Lovin' the retro SAS swag! hrenee posted on twitter the sasmemories site on flickr.  It's the start of a good collection of SAS goodies.

This reminds me, here are some items I'd like for Christmas:

• Oddball t-shirts like those at T-shirt Bordello, but with SAS related goofiness on them.  For example:
  • For the text miner in you
  • count+1;
  • SAS log
• Since I've always got SAS on my mind, I'd like to sport hats like these but again, with SAS related goofiness on them. Example:
  • I'm a cute SAS monkey
  • Mine this and put a bunch of text on the hat
  • Datastep anyone?
• Cover your ass SAS with SAS undies.  These ones are a bit retro looking, but they should say SAS on the behind.  Actually, it should say SAS on the right cheek - because SAS programmers are always right.  Is that too cheeky?
  
  • Or maybe those of you would like a smart ass SAS thong? - And no, the thong is not on my Christmas list :) 
  • And please, not a SAS parachute
  • Some SAS Handerpants would be nice for those long days of coding
• If they can sell these, I'm sure there is a market for stuffed "Procs".  I'd love to cuddle up with my very own Proc Tabulate.
• An ice cube tray that makes SAS ice cubes 
• Anyone remember the 8 levels of analytics?  I'd like a toy version.
• And last but not least, what I want most is a SAS Programmer Action figure similar to the Librarian Action figure at Archie McPhee's

SAS, if you could open up an online store so I can buy stuff like this, I'd appreciate it.  Steve Benfield, I know you're listening. :)

What do other SAS readers have on their Christmas list?

During the SAS 9.2 Deployment Wizard I was continually getting a message saying I had to reboot the machine.  After rebooting 3 times I new something was up.  Some searching on support.sas.com revealed the following fix:

• Locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager in the registry.
• If it contains FileRenameOperations or PendingFileRenameOperations, delete this key, and retry the SAS installation.
• Always make a backup of your registry before making changes
  
  

Sure enough this worked.  I didn't even bother rebooting the machine at all, I simply deleted the registry key and continued with the installation.

Sw33t....  SAS Community Planet, a rollup of SAS user blogs, has included my blog in their rollup. 

I really like the setup of the Planet page because at a glance you can see what a few of the other SAS users out there are working on or playing with.  Nice work SASCommunity.org!

The SAS Tech Editor put a call out to SAS users to be make their skills visible on the web.  Not that this is specific for SAS Users, but a great tool a SAS user could use for building an online portfolio is VisualCV.  VisualCV has reinvented the resume.  Best of all, it's free and is loaded with options.  

Traditional resumes are almost dead.  Nowadays it seems you need that extra flare to get your foot in the door.  My recommendation would the same as Waynette prescribes but with a twist:

1: Be visible to the community by going to conferences, seminars, user group meetings and the like.

2: Be visible by participating online through outlets such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogging or just participating by posting content on SAScommunity.org or writing SAS papers.

3 (the Twist): Have a place on the web that you can call your own.  Whether it is a blog or VisualCV, let it be this personal HQ be a portal where you collect, share, or link to your thoughts, experiences, and deliverables (i.e. SAS papers, code snippets, research papers). 

In this day and age I'd argue there is no excuse for NOT maintaining an online presence. In fact, I'd argue that if a future employer can't find you on the internet, they would think you don't exist...

You may recall awhile back I wrote about my disappointment in availability of SAS Text Miner course offerings and options in Canada.  My prayer was anwered when SAS was able to fly Terry Woodfield, a Text Mining expert, to train myself and a few others in SAS Enterprise Miner and Text Miner.  This 3 day course was invaluable. 

Good courses leave one feeling familiar with the material.  Great courses leave one feeling comfortable with the material.  The best courses will leave the student feeling comfortable and empowered with the material.  This SAS course did just that. 

I remember the first time I opened Enterprise Miner.  It was overwhelming to see the amount of options available.  My thoughts were "What did I get myself into??".  But after taking the course I'm suddenly like an 8 year old boy on Christmas Eve that can't wait to open his presents - I can't wait for Monday to get into the office and fire up Enterprise Miner!

I'd attribute the empowerment to the meaningful class discussions, the Teacher sharing real-life examples, and the in-class demonstrations which:

• Helped provide a deeper understanding of Text-Mining concepts, how to expore data, and what to expect when exploring my own data
• Fired my imagination for new ways of using my organizations data
• Made me realizing we have sources of information that were not previously considered as analyzable information. 

Terry is an excellent teacher and if you ever have the chance to take a course he is teaching - do it.  I don't think you'll regret it because the course notes, although wonderfully detailed and easy to understand, does not replace a good Teacher like Terry to expedite your learning.

One other item I'd like to address is in regards to the Tech side of the course.  Thank you SAS tech gurus!  Being provided with the ability to remotely log into a workspace with all of the couse notes, data, and software is a tremondous help.  It was very professionally done and worked wonderfully. 

SAS courses are worth every penny.