Microsoft on akos.ma

Leila Gharani

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0100

I had written this article for the “Spreadsheets” edition (#84, published September last year) of my magazine De Programmatica Ipsum, before opting to pen another (much more appropriate methinks) about Felienne Hermans; but I still like this one, so here it goes in its entirety.

Filling the Timesheet with HTAs

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200

If you are currently employed or have worked in the past in a Swiss company, you know how important the all-powerful timesheet is to your employer. Every company comes up with their own version of it, particularly those who are cheap enough not to pay a monthly SaaS subscription to one of those gazillion timesheet services online. Most of those home-made contraptions use Excel, because why not.

Retrocomputing Emulators on Your Browser

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0100

In the past I’ve been explaining how to use various emulators to run old operating systems on your Linux box; today, we’re going to use a much simpler approach: just click on a link, and run them on your browser!

Word 5.5 on DOSBox

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Continuing with my exploration of old versions of Word in various platforms, I wanted to experience one of the last versions of Microsoft Word for DOS, Word 5.5. Here are the instructions to run it on any platform that supports DOSBox Staging.

Word 5.1a and Excel 4 for Mac on Basilisk II

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100

I’ve been using some famous versions of Microsoft apps lately, of the “pre-Office” era: Word 5.1a and Excel 4, which were both running on the Macs available to students at the high school I attended in Geneva around 1993. This article provides the instructions for you to do the same with Basilisk II.

Notepad Log Files on Visual Studio Code

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Did you know that you can use Windows Notepad to create log files? It’s a feature that has been available on Windows since at least version 3.1… and I know it because, well, I’m old enough to have used such a feature to keep my own journal around 1992.

Fading Into Irrelevance

Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0100

As technology waves come and go, the names of iconic companies follow the movements, first reaching the pinnacle of their glories, and later fading into irrelevance.

Opening Microsoft Access Databases on Linux

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0200

In the past few months I’ve been writing about my software archeology experiments, including how to convert old HTML code from 1999 to run in today’s browsers, how to run Macromedia Flash movies with Ruffle, or even how to run Java applets now that they aren’t supported anymore.

FOSS in Developing Countries

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The other day, I had friends in Bolivia asking me if they could install Windows on a laptop they got through an NGO that initially came bundled with Linux.

Stockholm Syndrome in Software

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0100

Developers working for a particular vendor tend to develop a bizarre version of Stockholm syndrome. It’s something I’ve witnessed at least twice in my career.