When I visualize three-dimensional data, I prefer to use interactive graphics. For example, I often use the rotating plot in SAS/IML Studio (shown at the left) to create a three-dimensional scatter plot. The interactive plot enables me to rotate the cloud of points and to use a pointer to select
Adversarial relationships make for wonderful stories. Why? Because we can relate to them so well. It’s human nature to clash with rivals - cat fights, turf wars, even sibling rivalries reliably sell magazines and fill cinemas and theaters. But are they good for business? Of course not, especially not if the
As teachers head into the madness of student course registration, the madness of college basketball reinforces a critical point: Data is crucial to making the picks that lead to a winning bracket, and student growth. Value-added assessment has proven reliable in determining which students are ready for their "one shining moment". This
“My goal is to constantly improve the quality and stability of our software while at the same time innovating,” said Vice President of SAS Resarch and Development Armistead Sapp yesterday at the SAS Global Forum Technology Connection. Hosted by Product Management Director Michele Eggers, the Technology Connection focused not only on
Well, if I were asked to name the most intriguing spot in the SAS Support and Demo Area, it would probably be The Catalyst Café sponsored by SAS R&D. This exciting new area at SAS Global Forum 2014 is aptly name: a informal meeting place dedicated to jump-starting ideas for
Today is American Diabetes Association Alert Day®: a one-day "wake-up call" to bring attention to the increasing prevalence of diabetes worldwide. Whether or not you have diabetes, today is a perfect time to step back and think about your current lifestyle and what you can do NOW to prevent or
In December, Kathy Council gave us the scoop on the consolidation of several divisions at SAS into a single organization focused on customer support. At this morning’s 2014 Technology Connection, Fritz Lehman, Vice President of SAS Customer Engagement and Support, shared his vision by responding to some of your requests
I loved watching the Winter Olympics last month. The unique events, amazing athletes, world records, and the emotion – it's hard not to be totally absorbed in it all. Mostly, I'm a sucker for those sentimental athlete profiles. The dedication and the extensive training they endure is truly amazing. Noelle
As customers have grown more demanding and empowered, the role of marketing as steward of the customer relationship has evolved to be more strategic in the enterprise. And with that evolution comes a greater need to validate vendor claims of superiority. Analyst firms offer advice and research through their publications,
When you are making a big, important purchase there are few things more helpful than seeing how well things are going somewhere else. It's better than merely "kicking tires" because it's really happening somewhere else and in their own way, that other organization is putting customers at the center of their strategy. To that end,
Leading your organization to faster, better decisions requires skill, agility, resourcefulness and above all - analytics. In marketing, that combination allows the CMO to put the customer squarely in the center of strategy, and align operational execution around the customer focal-point. It's no coincidence that leading organizations, such as the world's biggest retailer,
SAS/IML 13.1 shipped a few months ago. I was asked to produce a video that highlights some of the new features in SAS/IML 13.1. In this video I describe several changes to the language before introducing the new built-in subroutines that create ODS statistical graphs. If your browser does not
In my region of North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill) one of the most anticipated times of the year has arrived— the NCAA basketball tournament. This is a great time of year for me, because I get to combine several of my passions. For those who don’t live among crazed college
With all the recent news reports about the missing Flight 370, I wondered what other airplanes have disappeared without a trace ... and I used SAS to visualize that data! There was in interesting infographic on the Bloomberg website that sort of answered my question, but their map just had
People love to joke about "watching cat videos" as the epitome of wasting time. Or they don't joke, but express amazement at "how you seem to get sucked in so easily watching cat videos. I am not one of those people that watches cat videos, so you can put me in
Are retailers suffering a skills shortage when it comes to analytics? Nikki Baird from Retail Systems Research (RSR Group) offers some intriguing observations about the critical analytical talent shortage facing the retail industry in a recent article, “Where Have All the Data Scientists Gone? SAS Analyst Day Report Out.” Her observations
In this video, you learn how to use a SET statement in the DATA step to read a SAS data set using Base SAS. The DATA step is a very powerful tool for data manipulation. You can watch more video tutorials by visiting: support.sas.com/training/tutorial/. To learn more about the SAS
Yesterday, I was on a phone call with a disappointed SAS user who won't be attending SAS Global Forum 2014. Like many others, her organization is facing another year of reduced travel and conference budgets. While there's no substitute for attending in person, live webcasts from SAS Global Forum make
Have you ever eaten a biscuit, and thought to yourself "well, it ain't like momma fixed it"? (Alan Jackson fans will get that one!) ... So it is with food, and so it is with numbers and dates in graphs! Back in college, when I lived in the Alexander International Dorm
SAS administrators have a delicate balance to maintain. SAS users want to be happy and productive, and to be granted the freedom to use any techniques in their skill set to accomplish their work. But the Business (or Government or Research institution) wants their sensitive data to be protected, and
Last month I blogged about defining SAS/IML functions that have default parameter values. This language feature, which was introduced in SAS/IML 12.1, enables you to skip arguments when you call a user-defined function. The same technique enables you to define optional parameters. Inside the function, you can determine whether the
Learning. Sharing knowledge. Catching up with colleagues. My favorite part of attending SAS Global Forum is connecting with other SAS users from around the globe. SAS Global Forum 2014 is run for SAS users, by SAS users and all of the content presented at the event is from users like
Once again I'll be at SAS Global Forum this year. The 2014 location is Washington, D. C., so I am looking forward to greeting many friends in the government and consulting sectors. I always enjoy talking with SAS customers about statistics, simulations, matrix computations, and the SAS/IML product, so here's
The SAS Global Forum 2014 is just around the corner starting Sunday, March 23 and I am eager to attend creative presentations from SAS users on ODS Graphics. Adoption of SG procedures, GTL and ODS Graphics Designer is growing among users and I see many promising papers. Papers by users: Something for Nothing!
After decades of trying to "manage" and "control" quality, manufacturers continue to struggle with consistently achieving quality excellence. To conquer the realities of today's marketplace and achieve quality excellence, manufacturers need to adopt an analytic approach to quality. The basic objective of manufacturers hasn't changed since the beginning - produce
For the third year now, I'll be hosting the SAS Tech Talk shows at SAS Global Forum. (Since I've been invited back I can assume that I'm more of an Ellen DeGeneres than a Seth MacFarlane.) These shows feature SAS technical experts (mostly from SAS R&D) who are prepared to
Running records of students’ reading are considered a valuable source of data for reading instruction, but also a significant time sink and generally tricky to administer. Reading Records is an anytime, anywhere solution that promises to yield the same valuable data without compromising precious class time (while providing several enhancements to the old paper-and-pencil method).
In my younger years, I enjoyed celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah, GA. Did you know the city dyes the fountain water green and has a parade that attracts over 400,000 people? It is now time for me to find additional cities to celebrate the holiday. Based on the DriveTheNation
Today is St. Patrick’s Day, and classrooms all over the US are decorated with shamrocks and the green top hats of the mythical leprechaun. According to legend, if you ever catch one, the leprechaun has the magical power to grant three wishes in exchange for its release (not to mention
The SAS/IML language has several functions for finding the unions, intersections, and differences between sets. In fact, two of my favorite utility functions are the UNIQUE function, which returns the unique elements in a matrix, and the SETDIF function, which returns the elements that are in one vector and not
