What's the most common data reporting mechanism? Is it web-based reporting? PDFs? How about spreadsheets? Maybe, but in my experience many reports are delivered using a less-scalable and transient mechanism: e-mail. I'm a data steward at SAS. Specifically, I look after the operational data around our blogging program and our
It was John Allen Paulos who said, “Data, data everywhere, but not a thought to think.” That rings true more than ever before. Companies are struggling with the deluge of data coming at them from multiple channels. But traditional data channels are just the beginning. Companies also are facing an
I recently had a chance to hear Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki on triple j radio in Australia. Known simply as Dr. Karl, he has a weekly national show answering science questions on an alternative rock radio station. Yes, science on rock radio. Yes, national. Yes, Thursday morning – when people are
The buzz about the Internet of Things (IoT) combined with the insights derived from analytics appears to be hotter than ever. What's interesting to me is how many people go about their lives without knowing what the IoT is and how they're already benefitting from it (or how their jobs
I've spent much of my career managing the quality of data after it was moved from its sources to a central location, such as an enterprise data warehouse. Nowadays not only do we have a lot more data – but a lot of it is in motion. One of the
In my previous post, I wrote about the Quick Pulse survey of leaders of health care institutions and the vital role data and analytics has in patient care and engagement. In this post, I'll tell you what the survey had to say about the progress these leaders believe they are
In this blog post I explore some of the open data police incident reports for Raleigh and Cary, while showing you the easy way to handle various types of CSV files. In recent years, many cities have set up open data websites, to share various kinds of data about their city.
.@philsimon asks some fundamental questions about taking the next step with #bigdata.
Research indicates that IoT and Machine Learning are more valuable to utilities when used in combination but there are hurdles to overcome first. Machine learning and IoT will enable utilities to better realize the next generation of the power grid: a distributed system with power flows among millions of things
“All for one and one for all” is best known as the motto from “The Three Musketeers”, but this phrase could easily sum up the growing trend in social brokers. With advanced analytical techniques like generalized linear modeling insurance companies have created more granular pricing structures. But despite the assertions
Optimization is a primary tool of computational statistics. SAS/IML software provides a suite of nonlinear optimizers that makes it easy to find an optimum for a user-defined objective function. You can perform unconstrained optimization, or define linear or nonlinear constraints for constrained optimization. Over the years I have seen many
In my previous post, Jedi SAS Tricks - Make This a Button in Base SAS I demonstrated running a SAS program from a tool bar button in the SAS Windowing environment. The program we execute is the macro from a previous post, Jedi SAS Tricks: The DATA to DATA Step
As everyone in the financial industry knows, CCAR (comprehensive capital analysis and review) was set up as a capital adequacy assessment for the major US banks. Through several years of practice and feedback, CCAR has evolved into a comprehensive stress testing exercise -- and in doing so, created a new
In my previous post I discussed the practice of putting data quality processes as close to data sources as possible. Historically this meant data quality happened during data integration in preparation for loading quality data into an enterprise data warehouse (EDW) or a master data management (MDM) hub. Nowadays, however, there’s a lot of
Last week I analyzed 12 million records of taxi cab transactions in New York City. As part of that analysis, I used a DATA step view to create a new variable, which was the ratio of the tip amount to the fare amount. A novice SAS programmer told me that
The current rate of workforce change is unprecedented. Each new generation of working professionals is emerging more rapidly than the one before, with increasingly advanced expectations of their employers. The latest cohort is Generation Z, typically defined as those born after 1998. This group is fresh-faced, independent and extremely pragmatic.
Not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. At this year’s SAS Global Forum 2016, so many exciting things happened that I have to share some highlights. From the use of analytics in college administration to the teaching of analytics in the classroom, the range of information presented was quite
We had just completed a four-week data quality assessment of an inside plant installation. It wasn't looking good. There were huge gaps in the data, particularly when we cross-referenced systems together. In theory, each system was meant to hold identical information of the plant equipment. But when we consolidated the
In 1969, a human walked on the moon. I remember my parents waking me in the wee hours to watch (albeit bleary eyed) the grainy images on our black and white television as Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface. Heady stuff then and now. In another world-altering advancement,
Most folks who know me, know I'm a bit of a Star Wars geek. I've analyzed the original trilogy scripts and documented my findings in a paper called Star Wars and the Art of Data Science. I'm always looking for excuses to get my hands into Star Wars data, and
In a previous post I showed how to download, install, and use packages in SAS/IML 14.1. SAS/IML packages incorporate source files, documentation, data sets, and sample programs into a ZIP file. The PACKAGE statement enables you to install, uninstall, and manage packages. You can load functions and data into your
How many of you have read The Cuckoo’s Calling by the previously unknown author Robert Galbraith? The answer is not many, until it came out that Robert Galbraith was none other than blockbuster best-selling author JK Rowling. Sales then skyrocketed. Rowling recently published some of the rejection letters she received as
.@philsimon says that it's never too early to think about the IoT and data management.
There’s no such thing as a free app. “What?” I hear you say, “but I download free apps all the time!” So then why do organisations spend considerable time and effort creating free apps? Often their goal is to collect data and turn it into money. Consider this example. There’s
As the excitement of SAS Global Forum begins to die down and we dust off our sequins for another year, it’s time to get back behind the desk. This year at SAS Global Forum we hosted a "Top Tips from Your Favorite SAS Press Authors" lunch where we asked three or four
The timeline on the latest season of Netflix’s series House of Cards has finally caught up with the real world, and the current plot line regarding President Frank Underwood’s underhanded dealings to win the Democratic nomination has many parallels with the current US primary election coverage saturating TV and print
When I read Robert Allison's article about the cost of a taxi ride in New York City, I was struck by the scatter plot (shown at right; click to enlarge) that plots the tip amount against the total bill for 12 million taxi rides. The graph clearly reveals diagonal and
A recent post, Jedi SAS Tricks: The DATA to DATA Step Macro, engendered a lot of response on Twitter. One of the re-tweets included a call to action - make this a button in Base SAS!
The Barnett Shale in North Texas hit a historic mark on April 25: Its rig count fell to zero. Two hundred rigs once harvested the 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in this massive basin, stretching beneath 17 Texas counties. Today, nothing. This dramatic silence in North America’s second-largest
At SAS Global Forum in Las Vegas I was asked the question, “What does PROC REPORT do?” It is a simple question, but I hesitated to answer. I’m normally so deep inside the nitty gritty details of PROC REPORT that I don’t often think about what it would be like
