SAS For Dummies 2nd Edition is now available. It's not just more of the same -- it's got lots of cool new stuff in it too. It's completely updated for SAS 9.2. It's got a new chapter on data mining. And it's got a new chapter on SAS programming. I
A lot of you have been using the Personal Agenda Builder since I first blogged about it on January 15. As you may recall, this handy tool allows you to plan your conference schedule with point and click ease. It has the latest up-to-date information on the papers, posters and
There was a time when climbing the social and professional ladder meant you had to join the right clubs and shake the right hands. Effective networkers smiled at all of the right jokes, went to this party but not that and handed out business cards like a politician hands out
As Stacey mentioned in her last blog post, she’s a fan of the television show Lost, as I am too. Often our final few minutes of study group will discuss the numerous theories regarding the Lost castaways and their island stories and sideways stories. For 5 minutes or so, it’s
SAS users groups are run by SAS users, with support, but not directives, from SAS. During my 15 year tenure in the SAS users group program, I’ve seen up close how important user feedback is in helping to improve the conference experience. Typically we gather feedback informally in presentation sessions
Robert Springborn has a special relationship with his SAS software. Like many long-time SAS users, Robert’s livelihood depends upon his advanced skills with SAS technology, as well as his analytical expertise. He’s been using SAS for over 28 years, which means when it comes to writing SAS programs, he’s comfortable
Every person in my department at SAS (User and Customer Marketing) is involved in supporting SAS Global Forum in one way or another. One of the major roles is to coordinate the SAS Demo Area. I recently had a chat with my co-worker Katie Strange, who is responsible for teaming
This past weekend, I decided it was time--time to take on the white grout in the white bathroom. After almost 15 years, the grout wasn’t quite as bright as it had once been. As I scrubbed, I thought, “There has got to be a blog post in here somewhere…” The
Today, I had the privilege of speaking to a group of high school students at a community outreach event sponsored by the Human Resources division at SAS. Approximately 80 students from schools as far away as Charlotte came to visit SAS and hear about the impact that SAS and analytics
It's March, and in North Carolina all of the talk is about college basketball. At SAS, we like to brag about how these guys use SAS analytics to predict the NCAA "dance card" with astounding results. This year, the fun question revolves around conference bias and how it affects a
When you connect to a SAS environment with SAS Enterprise Guide, are you a single, consistent person? Or do you have more identities than Chevy Chase in Fletch? When you connect to a SAS environment, you can be many people at once: You are logged into your Windows account on
The SAS Talks series is a big hit, and now we've got a landing page where you can find previously recorded talks, plus information about upcoming talks. You can learn about SAS programming with SAS Enterprise Guide, ODS statistical graphics, fancy multi-sheet output for Microsoft Excel from SAS, and more!
The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament is big business and March Madness is exciting, but is the selection process fair? Using the SAS Analytics-powered "Dance Card" formula developed by Jay Coleman of the University of North Florida, Mike DuMond of Charles River Associates, and Allen Lynch of Mercer University,
I LOVE to read. Six months ago, it was “bah humbug” for me when it came to eBooks. I want my print books! Then I got the Apple iPhone for Christmas and whoa, now I love reading online. Have you tried it yet? SAS Publishing Operations is working with the
Twenty-four sessions, twenty-four speakers, twenty-four different topics over just two days, and I didn’t just sit through the convention as a participant, no, I moderated the entire two day event as its Chairman. The Financial Forecasting and Planning Summit, organized by the IE Group, and held at the DoubleTree Mission
In one of my previous posts, I challenged myself to use SAS to create a monthly household budget and I’m happy to report that I have started this process. I have a few months worth of data and have begun to merge this information into data sets. With the combination
As Dr. Goodnight explains, SAS Global Forum (formerly known as SUGI) was started by SAS users, who held their first conference in 1976, several months before SAS was even incorporated as a company. The successful tradition of a user run conference, guided by an Executive Board of SAS users, continues
While at SAS, I hope to get the opportunity to talk with all of the SAS icons. I’ve had the privilege to meet many. Before the SAS winter break, I had the privilege to talk with another: Michael Raithel. At SAS® Global Forum 2010, Raithel will be presenting the Tuesday
Check out AnnMaria's blog covering what she's learned by being on the bleeding edge: using SAS 9.2 for Windows x64 on a Win7 virtual machine. Also, her short primer on XPT files makes me want to add some native capability into SAS Enterprise Guide. If your goal is to send
Last month I pointed you towards the conference t-shirt contest on sasCommunity.org. The designs and coding techniques on display were quite creative, and the contest triggered some fun conversation among community members. Now the votes have been cast. And the winner is …self-proclaimed “new kid” Lynne Krajevski. I loved what
Which versions of MySQL are supported by SAS 9.1.3 for Windows? Is the 64-bit version of Oracle 11g supported on the 64-bit version of SAS 9.2 on Linux? You can find the answers to these questions and others like it by consulting the SAS/ACCESS Validation Matrix: pick your SAS version,
The last time I mentioned Accenture on this blog, I linked to their recent survey results, which show that companies are recognizing the value of predictive analytics – and are planning for it. What does that mean for business analytics vendors? In a lot of ways, it means business leaders
Within SAS, we have a strong blogging community made up of SAS employees. Those of us who read or contribute to the blog content on the internal SAS web got a special "shout out" from Fortune magazine, within its coverage of SAS as the top workplace in the USA. The
The National Association of State CIOs has just released an issue brief that has me very excited. “DO YOU THINK? OR DO YOU KNOW? Improving State Government Operations Through Business Analytics” gives an overview of business analytics and includes examples of effective implementations. The brief’s title paraphrases the quote “Do
I've been to a bunch of SAS Global Forum (née SUGI) events over the years. I always look forward to going, because I always think that by being there in person, I'll be able to provide some customers with exactly the information they need to use SAS better. And I
As you use the Query Builder task in SAS Enterprise Guide, you might notice that it refers to tables and computed columns using names that are different than you expect. For example, instead of a table named CANDY_SALES_HISTORY, the Query Builder might show t1. This is called an alias, and
Even with more than 45,000 global customer sites, I often hear SAS users say that “SAS” is a small world. Perhaps conferences enhance the feeling: From the moment you get in line to get your conference materials, you start to recognize people from your SAS “family.” An attendee also described
I’ve spent quite a while now going through chapter 8, “Creating Enhanced List and Summary Reports,” in the Base Certification Prep Guide. This topic should be straightforward, I keep telling myself. So why did I score 40% on the quiz? Thinking that I probably needed to delve a little deeper,
Day one of the 2010 CFO Corporate Performance Management Conference in New York is in the books, and while the day’s presentations and discussions should rightly merit being the prime subjects of this post, those events have been overshadowed by one of even greater magnitude: dinner with Thornton May. Where
