Data gone awry, Part 1: Will your business data deceive you?
.@philsimon on whether big data and analytics offer true guarantees.
English
How to participate in SAS Global Forum 2016...even if you're not going
Is it just me, or does it feel a little bit like Christmas Eve? I think it's because SAS Global Forum 2016 is right around the corner, and for many SAS users, it's the most wonderful time of the year. If you're heading to Las Vegas, get ready for three days of learning from SAS peers,
Tax returns, identity theft and hackers – Oh my!
Monday, April 18th is Tax Day, aka, National Identity Theft Day. OK, that part’s not true, but as millions of taxpayers go online to file taxes, it may as well be. The majority of taxpaying citizens file online, using services such as the popular TurboTax, H & R Block, and
How much will that taxi cost me?
Are you afraid that if you take a ride in a taxi, you might get "taken for a ride"? If trying to figure out the reasonable price of a taxi is a bit voodoo/black-box to you, here is a SAS data analysis of over 12 million NYC Yellow Cab rides, that
SAS/OR at SAS Global Forum 2016
This year's SAS Global Forum conference will take place April 18-21 at The Venetian in Las Vegas. For SAS/OR, SAS staff will present two Super Demos and three papers:
Revolved Chair: April Yoga Pose of the Month
Strengthen your legs and core with April's Yoga Pose of the month: Revolved Chair (Sanskrit: Parivrtta Utkatasana)
SAS® in the seat? Motorcycle racer goes streaming.
Some people think motorcycle racing is a sport for thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. So you might be surprised to hear that after many years of racing, I’ve found it to be a contemplative activity more related to precision and prediction than reckless abandon. In motorcycle racing, the driver has
Attention VAT fraudsters: You’re no match for analytics!
Across the globe, governments are losing billions in revenues to organised VAT fraud. The most recent VAT Gap study published by the European Commission estimates that EU countries lost an estimated €168 billion in VAT revenues in 2013. That's equivalent to 15.2% of the total expected VAT revenue from the
Automatic data suppression in SAS reports
Have you ever used SAS to produce reports for publishing? Have you ever thought of or been told about suppressing data in such reports? Why do we need to suppress (in the sense of withholding, concealing, obscuring or hiding) data in published reports? The reason is simple - in order
Gamifying tax preparation is the biggest threat to the US tax system
Tax preparation software has encouraged the gamification of tax evasion, making it tantalizingly simple to bump up the value of a tax refund. This is alarming, but it's easy to see how we got here. I love classic video games. When I was a kid, Atari made the best games, but hard
Getting down and dirty with lake water quality data
Just like my hero Mike Rowe on the Dirty Jobs TV show, I'm finally diving into an area involving water quality ... and poop! Let's take a graphical look at just how clean (or dirty) the water is, at the lake where my Raleigh Dragon Boat Club practices... Before we get
Innovation in reinsurance – no longer an oxymoron
Insurance is a tough marketplace, but in many respects reinsurance is tougher! Today, the reinsurance industry is faced with an unprecedented number of challenges especially with what appears to be an increasing frequency and severity of man-made and natural catastrophes. To combat these challenges, reinsurers are turning to technology for
3 Time-Saving Kitchen Tips
Life is busy...super busy! There are hardly enough minutes in the day to get everything done and the last thing anyone wants to do after a long day is slave over a hot stove for hours. However, believe it or not, preparing healthy, well-balanced meals IS possible to fit into
Let me help you with that! A technical SAS resource guide
On the search for some SAS notes, workarounds or sample code? What you may not know is that there are a ton of SAS resources out there providing examples, tips and tricks that are great to have in your tool belt! Many of these resources provide sufficient insight and resolutions
The underground economy, aka can you spare $2 trillion?
Welcome to the dreaded week when procrastinators embrace their fates as responsible taxpayers. While you and I may be paying our taxes, to no surprise, as much as $2 trillion in the underground economy will go unreported this year in the U.S. While that number may seem shocking, and the percentage is higher than
Places to visit while in Las Vegas for SAS Global Forum 2016
People sometimes ask me, “What is there to do when I’m in town for SAS Global Forum when I’m NOT attending the conference? After getting over the shock of finding these people in my house, emptying out my fridge, I realize they are simply offering me positive reinforcement based on
Pushing data quality beyond boundaries
Throughout my long career of building and implementing data quality processes, I've consistently been told that data quality could not be implemented within data sources, because doing so would disrupt production systems. Therefore, source data was often copied to a central location – a staging area – where it was cleansed, transformed, unduplicated, restructured
SAS at the 2016 INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics and Operations Research
SAS will have a major presence at the 2016 INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics and Operations Research, which will be held at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress hotel in Orlando, FL on April 10-12. Many SAS staff will participate in this conference. SAS/OR, the SAS Global Academic Program, and JMP
Displaying Group Values on the Axis
Recently a user was working with the HBAR statement with cluster groups with SG procedures. User wanted to see the group values on the axis. SGPLOT does not display multi level axes as these are shared with different plot types. However, with SGPLOT, there is often a way to get
Tax fraud detection & good reporting can save your job
Tax fraud doesn’t just steal money from taxpayers, it can strip people of their livelihoods and reputations. When a manager in a tax agency’s property tax division stole nearly $50M in property tax refunds, the media and external auditors asked: “How did no one notice this?” The woman started small,
Broadcast your SAS credentials with digital badging
If you happen to be a SAS credential holder, like most candidates, you have invested a lot of time and effort in earning your SAS certification. Wouldn’t it be great if you could broadcast and manage verifiable proof of your achievement where you want and when you want? That’s where
University of Oklahoma sees 90% accuracy with data-informed recruiting
How do universities predict which students will enroll? And how do they determine what actions recruitment officers should take to entice students to pick their university? These were two of the key questions tackled by Lisa Moore, Data Scientist at University of Oklahoma, during her presentation at The Texas Association
The Pursuit of Mindfulness
Sitting tall on the floor, I close my eyes. I begin to hear sounds in the distance. What is it? It seems close and yet there was a distant echo. The echo drifts into quiet silence. The clock ticks and I think of the faded noise. Could it have been
Can SAS Data Management get you to soccer on time?
A soccer fairy tale Imagine it's Soccer Saturday. You've got 10 kids and 10 loads of laundry – along with buried soccer jerseys – that you need to clean before the games begin. Oh, and you have two hours to do this. Fear not! You are a member of an advanced HOA
PROC REPORT versus other Base SAS procedures
When you’re making a report, how do you choose which procedure to use? The answer is – it depends. It depends on: whether you are doing an ad hoc analysis or creating a final report that many people will see whether you will run statistical tests with your data or
Boaty McBoatface is on the run
I know what you're thinking: two "Boaty McBoatface" articles within two weeks? And we're past April Fool's Day? But since I posted my original analysis about the "Name our ship" phenomenon that's happening in the UK right now, a new contender has appeared: Poppy-Mai. The cause of Poppy-Mai, a critically
Health insurance, healthcare and pharmaceutical perspective on data quality – Part 2
As I explained in Part 1 of this series, spelling my name wrong does bother me! However, life changes quickly at health insurance, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies. That said, taking unintegrated or cleansed data and propagating it to Hadoop may only help one issue. That would be the issue of getting the data
Data science: Storytelling in the 21st century
For thousands of years, the human experience has been recorded by storytellers. Stories tell the tale of our lives: beginning, middle and end. Stories document the triumphs and tragedies of heroes and villains and everything in between. Human beings are storytellers -- it's a trait as uniquely human as an
SAS Studio Parallel Process Flows
One of the hidden gems of SAS Studio is the ability to run process flows in parallel. This feature really shines when used in a grid environment. Let’s discuss this one step at a time. First, what is a process flow? When working in the Visual Programmer perspective, you have
The College Search Process and Reference-Bias
The other day I was listening to a Hidden Brain clip about reference bias. Apparently, a new research study found that students exposed to their very best peers became discouraged about their own abilities and performance — and were more likely to drop out. Just on face value, that rang