A potential solution I explored was storing the certificate in #AzureKeyVault, but how to use it to apply a digital signature to a #xlsm file locally? I reached out to Microsoft, since both #Excel end Azure Key Vault are their products, you'd think they'd be ideally placed to encourage good security practice by providing technical steps to get their products to work together...

...yeah not so much. They'd rather just try to extract more money from you #microsoftsucks (2/2) 🧵

The Certificate Authority Browser forum voted in changes compelling code signing certificate vendors to prevent a .pfx being exported from secure tokens (as you might want to in order to install it on more than one machine). If you apply a digital signature to your #vba code - advisable after #Microsoft's block on macros from the Internet - whoever has your USB token then becomes a single point of failure (1/2) 🧵

@ssb No problem, I enjoyed the challenge. Hope it does the job for you and introduced you to a new idea or two.

@ssb Interesting idea, now that I've looked up what that is and how it works! But no... I accept only reports on how integrating the solution into your workbook went 😉

@ssb No problem, I was able to learn something in the process myself, so everyone's a winner. But if you get a promotion or payrise off the back of this, I want a cut 😉

@ssb Here you go:

https://pastebin.com/uQVwBmNG

The setup instructions may over-explain things depending on your experience/skill level in Excel generally, apologies if they assume too little of that.

Rather than walk you through what the code is doing, I'll let you have a read through it first.

The code comments signpost the general ideas of what's being done where, but if you have any questions beyond that, feel free to ask.

Link to the demo workbook containing the solution is in the PasteBin.

I started #parkrun on Dec. 31, 2022. I walked most of the event and finished in just over 45 minutes. The next week in 2 degree F temperatures, I finished in 48 minutes. I weighed 290 lbs on Jan 7. I started working out everyday and dieting. At 58, needed to get my health in order. Parkrun became a measuring stick for me. I determined in February that my goal was 30:00. The last five weeks I was under 31. But today I came in at 28:50.. 🥳I’m down 80 pounds. Parkrun is part of my wellness plan.

@ssb Happy to help... on one condition. Get yourself on over to the WiseOwl Tutorials YouTube channel and watch their excellent VBA playlists. Andy who presents them is a knowledgeable and friendly dude, and those videos gave me a massive leg-up when I was cutting my teeth on VBA.

@ssb No worries, I like problem-solving and figuring out new ways to extend my VBA skills 🤓 I won't have time to do the write up until probably tomorrow, so hopefully it can wait until then

@ssb OK I've got a solution that works, provided these assumptions are correct:

1. You have Excel 2021/Microsoft 365 so your version of Excel includes the FILTER, SORT and UNIQUE functions.

2. There are no other worksheets in your workbook except the first, named 'Month'.

The VBA code is well commented, but there is some simple setup required beyond just copying and pasting the code into the VBA project.

Once they're written up, I'll post a Pastebin link containing code and explanation.

@TheBreadmonkey Huge well done for pushing on to the finish line, with or without stops, that takes real determination when you're not in good health. I struggled today too, slowest time ever, but like you I've not been running for a few weeks due to ill health. I expected my time to be a bit crap but decided that finishing without stopping was an ambitious enough target, even if not stopping was almost indistinguishable from walking by the end 😂

@ssb Easily achievable with VBA, but only if you have less than 254 unique names in that column. Limit on number of worksheets in Excel is 255.

Am I right in assuming your data is on Sheet 1, has column headers in row 1, and consists of a contiguous set of rows from row 2 down to the end of the data?

@shibashecurity Don't do it! INDIRECT is a volatile function... combined with use of array functions, they could seriously slow down calculation performance in your workbook.

@seanski44 Hey Sean, is Brady H on Mastodon yet? Can't seem to find him, and I wanted to get this on his radar for #Numberphile
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2380893-mathematicians-calculate-42-digit-number-after-decades-of-trying/

First #parkrun since New Year (injury, laziness, excuses) and the farthest I'd run since then was 3.5km, so I'm pretty pleased with this time! Lovely sunny morning for it too, hopefully sneak under 30mins next time 💪

@derbadian Rolling back to today's 2211 is the only solution at the moment, at least until they "fix" it in the February update (assuming they do).

@derbadian Could be this if you're on the Current Update channel - another snafu by Microsoft:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/variable-not-defined-errors-with-excel-update-2212/08b89bf8-7961-4a47-a814-141f577507cf

A fantastic piece by @benjedwards about his life running a BBS in the early 90s: it’s filled with beautiful photos and screenshots from his archive and reads like a story right out of my comic. #BBS #retrocomputing #IncredibleDoom

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/12/my-secret-life-as-an-11-year-old-bbs-sysop/

@amelierosalyn Yeah I can understand why you might feel that way. I guess it's not easy to tell people you'd rather not talk about it without making things a bit tense.

@amelierosalyn You have my sympathies for the feelings of loss and grief that you no doubt still wrestle with to this day. In my opinion, other people's awkwardness about the honest answer you could give to the siblings question is their issue to deal with, doesn't have to be yours. If they're not emotionally mature enough to handle that interaction sensitively then that reflects poorly on them, not you.