By now, we have all heard about the Internet of Things (IoT), or the Industrial Internet. Across industries, organizations are attempting to instrument and measure all critical business systems and assets in an effort to drive improved production and service delivery. It is estimated that by 2020, companies will spend
You’ve heard about the smart grid, but what is it that makes the grid smart? I’ve been working on a project with Duke Energy and NC State University doing time-series analysis on data from Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) that illustrates the intelligence in the grid as well as an interesting
In my last post, I pointed out that we data quality practitioners want to apply data quality assertions to data instances to validate data in process, but the dynamic nature of data must be contrasted with our assumptions about how quality measures are applied to static records. In practice, the
Was nun - Big Data oder Smart Data? Die Antwort: beides – denn das eine bedingt das andere. Die Kunst ist, aus einer riesigen Datenmenge den wesentlichen Teil zu extrahieren. Die Energiewende basiert zum einen auf dem verstärkten Einsatz regenerativer Energien, zum anderen soll die produzierte Energie effektiver eingesetzt werden. Dies
Back in the day when the prison system forced inmates to perform "hard labor", folks would say (of someone in prison): "He's busy making little ones out of big ones." This evokes the cliché image of inmates who are chained together, forced to swing a chisel to break large rocks
In the SAS DATA step, all variables are scalar quantities. Consequently, an IF-THEN/ELSE statement that evaluates a logical expression is unambiguous. For example, the following DATA step statements print "c=5 is TRUE" to the log if the variable c is equal to 5: if c=5 then put "c=5 is TRUE";
En México existen 59.2 millones de usuarios de internet, de acuerdo con el estudio de AMIPCI de 2014, lo que se traduce en un mercado de 52% de la población total del país; y año con año el uso de dispositivos móviles como los smartphones y tablets está en constante
Why do people steal ATMs? Because that's where the money is!!! While the old "smash-n-grab" remains a favorite modus operandi of would-be ATM thieves, the biggest brains on the planet typically aren't engaged in such endeavors (see Thieves Steal Empty ATM, Chain Breaks Dragging Stolen ATM, An A for Effort). And of
Since the launch of Communities on SAS, hundreds of SAS employees have been among you. Some SAS employees made themselves known by selecting a telling user name (such as Cynthia@SAS), but others remained camouflaged or incognito, keeping their secret identities like the SAS superheroes they are. That's about to change.
Everyone is always looking for test data. Business analysts want it for demos and prototypes. Software developers want it for development and unit testing. Testers want it for system and integration testing. I’ve written many programs to generate test data over the years, as have many other SAS users. Generated
Utilizing big data analytics is currently one of the most promising strategies for businesses to gain competitive advantage and ensure future growth. But as we saw with “small data analytics,” the success of “big data analytics” relies heavily on the quality of its source data. In fact, when combining “small” and “big” data
Have you ever wondered whether the area where you live is a good location for producing solar power? Let's create a SAS map to help find out! To get you in the right frame of mind, here is an awesome picture of some Arizona sunshine, that my good friend Eva
At the beginning of my book Statistical Programming with SAS/IML Software I give the following programming tip (p. 25): Do not confuse an empty matrix with a matrix that contains missing values or with a zero matrix. An empty matrix has no rows and no columns. A matrix that contains
In my previous post, I talked about how the Internet of Things promises new ways to use sensor and machine data by creating a highly efficient world that demands constant analysis and evaluation of the state of events across everything that surrounds us. I have also explained why it is
New Year to me is always a stark reminder of the inexorability of Time. In a day-to-day life, time is measured in small denominations - minutes, hours, days… But come New Year, and this inescapable creature – Time – makes its decisive leap – and in a single instant, we
According to analyst firms, consulting companies and various other research, customer experience is the primary priority for insurance companies. But is customer experience overrated? Let’s start by considering the primary interactions between an insurance company and its customers: new business, billing, renewals and claims. Ask any insurance executive, especially property
Esta es la experiencia de Felix Liao, Gerente de Soluciones de Data Management de SAS para Australia y Nueva Zelanda. Nuestro personaje hizo un viaje hace poco por toda Australia visitando algunos clientes para conversar con ellos sobre las tendencias de Analítica y Hadoop. Además de quedar gratamente sorprendido con
@philsimon on the need to recognize DQ differences.
By now most of us are at least aware of the fact that too much sugar isn’t good for us. But you may not be aware of some of the hidden sources of sugar like "not so sweet" foods such as pasta sauce, salad dressing, ketchup and bread. Some other
Data simulation is a fundamental technique in statistical programming and research. My book Simulating Data with SAS is an accessible how-to book that describes the most useful algorithms and the best programming techniques for efficient data simulation in SAS. Here are five lessons you can learn by reading it: Learn strategies
It’s common at the start of a new year to create a long list of resolutions that we hope to achieve. The reality, of course, is by February those resolutions will likely be a distant memory. The key to making any resolution stick is to start small. Create one small
We now live in the era of ‘big data’, where data and its analysis have become crucial to the modern economy. In fact, "big data is the new 'corporate gold'," according to Mark Wilkinson, managing director of SAS UK & Ireland. A recent study by Cebr found that companies in
A common task in SAS/IML programming is finding elements of a SAS/IML matrix that satisfy a logical expression. For example, you might need to know which matrix elements are missing, are negative, or are divisible by 2. In the DATA step, you can use the WHERE clause to subset data.
It’s that time of year again when we look back and consider how accurately and extensively the SAS story was covered in the media over the past year. It’s not always a simple or predictable story, but it is usually interesting. Consider some of these threads: How did companies or
Bei der DLD Konferenz in München geben sich vor Ort und via Livestream digital die Entscheider die Türklinke in die Hand: Die Timeline bei Twitter liest sich wie das Who-is-Who der deutschen Digitalen Szene. Es ist davon auszugehen, dass auch nach der Konferenz dadurch einiges in Bewegung kommen wird. Was gut und
To get into the mood for this blog post, you should first listen to the music video of The Who singing My Generation... I guess everybody has 'their generation' and here in the U.S. the most famous generation has been the Baby Boomers. Many companies have tried to design products they
Including special Unicode symbols into the graph is getting more popular. In general, SG procedures support Unicode strings in places where these strings are coded into the syntax such as TITLE, FOOTNOTE. These support Unicode characters and also the special {SUP} and {SUB} commands. This is because these statements are rendered
While perusing the SAS 9.4 DS2 documentation, I ran across the section on the HTTP package. This intrigued me because, as DS2 has no text file handling statements I assumed all hope of leveraging Internet-based APIs was lost. But even a Jedi is wrong now and then! And what better
In December the Institute of Business Forecasting published the first of a new blog series on Forecast Value Added. Each month I will be interviewing an industry forecasting practitioner (or consultant/vendor) about their use of FVA analysis. The December interview featured Jonathon Karelse, co-founder of NorthFind Partners. Among his key
This is the last of my series of posts on the NIST definition of cloud computing. As you can see from this Wikipedia definition, calling anything a “cloud” is likely to be the fuzziest way of describing it. In meteorology, a cloud is a visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen
