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the scheme fell apart when Tinley was out of town, and had to hand over an administrative password for the spreadsheets to Siemens' IT staff, so they could fix

the scheme fell apart when Tinley was out of town, and had to hand over an administrative password for the spreadsheets to Siemens' IT staff, so they could fix the buggy scripts This is like the story of the accountant who never goes on vacation, but when she finally does it turns out she had been skimming money.

nkrisc 7y ago
I thought the same. It's why many positions like that often have mandatory vacations.
cwilkes 7y ago
I’m wondering how he got that deal past IT. Perhaps he claimed that he was licensing the code to them so that they couldn’t see it? I’m not familiar with how to deploy Excel macros, could this code be checked into a source repo and then somehow automatically deployed? If not I can see how he can sneak this by IT by saving it was hard to deploy and that’s why I’m giving you a binary and tell all your users to hit this URL to install.
- froindt 7y ago
  .xlsx ("normal files") and .xlsm (macro-enabled files) are a series of xml files and folders stored as a zip file with their own extension. .xlsb files are binary files, typically about 1/6 the size, and also have support of macros. Unfortunately, regardless of save format, the VBA portion is saved in a binary format. There are some source control systems out there for the embedded VBA code, but I haven't tried any out.
  - Ididntdothis 7y ago
    Having a good way for version controlling spreadsheets would go a long way. All the solutions I have seen for this are very clunky.
    - froindt 7y ago
      I agree. Just this morning I messed up and saved over a spreadsheet I didn't mean to...no way to get that 30 minutes of work back. Probably 90% of my day is jumping between spreadsheets and queries building tools and updating reports. Spreadsheets are a "universal language" that most people understand, and allow the technically inclined business user to investigate problems without having to submit a help desk ticket and wait 4-48 hours for an answer.
    - ma2rten 7y ago
      Google Sheets has a version history.
SanchoPanda 7y ago
In finance it is mandatory for large percentages of workers to take consecutive vacation days, one week for junior employees and two for mid level and up, for this reason.
SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
My company does contract work for a big corporate and in my case they don't generally want access to the code - they'd rather just call me up when there's a problem as I'm not unreasonable with fees, generally available, and I know my work inside and out. Of course if I'm away and there's an emergency they have everything they need to modify it themselves, including the in-house skills. I wouldn't do anything nefarious like this, but I can relate to the situation of them not wanting/needing day-to-day access to the code.
- user5994461 7y ago
  From the bit of time I did consulting or having to take over the previous consultant work, it's amazing how many companies just don't bother to save the source code, let alone a build script or a start script. They couldn't care less about the software that was produced, they're buying butts in seats.

nkrisc 7y ago

I thought the same. It's why many positions like that often have mandatory vacations.

cwilkes 7y ago

I’m wondering how he got that deal past IT. Perhaps he claimed that he was licensing the code to them so that they couldn’t see it? I’m not familiar with how to deploy Excel macros, could this code be checked into a source repo and then somehow automatically deployed? If not I can see how he can sneak this by IT by saving it was hard to deploy and that’s why I’m giving you a binary and tell all your users to hit this URL to install.

froindt 7y ago
.xlsx ("normal files") and .xlsm (macro-enabled files) are a series of xml files and folders stored as a zip file with their own extension. .xlsb files are binary files, typically about 1/6 the size, and also have support of macros. Unfortunately, regardless of save format, the VBA portion is saved in a binary format. There are some source control systems out there for the embedded VBA code, but I haven't tried any out.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  Having a good way for version controlling spreadsheets would go a long way. All the solutions I have seen for this are very clunky.
  - froindt 7y ago
    I agree. Just this morning I messed up and saved over a spreadsheet I didn't mean to...no way to get that 30 minutes of work back. Probably 90% of my day is jumping between spreadsheets and queries building tools and updating reports. Spreadsheets are a "universal language" that most people understand, and allow the technically inclined business user to investigate problems without having to submit a help desk ticket and wait 4-48 hours for an answer.
  - ma2rten 7y ago
    Google Sheets has a version history.

SanchoPanda 7y ago

In finance it is mandatory for large percentages of workers to take consecutive vacation days, one week for junior employees and two for mid level and up, for this reason.

SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago

My company does contract work for a big corporate and in my case they don't generally want access to the code - they'd rather just call me up when there's a problem as I'm not unreasonable with fees, generally available, and I know my work inside and out. Of course if I'm away and there's an emergency they have everything they need to modify it themselves, including the in-house skills. I wouldn't do anything nefarious like this, but I can relate to the situation of them not wanting/needing day-to-day access to the code.

user5994461 7y ago
From the bit of time I did consulting or having to take over the previous consultant work, it's amazing how many companies just don't bother to save the source code, let alone a build script or a start script. They couldn't care less about the software that was produced, they're buying butts in seats.