Oops! Here is a sad story of how not to use an Excel spreadsheet when doing complicated financial computations.

It seems that a lawyer in the deal between Barclays Capital and the bankrupt Lehman Brothers did not spot an error when converting an Excel file into a PDF format document.

Due to an glitch in the conversion between the file formats, details on trading contracts marked as hidden in the Excel file, and never intended to be part of the deal, ended up on the PDF document, and became part of the deal.

The result is Barclays Capital ended up buying an additional 179 contracts it did not want, according to Above the Law, a legal blog (www.abovethelaw.com). Barclays paid $1.35 billion for part of Lehman Brothers in a deal which meant it took responsibility for what it thought were some of Lehman's trading positions.

Barclays has now filed a motion to amend the deal after finding that it ended up with more responsibility than the company intended, or wanted.

Above the Law reports that the error was not spotted due to the haste in drawing up the deal. The lawyer had only four hours to go before meeting the legal deadline for the offer on September 18.

Also the Excel file contained 1,000 rows of data and 24,000 cells. But it is a problem to watch if you ever have to convert one of those suckers. The hearing on the Excel conversion is scheduled for November 5.

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Here is another warning: do not befriend work colleagues on Facebook. You may be giving them, and managers, weapons they can use against you.

The story, published by news publications in Australia and currently making the rounds on the blogsphere, revolves around a series of emails leaked from AAPT, a telecommunications firm.

In the exchange, 21-year-old Kyle Doyle is asked by his line manager Niresh Regmi to provide a medical certificate for a day he took off while claiming sick leave. Doyle refuses to provide the certificate, noting that it is not needed for a one-day sick leave.

Regmi sends him an image of his Facebook homepage in which Doyle declares he is not going to work as he is "...still trashed. SICKIE WOO!"

In the return email Doyle says: "HAHAHA LMAO epic fail. No worries man."

Due to the heavy publicity worldwide over the exchange, AAPT has since issued a press release claiming that the exchange was a hoax. However Doyle has apparently refused to respond to media calls and his Facebook site, while still up, lists his status as trying to hide.

Even if it is not true, the story has a point. I do not even invite managers or most colleagues on to my LinkedIn network. I just do not want them to know what I am up to in my private life. Office politics is too intense.

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I was in Munich, Germany last week, attending the joint Systems and Navigation World exhibitions, where I saw a kind of shopping bag that uses solar power to provide a charge for a portable music device or a mobile phone.

The bag, which you could fill with all the stuff you need for the beach, has inbuilt solar panels that are so thin that they are flexible. The SolarShopper is designed by Andreas Weber.

Each bag comes with a variety of adapters for nearly any kind of device. SolarFocus claims the battery bank inbuilt into each bag is fully charged in direct sunlight within three to four hours. Check out this lightweight chic bag, which will set you back a hefty $235, at www.solarshopper.eu

Even more "wearable" is the ski glove by Swany, which comes embedded with Bluetooth technology. A two-button control panel on the top of the globe allows you to communicate with your cell phone, allowing you to talk and ski at the same time.

At the show was a company called Falke, which makes tights or shorts with embedded pressure sensors. The sensors measure the contractions of different muscles and send the data to an integrated transmitter, which radios it to a computer.

But the SolarShopper, the gloves and the tights are just hints of what is in the pipeline, especially in the health sector. Researchers are developing smart fabrics that can monitor vital signs such as respiration, heart rate, surface and core temperature. The information would then be transmitted over a computer, allowing a doctor or nurse to monitor a recovering patient from a distance. The patient could stay at home, with the knowledge that their condition is being monitored, so long as they stay connected.

Send any comments to Ahmed at elamin.ahmed [AT]gmail.com