My thesis work involves working on several applications.. The data processing is usually done in excel before it is sent as an input to the MATLAB. The usual data processing in excel is something thats very recurring and monotonous.. I should process atleast 25 files in excel before i input it to matlab for one test case. And doing these were becoming too cumbersome for me. Though i knew Mac had some softwares like Automator, Applescript etc., i never knew how to use them. But today, after a day long testing, and collecting data for over 72 testcases, I face a cold reality of how many files i need to process, let alone execute using Matlab.

To find an alternative solution to the daunting task ahead of me, I ventured into studying about how Automator and Applescript works.. Applescript sounded a lot easier and simpler. So i googled about it, read some basics and wrote a couple of scripts that does the necessary processing on my excel sheets. Basically, I remove the unnecessary columns and rows from the excel data so that Matlab can process the data easily. As many of you know Matlab can't accept inputs if they have texts in them. So part of this processing is to remove the texts, if any, from the input data. Since I know exactly which column and row would need to be removed, I wrote these scripts that would make my life much better. How I wish, I had known this earlier. Would have saved me lots of time in the past. Here is one of the scripts, just in case anyone wants to modify it for their own use.

--- Apple script ---

set theWorkbookFile to choose file with prompt "Please select an Excel workbook file:"

set theWorkbookName to name of (info for theWorkbookFile)

tell application "Microsoft Excel"

open theWorkbookFile

set theWorkbook to active workbook

tell worksheet "Sheet1" of active workbook

delete row 1

delete column 1

repeat with x from 39 to 10 by -1

delete column x

end repeat

end tell

save active workbook

close active workbook

end tell

Here's some introduction for people who don't know what tendons and ligaments are. Tendons are the tissues that connects bone to muscle. For eg, the patella tendon connects your knee cap to the tibia (the bone below your knee). And ligaments are something that connects two different bones. (eg) ACL - anterior cruciate ligament. You must have heard about it - Athletes often get their ACL injured, especially cricket and tennis players. Its a ligament in the knee.

This video basically summarizes whatever major and recurrent research that has been done in the past 25 years in tendons and ligaments. Sit back and enjoy.

DDD predominantly occurs with aging. But there are other risk factors that accelerate the degenerating process of the disc - Cigarette smoking, repetitive mechanical lifting of heavy loads, trauma and failure to do exercise. Here's a short video of a presentation that i made stating the symptoms, treatments and methods used for detecting a degenerated disc. Questions, if any, can be asked and will be answered.

References - Internet, Youtube, Books by Dr Panjabi, Dr Adams, Dr Bogduk et. al.

Expensive, Less features when compared to an equally priced Dell or HP, Not an easy Operating System, Not all softwares run on a Mac - these are the reasons why you shouldn't buy a Mac..
That being said, now lets analyze all the above reasons..

Firstly, Expensive. Definitely a Mac is very expensive. That's majorly because it was Steve's dream project and he doesn't wanna give that for free.. 2) Its from Apple - the brand that stands solidly on quality, perfection and innovation.. 3) The people who don't buy a Mac actually don't get to know whats really in a Mac. Let me explain this in detail - People generally consider Mac to be just another Laptop less the Windows OS. But its more. It has a lot of applications that ordinarily a windows PC doesn't have. Examples being GarageBand, FrontRow, iPhoto, iMovie, Automator, iDVD and more.. These softwares individually cost more when you buy them separately for Windows - say Photoshop, Nero Burning software, a decent video editor.. FrontRow is an exceptional piece of an application - that gives you a theatrical iPod experience.. All these and more softwares comes with every new Mac.

I initially tried to assemble a custom made Dell Inspiron 14" laptop in the dell website (following some deal in deals2buy) and added a few very basic softwares and guess what the total came to - $789 [Remember this].. Statistics and the surveys from the marketing world say here , here and here that Apple tops the list of all manufacturers.. Also I read reviews that told that Dell's quality has been degrading over the years and the life of a Dell laptop is a meagre 1.5 years before it becomes garbage. On the other hand, a Mac is seen to be more reliable.. [How many times has your iPod crashed unexpectedly ?? Believe me - it has never happened for me.. Given that I had been using mine for the past 3 years] Thats the reliability of Apple !

Coming to the OS - a very tough operating system.. Who told ya ?? If you are someone who likes Mozilla over IE, then you are someone who'd love the Mac OS X over windows.. Its a very cool operating system - professional and sleaky.. I love the graphics - the way it minimizes, magnifies and the likes.. Mac is like a hidden treasure.. There are ways to do it and its fun to go about learning it in the intuitive way.. Its like working on VI.. [If you have ever worked on it, you'll know what i'm talking about] After 12 years with the windows, I'm liking OS X better..

Not all softwares run on Apple.. This, to a certain extent is true.. Especially Google has been reluctant to release the Mac versions of Google Talk and Chrome.. But Apple has nothing to lose - it has iChat and Safari (needless to say Mozilla) to replace it. More the time Google takes, more will be the fan following for Mozilla.. the power of open-source. But most companies release softwares for Mac.. but some doesn't - especially if someone is in the engineering field they may need loads of softwares. Here's the catch.. there is something called boot-camp and VMware Fusion - that allows you to run Windows on a Mac - so that you can install applications that work only on Windows.. And the prize is this - Windows runs faster and better on a Mac. There are loads of other links that reiterate the same fact..

Now all these being said, let me tell you one more reason why a Mac is way better than windows.
Who makes the software (windows) ??
Microsoft.
Who makes the hardware ??
Uhmm.. Dell, HP, Sony, Gateway, Toshiba etc..

Coming to a Mac,
Who makes the software (OS X)??
Apple !
Who makes the hardware ?
Apple !

Don't you think if the same guys do both the hardware and software, they would know the notebook very well and how it would behave ? This is the reason why a Mac doesn't crash or crashes less often.
Here's a little suggestion if you are still concerned about the price.. Go for a refurbished Mac. When it comes to Apple, a refurbished laptop is just as good as new. It comes with the same 1 year warranty as the new one, the finish looks exactly the same as a new one. Believe me you can't spot a difference between a new mac and a refurbished mac. Except that the price would be 200$ lesser than the new one.

Last but not the least, there is one major reason for the vast popularity and the general tendency of people to prefer Apple - VISTA - read this post by Ab to know more..

If you want to learn more about the Mac - visit the Apple website.. Their site market themselves way better than any other site. These are just my views on why I sought to a Mac rather than a Dell.