Have you ever found a graph of some interesting information, but the graph was difficult to understand (or even misleading). I strive to fix those graphs - this time it's a graph of US immigration data... I found the following immigration graph on the flowingdata website - it's a screen-capture of
As the torrential downpour of rain and gusty winds hit The Triangle and much of the south last week, I was keenly aware of behavior…my dog’s behavior. With the wetness of their paws, they would enter the house and immediately sit on a towel so we could dry them. Opportunity to
Last week I showed how to create dummy variables in SAS by using the GLMMOD procedure. The procedure enables you to create design matrices that encode continuous variables, categorical variables, and their interactions. You can use dummy variables to replace categorical variables in procedures that do not support a CLASS
I recently received a call from a colleague that is using parallel processing in a grid environment; he lamented that SAS Enterprise Guide did not show in the work library any of the tables that were successfully created in his project. The issue was very clear in my mind, but
When I am discussing my new Explaining Analytics course with analytic professionals, I frequently hear, “I have a co-worker that needs the class.” That comment is much more frequent than – “Hey I need that class.” The truth of the matter is we all need to continue to improve –
April 7, 2003 will go down in the history books for me. The streets of Syracuse, New York, were abuzz. I was a junior television major, and our men’s basketball team had just won its first NCAA basketball title. Our three-seed Orangemen had bested #2 Kansas in New Orleans, but the
It’s hard to believe, but SAS Global Forum 2016 is less than two months away. As chair of this year’s conference, I’ve been preparing for the event for nearly two years. Now, it’s right around the corner! Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time reading and contributing to the
With the upcoming appointment of a new Supreme Court Justice, I wondered just how liberal and conservative previous justices have been. I found some data, and tried my hand at creating a graph to help visualize it... In my quest for data, I came upon an article on the NYTimes
Data quality has always been relative and variable, meaning data quality is relative to a particular business use and can vary by user. Data of sufficient quality for one business use may be insufficient for other business uses, and data considered good by one user may be considered bad by others.
One of the first things SAS programmers learn is that SAS data sets can be specified in two ways. You can use a two-level name such as "sashelp.class" which uses a SAS libref (SASHELP) and a member name (CLASS) to specify the location of the data set. Alternatively, you can
Have you ever been in a meeting in which a presenter is showing content on a web page -- but the audience can't read it because it's too small? Then a guy sitting in the back of the room yells, "Control plus!". Because, as we all know (right?), "Ctrl+" is
The 88th Annual Academy Awards are coming up. Twitter will be on high alert Sunday night to hear who takes home the gold Oscar. To celebrate in our own special way, we want to highlight some of our amazing followers. Without further ado, here are our award-winning posts from the last year: Best
Companies in nearly every industry – from retailers and manufacturers to commercial airlines and health care providers – are all waking up to the opportunities in the Internet of Things. If you're still trying to understand how analyzing IoT data could benefit your business, read a few of the articles
This blog is the fourth in a February series from SAS Work/Life. First we had Laurie Watson talk about Finding the Love you Need. Her blog was followed up by an excellent Lunch and Learn Attachment and Dating! Next, Dr. Mona Gupta and colleagues blogged about Dating the Second Time Around. The third blog,
SAS Global Forum 2016 is the largest gathering of SAS users in the world, with more than 5,000 data scientists, analytic professionals and business leaders expected for this year’s event at The Venetian in Las Vegas, April 18-21. While many users make the event a part of their professional development
When I was a kid, I remember being fascinated by the first moon landing. I probably won't ever get to explore the moon in person, but perhaps creating an interactive moon map is the next best thing! Before we get started, I wanted to share a couple of photos my co-worker
In a recent blog I wrote about how big data is a game changer for the insurance industry. But the question that is often asked “What is big data”? Many people associate big data with the 4 V’s: Volume – The sheer size of data that is produced. Velocity –
In transportation, when an asset is standing still, it is losing money. The same can be said for your business strategy: when you are standing still, you are not innovating or taking advantage of new ways to enhance efficiency or drive profitability. This is true in all industries. In the
In “Explaining statistical methods to the terrified & disinterested: A focus on metaphors”, I discuss the usefulness of metaphors for explaining abstract statistical concepts to non-technical readers. This is an approach taken in my new SAS Press book, Business Statistics Made Easy in SAS®, since many readers of this level
When the likes of Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking go on record warning about the dangers of AI, it’s probably prudent to take notice. However, before rushing off into full panic mode, some definitions and perspective would be in order. The type of artificial intelligence Musk and Hawking are referring
I recently attended a Fat Summit hosted by Integrative and Functional Medicine physician, Mark Hyman, MD, Director of the Center for Functional Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Hyman invited some of the most prestigious U.S. researchers to join this online Summit to share their individual research data. This academic
SAS programmers sometimes ask, "How do I create a design matrix in SAS?" A design matrix is a numerical matrix that represents the explanatory variables in regression models. In simple models, the design matrix contains one column for each continuous variable and multiple columns (called dummy variables) for each classification
I had the opportunity to interview an award-winning, fast-moving, consumer packaged goods (CPG) company in the early 2000’s. They were recognized as one of the best supply chain companies in the United States by all of the major retailers and their CPG peers. Indeed, it seemed every time a new
I recently presented a webinar (via the IAIDQ) on the topic of 7 Habits of Effective Data Quality Leaders. To prepare, I looked back at the many interviews of leading data quality practitioners I had undertaken over the years. A common trait among all these interviews stood out – they
If you're a worrier, you know there's a chance you could get bitten by a shark, or hit by a piece of falling satellite debris - these events are both possible, but not probable. Getting injured by a lawn mower, on the other hand, is something that could easily happen. With
I subscribe to a listserv that sends out articles on communication. I was reading an article recently on how to talk to your spouse about starting a family. As I read through the article I realized these steps apply to communication with your spouse about any emotionally charged issue. I found the steps so
The SAS Data Loader directive ‘Copy Data to Hadoop’ enables you to copy data from DBMS to Hadoop Hive tables. The SAS Data Loader for Hadoop can be configured to copy data from any external database which offers JDBC database connectivity. SAS Data Loader uses the Apache Sqoop™ and Oozie
There's a lot of chatter about analytics in the information security space. That’s actually a massive understatement. Analytics is a common buzzword, and if everyone's talking it, but how do you cut through all the noise? Who is doing what when it comes to analytics? It can be difficult to tell. As part of
A dummy variable (also known as indicator variable) is a numeric variable that indicates the presence or absence of some level of a categorical variable. The word "dummy" does not imply that these variables are not smart. Rather, dummy variables serve as a substitute or a proxy for a categorical
Asylum seekers not causing headaches for the UK’s Home Office may be hard to imagine. There are regular scare stories about asylum seekers and budget cuts, amid rising concerns over immigration and the strain its putting on the national infrastructure. But it needn’t mean headaches for policy makers and officials.
