3 ms·

It's actually a quite nice tool if you have the need for some advanced visualizations in MS Office. There are also lots of corporate users, for which Office is

It's actually a quite nice tool if you have the need for some advanced visualizations in MS Office. There are also lots of corporate users, for which Office is their main working tool.

wolfgke 10y ago
> It's actually a quite nice tool if you have the need for some advanced visualizations in MS Office. I don't know details about their software, but I'm pretty sure that if the software weren't useful for their customers, they wouldn't make a lot of money. > There are also lots of corporate users, for which Office is their main working tool. That's exactly what I think, too. I wish it were different (i.e. open source software and file formats that are easy to parse everywhere), but the reality is unluckily different. And if there are customers (say, banks or corporate consulting companies) which for some reason have to use MS Office but are willing to spend large amounts of money to ease some pain points or increase productivity, I consider it as a perfectly valid business opportunity. This is orthogonal to the question whether you (as a hacker) consider the product to be "sexy" (especially if you live in an anti-Microsoft bubble).
- nickpsecurity 10y ago
  Makes sense. Still thought it was funny. Far as anti-Microsoft bubble, some of us avoid Microsoft by default less for ideology and more since they intentionally piss off customers. Win8 Metro, fighting over start menu, ditching their own frameworks/tools they hype us on, forcing customers to buy better HW just to boot an OS, having BSA develop snitches, surveillance in Win10, and so on. Microsoft, even to former admirers like me, is too much of a liability and cost centet to do business with. Which is funny given NT workstations were the lower cost and liability alternative to UNIX workstations once upon a time. ;)
- passiveincomelg 10y ago
  They not only make a lot of money, they also give a decent chunk of it to their programmers: "We pay very competitive salaries, and offer our developers EUR 120,000 annually following one year of employment. If necessary, we will go out of our way to help you relocate to Berlin, and will do what we can to help you acquire a work permit." https://www.think-cell.com/en/career/jobs/development.shtml https://www.think-cell.com/en/career/jobs/development.shtml
  - nickpsecurity 10y ago
    Ohhhh shiiit! I think I might put in an application! Just have this surge of interest in improving PowerPoints suddenly. Haha.
    - eru 10y ago
      You joke, but Microsoft managed to get some of the brightest minds in programming language design to take a look at Excel, too. "Improving the world's most popular functional language: user-defined functions in Excel" (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/Papers/excel/ http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/Papers...)
    - passiveincomelg 10y ago
      Yeah, it didn't sway me to apply either, but I like that they are trying the supply & demand thing. Unlike most companies in Berlin that think experienced programmers should make 65k. edit: Another reason I didn't apply is because I'm not qualified for the job. :)

It's actually a quite nice tool if you have the need for some advanced visualizations in MS Office. There are also lots of corporate users, for which Office is their main working tool.

wolfgke 10y ago

> It's actually a quite nice tool if you have the need for some advanced visualizations in MS Office. I don't know details about their software, but I'm pretty sure that if the software weren't useful for their customers, they wouldn't make a lot of money. > There are also lots of corporate users, for which Office is their main working tool. That's exactly what I think, too. I wish it were different (i.e. open source software and file formats that are easy to parse everywhere), but the reality is unluckily different. And if there are customers (say, banks or corporate consulting companies) which for some reason have to use MS Office but are willing to spend large amounts of money to ease some pain points or increase productivity, I consider it as a perfectly valid business opportunity. This is orthogonal to the question whether you (as a hacker) consider the product to be "sexy" (especially if you live in an anti-Microsoft bubble).

nickpsecurity 10y ago
Makes sense. Still thought it was funny. Far as anti-Microsoft bubble, some of us avoid Microsoft by default less for ideology and more since they intentionally piss off customers. Win8 Metro, fighting over start menu, ditching their own frameworks/tools they hype us on, forcing customers to buy better HW just to boot an OS, having BSA develop snitches, surveillance in Win10, and so on. Microsoft, even to former admirers like me, is too much of a liability and cost centet to do business with. Which is funny given NT workstations were the lower cost and liability alternative to UNIX workstations once upon a time. ;)
passiveincomelg 10y ago
They not only make a lot of money, they also give a decent chunk of it to their programmers: "We pay very competitive salaries, and offer our developers EUR 120,000 annually following one year of employment. If necessary, we will go out of our way to help you relocate to Berlin, and will do what we can to help you acquire a work permit." https://www.think-cell.com/en/career/jobs/development.shtml https://www.think-cell.com/en/career/jobs/development.shtml
- nickpsecurity 10y ago
  Ohhhh shiiit! I think I might put in an application! Just have this surge of interest in improving PowerPoints suddenly. Haha.
  - eru 10y ago
    You joke, but Microsoft managed to get some of the brightest minds in programming language design to take a look at Excel, too. "Improving the world's most popular functional language: user-defined functions in Excel" (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/Papers/excel/ http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/Papers...)
  - passiveincomelg 10y ago
    Yeah, it didn't sway me to apply either, but I like that they are trying the supply & demand thing. Unlike most companies in Berlin that think experienced programmers should make 65k. edit: Another reason I didn't apply is because I'm not qualified for the job. :)