Jigsaw puzzles in PowerPoint and Visio

Found this cool tutorial on the web that can be used to make jigsaw puzzles in PowerPoint or Visio. One of my friends actually used this technique to create a good visualization on technology building blocks.

http://www.wiseowl.co.uk/blog/s132/how_to_draw_jigsaw_puzzle_shapes_in_microsoft_powerpoint_pt1.htm

Google Chart APIs

The last time (around 1 year ago), when I had evaluated Google Charts API, I was a bit disappointed. The Chart API only enabled you to embed an image (chart) that would be created on Google servers.

But looks like Google has completely revamped the concept and branding and have a brand new Chart API.

The new charting API looks cool and very easy to use. There are also samples and libraries that will help you write server side code to pass chart data to the client. I was particularly impressed with the Java DataSource library and Oracle PL/SQL library.

It is important to note that Google right now, does not allow these JS API to be downloaded offline and used in a web app that does not have internet connection (e.g. intranet applications). Please consider this constraint before you decide to use Google Chart Tools.

The older version of the image charts is still available here.There is also an online tool for quicking creating an image of a chart. Could be useful if you quickly want to create some stuff for your PPTs :)

iRise visualization software

Recently on request of one of our clients, we were asked to evaluate iRise V (isualization products.
A quick perusal of what the product offered made me smile. There are so many projects that fail because the end-product is not what the business required. Sometimes the business itself is not sure of what it wants or how the end product should look like.
It's estimated that 60% of projects fail because of misunderstanding of requirements.

Using iRise visualization products, business analysis can quickly build UI elements that have the same look-and-feel and navigation as the final end product.
More information at http://www.irise.com

P.S: Just got a mail from Tom Humbarger (iRise Project Manager) that an evaluation copy of iRise Studio PE is now available for free 30-day download from Download.com. Would highly recommend it for a try.