Where have I been?

Regular visitors to this site have been commenting that nothing is changing very often these days. It's true and I am really sorry. I have put huge efforts into this site over the years as you know

So what has happened? Well, I love travelling and I am doing a lot of it at the moment. Whilst I do spend time at home, when I am there I am usually preparing for my next trip.

Bit of a Catch 22 situation. Still, this site is always on my mind as I still attract tens of thousands of visitors a month and get letters from my visitors on a regular basis.

I have just bought the latest version of Dreamweaver, CS4, in an attempt to help me to kickstart this web site again. I am developing loads of materials all of the time but don't always get the chance to upload them ... watch this space again! It's early November now and since I wrote that I have created and uploaded several new pages. Hooray!

So Where Have I Been Travelling to?

Beijing was fantastic. Not only did daughter Fran bring back a Silver and a Bronze medal for Great Britain from the Paralympic Games but I enjoyed the experience enormously. Great city, great people, great event. It's all in my Blog!

My Blog

My Blog is active of course. I am able via my mobile phone and computer to keep my personal Blog up and running. You will see all sorts of comments and conjecture there. Sometimes I am deadly serious and sometimes I am a laugh a minute.

Take a look and see what you think!

Photographs

I used to be a keen photographer in days of yore. Well, I have gone back to that and I am snapping away wherever I go these days. There is some photo album software that comes with the server where I host this site and I expect I will start using that soon ... keep your eyes open.

So I did that already ... I have uploaded some SAMPLES for you to look at. Just a few of my snaps from my week in Prague. Prague is a gorgeous city for cityscape photographers, by the way!

Sign my Guestbook

Why not sign my guestbook? Let me know who you are and where you are from ... just say hello, how are you?

Can I ask you not to be impolite or offensive though? I don't need any more adverts for pornography or penile extensions either ... you get the idea! 

I SAID PLEASE DON'T DO ANYTHING IMPOLITE OR OFFENSIVE. So the very first person, a boy almost certainly, thought it would be really funny to post something stupid. It isn't funny, boy.

Duncan Williamson
7^th November 2008

Free Materials
My WeBlog
It's still a lively place to be: it contains, for example, one of only three references on the whole of google to gusset trauma! There's a new saga: my new iPod touch. I have prepared a Blog entry on the nonsense way that the UK press is reporting the latest GDP figures for the UK ... go to my WeBlog entry for that, I have also prepared a page on this site that is just a little bit different from the Blog entry. Anyway ...
Go to the Other Business Section
Management Accounting
If you are a management accountant you need to see the books I have bought recently ... combined with learning how to use Spry Data Sets in Dreamweaver CS4. Go to the management accounting home page and follow the trail.
Want a real live NPV type question? You've got it: go to the Management Accounting Home page, look at the menu under Control and then click on the Real NPV Example page ... apply your knowledge to something real why don't you? 
Go to the Management Accounting Section
Financial Accounting and Bookkeeping ... my Home Grown but Excellent Materials
A good case study on ratio analysis based on Tesco plc, comes with a teaching note for teachers.
A great new page ... on British Petroleum ... taking ratio analysis a stage further: this page helps to illustrate what can come out of an analysis of the results of a company when we use rate of growth or rate of change ratios. You might even be surprised!
Go to the Financial Accounting Section
Speadsheeting
I have put together a few elements of the debate on good and bad spreadsheet modelling practice. Not everything but well worth reading just to make sure!
My review of Bob Umlas' book tells you it is a must buy: This isn’t Excel, it’s Magic! Look at the book review section for much more of this excellent book.
How about learning how to create a waterfall chart? How about a chart based on data that comes from using a combobox? They're here now!
My first real demo, of sorts, using Excel 2007: making a chart communicate more effectively.
Two fantastic pages: one on the VLOOKUP function together with Range Names and the other one on the ISERROR function together with Conditional Formatting. Both of these new pages have beend esigned to be used in the context of financial ratio analysis.
You might need to use the XNPV and XIRR functions some day so here's a page that shows you why and how. This page also reveals a minor Excel error and a potentially more serious one. This page is also of use to OpenOfficeOrg spreadsheet users.
Go to the Spreadsheeting Section
Book Reviews
For cost accountants, take a good look at Andrew Wileman's Driving Down Costs.
If you are serious about Excel spreadsheets you must read Bob Umlas' My review of Bob Umlas' book is a must: This isn’t Excel, it’s Magic!and there is Alastair L Day's Mastering Financial Modelling in Excel that is good but is more specialist than Bob Umlas' book.
Liz Smith's Our Betty is an idiosyncratic autobiography of the nation's favourite mother/in law ... she's the mother in law from the Royle Family uthere inreal life!
Michael Crichton's book Congo is a good read but not as good as the later novels of his that I have read; and John Harvey's Lonely Hearts is an average British detective story with an archetypical British detective at the centre of it!
I really don't know how I got to the end of Chocolat by Joanne Harris as I found it a dreadful read, especially the first half of the book. There was just something in the style of writing and the storyline that left me absolutely cold.
Chris Zook has written a good and serious book on the hidden assets of the company. It is well researched, well written and well worth the time taken to read it. It will give you many insights through the 25 cases that Zook presents.
Go to the Book Reviews Section