StatOps

StatOps stands for Statistics and Operations Research. Most of the posts are "tidbit" in nature and easily accessible to the layperson. Please also see the Help section where we can help you with advice to statistics problems.

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I've been meaning to post this for a while: Excel is a horrible way to store and transmit data. Let me explain further what I mean: when working with data, it's important that those data are not modified unless you want to modify them. Excel likes to tamper with whatever you insert into its cells unless they're text type, so something that may appear to Excel to be a date is irrevocably lost when Excel decides to corrupt it. Just another example of Microsoft-induced lossage (another rant altogether).

Excel is not a database. It doesn't preserve your data as you intended them to be. And while I'm at it, creating multiple tabs is not a substitute for some kind of indicator. Whenever I encounter data that is generally a mess and disorganized it has been sent to me as an Excel file. Excel is good at what it is, but it isn't, as I say, a database or a reliable means to transmit data to another party.

I just cleaned out a number of spammy link comments. I feel as if I've neglected my poor site (which I have) and it got some sort of disease. Luckily I've got what's needed to cure it!

I start my new job next week. I assume I will sign a non-disclosure agreement, and I certainly wouldn't blog about what I do there. But the company's focus is creating models to predict when credit requests are likely to be fraudulent. Statistics in action!

1. It has a wide range of utility.
A number of fields that have very little to do with mathematics, such as biology, chemistry, or psychology, require that university students majoring in them take a statistics course. The reason why can be expressed fairly simply: statistics is the only way we can analyze data and objectively say whether something is true or not, provided that we take care to phrase the results carefully. SAS's tagline, "The Power to Know," is truer than most!

2. It has strong career potential.
Many of the jobs that relate directly to statistics (such as a career in bioinformatics) require at least a master's degree, but there are many jobs out there that one can pursue with merely a bachelor's.