"Shall we play a game?" If you’re a child of the ’80s like me, you might recognize this famous line from the movie WarGames. This innocent-sounding question comes not from one of the movie’s human stars, but from a military super-computer named Joshua, after a bored high school student, played
Sometimes one's job gets in the way of one's blogging. My last three months have been occupied with the launch of SAS® Viya™, our next-generation high-performance and visualization architecture. Please take the time to find more information on the SAS Viya website, and apply for a free preview. Rob Hyndman
With recent advances in quadcopters, or drones, they have become pretty capable and fun flying machines. And just about anybody can afford the entry-level models. They've recently become prevalent enough that the government has started coming up with rules, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) started requiring owners to register drones that
The one thing, above all others, that I wish PROC REPORT could do is know which observations from my data set that I want kept together on a single page of non-Listing output. This is problematic for two reasons. 1. PROC REPORT cannot read my mind! 2. PROC REPORT does
Master data management (MDM) is distinct from other data management disciplines due to its primary focus on giving the enterprise a single view of the master data that represents key business entities, such as parties, products, locations and assets. MDM achieves this by standardizing, matching and consolidating common data elements across traditional and big
For the first time in 4.5 years, we had a day with zero sunspots - I think this special occasion calls for some sunspot graphs! But before we get started, here's one of the many pictures my friend Kirk took of the sun down in Marco Island, Florida. Spots or no
If you’ve followed recent health news, you’ve read reports confirming the negative health effects of excess sugar consumption. High sugar intake has been linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, brain diseases and more. Numerous health organizations including the American Heart Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, Institute of Medicine (IOM) and
Last week I discussed how to create spaghetti plots in SAS. A spaghetti plot is a type of line plot that contains many lines. Spaghetti plots are used in longitudinal studies to show trends among individual subjects, which can be patients, hospitals, companies, states, or countries. I showed ways to
21st century is the era of information revolution, when mass exploitation of data is a part of daily routine. Nowadays any business requires that the information driving the decision-making process be of a high quality, timely delivered and, above all, reliable and that it ensure security of the activity conducted.
Just before my son's wedding this spring, I was considering what I could share about Michael at the rehearsal dinner. As I sorted through pictures from his childhood, I came across one from 5th grade. Michael played the main character in Leo Tolstoy's Christmas story, "Papa Panov". During the performance, he stayed in
The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) Confederation has done lots of great research on how to enhance decision making so that every decision delivers greater value to patients (in terms of clinical outcome) and to health care organisations (in terms of operational effectiveness). In its most recent report on this
To some people, electricity is like air: There for the taking. For others, circumventing paying a utility bill is a just cause, sticking it to “Big Energy” for their perceived transgressions against customers. In either case, not paying for energy is considered fraud and a crime. In some states, energy
A reader posed a question in the comments to an earlier Jedi SAS Trick, asking how to write the results of a DS2 DATA _NULL_ program to a text file. It's an interesting question, as DS2 currently has no text file handling statements or capabilities. Take, for example, this traditional
It's an exciting time to be in the automotive and transportation industry. The opportunities for business transformation and growth are enormous – and those companies that lead in implementing new ways to drive intelligent customer interactions will capture the greatest share of new revenue streams. For those of us fortunate enough
If you have taken a SAS Deployment exam in the past 9-12 months, you may have wondered why there are pre-test test questions. While it might seem like I am providing warmer-upper questions out of the goodness of my heart, these pre-test tests are actually called candidate surveys. Their purpose?
Single view of customer. It's a noble goal, not unlike the search for the Holy Grail – fraught with peril as you progress down the path of your data journey. If you're a hotelier, it can improve your customer's experience by providing the information from the casinos and the spa at check-in to better meet your
In my last blog post, I introduced common concerns I’ve heard about predictive analytics in child well-being efforts. In this post, I want to address those concerns and reassure leaders and advocates that predictive analytics can be a tremendous boon to our ability to help kids and ease the burden on
I got several positive comments about a recent tip, "How to fit a variety of logistic regression models in SAS." A reader asked if I knew any other similar resources about statistical analysis in SAS. Absolutely! One gem that comes to mind is "Examples of writing CONTRAST and ESTIMATE statements."
Strengthen and stretch your thighs, ankles and calves. Open your hips, shoulders and upper back. Eagle (Sanskrit: Garudasana) 1. Stand in Tadasana/Mountain. Lift your left knee up engaging your core and focusing on something that’s not moving. Cross your left thigh over the right. Point your left toes toward the
In DataFlux Data Management Studio, the data quality nodes (e.g., Parsing, Standardization, and Match Codes) in a data job use definitions from the SAS Quality Knowledge Base (QKB). These definitions are based on a locale (Language and Country combination). Sometimes you would like to work with multi-locale data within the
At the 2013 SAS Global Forum, I presented a paper titled "Make a Good Graph" which reviewed some of the features that make for a good graph. This paper presents an aggregation of ideas from various sources, including some recommendations from thought leaders in the graphics arena such as Edward Tufte,
Do you want to send out more timely, relevant offers to customers while they’re browsing online or visiting your store? What if you could reduce the average checkout time from four minutes to two by using your mobile app? If you want answers to these questions and others, then it’s
When using visual analytics, it's important to realize that WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) is not always true. By recognizing a few optical illusions and tricks, you might become a better data analyst ... and have some fun along the way. Let's start with the Koffka Rings
SAS Technical Support has earned a wonderful reputation for being friendly, knowledgeable, and thorough. Every customer that I talk to is delighted by the experience. That's why what I'm about to say might be heresy, but here it goes. If you have a question about how to accomplish a task
What is a spaghetti plot? Spaghetti plots are line plots that involve many overlapping lines. Like spaghetti on your plate, they can be hard to unravel, yet for many analysts they are a delicious staple of data visualization. This article presents the good, the bad, and the messy about spaghetti
Insurers are embracing digital to meet the demands of modern consumers. And, of course, there are obvious benefits to them from less costly, more streamlined interactions with their customers. The trouble is that digitisation comes with a major health warning: Unless insurers put suitable measures in place, they're at risk
Teacher salaries have been a hotly debated issue in our state for the past few years. In this blog post, I examine a graph that recently appeared in our local news, point out some deficiencies, and create an alternate graph. But before we get started, here's a picture of my
Most companies are battling with master data challenges whether they realise it or not. When you're consolidating financials from multiple billing systems, you're doing MDM. When you're migrating legacy systems to a new target environment, you're doing MDM. When you're trying to perform root-cause analysis across multiple systems for a
It’s that time of year (hooray!) that we all begin preparing for our summer vacations. Soon you’re headed to the coast to soak up the summer sun and spend your days salty with a cold beverage in hand. Or, maybe you’re off to escape the heat and bask in the
If you were to climb Mt. Everest, you would face many dangers, including large crevasses in the glacier. Without best practices and a phased ascension there is a large probability that you’ll get into serious trouble and fail. When it comes to updating your data and analytics systems, the challenges
