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.
A common question on SAS discussion forums is how to compute a moving average in SAS. This article shows how to use PROC EXPAND and contains links to articles that use the DATA step or macros to compute moving averages in SAS. In a previous post, I explained how to
The East Coast of the US got quite a snowstorm this past weekend, but did your area get enough snow to brag about? Let's see what the data says... Before we get started, here are a couple pictures of the snow. The first one is from my driveway - we didn't
In my last blog (What is going on with my Visual Analytics audit data collection) I reviewed how middle-tier auditing works and where to look for logs to debug issues. In this follow up blog I will do the same for the Visual Analytics audit data archiving process. The archive process is
When he filmed the scene in the summer of '69, my Dad did not foresee his moment of fame in 2016. But in the last two days, Dad has seen his 47-year-old work appear in the local Buffalo, NY media, on DailyMail.com, and on FOX News*. In August of 1969,
The other day I was in a meeting with a client and there was an argument about who owns the data. Those arguing were IT people. In this scenario, the assumption was that data from source systems would flow into and integrate with a data warehouse. I found the discussion very interesting. Here are some of the
A moving average (also called a rolling average) is a statistical technique that is used to smooth a time series. Moving averages are used in finance, economics, and quality control. You can overlay a moving average curve on a time series to visualize how each value compares to a rolling
Hi, there! First of all, let me introduce myself, as this is my first blog. I am Simran Bagga, and three weeks ago I became the Product Manager for Text Analytics at SAS. This role might be new to me, but text analytics is not. For the past 12 years,
The East Coast is having lots of snow and ice storms today, and SAS headquarters is officially closed. But I thought it would be a great day to get a few things done! And among those few things is "write a snow-related blog". Hope you enjoy it! After 21 years of
“What keeps you awake at night?” my colleague asked me. At the time, I was a child protective services administrator responsible for thousands of at risk children on any given day. While there were many things that weighed on my mind, worker turnover created many sleepless nights, and days filled
The role of insurance is to bring some predictability, manageability and stability in what is in essence, a chaotic and uncertain world. So as we head into 2016, what are the big issues for insurers in the next 12 months? Below is just a selection of some of these issues:
How do public higher education institutions get funded? In the past, state funding was tied to enrollment, but now more states are tying funding to institutional performance. State Legislatures want more accountability for money spent on higher education and have turned to performance-based funding (also called outcomes-based funding). As such,
Last month I wrote an article on connecting multiple statistics by category in a box plot using SGPLOT. In the first article I described the way you can do this using overlaid SERIES on a VBOX using SAS 9.4, which allows such a combination. However, if you have SAS 9.3,
.@philsimon provides insights on whether a data strategy can result in competitive advantage.
Are you from Yankeedom, The Far West, or somewhere in between? In this blog, I use SAS maps to explore some fun data about regional cultures in the U.S. I recently ran across an interesting article about Colin Woodward's book "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures
The New Year is one of my favorite times at the gym. Fresh, ambitious faces show up in their bright new workout clothes and fancy new shoes. There are gadgets – arm bands, Garmin watches, weight gloves, and the latest water bottles. Classes are full. The pool has a slight
In SAS, the aspect ratio of a graph is the physical height of the graph divided by the physical width. Recently I demonstrated how to set the aspect ratio of graphs in SAS by using the ASPECT= option in PROC SGPLOT or by using the OVERLAYEQUATED statement in the Graph
Do any of your New Year’s resolutions include the goal to become a more productive SAS user? Whether you’re building models or reports using SAS or you’re using SAS to effectively manage your data, you likely have a goal to be as productive as possible with your SAS usage in
