"What's in a name?" asked Juliet. "That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." What if it's not roses we're after, but variable names which hold the values needed for a calculation?
Machine learning is not new. SAS has been doing it for over 20 years and some early machine learning papers date back to the 50’s. So why is it one of the hottest topics at the Strata Hadoop World conference later this week? Clearly, Hadoop is playing a major role
Descriptive univariate statistics are the foundation of data analysis. Before you create a statistical model for new data, you should examine descriptive univariate statistics such as the mean, standard deviation, quantiles, and the number of nonmissing observations. In SAS, there is an easy way to create a data set that
Returning from my recent visit to India, I was reading an article that included a graph with a series plot where the color of the series itself changed based on the Y response. Now, for sure, the SAS 9.40M3 SERIES plot in the SGPLOT procedure supports color response, but that applies
As the federal government’s ability to collect personally identifiable information has increased drastically in recent years, so have attacks targeting that information. Insider threats are of particular concern, according to the Government Accountability Office's 2015 bi-annual High Risk Report. The GAO specifically states, “Risks to cyber assets can originate from
In a voting contest, is it possible for a huge population to get behind a ridiculous candidate with such force that no other contestant can possibly catch up? The answer is: Yes. Just ask the folks at NERC, the environmental research organization in the UK. They are commissioning a new
A few years ago, in the height of my workaholism, I took up a hobby. I go to sketchy neighborhoods around L.A. and hang out with dogs I don’t know. I have a long history of adopting and fostering shelter dogs, often getting them out on their “euth dates.” With
Gasoline prices are a lot lower than they've been the past few years, but the price fluctuates so much that it's difficult to tell whether you're getting a good deal. Perhaps these SAS graphs & maps will help you get a handle on it, so you'll know a good deal
One of my colleagues often asks me “What’s new in insurance”. For an industry that is risk adverse, change does not come easily. In the past we have discussed innovations concerning telematics, drones, wearables devices and even weather data. However when he asked me last week and I responded that
Lately there seems to be a surge in the term machine learning. Much like big data a few years ago, machine learning is the new buzzword -- and the two terms actually go hand in hand. With increasing volumes of data now stored in distributed environments such as Hadoop, it's
Many data quality issues are a result of the distance separating data from the real-world object or entity it attempts to describe. This is the case with master data, which describes parties, products, locations and assets. Customer (one of the roles within party) master data quality issues are rife with examples, especially
We continue to ready ourselves for this year’s SAS Global Forum coming up next month. On Monday, April 18, there will be two SAS Certification testing events. Then after the conference wraps up, SAS training instructors will be offering unique, hands-on training that you won’t find anywhere else. In this
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then visualizing data in Hadoop would be like a billion. Over the last few years, organizations have rushed to leverage the low-cost distributed computing and storage power of Hadoop clusters. As Hadoop environments mature and move away from their initial focus of
Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Not So Virgin Studies on the Mediterranean Diet have shown that extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is one of the healthiest culinary fats on the planet. EVOO is high in polyphenols that provide anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects in our bodies and for the oil itself. EVOO
You’ve likely heard the news that the Google DeepMind “AlphaGo” computer not only beat a human expert at the game of Go, defeating the European Go champion, Fan Hui in five straight games, but also beat the reigning world champion grandmaster, South Korea’s Lee Sedol, 4 games to 1. Go
Modeling risk to meet regulatory requirements is costly and complex. Because of that, some have suggested that financial services institutions (FSIs) move toward a set of standardized models. The argument is that central banks and regulatory authorities could then more easily monitor systemic risk and compare apples to apples. But
You may have noticed that when using date information in SAS Visual Analytics, that the date data values can be displayed in a variety of ways. You may see your dates displayed like Jan1916, 03Jun1915, or 03/12/16, for example. In this blog I’ll help you understand SAS date and time
Even the most casual observers of the IT space over the last few years are bound to have heard about Hadoop and the advantages it brings. Consider its ability to store data in virtually any format and process it in parallel. Hadoop distributors, such as Hortonworks, can also provide enterprise-level
“We could send a juvenile justice youth to Harvard for what we pay for incarceration, and we don't get very good outcomes.” That was said by Gladys Carrion when she was Director of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. (She’s now Commissioner of NYC Administration for
According to Lloyd Dean, president and CEO, "At Dignity Health, we are committed to developing partnerships and opportunities that harness the tremendous potential of technology, from improving the patient experience to providing caregivers with tools that will support their day-to-day care decisions." Dignity Health, one of the largest health systems
The other day the thermometer shot up to 80. I had been pulling from my winter wardrobe when the heat compelled me to put on a pair of pants I hadn’t worn for the past 6 months. Hmmm. They didn't fit as I had expected. :) Reality check. Reality checks are
I recently bought a vehicle that has FlexFuel capability and can use E85 (mostly ethanol) fuel. But can you guess whether it is more economical for me to use E85, or regular gasoline? Read the SAS analysis below to see if you guessed right! I've been the happy owner of
Did you know one of the attendees' favorite events at SAS Global Forum is to meet our bestselling authors? This year at SAS Global Forum 2016 we are planning a "Top Tips from Your Favorite SAS Press Authors" lunch where we will ask 3 or 4 authors to present a top tip
@philsimon on what we can learn about data quality from Jeff Bezos's behemoth.
The new book Business Forecasting: Practical Problems and Solutions contains a large section of recent articles on forecasting performance evaluation and reporting. Among the contributing authors is Rob Hyndman, Professor of Statistics at Monash University in Australia. To anyone needing an introduction, Hyndman's credentials include: Editor-in-chief of International Journal of
As the big data era continues to evolve, Hadoop remains the workhorse for distributed computing environments. MapReduce has been the dominant workload in Hadoop, but Spark -- due to its superior in-memory performance -- is seeing rapid acceptance and growing adoption. As the Hadoop ecosystem matures, users need the flexibility to use either traditional MapReduce
Many of us here at SAS are hustling to prepare for SAS Global Forum set to begin April 18 in Las Vegas. This year’s agenda is shaping up to be a “can’t-miss” event. Monday, before SAS Global Forum begins, there are two SAS Certification testing events. Then after the conference
In an upcoming paper for SAS Global Forum, several of us from the SAS Text Analytics team explore shifting the context of our underlying representation from documents to the sentences that are within the documents. We then look at how this shift can allow us to answer new text mining
In my last post, Expert tips for first-time attendees of SAS Global Forum 2016, I asked members of the SAS Global Users Group Executive Board what advice they had for users attending SAS Global Forum for the first time. In this post, they share tips for returning attendees. Each year,
Today, I'd like to introduce a new author! Welcome Amy Rockwell to the SAS Life Blog team! Amy shares her passion for the great outdoors with SAS Employees through the RFC's Outdoor Adventure programs. In addition to finding Amy on the trails and teaching and working out at the RFC, she enjoys spending time with
