
HDR Photography in Microsoft Excel (2017) [video] - rayshan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkQJdaGGVM8
======
aeleos
This is very similar in style to my favorite presentation and paper of all
time, titled On The Turing Completeness of PowerPoint [0]. The research,
presentation and paper were all created inside of powerpoint and it is
probably the greatest thing ever made. If you enjoyed the above video you will
definitely enjoy this.

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNjxe8ShM-8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNjxe8ShM-8)

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IncRnd
That was a great video! Unfortunately, clicking on each cell's entries really
slows down computations.

At National Supercomputing Center For Energy and the Environment we
retrofitted all the PowerPoints to use timed animations. Now all computations
execute in constant time. There is no need to click! As a special bonus, the
code is no longer susceptible to side-channel timing attacks.

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JepZ
For those who are wondering who the hell calls his software 'MatheAss': Its
German and could be translated as 'Math Ace'.

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cs702
Reminds me of ExcelNet (deep learning with Excel):

[http://www.deepexcel.net/](http://www.deepexcel.net/)

~~~
cs702
PS. Make sure to read the related "paper:"
[http://www.deepexcel.net/paper.pdf](http://www.deepexcel.net/paper.pdf)

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jimmies
Among all the software that came out of Microsoft, Excel is one fine software.
The other one is Solitaire.

~~~
tinus_hn
Excel is quite powerful but it also tries to do too much and does a lot of it
badly.

Solitaire does one thing and it does it quite well.

~~~
ubermonkey
SO true. Imagine how much important business knowledge is tied up in an Excel
macro, or -- God forbid -- in a ridiculously long formula stored in cell Q237
or whatever.

Less snarkily, Excel is so capable that lots of office workers learn IT and
never bother going any deeper, and so they do things like re-inventing
relational databases using Excel, etc.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Imagine how much important business knowledge is tied up in an Excel macro,
> or -- God forbid -- in a ridiculously long formula stored in cell Q237 or
> whatever.

Often none, and that's the bigger problem; those aren't vehicles that are good
for storing business knowledge, so the business knowledge that went into them
is often either stuck in someone's head (who may have left long ago) or lost
entirely.

An (possibly entirely correct in context, possibly not) application of that
knowledge in a particular context is captured in the macro or formula, but the
knowledge itself, including the factors from the context contributing to the
particular application, is not captured.

~~~
ubermonkey
Fair point for sure.

And this whole malady is especially common in finance departments, which are
(typically) horribly documented anyway. It's all institutional knowledge, and
those in that area tend to be long-term employees who don't know the
difference between "things that are part of accounting and finance everywhere"
and "things that are idiosyncratic to Acme Corp."

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BuildTheRobots
Very entertaining and well delivered talk; it not only does what the title
says, but also explains some of the math and magic behind making HDR images.

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ktavera
The humour reminds me of
[http://oneweirdkerneltrick.com/](http://oneweirdkerneltrick.com/)

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ubermonkey
I'm reminded of the oft-linked Goldbloom quote in Jurassic Park. ;)

I'm also reminded of a guy I knew in college. He would LOVE this, because when
we were working together at a university computer lab, he was the guy who
would learn a tool, and then use that tool to the exclusion of all else, even
to the point of absurdity.

The only tool he really knew when he started working there was Lotus, and he
ended up figuring out how to automate all sorts of network administration
tasks in Lotus macros.

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cjdell
Reminds me of a comedy show where they were making colour images in Excel.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBX2QQHlQ_I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBX2QQHlQ_I)

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post_break
I wish I could find the article about the guy who wrote a program in excel for
working with digital surround sound like 5.1 and 7.1 Dolby.

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jonplackett
Love the little joke about the sublime text pop up.

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victorqhong
Also see rendering 3D in Excel:

[https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131968/microsoft_exce...](https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131968/microsoft_excel_revolutionary_3d_.php)

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chuckdries
Anyone know what "!!Con" is? I can't google for it, I just get the dictionary
definition of "con"

~~~
GrayShade
"Con" is often short for "conference". In this case, it's from
[http://bangbangcon.com/](http://bangbangcon.com/).

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IncRnd
It's a little known fact, but Powershell runs with Excel as the internal
execution engine. The secret is actually hidden in plain sight. Just look at
the name for a clue...

Powershell = Powexcel = Powered by Excel

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tritium
Hmm

Yes perfect

