Judging by the headlines like “Big Data Sparks Corporate Turf Fights” and “5 Things CFOs Hate About IT,” you might think that every IT organization is at odds with the company’s business leaders. But let me ask you, does this look like a group of people at odds with one
Hello, I’m Dr. Tyler Smith, your SAS Global Forum 2015 conference chair. SAS Global Forum 2014 ended a few short days ago. What a wonderful conference—a breath-taking venue, record-breaking registration and exciting announcements from SAS for the Academic Community. SAS Global Forum is the premier worldwide event for SAS professionals.
Editor’s note: Bob Whitehead has been a SAS user for 30 years and won his first trip to SAS Global Forum! Both Michelle and Bob Whitehead are members of Western Australia SAS User Group (WASUP). This excerpt from Michelle Homes’ post on the SAS blog Left of the Date Line tells the story.
Interestingly, the Basel Committee’s Principles for Effective Risk Data Aggregation and Risk Reporting (otherwise known as BCBS 239) begins with a quote from T.S. Elliot’s The Rock: Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? In this age of big
When spontaneous applause broke out during Dr. Jim Goodnight's presentation at the opening session of SAS Global Forum 2014, I was one of the people cheering the loudest. The SAS CEO had just announced free software for students and professors at universities around the world. The SAS University Edition will
I'm sure that anyone in the world would do whatever they could to help find the missing Flight 370 ... and this is my attempt to do what I can. In my previous blog post, I showed how SAS could be used to visualize the locations where planes have disappeared. This blog
SAS Global Forum 2014 was a great success, with the SAS Studio, a web based SAS interface garnering a lot of attention. SAS also announced the availability of SAS Analytics U, providing free web based access to SAS analytics for students, faculty and researchers. The conference had multiple paper and Super demos on data
This week's SAS tip is from superstar author Ron Cody and his very popular book SAS Statistics by Example. Ron has been using SAS (and writing about SAS) for a long time. And he communicates his vast expertise in a friendly, easy-to-understand manner. If you've used any of Ron's books, I'm sure you'll agree. The following
STEM skills are essential for many of the fastest-growing and most lucrative occupations. And SAS programmers are in high demand in all fields. A number of reports have documented a critical talent shortage, especially for graduates with advanced degrees in math, computer science or computer engineering. (See Running on Empty, Report to
SAS Global Forum 2014, included a meetup of SAS users who are active in various online communities. During the meetup I was struck by the tremendous opportunities that these communities provide. All year long, the online communities demonstrate the conference theme: "the potential of one, the power of all." This
These two tutorial videos will show you how to filter and sort data in Base SAS. In this first video, you will learn to use a WHERE statement in Base SAS to filter or subset SAS data. Data sets can be very large and filtering data enables you to select
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
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
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
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!
