ronpih's weblog

Some folks are having problems with PowerPivot for Excel CTP3.  In all cases we have seen, this is because folks have installed only Excel when installing Office 14 beta 2.

For Office 14 Beta 2 / PowerPivot CTP3, you must include "Office Shared Features" when installing Office.  The reason is that VSTO runtime is installed as part of Office Shared Features and PowerPivot is a VSTO add-in.

If you installed only Excel and PowerPivot isn't loading, you need to

1. Uninstall PowerPivot & Office 14
2. Reinstall Office 14 and include "Office Shared Features"
3. Reinstall PowerPivot

That should fix things up.

Vidas Matelis has been twittering like crazy about PowerPivot.  At this point, he's the one to follow for info about what's happening in PowerPivot land.  He is also starting up a new PowerPivot website similar to his SSAS-info site.

I just found out about this today: http://testing.stackexchange.com.  I'm there...

Wow, Rob is really on fire as a blogger.  I'd say if you want to stay abreast of the PowerPivot world, his blog is a must.

(via Esther Derby on Twitter)

http://jerryweinberg.amplify.com/2009/10/28/maturity-models-have-it-backwards/

Our PMs are starting to author Gemini blog posts that describe various aspects of Gemini.  There are two new ones:

• Importing Data
• Using Data Feeds

Filling out a web form this morning I came upon this field:

"In lieu of a signature, we require a unique identifier.  What is the first letter of the city in which you were born?"

(Yet another short Gemini video): http://www.microsoft.com/officebusiness/office2010/Default.aspx?vid=Geminiv

I like buying books from Amazon.  They have really done a great job of making book buying friction-free.  But I love buying book from the Pragmatic Programmers even more.  Why?

1. All their books are available in both paper and ebook formats.  Recently I've been trying to cut down on actual physical books and have taken to only buying ebooks.  It's great that all their books are available in ebook formats.
2. Note that in #1 I said formats (plural).  Their ebooks are available as pdf, epub, and mobi which means I can read them on my computers, iPhone, or Kindle.  This is huge for me.
3. Book availability in beta.
4. I like the subjects of many of their books.  They have books not only on various technologies but also on management, self-development, testing, etc.