Most of you probably don’t know this, but my undergraduate major was geography. That’s right, geography. Is it because I love maps? Well, actually, yes, I do, and my friends and family can tell you that my “go-to” present is always the most recent edition of the Atlas of the
Well okay maybe you can't hear us, but at least you can read what we have to say. Although, I'm not ruling out an occasional video or podcast entry. One of the best kept secrets at SAS is the incredible domain expertise that comes to work here everyday, ready to
It’s been just over a year since my appearance at SAS Global Forum 2014 last year (if you can remember, I was the crazy one who memorized Pi to 1000 digits and wore silly colored glasses on stage while I recalled them), and since then I have been very busy.
You may feel like the world is moving faster than ever. If so, then you can take solace in two facts: You're not alone in feeling this way. You're right. It is. Celebrating the 25-year anniversary of the Web, The Economist ran a piece examining the increasingly rapid adoption of new technologies.
The 2015 SAS Global Forum is in Dallas, TX, and I'll be there. There are many talks to see and people to meet, so thank goodness for the agenda builder, which enables you to create a schedule in advance. I always enjoy talking with SAS customers about statistics, simulations, matrix
Copy/paste is my favorite method for creating new SAS programs. In my work projects, I maintain a sort of genealogy of SAS programs, because the DNA of one program can be used to spawn many other SAS programs as its progeny. When things (inevitably) aren't working as I intend in
What do terabytes of data, elephants, and red hats all have in common? Or said another way, what do the three companies Teradata, Hortonworks and RedHat all have in common with 36 other brand-name companies and universities? They are all SAS partners and sponsors for SAS Global Forum 2015.
In the traveling salesman problem (TSP), a salesman must minimize travel distance while visiting each of a given set of cities exactly once. Recently, the TSP has generated some buzz in the popular media, after a blog post by Randy Olson. The tour shown was not quite optimal, and Bill
JBF Special Issue on Predictive Business Analytics Dr. Chaman Jain, professor at St. Johns University, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Business Forecasting, provides his preview of the Winter 2014-15 issue: Predictive Business Analytics, the practice of extracting information from existing data to determine patterns, relationships and future outcomes, is
It’s great to get in on something on the ground floor. That’s what happened at the inaugural Data4Decisions Conference and Exhibition held in Raleigh, NC, in March. It brought together business people, academics and students to explore how organizations use data management and analytics technology to enhance business processes and
Would you rather see a list of the world's 50 best roller coasters, or an interactive map? (... how about both!) Before we get started on this ride, here's a picture of my friend Jennifer's daughter, getting an early/young start on riding roller coasters (she's in the back, with her
In my last blog post, I introduced SAS Visual Analytics for UN Comtrade, which helps anyone glean answers from the most comprehensive collection of international trade data in the world. I’d like to share some of what we learned in the development process as it pertains to big data, high
Last week, Sara Jones shared a list of sample session agendas designed to help you build your personal SAS Global Forum 2015 schedule. But what if there are other areas of interest or topics you’d like to focus on? This is the first in a series of blog posts that
The topic of fracking has been in the news a lot lately - this blog post explores some of the finer points of plotting opinion data related to fracking ... I recently saw the following graph on dadaviz.com. It showed some interesting data, and presented the data in a way
A deep-rooted belly laugh can do so much for your body, mind and spirit. Just the other night, my 15 year old daughter was shredding some items for me so she could earn a little spending money. The shredder indicated six pages maximum, but it really should have said one
The Monty Hall Problem is one of the most famous problems in elementary probability. It is famous because the correct solution is counter-intuitive and because it caused an uproar when it appeared in the "Ask Marilyn" column in Parade magazine in 1990. Discussing the problem has been known to create
Just this morning, the course leader at our newly created SAS Space & Astronomy School told me that they picked up a broadcast signal from outer space. By analysing all the data they have been collecting, they were able to quickly spot a spike in the trend pattern, which helped
It's a common problem: Your organization collects vast amounts and types of data – but it's spread across different departments and locations in various formats and systems. It’s a massive challenge to make all that data available, connected and usable to everyone who needs it. That was the scene at
The other day, I was looking at an enterprise architecture diagram, and it actually showed a connection between the marketing database, the Hadoop server and the data warehouse. My response can be summed up in two ways. First, I was amazed! Second, I was very interested on how this customer uses
This blog post discusses the use of a black background in a graph. But before we get started, I invite you to have a listen to one of my favorite songs - "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones. Perhaps this song subliminally persuaded people to use black backgrounds in
In this edition of our “We Heard You” blog series, we present responses to the surveys you submitted last year with your suggestions and feedback about the scheduling and structural changes introduced in 2014. We sifted, synthesized, and prioritized changes based upon trends and your great ideas! Here are a
There has been a spate of recent high-profile airline crashes (Malaysia Airlines, TransAsia Airways, Germanwings,...) so I was surprised when I saw a time series plot of the number of airline crashes by year, which indicates that the annual number of airline crashes has been decreasing since 1993. The data
In February of this year, the Washington Business Journal reported the US Government appointed its first Chief Data Scientist, DJ Patil. With this, I think it’s now safe to say that Data Science is officially sanctioned as new mode in organizations. Those that can apply the necessary finesse along with
In the Cold War techno-thriller WarGames, a marine monitoring a nuclear missile silo deep under the Nevada desert sees a red warning light blink on his console. “Just flick it with your finger,” his colleague tells him. He does, and the bulb goes out. Problem solved. But what will their
In Microsoft Excel, a PivotTable can help you to create an interactive view of summarized data. Within a PivotTable, it’s easy to adjust the dimensions (columns and rows) and calculated measures to suit your ad-hoc reporting needs. You can also create a PivotChart – similar in concept to a PivotTable, but
Do you ever have stress dreams? You know, where you’re taking an exam for which you haven’t studied, or you’re forced to wait tables in a sea of angry restaurant customers? For many of us, the stress nightmare of the modern era involves trying to make sense of a never-ending
Having spent many years in graduate school, and living in the Research Triangle Park (RTP) in North Carolina, I have a lot of friends from other countries. Therefore when I recently saw some stories & graphs about EB-5 visas (where you invest a cool half-million US $ to bypass the
March is national Social Work Month and this year the National Association of Social Workers celebrates its 60th anniversary of facilitating positive social changes and improving the lives of individuals and families. Social work is a profession that considers the needs of others every day. Individuals who dedicate themselves to
It’s March and everyone is enjoying the madness, at least in the US. We are watching 68 college basketball teams compete for the title of NCAA Champion. Those of us watching get involved by selecting a bracket, that is, picking who will win each game. Some pick their alma mater.
Jim Harris says the question of who owns big data is no longer an esoteric concept – it's a frequently debated topic.
