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Romancing Your Data: The Getting-to-Know-You Phase
~Contributed by Varsha Chawla, SAS~ What could a business analyst possibly like better than understanding the data in a database? Try understanding the metadata (data about data) and knowing how to access this in an ORACLE database. According to Carole Jesse, Senior SAS Analyst at Prime Therapeutics, databases have their
Running SAS PROCs on your Facebook friends
Contributed by Kirsten Hamstra, SAS Social Media Manager Prolific blogger and author of SAS for Dummies Chris Hemedinger knows maybe a little too much about his Facebook friends. Presenting his paper titled “Social Networking and SAS: Running PROCs on your Facebook Friends,” Chris shared basic techniques to analyze your friends
23 is not just a speed limit at SAS
~Contributed by Elizabeth Ceranowski~ If you have ever visited SAS headquarters or if you work in Cary, you know that the speed limit on campus is 23 mph. This week the number 23 has taken on a new meaning. There are 23 papers being presented by students at SAS Global
Technology Connection: We're set to change the world
Contributed by Karen Lee and Kim Darnofall, SAS Communications Thirty-five years ago, SAS changed the world of computing when it opened its doors for business in Raleigh, North Carolina. A lot has happened in 35 years, but one thing remains the same: SAS is still changing the world of computing,
Wide open in Las Vegas
~Contributed by Karen Lee, SAS Communications Director~ Open. In one word, that is how I would describe the communication environment at SAS Global Forum. Wide open. This is an amazing time for communication. For a long time, the only way attendees could find out what was happening at SAS Global
First timers learn how to get the most out of their SGF experience
There are quite a few first timers at SAS Global Forum 2011, and I’m one of them. As a first timer, it can be tricky to navigate all of the opportunities that are available, but the First Timers’ Session, held earlier Monday, helped to plot ways for first timers to
Feds Stepping Up to Combat Healthcare Fraud
The federal government is more aggressively pursuing health care fraud, and helping the states do the same, by proposing funding changes and investing in new technologies. A newly proposed rule would allow 90% Federal Financial Participation (FFP) for data mining initiatives in state Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCU’s). Another proposed
Letter from the Chair
Contributed by Debbie Buck, SAS Global Forum Conference Chair SAS users from around the world are in Las Vegas this week for SAS Global Forum. Attendees are continuing to register, but the official count as of last night was 3,335 of whom 25% are here from outside the US. Why
Watch for the red vests
~Contributed by Stacy Hobson, Director of Customer Retention, SAS~ While you are at the SAS Support and Demo Area, watch for the red vests. You are going to want to meet the SAS Customer Loyalty team wearing them, as they will have a wealth of resources available to you. The
Forecasting What is Certain
Suppose that friendship is a 2-way relationship: Either two people are friends with each other, or they are not. (By this definition, X cannot be a friend of Y if Y is not a friend of X. Also, you cannot be a friend of yourself -- no matter how attractive
A Few Tips to Help You Return From Las Vegas as a Winner
Contributed by Vince DelGobbo, SAS R&D Software Developer Rule #1: Keep your money in your pocket or your purse. With that settled, we can move on to more important matters. One key to success at SAS Global Forum is to be organized. Before you get to Vegas, spend some time
Don't hold your applause til the end
Yesterday I was in the Big Room for the rehearsal of the Technology Connection, the part of SAS Global Forum where SAS shows off its wares: what's been released recently and what's coming. I believe that customers are going to love what they see. And just about every product that
How to sample from independent normal distributions
In my article on computing confidence intervals for rankings, I had to generate p random vectors that each contained N random numbers. Each vector was generated from normal distribution with different parameters. This post compares two different ways to generate p vectors that are sampled from independent normal distributions. Sampling
Running PROCs on Your Facebook Friends (2011 version)
While talking to fellow SAS users at SAS Global Forum 2011 this week, I'll be discussing how SAS programmers can "play" with social media data that they can access on Facebook and Twitter. I always refer people to my blog for more information, and so I've prepared this blog post
A surprise announcement from the DO Loop
This morning Rick Wicklin announced his (hostile?, nah...) takeover of the technical blog space at SAS. I'll admit that it took me by surprise when I awoke in Siberia this morning. It's so cold here; I can't feel my fingers as I type. This is probably a punishment for the
Significant changes for SAS blogs
Editor's Note: This article was an April Fool's prank from 2011. The entire article is fake. Today, SAS, the leader in business analytics announces significant changes to two popular SAS blogs, The DO Loop (written by Rick Wicklin) and The SAS Dummy (previously written by Chris Hemedinger). The two blogs
Introducing 2013 Conference Chair-Elect Rick Mitchell
Rick is another guy I've gotten to know through the SAS users group community, mainly through mutual work with the NorthEast SAS Users Group (NESUG), where's held various leadership positions, including that of conference chair. I wish I had his stamina and motivation. Wait until you find out what he
Introducing 2012 Conference Chair-Elect Andy Kuligowski
I've had the pleasure of knowing Andy Kuligowski for years through our mutual work with local and regional SAS users groups. He's a huge hockey fan, and he's not afraid of rats, snakes or alligators (more about that later). His sense of humor is also famous. Read on to learn
SAS programmers: meet Twitter
"Twitter, thou art nought but data." So sayeth the SAS programmer. Many data analysts now recognize Twitter for what it is: a tremendous source of data covering almost any topic, from Justin Bieber's hair to political uprisings to technical conferences to company brands. SAS offers sophisticated solutions to harness this
Happy milestone to me: My 100th blog post
This week, I posted the 100th article to The DO Loop. To celebrate, I'm going to analyze the content of my first 100 articles. In December 2010, I compiled a list of The DO Loop's most-read posts, so I won't repeat that exercise. Instead, I thought it would be interesting
SAS Programmer Rule # 1
Let’s start with a quiz. Which of the following is the Programmer’s Rule # 1? 1. Expert knowledge of multiple languages, like SAS and Java 2. Talent to maneuver with complex algorithms 3. Innate ability to draw flowcharts 4. None of the above Dear reader, as a savvy programmer, you
News from Gold Sponsor Red Hat
SAS Global Forum appreciates the support of its sponsors. I asked a Red Hat representative some questions so that we could get to know this valued Gold sponsor better. 1. What initiatives or goals are you trying to achieve by partnering with SAS? To help SAS and its customers exploit
Ranking with confidence: Part 2
In a previous post, I described how to compute means and standard errors for data that I want to rank. The example data (which are available for download) are mean daily delays for 20 US airlines in 2007. The previous post carried out steps 1 and 2 of the method
Undocumented features: there's a reason they are not documented
Many SAS users love "undocumented features" within SAS software that they have found or heard about. Sometimes they can be really useful, and the fact that they are undocumented adds to the mystique. Some users have written entire conference papers on the subject. After 35 years of evolution, SAS contains
News from Premier Sponsor Teradata
SAS Global Forum appreciates the support of its sponsors. I asked a Teradata representative some questions so that we could get to know this valued Premier sponsor better. 1. Can you provide some background information on the Teradata Corporation? Teradata is the world’s largest company focused solely on raising intelligence
Changing the length of a character matrix
When you create a character matrix in SAS/IML software, the initial values determine the number of characters that can fit into any element of the matrix. For example, the following statements define a 1x3 character matrix: proc iml; m = {"Low" "Med" "High"}; After the matrix is defined, at most
Ranking with confidence: Part 1
I recently posted an article about representing uncertainty in rankings on the blog of the ASA Section for Statistical Programmers and Analysts (SSPA). The posting discusses the importance of including confidence intervals or other indicators of uncertainty when you display rankings. Today's article complements the SSPA post by showing how