Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Slideshow using Crystal Xcelsius

Since I was a kid, I was always excited about the Olympics. My first olympics was the 1988 Seoul Olympics in South Korea. I was 7 and the sport which caught my attention was Swimming. On the contrary I’m a very bad swimmer, I can survive for 5min in water and then I’m sure i’ll drown. Neverthless, I like to watch the sport. My dad recorded the Seoul Olympics on a VHS and i watched the tapes untill the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

The best part about Olympics is the Opening and the Closing Ceremonies. I was all excited about the Beijing Opening Ceremony for a variety of reasons. Primarily because its Olympics, and to amp it up, the controversies, media hype, the budget etc. Unfortunately the live telecast clashed with my work hours on Friday and i coudnt watch the great spectacle. I searched the web for live streaming (beijing olympics opening ceremony streaming), negative. Had to compromise with audio from NPR.

Click here for High Resolution Slideshow

As i was thinking about the Opening Ceremony, at the back of my mind i was also thinking about how i can use Xcelsius and make some kind of a dashboard or a slideshow or something related to Olympics. First, i thought i’ll make a Comprehensive dashbaord with schedules, countries, athletes etc. But that takes a lot of time, which i dont have right now. So finally I decided to create a slideshow, which is simple and takes less time.

The slideshow is built using 2 Components, Play Control and Slideshow. Yeah, its that simple. Hope you all like it. I’m starting to build the comprehensive dashboard as i write this post. Will be back when its complete.

Thanks

“Excel is busy” or “Server Busy” in Crystal Xcelsius.

In November 2007 i posted an article on this error. Lot of users, including me, had a tough time resolving this issue. While browsing through one of the forums i bumped into this thread. Though of posting it and sharing. Looks like the resolution is pretty simple.
Uninstalling Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2003 caused the warning message to stop appearing. To uninstall the program do the following:
  1. Click Start menu > Settings > Control Panel, double-click Add or Remove Programs.
  2. Click Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2003 in the currently installed programs and updates list.
  3. Click Remove, and then follow the instructions on your screen.

Microsoft Article on “Remove Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2007”

Video: Ticker component in Crystal Xcelsius

The Ticker component provides a way to display horizontally scrolling text in your models. Tickers may be familiar as they are frequently used in television news programs. Unlike television, however, Xcelsius models are interactive, and as such, the Ticker component can also be used as a Selector. For example, a Ticker being used to display news headlines could be configured to display the entire story when any one of the headlines is selected. The Ticker has a unique scrolling text visualization, but it has all of the behavior of a menu component. With each selection that is made, data corresponding to that selection is inserted into a range in the spreadsheet. The ticker can be used to provide unique navigation or drill-down functionality to your models. This is only available in the Designer version if you are using version 4.5.

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“Office Xp application” error while installing or upgrading to Xcelsius 2008

Issue: While installing or Upgrading to Xcelsius 2008, the installation halts at the beginning with the follwing error message:

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Credit Card Payoff Calculator using Crystal Xcelsius

Xcelsius Utility SeriesIf you don’t pay off your credit card balance every month, the interest assessed on your account means you may be paying more for the items you purchase than you expect. And if you spend beyond your means and add up considerable credit card debt, the extra money you pay in interest can be alarming!

To find out how much extra you might pay on credit card purchases, use this simple calculator.

Inspired by the excel version of the same from Vertex32.