The SAS Analytics 2015 Conference is coming soon. It is my first time attending, so when I discovered that the conference is in Las Vegas, I must admit I became more than a little excited to partake in some casual gambling. My thing is sports betting, specifically college football, and
Today, we celebrate Manufacturing Day 2015. Manufacturing may not be the world's oldest profession, but it is likely the world's oldest industry. The very earliest characteristics that separated us from other animals is the manufacture of tools. Other animals use sticks and rocks and other collected items to help them
Recently, I interviewed four higher education customers to hear firsthand how each is using analytics in real life (IRL). In this blog series, we will learn how educators are using analytics, why they chose SAS, and the impact it has had on their users and their institutions. In addition, they
.@philsimon on bridging the IT-business divide once and for all.
For students to become capable data analysts, they need experience that they can take with them into the real world after graduation. By far the most critical skill for their toolkit is learning to work with real-life data. Therefore, it is important from a teaching standpoint that instructors provide students
In a previous post I described how to simulate random samples from an urn that contains colored balls. The previous article described the case where the balls can be either of two colors. In that csae, all the distributions are univariate. In this article I examine the case where the
Black Dog Syndrome may sound like the clinical term for a Led Zeppelin earworm but, as any animal shelter worker will tell you, it actually describes the challenge black dogs face in getting adopted. This phenomenon is in the spotlight today because Oct. 1 is National Black Dog Day! Black
Every year, Fortune magazine compiles a list of the 500 largest US corporations - called the Fortune 500. Their list was a bit difficult to digest in text-form, so I thought I'd try using some maps & graphs on the data ... For a map analysis, I thought it would
If I were to believe the feedback I get, statisticians are among the most difficult people to work with. What’s more, they’re the only group that should be allowed to work in data analytics. It sounds harsh, but this may explain why big data projects continually fail. Businesses need statisticians who are both
When I started college 25 years ago, we didn’t use email. I moved into the dorms my freshman year with a Brother Word Processor, convinced I would never have a single computing need beyond the necessity to type, save and print text. It’s incredible to consider how wrong I was.
This guest post was written by Andy Pulkstenis, Director of Advanced Analytics for State Farm Insurance. He leads a team of advanced analytics professionals providing statistical analysis and predictive modeling support for the enterprise across a variety of business units. His background includes more than a decade of experience improving
If not for probability theory, urns would appear only in funeral homes and anthologies of British poetry. But in probability and statistics, urns are ever present and contain colored balls. The removal and inspection of colored balls from an urn is a classic way to demonstrate probability, sampling, variation, and
As a youngster in the 70s and 80s, Star Trek inspired my imagination and fostered a great love for science, technology and reading. (See the embedded Star Trek infographic for some interesting factoids – did you know that there were 28 crew member deaths by those wearing red shirts?) Captain Kirk and the
As we continue our celebration of 25 years of SAS Press, I thought I’d share 25 reasons why you should write a book with us and become a SAS Press author. It’s not all work; we also have fun through this enriching journey from idea to print! Here’s our top
When I was discussing decision making and analytics with a colleague, he recommended I read the book Your Brain at Work by David Rock. I took his advice because I wanted to find out how the brain processes information and how it might relate to analytics. Rock (you gotta love that name) explains the importance of the
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, the trouble is I don't know which half.” ~ John Wanamaker, U.S. department store magnate and merchandising / advertising pioneer. I’m not going to claim that I can pinpoint exactly which half of your marketing dollars are wasted in the space
Update 02Dec2016: Beginning with SAS 9.4 Maintenance 4, there is now a JSON libname engine. Read this new article to learn more -- you might prefer it to using DS2 for this task! Thanks to the proliferation of cloud services and REST-based APIs, SAS users have been making use of
I get several requests and recommendations for analyzing sports data. I'm not a big sports fan ... but when did I ever let that stop me! When I find interesting data, I like to graph it! Before we get into the nitty-gritty data analysis, here is a picture of my friend Jennifer's daughter
Why are so many companies across a diverse set of industries investing in and around the Internet of Things? Everywhere I go, every blog I read … I sound like my favorite band from the 80s: the Internet of Things is watching me. In reality, it’s the reverse: I'm seeing
You've had a long day. You've implemented a custom algorithm in the SAS/IML language. But before you go home, you want to generate some matrices and test your program. If you are like me, you prefer a short statement—one line would be best. However, you also want the flexibility to
I routinely speak with executives who tell me that the ability to “sell” analytical results is just as important as producing them. In this post I will share some of what I have learned in several years of presenting complicated analytical results to audiences, both technical and lay. Some of
What is your first reaction to this question: “How would you like to take an exam today?” If you are like most people, you probably responded in a not so positive way. Maybe your brow furrowed, you physically leaned away from your computer (and this article), or your stomach knotted
Healthcare IT News recently published an article on 18 health technologies poised for big growth, a list culled from a HIMSS database. The database is used to track an extensive list of technology products that have seen growth of 4-10 percent since 2010, but have not yet reached a 70
Healthcare IT News recently published an article on 18 health technologies poised for big growth, a list culled from a HIMSS database. The database is used to track an extensive list of technology products that have seen growth of 4-10 percent since 2010, but have not yet reached a 70
We're wrapping up our “Meet the Team” blog series with SAS Solutions Architect Keith Renison. I was introduced to Keith earlier this year and was immediately impressed with his knowledge of advanced analytics and his enthusiasm for technology. He describes himself best: “I’m a combination of a data visualization snob
New York City is a pioneer in use of technology in many ways. For instance, the work of the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics has been cited repeatedly as an example of smart city innovation. But the innovation doesn’t stop there. Two projects that used SAS data visualization and data
It’s been an amazing journey with Hadoop. As we discussed in an earlier blog, Hadoop is informing the basis of a comprehensive data enterprise platform that can power an ecosystem of analytic applications to uncover rich insights on large sets of data. With YARN (Yet Another Resource Negotiator) as its
In October I will be at the Analytics 2015 conference in Las Vegas. I’ve never been to Las Vegas before. People tell me that if you are better than average in forecasting where a small ball will end up after it’s been spinning for a while in a dish with
The need for fast and easy access to high-powered analytics has never been greater than it is today. Fortunately, cloud processing still holds the promise of making analytics more transparent and ubiquitous than ever before. Yet, a significant number of challenges still exist that prevent more widespread adoption of cloud
.@philsimon on the new role of IT.
