Keith McCormick

Several sessions have been announced in detail. Two are especially noteworthy:

Viz Designer is being released. I will write more about this in the future.

My friend Paul Cassedy of Navy Federal Credit Union is going to speak regarding the use of Python to simplify syntax. He and I collaborated on the code that he will be presenting at Directions. I think it is an excellent example of massive time-saving produced by a non-programmer by applying easy to learn techniques.

http://www.spss.com/spssdirections/na/sessions.cfm?sessionType=5

I will be the presenter for a Data Mining Workshop designed for executives in Malaysia.

 http://www.unistrategic.com/index.php/component/option,com_eventlist/Itemid,4/did,99/func,details/

I just found this book. I have skimmed Chap. 2, and I think it is going to prove useful since working with Syntax really comes down to text processing. When I read Chap. 2 in its entirely (or find any other example useful) I am going to make a donation or buy the book. I encourage you to take a look, and if you benefit from what you find, please support the author (David Mertz) of this resource.

Text Processing in Python (a book)

The Raynald Levesque/SPSS collaboration has been produced in a 4th edition. This covers version 16.0 with chapters and python and R. I continue to recommend it highly, but also read the SPSS-Python Integration guide with is found right in SPSS 16.0 help menu.

The new edition of Programming and Data Management can be found at:

A "hotfix" for SPSS 16 for the Mac has just been released. 

http://support.spss.com/

This will be release 16.0.2.1, April 28th, 2008. 

I sometimes write longer reviews on this site. Probably the shorter is better, but I cut more aggressively before I post it to Amazon. On this site they are found here, which can take you to Amazon:

http://keithmccormick.com/?page_id=6

Or you can visit my Amazon profile page here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A2IRIMZ5D3OEQA 

I must have missed this article in my web searching.  Someone pointed it out to me. I am a fan of Dorian Pyle's book. See my book review section for details and a link.

In the meantime, try this:

http://www.ibmdatabasemag.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17602328 

Cluster Analysis is the "search for homogeneous subsets". I am quoting Kachigan's definition. His book does a fine job of explaining the distance based kinds of cluster analysis (please see my review). In this post, I just want to send you to URLs that provide a fun way of understanding WHY you would want to engage in this process. In other words, what purpose would it serve.

Most folks that I meet that want to learn about Cluster Analysis, have yes/no or likert scale variables in mind. Claritas, the famous demographics company does something rather different, but it is still informative to play around with your zip code, and other zip codes that you know at one of their sites. http://www.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/Default.jsp

Also, one of my colleagues at Overbeck Analytics pointed out this excellent TED presentation. It is great fun, but is an excellent explanation of the value of this method. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/20 

I just received a comment today regarding a blog post. I also made another today. Go ahead and visit the actual sites.

 Be. Do. Learn and move on. - Why SPSS is evil

 Michael Voong » Blog Archive » SPSS is Bad. Really Bad

The comment on the previous post on my site deserves a full reply. Having done some experiments first, I have posted the results. They are to be found in the comments on the previous post.

I hope this review encourages more SPSS fans to overcome the fear of making the leap to Mac. I took the precaution of installing both versions (PC and Mac) on my MacBook Pro since I have ready access to both versions, but honestly I never use SPSS on the PC partition. I systematically avoid the PC partition unless I absolutely must, which usually means I am using Clementine.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/macsoftware/reviews/index.cfm?RSS&ReviewID=2503