| Newsletter 11, February 1996 |
This version is now running on the networks. It incorporates CHAID and Exact Tests. To do heavy-duty analysis does require a reasonably high-specification machine to run at reasonable pace… so in the labs look for a machine which looks new as this is a good guide. In case of doubt, ask.
At the SPSS Users’ Group Meeting held in York in November 1995, there were presentations of applications of SPSS and also news from SPSS staff of forthcoming developments. Notably, there will be a new version — Version 7.0 — which will need Windows 95 to run.
What was different about this meeting was a presentation by the head of SPSS, Jack Noonan. He seemed to be the very epitome of a CEO of a US Company, extremely “upbeat”, delivering a string of superlatives about the forthcoming Version 7. He was particularly enthusiastic about its output manipulation capability. Version 7.0 will also have a General Linear Model procedure, so that the handling of Analysis of Variance and related topics should be improved
Something he said that I found interesting was his estimate that ”proper stats” was only about 5% of the whole data and presentation software industry (about $6 billion at present). However, it is a growing percentage of a growing sector — so perhaps more and more people are recognizing that there is more to data analysis than showing a few pie-charts!
One new development which was interesting is that SPSS have taken over and are marketing SYSTAT, a stats package which is aimed at the science area, rather than social/ business areas. It therefore has more sophisticated graphical capabilities, and is somewhat similar to Minitab. In fact, it is marketed by the same person who used to market Minitab before Minitab set up their own base in the UK.
The Radical Statistics group is meeting in Leeds on Saturday 24th February, from 10:00am to 5:00pm. Some of the subjects are visualizing data, housing, poverty, ethnicity and the NHS.
More details are available from Anthony Staines on (0113) 266 2584 (evenings), or by email at A.Staines@leeds.ac.uk
I wrote about Quercus in the last Newsletter, and this is now available for staff to test on the Calverley Street Network. However, it does have quite a few bugs and we await a new version.
I have some others to look at:
If anyone would like to examine them, please contact me.
The courses “Guide to Surveys”, “Introduction to SPSS” and “Introduction to Minitab” will run on Thursdays 15th, 22nd and 29th February respectively. To book, please telephone extn 5956.
Example Survey Analysis using SPSS for Windows (SPSS-UG-3) will soon be available. In case of difficulty obtaining a copy, please contact me.
Question: What is the definition of a medical statistician?
Answer: Someone who doesn’t think Columbus found America because Asia was specified on the trial plan.
— Dr Paul Marchant