Statistics Functions 181
Counting Items in a Data Set 181
COUNT: Counting cells with values 181
COUNTA: Alternative counting cells with values 182
COUNTBLANK: Counting empty cells 183
COUNTIF: Counting cells that match criteria 183
PERMUT: Counting permutations 184
COMBIN: Counting combinations 184
Means, Modes, and Medians 184
AVEDEV: An average absolute deviation 185
AVERAGE: Average 185
AVERAGEA: An alternate average 186
TRIMMEAN: Trimming to a mean 186
MEDIAN: Median value 187
MODE: Mode value 187
GEOMEAN: Geometric mean 188
HARMEAN: Harmonic mean 188
Finding Values, Ranks, and Percentiles 188
MAX: Maximum value 188
MAXA: Alternate maximum value 189
MIN: Minimum value 189
MINA: Alternate minimum value 189
LARGE: Finding the kth largest value 189
SMALL: Finding the kth smallest value 190
RANK: Ranking an array value 190
PERCENTRANK: Finding a percentile ranking 191
PERCENTILE: Finding a percentile ranking 192
FREQUENCY: Frequency of values in a range 193
PROB: Probability of values 194
Standard Deviations and Variances 195
STDEV: Standard deviation of a sample 195
STDEVA: Alternate standard deviation of a sample 196
STDEVP: Standard deviation of a population 196
STDEVPA: Alternate standard deviation of a population 197
VAR: Variance of a sample 197
VARA: Alternate variance of a sample 198
VARP: Variance of a population 198
VARPA: Alternate variance of a population 198
COVAR: Covariance 199
DEVSQ: Sum of the squared deviations 199
Normal Distributions 199
NORMDIST: Probability X falls at or below a given value 199
NORMINV: X that gives specified probability 200
NORMSDIST: Probability variable within z-standard deviations 201
NORMSINV: z-value equivalent to a probability 201
STANDARDIZE: z-value for a specified value 202
CONFIDENCE: Confidence interval for a population mean 202
KURT: Kurtosis 203
SKEW: Skewness of a distribution 204
t-distributions 204
TDIST: Probability of given t-value 204
TINV: t-value of a given probability 205
TTEST: Probability two samples from same population 205
f-distributions 206
FDIST: f-distribution probability 206
FINV: f-value given f-distribution probability 206
FTEST: Probability data set variances not different 207
Binomial Distributions 207
BINOMDIST: Binomial probability distribution 207
NEGBINOMDIST: Negative binominal distribution 208
CRITBINOM: Cumulative binomial distribution 209
HYFGEOMDIST: Hypergeometric distribution 209
Chi-Square Distributions 210
CHIDIST: Chi-square distribution 210
CHIINV: Chi-square value for a given level of significance 211
CHITEST: Chi-square test 212
Regression Analysis 212
FORECAST: Forecast dependent variables using a best-fit line 213
INTERCEPT: y-axis intercept of a line 213
Linest 213
SLOPE: Slope of a regression line 214
STEYX: Standard error 214
Trend 214
LOGEST: Exponential regression 214
GROWTH: Exponential growth 215
Correlation 215
CORREL: Correlation coefficient 215
PEARSON: Pearson correlation coefficient 216
RSQ: r-squared value for a Pearson correlation coefficient 216
Fisher 216
Fisherinv 216
Some Really Esoteric Probability Distributions 217
BETADIST: Cumulative beta probability density 217
BETAINV: Inverse cumulative beta probability density 217
EXPONDIST: Exponential probability distribution 218
GAMMADIST: Gamma distribution probability 218
GAMMAINV: X for a given gamma distribution probability 219
GAMMALN: Natural logarithm of a gamma distribution 219
LOGNORMDIST: Probability of lognormal distribution 220
LOGINV: Value associated with lognormal distribution probability 220
POISSON: Poisson distribution probabilities 220
WEIBULL: Weibull distribution 221
ZTEST: Probability of a z-test 221
Descriptive Statistics 223
Using the Descriptive Statistics Tool 224
Creating a Histogram 228
Ranking by Percentile 231
Calculating Moving Averages 233
Exponential Smoothing 235
Generating Random Numbers 238
Sampling Data 240
Inferential Statistics 245
Using the t-test Data Analysis Tool 246
Performing z-test Calculations 248
Creating a Scatter Plot 250
Using the Regression Data Analysis Tool 255
Using the Correlation Analysis Tool 256
Using the Covariance Analysis Tool 259
Using the Anova Data Analysis Tools 260
Creating an f-test Analysis 261
Using Fourier Analysis 262
Optimization Modeling with Solver 263
Understanding Optimization Modeling 264
Optimizing your imaginary profits 264
Recognizing constraints 264
Setting Up a Solver Worksheet 265
Solving an Optimization Modeling Problem 268
Reviewing the Solver Reports 273
The Answer Report 273
The Sensitivity Report 274
The Limits Report 276
Some other notes about Solver reports 277
Working with the Solver Options 277
Setting a limit on Solver 278
Deciding how nit-picky to be 278
Saying when 279
When you assume... 279
Using automatic scaling 280
Showing iteration results 280
Tangent versus quadratic estimates 280
Forward versus central derivatives 280
Newton versus conjugate algorithms 281
Saving and reusing model information 281
Understanding the Solver Error Messages 282
Solver has converged to the current solution 282
Solver cannot improve the current solution 282
Stop chosen when maximum time limit was reached 283
Stop chosen when maximum iteration limit was reached 283
Set target cell values do not converge 283
Solver could not find a feasible solution 284
Conditions for assume linear model are not satisfied 284
Solver encountered an error value in a target or constraint cell 284
There is not enough memory available to solve the problem 285
The Part of Tens 287
Almost Ten Things You Ought to Know about Statistics 289
Descriptive Statistics Are Straightforward 290
Averages Aren't So Simple Sometimes 290
Standard Deviations Describe Dispersion 291
An Observation Is an Observation 292
A Sample Is a Subset of Values 293
Inferential Statistics Are Cool but Complicated 293
Probability Distribution Functions Aren't Always Confusing 294
Uniform distribution 295
Normal distribution 295
Parameters Aren't So Complicated 297
Skewness and Kurtosis Describe a Probability Distribution's Shape 297
Almost Ten Tips for Presenting Table Results and Analyzing Data 299
Work Hard to Import Data 299
Design Information Systems to Produce Rich Data 300
Don't Forget about Third-Party Sources 301
Just Add It 301
Always Explore Descriptive Statistics 302
Watch for Trends 302
Slicing and Dicing: Cross-Tabulation 303
Chart It, Baby 303
Be Aware of Inferential Statistics 303
Ten Tips for Visually Analyzing and Presenting Data 305
Using the Right Chart Type 305
Using Your Chart Message as the Chart Title 307
Beware of Pie Charts 307
Consider Using Pivot Charts for Small Data Sets 309
Avoiding 3-D Charts 310
Never Use 3-D Pie Charts 312
Be Aware of the Phantom Data Markers 313
Use Logarithmic Scaling 313
Don't Forget to Experiment 316
Get Tufte 316
Appendix 319
Glossary of Data Analysis and Excel Terms 321
Index 331
No comments:
Post a Comment