Philip Holland

Fast – Cheap – Good – Pick any 2!

Fast - Cheap - Good I’m sure you’ve seen this sign many times before, but it is a very important statement!

At Holland Numerics we strive to provide good service at all times, so we will never even consider providing fast service cheap, because it will not be good! That said, we can provide good service fast, but it won’t be cheap, and good service cheap, but it won’t be fast.

Sometimes we have to sit back and consider Oscar Wilde’s view (from his play “Lady Windemere’s Fan”) that at his point in time a cynic, but now everyone, knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing! This is particularly relevant for consultancies like Holland Numerics trying to determine appropriate pricing for consulting services.

That is why the SAS Programming Forum is accessed for a small subscription, not because we need it to be an income stream, but because we want to make certain that subscribers really want to access the valuable SAS-related information I have added over several months in that forum. I like to think this is perfectly exemplified by another quote, this time from my all-time favourite novel “Time Enough for Love” by Robert A Heinlein:

“Anything free is worth what you pay for it.”

After a period of instability my SAS blog should have more availability, and may be quicker too!

Following my SAS blog server crash in September I have experienced occasional access interruptions from a few minutes to several hours since then. There have been various reasons for the down time, including WordPress plugin updates causing incompatibilities, server software updates, accidental disconnecting of the router, and my internet service provider temporarily interrupting their service to me.

To correct the last problem I decided to change my broadband connection from ADSL to a “Superfast” fibre, which meant changing my provider. This has now been completed, but the changeover process did more than change my internet service provider. While running the two broadband connections in parallel I discovered some issues in the setup of the network gateway, which had itself caused a number of interruptions. I can’t guarantee that there won’t be more short interruptions in the future, as I’m in the process of reorganising the cabling in my office, but I wanted to assure everyone that, if you have difficulty connecting, then wait a short while before trying again, as I will be back, and the blog could be quicker too!

What is the SAS Programming Forum and why does it cost to access?

It is rather sad that everyone knows the price of everything and the value of nothing! I have paraphrased this statement somewhat from the original written by Oscar Wilde for Lord Darlington in “Lady Windemere’s Fan”, but the reality is very much in evidence everywhere today. But how is that relevant to the SAS Programming Forum?

I wanted to create a place where students of SAS programming (which includes myself, as I try to learn something new about SAS every day) could ask SAS-related questions, even if they were from interviews or homework, without being criticised. However, I wanted to exclude those asking questions because they were too lazy to research the answers themselves (#LAZYWEB), so I hoped that charging a small amount to access the forum would filter out those trying to get free information with no effort, but encourage those enthusiastic enough to pay to learn about SAS an opportunity to do so. The SAS Programming Forum subscription is only GBP 5.00 per month for up to 3 months via PayPal, so it can be stopped at any time, but also renewed easily, and includes access to my SAS course about SAS programming topics, which I’m progressively building, and currently includes 4 sections on SAS components, Data Steps, PROC SQL and SAS macros, and now totals 25 topics in all. The sections are intended to be read sequentially, but are, for the most part, independent of each other. The key feature of the SAS Programming Forum and the SAS course is that questions can be asked at any time and they will be answered, provided sufficient information is given in the question. This is not a “get out” clause, but a learning point for all prospective SAS programmers that without sufficient information you cannot write a SAS program that meets the customer’s needs, so you have to be able to ask question yourself!

A new sub-section of the SAS macros section about calling macros has been added to the SAS course

The SAS course and the SAS Programming Forum continue to grow, I have just started a new course sub-section about calling SAS macros, and there are now 24 topics in 4 different sections:

[A] SAS components – 2 topics
Data Steps – 13 topics
[F] PROC SQL – 6 topics
[G] Macros – 3 topics (1 new topic!)

The SAS course topics themselves are in the SAS Programming Forum, which can only be accessed by Programmer level members, but Free members can read the SAS course – Home page and see the individual topic names.

More topics and sections are being developed, so register for free now to be kept up-to-date about all of the news, so you can take advantage of the Programmer level when it suits you best!

The SAS macros section has been added to the SAS course

The SAS course and the SAS Programming Forum continue to grow, I have just added a new course section about SAS macros, and there are now 23 topics in 4 different sections:

[A] SAS components – 2 topics
Data Steps – 13 topics
[F] PROC SQL – 6 topics
[G] Macros – 2 topics (2 new topics!)

More topics and sections are being developed, so register for free now to be kept up-to-date about all of the news, so you can take advantage of the Programmer level when it suits you best!

2 new prize draw winners of my most recent SAS book!

SAS_Programming_and_Data_Visualization_book(285x285)

There were 2 new prize draw winners of my most recent SAS book in the last few weeks, with the 2 prize draws held at the SAS Forum UK in Birmingham at the end of September 2016, and at the PhUSE Conference in Barcelona this month.

September 2016: Congratulations to Charlotte King who won my new book in the Prize Draw at the SAS Forum UK in Birmingham

October 2016: Congratulations to Cathal Gallagher who won my new book in the Prize Draw at the PhUSE Conference in Barcelona

Free draw for my book at PhUSE in Barcelona

Would you like to win a copy of my latest book “SAS Programming and Data Visualization Techniques”?

Are you attending the 2016 PhUSE Conference in Barcelona between 9 and 12 October?

SAS_Programming_and_Data_Visualization_book(285x285)

If the answer to both these questions is Yes, then visit the CK Clinical stand in the Exhibitors Area at the conference and take your business card, or write your name and email address on the cards provided, and drop it into the box. The draw will be made towards the end of the conference and you could win a sealed copy of my book. I’ll sign it for you too, if you want!

There will also be a copy for you to read at the stand, so you’ll be able to see whether it is worth the risk! 😉

Apologies for my blog server crash – normal service has now been restored

I suspect many of you will have a “bucket list”, a list of places you would really like to visit and activities you would like to do. I have bucket list myself, which included visiting the Alhambra in Granada in Southern Spain. Last week my wife and I joined a tour of Andalusia, which included a visit to the Alhambra on the first day, where we enjoyed the splendour of the Moorish palace.

Little did I know at the time, but just after we had left for our tour my blog server switched itself off. I have still not determined the exact reason for the crash, but I think it could have been a local power cut that caused the shutdown. Anyway, I was 900 miles away with no remote access to the server, so I had to relax and enjoy the rest of the tour. On returning to the UK it was simply a matter of restarting the server, and normal service was restored in a few minutes.

I will conclude with some simple questions for you. I could have bought and installed an uninterruptible power supply to the server, which would have, hopefully, prevented the crash. However, I would not have been able to tell you about my bucket list!

My questions for you are:

What is the value of a blog, more or less than the cost of purchasing and running an uninterruptible power supply, or flying back to fix it?
Would a week where the blog is unavailable affect its value?
Should I have told you all about the crash immediately, or when it was fixed?

I’m presenting “Writing Reusable Macros” at the PhUSE Conference in Barcelona from 10-12Oct2016

I’m presenting “Writing Reusable Macros” in the Coders’ Corner stream at the PhUSE Conference in Barcelona from 10-12Oct2016. You can download my paper and presentation from here.

Hope to see you in Barcelona.

I’m presenting “Using SAS Studio Tasks to Plot with ODS Graphics” at the SAS Forum UK in Birmingham on 27Sep2016

I’m presenting “Using SAS Studio Tasks to Plot with ODS Graphics” at the SAS Forum UK in Birmingham on 27Sep2016. You can download my paper and presentation from here.

Hope to see you in Birmingham.

The SAS Programming Forum is growing: a new SAS course topic posted and another SAS question answered

The SAS course and the SAS Programming Forum continue to grow, I have just added a new course topic about the PROC SQL data set combining, and there are now 21 topics in 3 different sections:

[A] SAS components – 2 topics
Data Steps – 13 topics
[F] PROC SQL – 6 topics (1 new topic!)

I’ve also added an answer to a new SAS-related question in the SAS Programming Forum about re-ordering data sets without using PROC SORT. Again this topic can only be accessed by Programmer level members.

More topics and sections are being developed, so register for free now to be kept up-to-date about all of the news, so you can take advantage of the Programmer level when it suits you best!

Another new post in the SAS course making a total of 20 topics in 3 sections

The SAS course continues to grow, I have just added a new topic about the PUT statement, and there are now 20 topics in 3 different sections:

[A] SAS components – 2 topics
Data Steps – 13 topics (1 new topic!)
[F] PROC SQL – 5 topics

The SAS course topics themselves can only be accessed by Programmer level members, but Free members can read the SAS course – Home page and see the individual topic names.

More topics and sections are being developed, so register for free now to be kept up-to-date about all of the news, so you can take advantage of the Programmer level when it suits you best!