Question of the Month... #1 [April '16]

Question

QoTM has been restored. This is the nomination page for April 2016. Post you favorite questions (or answers) from this month and one (or more) will be featured on the SU blog.

The rules:

Please post any question that you feel is of worth and the reason why.

Try not to promote your own questions or answers for publicity's sake.

If you like a posted question, then vote it up.

Don't Downvote: Upvote the ones you like up but let the others be...

When submitting a QotM, please indicate if you would be interested in writing about it for the blog. This is a factor that we take into consideration when selecting what to blog about. We need a post we can actually say something interesting about; it shouldn't be something we've written about too much before, and it helps to have somebody interested in writing the article.

Last Date: 21st April 2016

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Answer 1

This just has to be nominated: Tiny copper waffle squares inside computer

The reason I like this question because it's innocent (in the way we describe unknown objects), it's concisely well written, not terribly complicated, and something I think a wide audience of blog readers would be interested in.

Answer 2

Why are hex editors called binary editors?

Hex and binary are two different bases. Hex, in my understanding, is simply an easier to use and more convenient version of binary.

However, I often hear that hex editors are binary editors. If you search for "binary editor" on Google, you get hex editors.

I had always wondered the difference between a hex editor and binary editor as well the relationship between binary files and binary representation. I had just never looked it up, and now I don't have to.

The question also inspired a variety of concise and detailed answers covering the answer from many angles.

Note: I suppose I could write something for the blog.

Answer 3

Keys all switched on keyboard

My friend/enemy switched the keys on my keyboard as an April fool's joke. When I press Y, Z appears on the screen. Some keys work like b, x, g, i, d, and a few more. Also, when I press ctrl, it returns Enter. Even the function keys are switched!!

I called a technician and even he wasn't able to detect the issue and told me installing the operating system was the only go. I really don't want to call up my friend and ask him.

I'm on Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and there is no problem with my mouse. (Thank God)

Can you help me?

I like this question because it is very humorous and finally the author runs two remappers, one remapping his keys all wrong and the other remapping it correctly, to solve his problem.

Answer 4

Probably not a top contender, but I want to recognize Where is the Longest String - an excel function question asked by Gary's Student who has an Excel silver badge here and more than one excel-related gold badges on stackoverflow.

The answer was posted by Scott Craner who has an Excel silver badge and multiple bronzes on stackoverflow.

Gary shows the idea with an image but also includes the methods that were tried - he made it half way to the intended answer, but was having difficultly translating a result to a cell address. I used an answer from stackoverflow's simoco to try to figure it out myself. Given there has been an appearance that su's resident formula experts have been scarce lately, myself (not an expert) included.

Gary's question is clear and concise and not exactly easy to figure out. Scott's answer is beautiful, elegant and expandable. I suspect this question to be one that a lot of future dupes can get pointed to.

There's so much going on in these formulas that several blog posts could be written about it - but that would require a blog post on excel which isn't a huge topic for readers.