Calculating Distance between two locations in Google Spreadsheet

Google Spreadsheets provide a lot of useful functions, but unfortunately nothing that calculates the distance between two locations. However, this is easy to add as a custom function using the Maps service available in Google Apps Script.

Most of the other approaches I found online seemed to involve using the external APIs provided by Google Maps or MapQuest. But both these approaches required registering for a Developer API Key. The approach I describe here seems a lot simpler.

I'll show how to create the following functions and how they can be used in Google Spreadsheets

DrivingMeters(origin, destination) - Driving Distance in Meters
DrivingMiles(origin, destination) - as above but in Miles
DrivingSeconds(origin, destination) - Driving Time in Seconds
DrivingHours(origin, destination) - as above but in Seconds

Yet Another LED Gmail Notifier using a Nanode

This year we've begun having an "unplugged" day once a week - with no-one in the house using iphones, ipads, chromebooks, tvs, kindle, etc. But we still run a vacation rental business, and need to respond promptly to inquiries. So we wanted a way to be visually notified of those inquiries (without having to check our email, and being tempted to respond to non-business emails). The other requirement was that this device be standalone, and not required to be connected to a computer.

There's lots of other projects like this out there. Several of them need to be plugged into a computer. Others use the Raspberry Pi. I happened to have a Nanode sitting around unused, and wanted to build it with that. This article will show you how I light an LED when we receive an important email, and turn it out once it is read.