October 13, 2006
I've recently taken to tracking my daily expenses. I'm not sure if I'm spending too little or too much that's why I started this new personal habit (my current guess is that I'm spending too little).
Because I didn't know about any good budget-tracking software, I went with an Excel spreadsheet loaded with formulas. I started working on it at home, on my personal laptop. Then I realized it would be great if I could work on my sheet from my office laptop, or from any computer for that matter. So I turned to two online office suites that recently made headlines: Google Docs & Spreadsheets (formerly Writely and Google Spreadsheets) and Zoho.
versus 
I'm not here to give a comparative review of the two suites because I've only tried out Zoho Sheet, but from what I've seen, Zoho kicks Google's ass in terms of features and usability. Zoho feels a lot like Microsoft Office, something which millions of computer users are sure to appreciate. Also, Google's suite only offers two applications (word processing and spreadsheets) while Zoho has much, much more (presentations, planner, project management, instant messaging, etc.) and most of them are free.
I'd really like to see Zoho win this battle of the online office suites just so Google doesn't dominate everything on the web. Of course, there's still Microsoft's offering that's yet to come out and I'll be sure to try it out when they launch it.
Because I didn't know about any good budget-tracking software, I went with an Excel spreadsheet loaded with formulas. I started working on it at home, on my personal laptop. Then I realized it would be great if I could work on my sheet from my office laptop, or from any computer for that matter. So I turned to two online office suites that recently made headlines: Google Docs & Spreadsheets (formerly Writely and Google Spreadsheets) and Zoho.
versus 
I'm not here to give a comparative review of the two suites because I've only tried out Zoho Sheet, but from what I've seen, Zoho kicks Google's ass in terms of features and usability. Zoho feels a lot like Microsoft Office, something which millions of computer users are sure to appreciate. Also, Google's suite only offers two applications (word processing and spreadsheets) while Zoho has much, much more (presentations, planner, project management, instant messaging, etc.) and most of them are free.
I'd really like to see Zoho win this battle of the online office suites just so Google doesn't dominate everything on the web. Of course, there's still Microsoft's offering that's yet to come out and I'll be sure to try it out when they launch it.
Labels: finances, Google, office suites, Web 2.0, Zoho
September 19, 2006
"Manong" is our friendly neighborhood food vendor that sells deliciously cheap styrofoam-packed lunches at our office building. He camps out everyday at the 7.5th and 14.5th floor (that's halfway up the stairwell from the HP floors) right around noon. These famously affordable lunches sell for 45 pesos each and come with a viand (3-4 choices daily!), vegetables on the side, a fruit or chocolate for dessert, and loads of rice.
At lunch time, people rush to buy food from Manong before his stock runs out. You simply cannot beat that value! I computed that if I stick to Manong's lunches every weekday and stick to the cheapest transportation, I'll only be spending 112 pesos a day, 560 pesos a week, and 2240 pesos a month. Wow! (Of course, you must remember I don't chip in for the household expenses yet.)
Maraming salamat, Manong. (I really must remember to ask what his real name is.)
(Pictures to be posted in the future.)
At lunch time, people rush to buy food from Manong before his stock runs out. You simply cannot beat that value! I computed that if I stick to Manong's lunches every weekday and stick to the cheapest transportation, I'll only be spending 112 pesos a day, 560 pesos a week, and 2240 pesos a month. Wow! (Of course, you must remember I don't chip in for the household expenses yet.)
Maraming salamat, Manong. (I really must remember to ask what his real name is.)
(Pictures to be posted in the future.)
