5 for Friday

Here are 5 items that I picked up this week that might be of interest to you:

1 - Zoho adds macro capability to their spreadsheet.

I am sure this is good news for someone out there. Zoho Sheet can now record and play back Visual Basic macros. It's the only cloud-based spreadsheet that can do that. In fact, the only other spreadsheet that can do that isMicrosoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Excel. Google (NSDQ: GOOG), are you going to ante up?

2 - Also from InformationWeek:

A security consultant for the Intrepidus Group claims to have found evidence that Chinese gymnast He Kexin, the gold medal winner on the uneven bars in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is only 14 years old -- too young to compete in the Olympics.

Blogging under the name Stryde Hax, Mike Walker, a principal consultant for the security group, has posted screenshots of an Excel spreadsheet that was removed from an official Chinese government Web site but was still available through Baidu, China's most popular search engine. The file appears to show that He Kexin is not old enough for Olympic competition.

The search capability and particularly of cached websites can be revealing. In this case, the researcher was watching the information disappear while he was searching.

3 - Wind turbines have been generating negative press here due to the proposal for the area around Nantucket and Cape Cod. This story originates from Jiminy Peak in Western Massachusetts.

Nestled in the Berkshires, Jiminy Peak claims to be the first privately held company in the nation to have installed a megawatt class turbine. Its Zephyr (named after the Greek god of wind) sits on a 253-ft. tower, with each of its three blades reaching approximately 123 feet into the air, making the wind turbine taller than the Statue of Liberty.

The turbine generates 4.6 million kWh (kilowatt hours) of energy or enough to light up the TVs, DVDs, microwaves and refrigerators in 613 homes for a year. Most of the power is generated in winter, when mountain winds peak, and demand at the resort is at its highest, due to the demands of snowmaking equipment.

Read the full story here

4 - Scott Berkun is interviewed by bMighty on good vs. Bad Managers. For example, he reveals:

bMighty: How would you define a "bad" manager?

Berkun: Two criteria: 1) he fails and 2) people hate working for him. A mediocre manager meets one of these criteria. A good manager, none.

Read the full interview here.

5 - Chris Brogan says:

I think there’s a trend to observe here, and that it’s right in front of us: the state of podcasting and social media events is mirroring the media and technology these events cover. Some thoughts on a few of the events.

Read the full posting here on the trend toward fragmenation

What did you find this week?

Do you have anything interesting to share?