Ian Sharpe's personal web site

My site isn't about anything in particular.

I used to fret about the lack of coherent purpose in this patchwork of bits and bobs. It goes against a principle instilled during a former career in magazine publishing.

Most people arrive at an inner page from a search engine and don't explore the rest of the site. The pages are just stops on diverse hyperlinked journeys that start elsewhere and do not necessarily end here.

Visitor transience and lack of cohesion are bad news for a corporate site but I came round to thinking that embracing them for mine is liberating. I can publish what I like without the constraint of a theme or agenda that serves no purpose other than the idea that I ought to have one.

So that's settled: the parts are not supposed to make a whole. The only reasons for this index page are to satisfy the minority of visitors who poke their heads above their landing pages (probably looking for the cafe and conveniences) and as a transit lounge for search engine spiders.

Click a title to visit the page. Links relating to the site itself are at the bottom.

Lost something? Unpopular and embarrassingly outdated items were removed during recent restructuring. Pages and programs not listed below are no longer available.

Quick tips for better looking documents

Apply my presentational tweaks to your everyday work for more professional-looking documents that are easier to read.

Excel planner/diary page generator

Print diary/planner pages with two months per a sheet of paper.

Randomisation in Excel

Explore random numbers that don't repeat, randomly ordered lists and generating lottery numbers.

The Martingale system of betting

Can you beat the roulette wheel? I test a popular system, and so can you with my Martingale simulator.

Host multiple web sites on one account

Sometimes it's easy, sometimes impossible. I share my discoveries and the drastic step I took to get what I wanted.

Dial from a shortcut or command line

A small program available for download enables you to set up an auto-dial phone book on your desktop.

Random tiling patterns with Excel

Describes an Excel workbook with macros to randomly arrange square tiles.

SetRes

This download enables you to set screen resolution, colour depth and refresh rate from shortcuts and scripts.

YourCPL

Take control of Control Panel – put anything you like in there!

Finally, my wife Anne likes to write poetry and she'd be pleased if you would pay her a visit at Poeticambles.