SAS Business Analytic Software

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Using the data to make confident, fact-based decisions to increase revenue by 66%.

This is the latest mantra by SAS to the corporate world.

SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services. SAS is delivering solutions with improved performance since 1976. It has operations in more than 100 countries , including bulk of the top 100 companies on the 2009 Fortune Global 500 list. It deals with the greates asset of any company: data. Transforms , cleanse and make data about customers, performance in such an easy accessible format that it becomes the most valueable information and predictive insight for quality, profitable decisions.

SAS claims to be the Business Intelligence market leader whereas it competes with giants like  Oracle, Cognos(recently acquired by IBM),  SAP but its clearly a leader in Data Mining without any doubt.

SAS has its operations in Islamabad, Pakistan too and this shows that it leaves no oppurtunity unexplored.

 

Technorati Tags: Business Intelligence,Business Analytics,SAS,Analytics,Data Mining

American Revolution Silver Dollars Coins of Founding Fathers

Coin collection is an old hobby and it still persists even in the modern era of Computers and Internet. I remember a recent movie “” which starts with the scene where hero is badly wounded and the first thought before going black out was about coins, his father was a coin collector.

In USA, particularly, people love to collect coins of all sorts. At least this is the impression i get from innumerable ads in magazines and on electronic media. Few coins just have some historical significance or connection to culture or main event, others do have their own value especially silver and gold coins.

In a single magazine, i found three full page ads of coins. One was claiming an act of Congress to protect America’s national treasures for future generations by issuing “America the Beautiful” quarter coin series five times a year at a very price of $15 along with some US historic stamps, color photography of national treasure with narrative.

The second ad was more interesting as it involves Silver dollar coins, each of 27 grams silver issued around 1783, the year America won the freedom. Although i seriously doubt that these silver coins were actually used by the founding fathers of America, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin but Silver has its own intrinsic value so this can be a more secure bet with something to boast about historical collection.

2 coin set of 1783 Silver dollar at $149

Promising Discovery for Detection of Alzheimer

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Technorati Tags: Alzheimer's,Alzheimer,FDA,Food and drug administration,short term memory,memory,brain scan

On July 11, Dr Daniel Skovronsky is going to present his surprising discovery of finding a dye  and brain scan that can show the plague in the brains of people carrying this disease.

This has been reported on the front page of The New York Times today and if confirmed and approved by the Food and Drug Administration then this start-up company might have overcome one of the biggest obstacles in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease.

The disease is named after a German scientist Alois Alzheimer who discovered in 1906. This disease is not painful in usual manner for the affected person but actually makes the life of diseased person pure misery. It affects the brain and gradually weakens the memory of the patient whose short term memory is affected severely and the patient forgets to remember about the whereabouts, recent activities like eating, washing, sleeping even walking if taking bed rest for several days.

So far, no vaccine has been effective to cure Alzheimer’s disease and it seems a long road ahead before it could be cured through therapy and really efficient vaccine. 

Approximately, there are 26 million patients of Alzheimer’s and they are believed to reach horrifying figure of 100 million by the end of 2050.

Record Decline in Home Sales

Technorati Tags: housing sales,home sales,recod decline in home sales,tax credit,great recession,great depression,subprime,MBS,CDO,mortgage,fannie mae,freddie mac

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Technorati Tags: Wall Street,invest banks,Adjustable rate mortgage,credit rating agencies,subprime lending,mortgage loan

New Homes sales has fallen to the historical lowest level since the government reporting started the figures back in 1963.  New York Times

The sales has dropped 33 percent being the lowest on record according to the commerice department. The federal tax credit has helped to help the soaring home sales for some time and now its getting worse as the federal tax credit expireson 30 April.

The current on going recession also called the Great recession after the Great Deprssion is mainly due to the bursting of American housing bubble back in 2007. The housing sector saw an increase of more than 124% over the period 1997-2006. The housing bubble resulted in inspiring and convincing homeowners to refinance their homes at lower interests rates or getting bigger credit lines for consumer spending due to price appreciation. We heard the terms “subprime” and adjustable rate mortgages (ARM) which mainly refer to second borrowers and adjusting the mortgage rate when the borrower finds it difficult to pay the monthly installments. Loans on easy intial terms encouraged and motivated many borrowers to mortgage houses that they can refinance at lower interest rates in future and would benefit with the rising prices of houses which proved wrong.

Mortgage based securities (MBS) and collateral debt obligations (CDO) , financial agreements increased phenomenally during the housing boom as it derives the value from mortgage loans. MBS and CDO were introduced by Investment banks on Wall Street and they were assigned safe ratings by credit rating agencies.

The roots of this crisis are mostly attriubuted to government sponsored entities Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac mainly responsible for subprime lending.

Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott

Technorati Tags: hotel,restaurant,inn,suites,marriott,fairfield,five star hotel,free wi-fi,free breakfast,free coffee,free tea,hotel service,work friendly

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Going through Bloomberg business week third week magainze, i came across an ad from FAIRFIELD Inn & Suites by Marriott. I know Marriott as a five star hotel chain all over the world, actually i worked very close to the only Marriott hotel in Islamabad. The level of service in Marriott is extremely good and they know how to provide excellent service with the blend of local culture, still remember the waitresses in black Sari(traditional body wrap cloth in South Asia).

Coming back to FairField Inn & Suites by Marriott, the catching phrase is interesting

Staying is believing

Free Wi-Fi is listed even before free breakfast which is really hard to find nowadays. Quite emphasis has been laid on high speed internet in room and lobby to work freely and obviously relax on internet. Work area with ergonomic desk and chair is also attractive to professionals staying for few days. Conference room alongwith Business center with printing capabilities is again quite attractive for working professionals.

Sound sleep in spacious and modern rooms equippred with large Cable TV with premium channels and stereo system(sound conscious and caring customers). Fitness center and swimming pool for relaxing. complimentary newspaper for customers who want to stay current with the current affairs.

Mini refrigerator,, microwave for suites only but free coffee,tea and breakfast for everybody. Seems a pretty good deal !!