Excel Dashboard and Visualization Bootcamp 2011

Mike Alexander and I are at it again. Later this spring (if winter ever ends!) we’ll be teaming up to do our Excel Dashboard and Visualization Bootcamp. We’ve streamlined it, so it’s two days instead of three. We’re also holding it in Chicago instead of Dallas for a change of pace.

As Mike has so eloquently written:

Excel Dashboard and Visualization Bootcamp

Microsoft MVPs Jon Peltier (Peltier Technical Services) and Mike Alexander (DataPig Technologies) are joining together again to bring you our acclaimed Excel Dashboard and Visualization Bootcamp!

When: May 16-17

Where: Chicago

This two-day boot camp is designed for Excel users who need to more effectively synthesize data into meaningful dashboards, charts, and visualizations. The topics presented during this boot camp will introduce you to advanced techniques that will help you build and manage better reporting mechanisms. Going beyond simple tables and charts, you will learn to:

• Synthesize data in meaningful views with advanced charting techniques


• Create reports and dashboards that communicate and get noticed


• Create interactive reporting mechanisms


• Implement macro-charged reporting


• Automate the creation of PowerPoint slides directly from Excel


• Integrate external data into your reports

Agenda

Day 1:

The Basics of Better Excel Dashboards

Mike Alexander

Advanced Charting Techniques

Jon Peltier

Day 2:

Interactive Reporting Without VBA

Mike Alexander

Integrating Excel and PowerPoint

Jon Peltier

For more intformation

Please visit the Excel Dashboard and Visualization Bootcamp page. To see Mike’s whole schedule of live training, see his Live Training Schedule.

Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright © 2010.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

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Action #900 Cover and Steel Reminder

I had a wander out to try and see the partial eclipse as the sun rose the other morning. The bowl in which our village is situated, with awkwardly tall buildings on the edges, meant that, in my dressing gown, I stumbled through the playground and all the way to the bus stop. 'Are you all right?' called the landlady from the pub. I assured her that I was eclipse watching, and not mad. Which is not the first time I've had to shout that. I caught a glimpse, but it was clear, from the bus stop, that the sun was rising into deep cloud, so I left it there rather than get arrested.

Below is the lovely David Finch cover for Action Comics #900, which as you can see features the return of Superman to the title.

You can read more about DC's exciting plans for the issue here.

Steel #1, the one off special by my old friend (and Doctor Who novelist) Steve Lyons is in US comic stores today, and in the UK by the end of the week (because of the holidays), and, as well as being the first published US comics work by someone who's going to make a real impact in the medium, it, and the other one off specials featuring various Superman-related characters coming soon... well, if you're reading Action Comics, you might want to check them out, that's all I'm saying.

I will be back with, I'm told, some more big comics news tomorrow. Cheerio!

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 ~ Book Club

Today’s guest blogger is CRM MVP Jerry Weinstock who is the Business Development Manager at CRM Innovation. CRM Innovation builds Email, Marketing and Event Management solutions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

I am looking across my office right now at a bookshelf and I see that it is time to do a refresh of our Microsoft Dynamics CRM Library. I have six CRM 4.0 books that need to be replaced by the new materials coming out from independent authors. I can tell your first hand that the information in these books has proven to be absolutely invaluable in our work with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM product. Even at $25 to $50 or so each they have given our team members an incalculable return on investment.

These books should be on your bookshelf if you are a Microsoft Dynamics Partner and there are several in the group that End Users will also find valuable. I have pre-ordered all of them and it will be the best $350 we will spend this year on professional development.

The book marketplace for CRM has really improved with each corresponding version of the CRM system itself and I think it safe to say there is a book for everyone in the CRM food chain - .net programmer to new end user.

Based on my experience with their predecessors there is no one ‘must have’ they will all bring their own unique value proposition. Just get them all!

I have listed the books in order of their availability. Ready to buy? Just Bing the titles.

Title & Cover	Author(s)	Authors’ Company	Availability	Notes
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Step by Step	Mike Snyder, Jim Steger	Sonoma Partners	February 4	Two MVPs get together to write their 2nd book in this series
Pro Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Development: Creating CRM and XRM solutions	Justin Mathena, Aaron Yetter	Altriva Solutions	February 15	Two CRM consultants collaborate on their second CRM book.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Administration Bible	Matthew Wittemann, Geoff Ables	C5Insight	March 1	A MVP and a tenured business consultant collaborate on CRM
Using Silverlight with CRM 2011	David Yack	Colorado Technology Consultants	March 1	Another CRM/Silverlight book by an author who has several publications to his credit in this space.
Maximizing Your Sales with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 (No Image Available)	Edward Kachinske, Adam Kachinske, Timothy Kachinske	Innovative Solutions	March 16	More than 24 books from this team. 4.0 version under the same name
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Unleashed	Marc J. Wolenik, Damian Sinay, Rajya Vardhan Bhaiya	Webfortis	April 14	This team’s fourth book in their ‘Unleashed’ series.
Working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011	Mike Snyder, Jim Steger	Sonoma Partners	April 15	Two MVPs get together to write their 3rd book in this series
CRM 2011 as a Rapid Development Platform	David Yack	Colorado Technology Consultants	May 1	Another book in the series from this author about extending CRM way past it’s base configuration
Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 in 24 Hours	Anne Stanton	TIDBITS on Microsoft Dynamics CRM	August 15	A tenured CRM Consultant and Business Analyst at a CRM customer. Similar to Anne’s book for CRM 4.0

Have fun learning,

Can They Match This?

It's been a long time in the making, and the announcement is perhaps predictably short on detail. But it's fantastic to be able to publicly comment for the first time on our partnership with Amazon.

Everyone knows that Amazon (AWS) operates the largest IaaS cloud. With a customer list that reads like the who's who of web brands, AWS knows more about how to securely operate a cloud infrastructure at scale than any enterprise vendor, and has proven to be superbly inventive in adding compelling software services (recent examples include the Elastic Beanstalk and the RDS Relational Database Service) for no incremental charge above storage and compute. In my view AWS is building PaaS the right way - offering highly sticky services that power real world applications. Even luminaries such as the Sheriff of Redwood Valley and Ray Ozzie have recognized their genius.

VMware has been trying to position AWS as a 'consumer cloud' of no relevance to the enterprise, a conjecture elegantly refuted by Randy Bias of Cloudscaling. AWS is very serious about the enterprise cloud segment, and today's announcement is the first of many that we hope to make in this spirit.

Citrix has been working with Amazon for some time to ensure that XenApp and our networking products, such as NetScaler, Branch Repeater and their virtual appliance implementations (VPX), work well in scenarios where customers want to take advantage of cloud-bursting to scale out their Windows or web application delivery infrastructures - effectively permitting them to outsource their DMZ and the app delivery services to the cloud. Amazon has also long been a friend of the Xen community.

Today's announcement takes our relationship a stage further. Citrix has announced that it will closely partner with Amazon to further our strategic goal of delivering open, inter-operable cloud solutions. We have specifically announced collaboration on Windows, interoperability and development of a rich set of value-added cloud solutions:

1. To start with, Citrix and Amazon are both committed to running any VM from any hypervisor, whether Windows or Linux based, with unbeatable performance, pay-as-you-go pricing, and elastic scalability,


2. We are both committed to the continued enrichment of the infrastructure service fabric to meet the security, compliance, performance and SLAs demanded by enterprises for app delivery from the cloud


3. We will ensure unparalleled portability, security and manageability of application workloads between private and public clouds


4. We will ensure that AWS runs Windows as well as, or better than your private cloud, enabling you to move more workloads to the cloud sooner, and to maximize price/performance. Citrix has extensive experience in optimizing Windows workloads on XenServer and its natural for Citrix to be the right partner to help optimize these same applications on AWS.


5. We will continue to collaborate to optimize performance and portability for all workloads, focusing on security by design, and open innovation.

Here are some key take-aways for Citrix customers:

1. You can expect seamless manageability for private and hosted workloads, with role-based, end-to end management, from any enterprise virtualization platform, to the cloud. A Citrix XenServer customer will be able to simply use XenCenter to manage their hosted workloads


2. This announcement is good news for another great partner: Microsoft. The Azure VM Role thus far offers only an ephemeral instance model for Windows Server 2008 R2 VMs. Our collaboration with Amazon will enable Microsoft's Enterprise customers (and SPLA consumers) to confidently select AWS for their most demanding non-ephemeral workloads.


3. Citrix is committed to offering customers a set of solutions that embrace cloud computing and seamlessly extend the enterprise into an open, inter-operable and portable cloud environment, including
   
   
   
   1. Citrix OpenCloud Bridge for seamless network connectivity
   
   
   2. Citrix OpenCloud Access provides secure, role-based access to cloud hosted app workloads by enterprise administrators
   
   
   3. Citrix NetScaler offers secure credential-based access to desktops and cloud based apps
   
   
   4. A powerful set of value added solutions that span enterprise and cloud, including Lab Management, Disaster Recovery, Compliance and more.
   
   
   
   

It's probably also worth pointing out that if your Linux vendor has been telling you (as I have repeatedly heard) that it's all over for Xen in the cloud you should tell them it RHEL-ly ain't so. I recommend that you evaluate Amazon Linux as an excellent alternative that is compatible, well supported and Enterprise class.

At the end of the day, I invite you to consider two possibilities for your cloud. The first is a single-vendor, closed solution that operates at modest scale, is not interoperable or compatible with other vendors. Moreover it commands an extraordinary price premium whether you run it privately or consume it from one of a hundred 'me too' providers that cannot both offer it and deliver innovative services of their own. It is a one-way trip that you may well regret. The other mandates interoperability, portability, security, performance and pay-as-you-go, and frees you to pick advanced services that set your applications free. It comes from leading vendors and the open source community. It will outlast any proprietary solution. Pick one.

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Most Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVMP) money delayed

Most Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVMP) money delayed: "

Filed under: Legislation and Policy, USA

To date, only four loans from the DOE's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan (ATVMP) program have been fully processed: $528.7 million to Fisker, $1.4 billion to Nissan, $465 milion to Tesla and $5.9 billion to Ford. Add them all up, and you get to around $8.3 billion. That might sound like a great amount of money to spur development of cleaner vehicles in the U.S., but if you've been following the ATVMP story, then you know that the program originally had $25 billion to hand out. It's been a long time since we've heard anything about the many, many applications for funds (100 groups applied for over $42 billion), so what's up with the rest of the money?



The Detroit News reports that, in short, it's a mess. Here's a choice quote:

Some applications for the low-cost government loans have languished for more than two years. Projects have collapsed and some small companies are barely hanging on, hoping the money arrives in time. Some loans have taken another seven months to close after being approved.

The ATVMP started in September 2008, and the last big announcement happened in April 2010. There was a fifth award - $50 million to Vehicle Production Group LLC to build a CNG-powered wheelchair-accessible car - but the loan hasn't closed. The Detroit News has obtained letters from members of Congress complaining about the slow pace of the loan process. Most importantly, the DOE might not be able to hand out the entire $25 billion because of higher-than-expected costs.



Problems with the ATVMP have already spawned one lawsuit that alleges bias against small companies. The brief was filed by XP Vehicles (which has an electric inflatable car concept) 'on behalf of the independent American alternative energy vehicle manufacturers.' It's not just the small companies that are waiting. Chrysler still hasn't heard back from the DOE, but CEO Sergio Marchionne told DN that he hopes the loan will be closed by the end of March.



Of course, some people think not giving out the loans is kind of a good thing.

[Source: Detroit News]

Most Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVMP) money delayed originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bon Jovi's The Circle Tour Stage Designed Using AutoCAD and 3ds Max Design

Bon Jovi's The Circle Tour Stage Designed Using AutoCAD and 3ds Max Design: "

It is always amazing to see what Autodesk customers do with our software and technology. In this case, it is definitely an entertaining experience learning about a great design team and company by watching the video (link below) rockin’ the storyline and some great backing music to make it just that much more of an experience.

Chances are if you have seen a concert or touring entertainment show in the past 20 years, you have seen and experienced a design by Pennsylvania based Tait Towers. Tait Towers designs and manufactures entire stage sets for the top shows and talent in the entertainment industry using AutoCAD and 3ds Max Design like the massive Bon Jovi Circle Tour concert stage set. 

Making sure everything designed and manufactured for the show not only provides a top notch entertainment experience but can be quickly shipped, easily setup, dissembled, and reloaded back on trucks to the next concert venue is critical for the show to hit all the tour dates to delight their fans. Tait Towers use AutoCAD and 3ds Max Design to accomplish their monumental challenge. The combined stage set and entertainment such as a rock band transport the show attendees out of reality for just a few hours and leaves them with a lifetime memory, and if not wearing ear protection that ringing in the ears feeling afterwards. Tait Towers uses 3ds Max Design to render out the 3D stage set designs for the clients to review and approve, which might be Jon Bon Jovi himself.

Tait Towers has designed several touring entertainment shows for all types of music concerts and events, including recognizable names like the Rolling Stones, Metallica, Aerosmith, U2, Prince, AC/DC, Led  Zeppelin, Michael Jackson, Kid Rock, Lady Gaga, Brittney Spears, Kiss, Carrie Underwood, Van Halen, Ozzfest, the Super Bowl, and the list goes on and on.

Check out the video on how Tait Towers designed and built the stage set for Bon Jovi’s The Circle Tour using AutoCAD and 3ds Max Design: http://bit.ly/e9zPWY 

Cheers,
Shaan

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If you wondering what SolidWorks Cloud will look like, we've got pictures (of the next best thing)

If you wondering what SolidWorks Cloud will look like, we've got pictures (of the next best thing): "

After the SolidWorks Cloud marketing fiasco of the last year, nothing was shown from the  main stage at last week's SolidWorks World 2011. Nothing! The only time it got mentioned was when new-CEO Bertrand Sicot promised that there would be always be a locally-installed version of Solidworks (*koff* as long as there is a demand in the market *koff*).

(I'm starting to wonder if nothing was shown because the project is hugely delayed. Last year, ex-CEO Jeff Ray said he was showing us the result of three years' work. In a recent interview, it sounded like there was another year or two to go. Four years in development, maybe longer. That's a long time in this world where components make it easy to cobble together a CAD system. As comparison, AutoCAD Mac took 18 months to be ported to OS X.)

Instead,  we got a demo of SolidWorks Live Buildings, which has nothing to do with SolidWorks (as it now exists) and has nothing to do with mechanical engineering. It was, however, significant, because it is based on the same V6 technology as SolidWorks Cloud will be based. ("V6" is the general name for Dassault's next generation cloud-based, social, design software.)

When you look at Live Buildings, you are looking at SolidWorks Cloud.

During the demo, I snapped many pictures in rapid succession. From examining them, I've found the following user interface elements.

First thing to notice: no ribbon. Instead, LB sports the traditional menu bar.

Second thing to notice: all modeling is done in a fully rendered environment, with simulated shadows.

Parts Library -- lets you drag and drop pre-build parts (aka blocks, cells, components) into the drawing.

At-cursor tools -- small toolbar appears at the cursor from which you select relevant tools.

Bird's-eye view -- shows an overview of the entire drawing, in a semi-transparent rectangle.

Wheel with tools -- is the primary user interface, from which toolbars jut out when you select a segment on the wheel.

Floors (stories) -- quickly lets you navigate between floors on multi-story buildings.

Status bar -- is like a communications center (more later).

Triad -- shows the xyz orientation in 3D space. We saw another program that had a miniature version of the model at the center of the triad, and I expect that feature to migrate its way over.

Here is a close-up of the menu bar:

Here is a closeup of the wheel:

Here is a closeup of the status bar:

Ready to Search -- might use the French search engine that Dassault recently acquired.

Ready for Selection -- I wonder if this provides a variety of selection modes, such as by geometry, by properties, by owner, by location?

Ready to Chat -- for communicating with other users on the project.

Ready for Propagate -- I think this is for updating the master model with changes made locally.

Since Dassault's heritage is in history-based modeling, LB sports a feature tree.  

 2D drawings can be placed, in this case from DraftSight. The 2D floorplan can be used as a guide to place 3D components.

Since LB is meant as to be for conceptual architectural planning, it includes energy analysis through sun studies and so on:

 Other data sets will be added later, such as zoning regulations.

 

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Wyckoff Exchange by Andre Kikoski Architect

Wyckoff Exchange by Andre Kikoski Architect: "

Andre Kikoski Architect has designed a corten steel facade for the Wyckoff Exchange, a live music and performance venue in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York.

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Wyckoff Exchange by Andre Kikoski Architect

The Wyckoff Exchange in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York is designed by Andre Kikoski Architect (AKA), an imaginative, award-winning architecture and design firm based in Manhattan.

“We wanted to create an iconic building to speak to Bushwick’s up-and-coming status as a center of art and creative energy,” says Kikoski, “so we devised a unique aesthetic that’s dramatic, inventive, and inspired by the neighborhood’s industrial past. With state-of-the-art technologies and construction techniques, we were able to realize this 100-foot-long, eighteen-foot-tall façade in only two inches of depth.”

Scheduled to open in winter 2010, the 10,000 square-foot Wyckoff Exchange will accommodate a live music and performance venue – to be called Radio Bushwick, with interiors also by AKA – as well as an organic market and a boutique wine shop, all in a long-vacant warehouse in the heart of a vital and rapidly changing area of the city.

The design solution for the building exterior is highly original, relying upon motorized door technology adapted from airplane hangars and factory buildings. The five pairs of moving façade panels create an ever-changing expression of function and tectonics. By day the panels fold up to create awnings for the stores and to shelter pedestrians; by night, they secure the shops behind them, while an abstract gradient of laser-cut perforations over semi-concealed LED lights makes the panels appear to glow from within – creating an enigmatic work of art on an urban scale.

“We chose materials for this façade that are both industrial and artistic,” explains Kikoski. “Our use of two restrained materials references the urban textures, surfaces, and character of the neighborhood. The surface quality of the raw, unfinished COR-TEN steel is elegantly transformed into a Rothko-like canvas by the setting sun, and the shimmering layer of perforated factory-grade stainless steel just two inches behind it forms a perfect complement.”

Andre Kikoski Architect’s design approach in the this project, as in all of its work, is aimed at creating a dynamic, fluid piece of architecture. As an expression of AKA’s trademark resourcefulness and lyricism, and as an innovative approach to recycling buildings and creating a destination environment with an extreme economy of means, Wyckoff Exchange is truly a welcome development in this quickly evolving neighborhood.

Cayuga Capital Management commissioned the project and has some 40 other properties in the area. Kikoski sees this one as “a prototype of adaptive reuse”—low-impact architecture that can spread, easily and gracefully, throughout the neighborhood. “The project,” says Kikoski, “is a sign of things to come.”

Visit the website of Andre Kikoski Architect – here.

Photography by ESTO/Francis Dzikowski

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