Eating donuts, burning calories, and raising money for a good cause -- that's what the annual Krispy Kreme Challenge is all about. If this intrigues you, read on to find out more... But first, here's a picture of me eating a donut, preparing for a race. I bet you didn't
There are SAS users, and then there are SAS Super Users in the SAS Support Communities. What makes a communities user "Super"? It's the Super Users that fly around the discussion boards -- answering questions and guiding other community members. They aren't just SAS experts; they are teachers as well,
In my last post, we touched on the importance of data migration in an overall data strategy. The reason I wanted to do this is because so many organizations see the migration of data as a technical challenge that can be outsourced and largely ignored by their internal teams. I contend
Shocking headlines to start the new year: Paul DePodesta is leaving the New York Mets and Major League Baseball (MLB) to take a top office position at the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). Not so shocked? You don’t care? Who’s Paul De Podesta? Well for those of
TL;DR The next time that you find yourself writing a PROC SORT step, verify that you're working with the SAS Base engine and not a database. If your data is in a database, skip the SORT! The details: When to skip the PROC SORT step Many SAS procedures allow you
Programming loops are a staple of any computer programming language. In essence, loops are what make programming languages so powerful. In all programming loops, a group of statements is executed repeatedly based on the value of an index variable that changes from one iteration to another. The iterations are continued
In the previous article on managing legends, I described the way to include items in a legend that may not exist in the data. This is done by defining a Discrete Attribute Map, and then requesting that all the values defined in the map should be displayed in the legend. In
Living in a society where the pressure to succeed is on as early as preschool and time moves so fast it sometimes feels hard to breathe, I’ve found meditation to be cheap therapy for my generally order-driven, perfectionist self. It’s during this time, I quiet the chatter, nurture my spirituality,
In my last post, I discussed some practical steps you can take to collect the right information for justifying why your business should design and implement a data strategy. Having identified weaknesses in your environment that could impede business success, your next step is to drill down deeper to determine where there may be
The World Health Organization recently declared the Zika virus a global public health emergency. This virus is spread by certain mosquitoes, and therefore if we know where those mosquitoes are located, then we've got a pretty good idea of where the virus might spread. Before we get to the numbers, here
Last week I showed how to use PROC EXPAND to compute moving averages and other rolling statistics in SAS. Unfortunately, PROC EXPAND is part of SAS/ETS software and not every SAS site has a license for SAS/ETS. For simple moving averages, you can write a DATA step program, as discussed
Entries in a legend are populated automatically based on the data. When creating a graph with group classification, the display attributes for each bar are derived from the GraphData1-12 style elements from the active style. The graph on the right shows you the result of creating an adverse event timeline
It is said that everything is big in Texas, and that includes big data. During my recent trip to Austin I had the privilege of being a judge in the final round of the Texata Big Data World Championship, a fantastic example of big data competitions. It felt fitting that
Groundhog Day is one of those quirky bits of Americana that add richness and flavor to life. Everyone likes Groundhog Day. It’s a fun, light-hearted way to cope with the cold, dark days of winter. Taxes, on the other hand, are not so fun and light-hearted. Mention the word “taxes”
With data now impacting nearly every business activity, there should no longer be any doubt that data needs to be managed as a strategic corporate asset. This post examines the top five characteristics of a strong data strategy. Existence As I previously blogged, in today’s fast-moving business world now often takes priority
SAS Global Forum is the premier worldwide event for SAS professionals. It brings nearly 5,000 users and executives from across the world together to share new techniques and technologies to help expand users’ SAS skills. But an event of this size (hundreds of presentations, dozens of workshops and several networking
This past Saturday evening, my husband & I took a stroll around downtown Durham and checked out a pizza place in the historic Fire Station #1. As I was chatting with the manager, I learned that they hosted a “Family Meal” every Sunday afternoon with the goal of bringing families
I recently read an article about the major challenges electric utilities are facing in 2016, and I thought: "Wow, those challenges can be answered in so many ways..." Utilities are dealing with an onslaught of issues which can no longer be ignored or put off because they're all high priority and interrelated. But
Is cognitive computing an application of text mining? If you have asked this question, you are not alone. In fact, lately I have heard it quite often. So what is cognitive computing, really? A cognitive computing system, as stated by Dr. John E. Kelly III, is one that has the
While setting up meetings with business consumers developing a data warehouse environment, I was involved in some very interesting conversations. Following are some of the assumptions that were made during these conversations, as well as a few observations. To get a well-rounded view of this topic, read my earlier post that focuses on the IT perspective.
What do you think is the most important new feature in SAS/STAT? Well it depends! In this video, SAS developers talk about their new work and which customers will be excited about it and why. Healthcare professionals may lean toward the new rare events control charts in QC, which allows
Editor Len Tashman's preview of the Winter 2016 issue of Foresight This 40th issue of Foresight begins with a review of the new book by Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner with the enticing title Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction. Reviewer Steve Morlidge explains that …the “superforecasters” of the
Novice SAS programmers quickly learn the advantages of using PROC SORT to sort data, followed by a BY-group analysis of the sorted data. A typical example is to analyze demographic data by state or by ZIP code. A BY statement enables you to produce multiple analyses from a single procedure
SAS Global Forum is an all-volunteer event, with SAS users from around the globe serving in a variety of roles to make the event happen. Still, no position is more impactful to the success of the conference than the SAS Global Forum Conference Chair. Its importance is highlighted by the
Universities using data is a topic close to SAS’ heart, and in a recent blog we talked about the specific challenges that UK universities face in attracting and keeping students, and how data can help universities better understand the student lifecycle. The first Universities and College Admissions Services (UCAS) deadline
A honey bee can live for 8 years ... but a black garden ant can live even 20 years longer than that! Learn more details, and other interesting trivia, in this blog on "the longevity of things." I recently found The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database, and was fascinated by
.@philsimon on the convergence between tools such as Hadoop and strategy.
The Internet of Things (IoT), sensors and connected devices are all the buzz leading up to DistribuTECH (Feb 9-11), so I sat down with one of our IoT specialists, Lorry Hardt to learn more. Lorry will be at DistribuTECH to support our joint demonstration with Intel and gave me the
People often seek out our company for guidance related to master data management, data governance and data quality. But I see a frequent pattern, where the customer presumes that they need a particular data management solution – even if there is no specific data management problem. This approach is often triggered in reaction
With our first real taste of Old Man Winter last week, we’re all dreaming of warm, sunny days and sweet, melt-in-your-mouth produce…..but wait, it’s only January, bummer! However, just because it’s the dead of winter doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy juicy blueberries or succulent corn.
