The King of Pointland

July 11, 2006 (Computerwhirld) Early adopters of Google's new Calculator Desktop Gadget are expressing widespread concerns that the new utility, while functional, does not permit them them to copy or paste numerical data, according to a new survey by Gartner Research.

Google, Inc.'s Calculator Gadget allows users to generate an almost limitless variety of numbers by combining user-supplied digit sequences with mathematical operators like "addition" and "multiplication." However, the lack of a copy-and-paste feature has some grumbling, according to the soon to be released study.

"The division function is really handy. I use it to figure out how much everybody owes for the office coffee pool," said Brian Sanders, a project manager for the Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid corporation. "The rounded corners and drop-shadows are a big win for us, too. But without the copy and paste, I might go back to the [Microsoft] Windows Calculator."

Microsoft Calculator is a free calculator included with the Windows operating system.

Ron Wojciechowski, a System Administrator for Red Point Networks of San Francisco expressed similar concerns. "I usually just fire up [the command-line utility] dc when I need to calculate [disk drive] partition sizes, but one of our interns was using the Google calculator, so I gave it a test drive. When I discovered cut-and-paste didn't work, I was furious. Screw that noise."

Representatives from Google were unavailable for comment.