
Microsoft's new tool to take a picture of a spreadsheet and import it into Excel - hbcondo714
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/02/how-to-import-a-spreadsheet-into-excel-by-taking-a-picture-of-it.html
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gizmo686
I don't normally like "there's an XKCD for that" posts, but
[https://xkcd.com/2116/](https://xkcd.com/2116/) was posted Monday, Febuary
25th (or at least the forum thread for it was [0]), while the article says
this wasn't released until Friday.

Was there some earlier indications of this, did Randall get some advanced
warning, or was this just lucky timing?

[0]
[http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=126119](http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=126119)

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jeanluchayes
This sounds interesting. But aren't there security concerns? What if someone
takes a picture of an excel from a video, one that you can see but shouldn't
have access too, and gets the data?

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greenyoda
If you had a picture of someone's spreadsheet, you could type it into Excel
yourself - you can't fit huge amounts of data into a single photo. Microsoft's
tool would only save you a few minutes worth of typing.

For that matter, if you just get a glimpse of someone's spreadsheet, you could
see something you weren't supposed to see and remember it. That's why people
who work with sensitive data shouldn't be working in open-plan offices or
coffee shops.

