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Use it, or Lose it! 10 Ways of Getting the Most SAS Value from my Retirement…

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To me retirement only means not earning a salary from my SAS programming, which will, from now, become a pure hobby. However, to program in SAS AND to be able to get access to all of its components, including Enterprise Guide, batch processing, and the Program Editor, the SAS licence has to be paid for. For me this would amount to paying around GBP 3,000 a year, and so I have drawn up a list of ways that you can contribute to that total, but at the same time benefit from my 40+ years of SAS programming, and 30+ years as an independent SAS consultant, working in the banking, insurance, IT, pharmaceutical, HR and marketing business sectors, and on IBM mainframe, OS/2, VAX, Unix, Windows and Linux.

Any excess income will be used to extend my SAS licence into the following year. I’m planning to use this income from September 2024, so we now have a few months to raise sufficient funds.

130Days remaining 06Hours 37Minutes 00Seconds

The following are grouped into group¹ (for companies or collaborating individuals) and individual² options:

For Companies or Collaborating Individuals¹:

No.1 = 1/2 day SAS training, including digital training materials, for GBP 1,800

No.2 = 1 month of confidential online support with unlimited questions for GBP 720

No.3 = 1 day of remote SAS programming for GBP 600

No.4 = 1 hour of 1-to-1 SAS video discussion for GBP 100

  • Book your hour of SAS video discussion.
  • Video discussions use Jitsi Meet, which is limited to 100 participants.
  • Topics include:
    • Base SAS syntax
    • Base SAS functions
    • Base SAS formats and informats
    • Base SAS procedures
    • Data step merging
    • PROC SQL syntax
    • PROC SQL merging
    • PROC SQL updating
    • Macro introduction
    • Macro syntax
    • Macro variables
    • ODS Graphics introduction
    • ODS Graphics procedures
    • Enterprise Guide introduction
    • SAS/Studio introduction

For Individuals²:

No.5 = 1 confidential remote question for GBP 72

No.6 = 1 ebook copy of course notes to one of my SAS courses from GBP 11

  • My SAS course notes are published as ebooks on Lulu.com, who, unlike Amazon, etc., do not take massive commissions, so I receive most of the published price.
  • See my Book Table for more details.

No.7 = 1 ebook copy of one of my SAS books directly from my blog site for GBP 12.50

  • “Saving Time and Money using SAS” is no longer sold in softback, but you can download the ebook directly from my blog site.
  • See my Book Table for more details.

No.8 = 3 months of subscription to the SAS Programming Forum, including access to my online SAS course collection, for 3 x GBP 5

  • Details of what the SAS Programming Forum is can be found here.
  • See how to subscribe to the SAS Programming Forum, including my online SAS course collection, here.

No.9 = 1 copy of one of my SAS softback books from a reseller from GBP 25

  • Although these options appear to be lower in the list than expected, I receive very little from softback books sold, because I received an advance when they were published.
  • See my Book Table for more details.

No.10 = 1 copy of one of my SAS ebooks from a reseller from GBP 3

  • Although these options appear to be lower in the list than expected, I receive very little from ebooks sold by resellers, because I received an advance when they were published.
  • See my Book Table for more details.

Free advertising for active recruiters globally! SAS-related Jobs from Recruiters in the UK and India in April 2023

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Looking for a SAS-related job?

There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in the UK and India, and the links are open to all site visitors:

CountryJobs AdvertisedFrom Company
UKSAS consultancy permanent positionsPazikas Group
UKGraduate SAS consultancy permanent positionsPazikas Group
IndiaPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice

Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.

Recruiters looking for candidates

I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.

If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:

  1. The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
  2. The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.

Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 03May2023 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.

The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:

PositionRegionPercentage of MembershipMembers
1Indian Sub-continent36.6%298
2The Americas22.9%186
3UK19.6%159
4Europe14.3%116
5Rest of the World6.8%55

Should I retire from the SAS World?

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My current SAS contract will end on 11Apr2023, but my SAS Software licence will expire on 31May2023. The second date is probably more pertinent, as, without income, I’m not prepared to finance an annual software renewal without a very good reason (or a sponsor!), and the lack of that licence will necessitate me retiring from the SAS world!

Let’s be absolutely clear at this point in time, I’m not worried about retiring, but I said many years ago, when I passed the UK pension age, I will leave the final decision to my clients!

After 36 years in the SAS world in 2017 I received a Lifetime Achievement Award from SAS UK, which prompted my wife to suggest that I should retire immediately, as, she said, SAS UK now reckon I’m not going to do anything more! However, at the time I felt I had so much more to do!!

Now after 42 years in the SAS world I’m not sure now whether you are shouting “Don’t Retire Now!” or not, but, if you still need to ask me SAS-related questions, you will have to let me know soon, and the best way would be to subscribe to [sas.answers @ Holland Numerics] before the end of May 2023. This permits multiple SAS-related questions to be asked using up to 5 email addresses for a calendar month. Response times are guaranteed within 48 hours. If just 5 companies subscribe for a single month, or a single company subscribes for 5 months, or some combination in-between, then I’ll be able to continue for another year. It is that simple.

I’m currently working on my last(?) SAS-related book with the provisional title of “Memoirs of a Power SAS User”, detailing important SAS and more general software-related facts I’ve found useful during my 40+ years working with SAS software, but this will, of course, be made more difficult without an active SAS licence.

My final, and important, fact for potential subscribers and employers is that in several previous SAS contracts I have been budgeted, when working off-site, at 1.5 FTE (full-time employee), because I can get SAS work done with fewer delays!

So, my retirement is in your hands!

Poll: How are you accessing this blog post?

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I noticed over the last few days that the view counts have dropped away dramatically. Also a potential new blog member tried to click on a blog link and received a “Page not found” error message.

With this in mind I thought I’d create a quick poll to see who can still access my blog posts, which will, hopefully, help me to work out why “visitors” are not visiting.

Note that comments are only possible for logged-in blog members!

Are you accessing this blog via:

View Results

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Thank you in advance if you can access this blog post!…………Phil

Free advertising for active recruiters globally! SAS-related Jobs from Recruiters in the UK and India in March 2023

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Looking for a SAS-related job?

There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in the UK and India, and the links are open to all site visitors:

CountryJobs AdvertisedFrom Company
UKSAS consultancy permanent positionsPazikas Group
UKGraduate SAS consultancy permanent positionsPazikas Group
IndiaPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice

Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.

Recruiters looking for candidates

I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.

If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:

  1. The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
  2. The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.

Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 05Apr2023 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.

The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:

PositionRegionPercentage of MembershipMembers
1Indian Sub-continent36.7%300
2The Americas22.7%186
3UK19.8%162
4Europe14.2%116
5Rest of the World6.6%54

Even more educational games have been added!

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Some time ago I introduced a new Educational Games membership, which added access to the web apps on this blog site on top of the Free membership. Please note, however, that, even if you copy the web links, they will only work when accessed from the Educational Games page, which can be accessed from the blog menu by logged-in members with the correct permissions.

I have now had some time to add some more games, which are based on Logic Puzzles similar to Wordle:

  • In Word of 4 you try to guess a 4-letter word randomly selected each time by the computer. The 4-letter words were extracted from an open-source 150,000-word English (UK, not US) dictionary, and inappropriate and accented foreign words removed.
  • In Word of 5 you try to guess a 5-letter word randomly selected each time by the computer. The 5-letter words were extracted from an open-source 150,000-word English (UK, not US) dictionary, and inappropriate and accented foreign words removed.

VIEWS News 71 (2023Q1) has been published!

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VIEWS News issue 71 has now been published and in Q1 as the title states!

Even though Foundation SAS is being pushed to one side
by SAS Viya, this newsletter continues to bring you
information about making the most of SAS 9. This
newsletter issue includes another useful SAS programming tip
from Nina L Werner, I asked ChatGPT a question about SAS
Studio and WPS (now called Altair SLC), and Richard Carson
discusses the configuring of SAS processes without editing them
in the first part of a series of articles about KT. As usual I have
publicised some SAS-related events for the next few months, and
I have also added some more SAS formats, options and functions
that you may or may not have come across before, but you might
find interesting, and even useful.

If you would like to contribute an article, to re-visit and improve an existing article, or just discuss the possibility of doing so, please feel free to send an email to me at view-uk@hollandnumerics.org.uk or phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk. Publication deadlines are the 14th day of February, May, August and November each year.

To be able to read this and all previous issues you will need to follow these steps:

  1. If you have not already registered on this blog site, go to blog.hollandnumerics.org.uk and register for free membership.
  2. Once successfully registered, click the menu item [Subscriptions for Forums and Features] > [Request access to the VIEWS UK forum] to request free access to the VIEWS UK forum, then add your name and email address to the form before clicking [Send].
  3. On receipt of a request for an existing blog member I will register them for free access to the VIEWS UK forum, and then send them an email to confirm this.
  4. The next time they log onto the blog site they will see VIEWS UK in the forum list, where you will find the latest issue of VIEWS News, forum topics to find the backissues, functions and formats in every published issue, and a tag cloud covering every forum on the site to which you have access, including VIEWS UK and the VIEWS News issues.
  5. They will also be automatically informed of any VIEWS UK updates.

Enjoy!……………..Phil

More educational games, and more members can access them!

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Some time ago I introduced a new Educational Games membership, which added access to the web apps on this blog site on top of the Free membership. Unfortunately I couldn’t add Educational Games to the Programmer and Recruiter levels at that time, but now I’ve worked out how to make this work. This means that all Programmer and recruiter members will automatically get access to the Educational Games apps via the menu option “Educational Games”. It is also important to remember that, even if you copy the web links, they will only work when accessed from the Educational Games page.

At the same time as the access has been simplified I have added some more games, which are based on the classic console games from the late 20th century:

  • Hamurabi allows you to try your hand at governing Ancient Sumaria for a 10‑year term of office. The original Basic program was supplied with DEC System-10 mainframes in the mid-1970’s.
  • Blake’s 7 includes a number of references to classic sci-fi series. Y is the Liberator symbol, because the ship had 3 engines arranged in a Y-shape. H is the symbol for the Federation ships, but is probably closer to the shape of the Empire’s TIE fighters from Star Wars. If you try to exceed a speed of 5, then you will get the following warning: “The engines will not stand that!” (Scotty, Star Trek).

Free advertising for active recruiters globally! SAS-related Jobs from Recruiters in the UK and India in February 2023

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Looking for a SAS-related job?

There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in the UK and India, and the links are open to all site visitors:

CountryJobs AdvertisedFrom Company
UKSAS consultancy permanent positionsPazikas Group
UKGraduate SAS consultancy permanent positionsPazikas Group
IndiaPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice

Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.

Recruiters looking for candidates

I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.

If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:

  1. The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
  2. The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.

Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 02Mar2023 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.

The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:

PositionRegionPercentage of MembershipMembers
1Indian Sub-continent36.5%298
2The Americas22.8%186
3UK19.9%162
4Europe14.2%116
5Rest of the World6.6%54

VIEWS News 70 (2022Q4) has finally been published!

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VIEWS News issue 70 has now finally been published. I know it should have been published in November, but, as they say, better late than never!

Wishing you a very Happy and Healthy New Year from the UK! Now we are in January I have a feeling 2023 is going to be a very productive year! This newsletter issue includes yet another useful SAS programming tip from Nina L Werner, and some thoughts on how to develop SAS ODS Graphics programs with different SAS maintenance versions based on a recent discussion in the SAS Programming Forum on my blog site. As usual I have publicised some SAS‑related events for the next few months, and I have also added some more SAS formats, options and functions that you may or may not have come across before, but you might find interesting, and even useful.

If you would like to contribute an article, to re-visit and improve an existing article, or just discuss the possibility of doing so, please feel free to send an email to me at view-uk@hollandnumerics.org.uk or phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk. Publication deadlines are the 14th day of February, May, August and November each year.

To be able to read this and all previous issues you will need to follow these steps:

  1. If you have not already registered on this blog site, go to blog.hollandnumerics.org.uk and register for free membership.
  2. Once successfully registered, click the menu item [Subscriptions for Forums and Features] > [Request access to the VIEWS UK forum] to request free access to the VIEWS UK forum, then add your name and email address to the form before clicking [Send].
  3. On receipt of a request for an existing blog member I will register them for free access to the VIEWS UK forum, and then send them an email to confirm this.
  4. The next time they log onto the blog site they will see VIEWS UK in the forum list, where you will find the latest issue of VIEWS News, forum topics to find the backissues, functions and formats in every published issue, and a tag cloud covering every forum on the site to which you have access, including VIEWS UK and the VIEWS News issues.
  5. They will also be automatically informed of any VIEWS UK updates.

Enjoy!……………..Phil

Free advertising for active recruiters globally! SAS-related Jobs from Recruiters in the UK and India in January 2023

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Looking for a SAS-related job?

There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in the UK and India, and the links are open to all site visitors:

CountryJobs AdvertisedFrom Company
UKSAS consultancy permanent positionsPazikas Group
UKGraduate SAS consultancy permanent positionsPazikas Group
IndiaPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice

Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.

Recruiters looking for candidates

I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.

If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:

  1. The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
  2. The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.

Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 02Feb2023 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.

The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:

PositionRegionPercentage of MembershipMembers
1Indian Sub-continent36.4%296
2The Americas22.9%186
3UK20.0%163
4Europe14.1%115
5Rest of the World6.6%54

Windows 11 can run Android apps!

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If you use Windows 11, and it has been updated to 22H2, then you can run Android apps from Amazon Appstore or side-load them as APK files.

  1. Install “Amazon Appstore” from the Microsoft Store on your Windows 11 PC. This will give you access to Android apps in the Amazon Appstore, but will also install the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA). If you cannot find this software there, then you may still need to update Windows 11 to 22H2.
  1. There is at least one Holland Numerics app that can be installed directly from the Amazon Appstore, “How Do You Do This in SAS?“, which is free and will give you a taste of what the other Android apps will look like on Windows 11.
  2. If you want to install Android apps from APK files, then you will need to install another app from the Microsoft Store. I have tested a few of the free APK installers, and am currently using “Apk File Installer“.
  1. If you would like to install some of my apps directly from APK files on Windows 11, then they can be downloaded from the Windows 10/11 Store (which includes prices), and select one of the apps with “(Android app)” in their name, They are downloaded as Zip files, which must be unzipped before installing with the APK installer, including:
    • SAS course apps
    • How Do I Do This in SAS? apps
    • Brain training apps
    • Puzzles and games apps
  2. Additional email setup may be needed in Windows 11 for the “SAS course” and “How Do I Do This in SAS?” apps, as they use “mailto:” links, which must be associated with an email client.