In this International Year of Statistics, I'd like to describe the major role of statistics in public health advances. In our modern society, it is sometimes difficult to recall the huge advances in health and medicine in the 20th century. To name a few: penicillin was discovered in 1928, risk
New research by the CMO Council and SAS, entitled "Big Data's Biggest Role: Aligning the CMO & CIO," shows more overlaps than differences between marketing and IT. Big data is uniting the CMO and CIO in their common quest for a customer-centric organization. 61 percent of marketers and 60 percent of
This week Nate Silver, renowned election forecaster (fivethirtyeight blog) and top selling author (of the excellent The Signal and the Noise), spoke at an event here in my building on the SAS campus. Unfortunately, I wasn't considered a B enough of a FD to land an invite to Nate's presentation. However,
This week's SAS tip is from Ron Cody and his popular book SAS Statistics by Example. Ron is the author of many bestselling SAS books. If you like this week's excerpt, visit his author page for additional bonus content from his books! The following excerpt is from SAS Press author Ron
I haven't seen an official definition of 'infographic' that I really like ... but in my mind it's something 1/2 way between data visualization & artwork. It borrows elements from graphs & dashboards, and combines that with an artistic poster. If you perform a Google image search on infographic you'll see
A SAS customer asks: How do I use SAS to generate multiple samples of size N from a multivariate normal distribution? Suppose that you want to simulate k samples (each with N observations) from a multivariate normal distribution with a given mean vector and covariance matrix. Because all of the
How often do you question the availability of power? Outside of weather events, the answer is probably, “not much.” But what if you have an electric vehicle? Or manage a data center? Rely on either of those technologies and you might consider electricity as a constraint, around which you plan
ODS statements are global SAS statements. As such, you can put them anywhere in your SAS program. For maximum readability, many SAS programmers agree that most ODS statements should appear outside procedures in "open" SAS code. For example, most programmers agree that the following statements should appear outside of procedures:
Online marketers all want the same thing - for our customers to get what they want, when they want it, and with the fewest clicks possible. We already know that satisfied customers usually return, and now they share their experiences so the stakes have never been higher to get it
Last night's Horizon programme entitled The Age of Big Data (BBC2) highlighted the ongoing explosion of information and how it is transforming the way we interact with the modern world. From predictive policing to mapping the solar system, big data is shaping how organisations understand the environment to make smarter,
Where do you go when you want to mix and mingle with like-minded folks? Where do you go when you want to share best practices and talk about the latest advances in software? If you’re a SAS user, the answer is SAS Global Forum in San Francisco. And while in
I recently attended the O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference in New York, and I have to confess, I had a Twitter eureka moment. I was sitting in a conference room, waiting for the next session to start and reading tweets from a publishing industry contact I've longtime admired
A few weeks ago I found myself in a room full of fellow transportation geeks (a term I use with great respect) at the annual American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Washington Briefing. One panel in particular really got the room buzzing with talk about the transportation
I was recently asked how to compute the difference between two density estimates in SAS. The person who asked the question sent me a link to a paper from The Review of Economics and Statistics that contains several examples of this technique (for example, see Figure 3 on p. 16
Geht es Ihnen nicht auch so? Ich liebe Excel! Von „Mal schnell was ausrechnen…“ bis zur Gewinn- und Verlustrechnung für die Steuererklärung ein rundum gelungenes Programm, bei dem man komplexe Formeln direkt da hin schreiben kann, wo sie berechnet werden und man sogar noch genügend Formatierungsmöglichkeiten hat, um nachher was
In a previous article, I described how to use Windows PowerShell to connect to a remote SAS Workspace, run a SAS program, and retrieve the results. In that example, the only results I retrieved were the SAS log and SAS listing (text) output, if any. When you run a SAS
SAS and the Global Warranty and Service Contract Association (GWSCA) recently teamed up to create the first-of-its-kind training for professionals in the warranty management field. In this Q&A, GWSCA president and course instructor G. Terry Hawkins, shares information about the course and the benefits for students. Why did SAS and
The one-number forecasting concept has been debated for years. Advocates argue that having different groups within the same organization working to different forecasts is insane. You can't have the supply chain building to X, the sales force selling to Y, and the financial folks counting on revenue of Z. This
I worked at the General Dynamics (now Lockheed-Martin) F-16 jet fighter plant in Fort Worth, Texas, during the mid-1980’s, where they subsequently manufactured the F-22 and now the F-35. My tenure there spanned the era of the $400 hammer and $700 toilet seat scandals in the military procurement world. While
I love to travel, especially by air. As is my due, I get plenty of attention. Airlines assign the blind guy to a row with extra leg room, so that I can stretch my big self out and enjoy the ride. While in route, airports give me a special place
Did you know that your ODS style might result in changing the color ramp for contour plots and heat maps? For example, the default style in SAS 9.3 is HTMLBlue. Let's create a contour plot in the HTML destination by running an example adapted from the documentation for the RSREG
As a new contributor this blog, let me begin by introducing myself. My name is Dave Bilbrough, and I am a Solutions Architect on the SAS Customer Intelligence team, specializing in Digital Marketing. I am pleased to bring a digital perspective to the this blog seen through the prism of my background
This week's SAS tip is from Lauren Haworth, Cynthia L. Zender, and Michele Burlew's book Output Delivery System: The Basics and Beyond. This monumental guide is packed with a wide-array of techniques and examples. As SAS programmer Christine Iodice said, "This book is one-stop shopping for all your ODS needs!"
Don’t worry! This is not an excerpt from a romantic love letter. The title of this blog post is an allusion to my talk on "Missing Values", at the A2013 conference in June in London. There is not much time for emotions: dealing with missing values in analysis is not
Many marketing researchers, companies and business schools need to use statistical procedures and accurately interpret the result. That's why SAS Enterprise Guide, which uses a user-friendly drag-and-drop menu to extract statistical information, is so popular. Marketing Research with SAS Enterprise Guide includes 236 screen shots to provide a detailed explanation
Welcome to Part 2 of the value-added Myth Busters blog series…have you heard this one before? Educators serving high-achieving students are often concerned that their students’ entering achievement level makes it more difficult for them to show growth. “How can my students show growth if they are already earning high
In statistics, distances between observations are used to form clusters, to identify outliers, and to estimate distributions. Distances are used in spatial statistics and in other application areas. There are many ways to define the distance between observations. I have previously written an article that explains Mahalanobis distance, which is
It’s no secret that big data offers organisations a real opportunity to gain competitive advantage, open up new revenue streams and increase efficiency. Yet, while some are charging ahead, others are falling behind. The past two years have seen an 80 per cent jump in organisations believing analytics provides a
If you’re a new SAS user, you may already be aware that SAS has created specific training and support materials to help you get started with SAS, such as our Getting Started with SAS introductory courses page. However, if you’re not 100 percent sure about all of the first steps that
I have been on a plane non-stop for four weeks travelling around Asia working with key customers looking to expand their analytics footprint. It's clear that analytics is no longer taking a back seat to business intelligence (BI). Customers I am talking to have squeezed as much value out of
