If you are introduced to command-line Unix (or Linux or any other Posix-compliant variant) after a lifetime of Windows, it can be a daunting experience. To those thrust into this position, I always offer my top “ten” most useful commands to begin getti…
Tag: Admin
NOTE: SAS Grid Manager for Hadoop
I’ve recently written about how much new functionality is getting released by SAS on an almost monthly basis without much fanfare, and I’ve also written about how Hadoop is becoming a new “operating system” and we should expect to see Grid and LASR run…
NOTE: HTML 5 is in VA Hub Already!
Aside from comments about my SAS Enterprise Guide vs SAS Studio article, Metacoda’s Michelle Homes (@HomesAtMetacoda) was quick to write a comment about my Flash & SAS Visual Analytics (VA) article and to point out that HTML5 is already an option f…
More Flash in Chrome for Less Power … and the HTML5 Migration
If you use one of SAS’s web interfaces you’ll be a great fan of the flexibility and usability of the user interface. And those capabilities are probably provided by Adobe Flash. Your browser is running the Flash plug-in.
But Flash has one or two downsides, principally its tendency to use lots of CPU cycles which in-turn uses lots of battery power. Not a problem maybe if you’re hooked to the mains, but not good on a laptop of mobile phone/tablet.
If you use the Chrome browser you’ll be pleased to hear that Google are improving Chrome’s power consumption when Flash is running. When you’re on a webpage that runs Flash, Chrome will intelligently pause content, e.g. Flash animations, that aren’t central to the webpage, while keeping central content (like a video) playing without interruption. If Chrome accidentally pause something you were interested in, you can just click it to resume playback. This update significantly reduces power consumption, allowing us to do analytics on-the-go for longer before having to hunt for a power outlet.
This feature was enabled by default on Chrome’s desktop Beta channel in June, and will be rolling out soon to everyone else on Chrome desktop.
Looking longer-term, SAS are replacing their use of Flash with HTML5. Whilst the use of Flash requires a plug-in from Adobe, HTML5 is supported by all modern browsers out-of-the-box, with no need for any plug-in. The majority of web sites and vendors are migrating to HTML5 due to its net neutrality and power-consumption benefits. SAS Studio already uses HTML5; Visual Analytics and Visual Statistics currently use Flash. We can expect a migration to HTML5, perhaps starting with the VA hub this summer, which will probably be complete next year.
Follow me on Twitter: @aratcliffeuk
Graphics on Android
Last week, writing about admin and deployment enhancements in SAS v9.4, I mentioned my estimation of the proportion of SAS customers on the latest version of SAS (I confidently estimated less than 50%).These figures are available in other contexts. For…
NOTE: What’s More in 9.4 – Admin & Deployment
We can’t consider SAS version 9.4 to be “new” any more (it first shipped in July 2013), but if we had the numbers to show it, I’m sure we’d see that less than 50% of customers have upgraded, so it’s worth revisiting 9.4’s attractions.The complexity, ef…
NOTE: Thoughts on Lineage
I got quite a lot of interested feedback on the BI Lineage post I made last week. My post highlighted a most informative article from Metacoda’s Paul Homes.
Paul himself commented on my post and offered an additional tip. Here’s what Paul said:
I agree it would be nice if BI developers could do their own scans without relying on unrestricted admins to do them ahead of time. This would be similar to how DI developers can do their own impact analysis for DI content in SAS Data Integration Studio. Ideally, as with DI, they could be done dynamically, without having to do a scan and have a BI Lineage custom repository to store them in.
In the meantime, one tip I’d suggest to make it easier for the BI developers, is that BI Lineage scans can also be scheduled. An unrestricted admin can schedule a scan, at a high level in the metadata tree, to be done every night for example.
A useful tip indeed. Thanks Paul.
Follow me on Twitter: @aratcliffeuk
See an audiovisual recording on my SAS Global Forum 2013 paper Visual Techniques for Problem Solving and Debugging
NOTE: Broadening Access to the BI Lineage Plug-In
Metacoda’s Paul Homes recently wrote a most informative article entitled Providing User Access to the SAS BI Lineage Plug-in. As Paul says in his article, the BI Lineage plug-in can be used to do impact analysis for BI content (reports, informatio…