Hadoop may have been the buzzword for the last few years, but streaming seems to be what everyone is talking about these days. Hadoop deals primarily with big data in stationary and batch-based analytics. But modern streaming technologies are aimed at the opposite spectrum, dealing with data in motion and
Have you seen this error when running a program in SAS Enterprise Guide? ERROR: You cannot open WORK.YOURDATA.DATA for output access with member-level control because WORK.YOURDATA.DATA is in use by you in resource environment IOM ROOT COMP ENV. Or maybe: ERROR: A lock is not available for LIB.YOURDATA.DATA. NOTE: The
With the US Affordable Care Act (ACA) and other health topics in the news lately, I wondered how much people spend on healthcare in various countries. Of course spending varies from person to person, so I decided to take a look at the average per capita spending in each country (it's
Open. The very word evokes a sense of happiness and possibility. When you’re hungry at an odd hour and everything around you seems to be closed, that lone neon sign glowing in a restaurant window is a most welcome relief. When a shop or service you’ve longed for finally builds
In Part 1 of this series, we defined data governance as a framework – something an organization can implement in small pieces. Data management encompasses the disciplines included in the data governance framework. They include the following: Data quality and data profiling. Metadata (business, technical and operational). Data security. Data movement within the enterprise.
Is Complexity Bad? It’s necessary to point out that Goodwin’s article is not arguing against complexity per se, and I’m not either. When you have a high value forecast, where it is critical to be as accurate as possible, of course you are going to want to try every technique
Loess regression is a nonparametric technique that uses local weighted regression to fit a smooth curve through points in a scatter plot. Loess curves are can reveal trends and cycles in data that might be difficult to model with a parametric curve. Loess regression is one of several algorithms in
SAS programmers often resort to using the X command to list the contents of file directories and to process the contents of ZIP files. In centralized SAS environments, the X command is unavailable to most programmers. NOXCMD is the default setting for these environments (disallowing shell commands), and SAS admins
Anomalies: The Beginning of a Crisis While even trained scientists can fail to see things that fall outside what they are looking for, anomalies eventually start to get noticed. But still, for a long time, anomalies within an existing paradigm are seen as mere “violations of expectation.” The response within
Today’s IT department isn’t your grandfather’s IT department. It’s not even your father’s IT department. When people talk about Information Technology Departments of the past, it's usually broken into three distinct periods: The Mainframe; PCs; the Internet/post PC. The IT department was seen as the hardware support arm of an
Stretches the hips, ankles and shoulders while opening chest and lengthening spine. Cow Face Pose (Sanskrit: Gomukhasana)
.@philsmion says that even the "best governed" organization today isn't safe from inquiring minds.
The Current Paradigm for Business Forecasting So what is the current paradigm that we, the community of business forecasting practitioners and researchers, are operating under? I’d argue that for at least the last 60 years, since 1956 when Robert G. Brown published his short monograph Exponential Smoothing for Predicting Demand,
Could you imagine running a business with a 35-90% annual turnover rate? What if the average time to fill a position was anywhere between 3-12 months? This alone would cripple most organizations, but is a common reality in state and local child welfare agencies. High turnover and vacancy rates are
In a February 2015 post Offensive vs. Defensive Forecasting, I sought to distinguish two very different approaches to the business forecasting problem: Offensive: The "offensive" forecaster is focused on forecast accuracy -- on extracting every last fraction of a percent of accuracy we can hope to achieve. The approach is
A friend and I were recently debating how much caffeine is in various drinks. I felt like my hands were tied behind my back, since I had no graphs to show them. Of course, the first thing I did when I got to work was create some caffeine graphs! They turned out
Who cares about sports and data? Not just athletes, coaches and fans. It turns out that many companies outside of sporting organisations are also associated with the sports industry. For example, financial services organisations are actively involved in sports sponsorships. Retailers sell fan merchandise. Telcos build social engagement strategies around
Editor's Note: SAS' e-book, Your guide to becoming a modern marketer, provides additional guidance on the skills you need to become a modern marketer. This e-book provides a plan of action and documents lessons we've learned at SAS while modernizing our marketing organization. Today, the need to take an analytical approach to business challenges no
Recently, one of sons came to me and asked about something called “The Monty Hall Paradox.” They had discussed it in school and he was having a hard time understanding it (as you often do with paradoxes). For those of you who may not be familiar with the Monty Hall
Data integration teams often find themselves in the middle of discussions where the quality of their data outputs are called into question. Without proper governance procedures in place, though, it's hard to address these accusations in a reasonable way. Here's why.
Whether you are a vegetarian, a vegan or are just trying to eat more meatless meals, consuming a diet without meat or fish can raise concerns about not getting enough protein. Have no fear, you can still meet your protein needs IF you structure your meals in the right way
How far away is the nearest hospital? How far is the nearest restaurant? The nearest gas station? These are commonly asked questions whose answers depend on the location of the person asking the question. Recently I showed an algorithm that enables you to find the distance between a set of
GDPR, or the European General Data Protection Regulation, will be upon us in just 15 months’ time. Companies not just in Europe but around the world are preparing for it, because it affects any personal data held about any European customer, no matter where a company is based. But how
Last December, The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law to ensure opportunity for all students in the United States. As part of this federal legislation, states now have the flexibility to design their own accountability systems following certain parameters outlined in ESSA. These accountability systems include academic and non-academic indicators. By
When someone is sick or in the hospital, it may not be long before the casserole patrol comes a knockin'. "Casserole patrol" is the term a witty colleague of mine used to describe the friends and neighbors who bring food when someone is sick. I've been there before, standing at a doorstep with a pot of chili
Have you ever wanted to modify a graph title that is produced by an analytical procedure? You can make a wide variety of changes by modifying the graph template. Modifying the graph template is straight forward. You specify ODS TRACE ON, run the procedure, find the template name, display the
This past weekend, Hurricane Matthew came through the Carolinas. Some areas had record flooding, while other areas didn't. I was anxious to get back to work today, so I could use SAS software and create a custom map showing who got how much rain. But before we get to the official
Data governance must encompass management of the full life cycle of a data policy – its definition, approval, implementation and the means of ensuring its observance - David Loshin, Data Policies and Data Governance I was checking out my Google stats on Data Quality Pro recently and observed that "How
The WHERE clause in SAS is a powerful mechanism for selecting observations as you read or write a data set. The WHERE clause supports many operators, including the IN operator, which enables you to compactly specify multiple conditions for a categorical variable. A common use of the IN operator is
Have you ever been involved in executing an exploratory analysis based on an integrated clinical trial database? If so, you've probably experienced firsthand how elaborate the initial phase of data access and data processing can be. Market analysts estimate the ratio for preparing the data, compared to actually analyzing the information,
