StataCorp now provides free tutorial videos on StataCorp’s YouTube channel,
http://www.youtube.com/user/statacorp
There are 24 videos providing 1 hour 51 minutes of instructional entertainment: Read more…
We recently had a contest on our Facebook page. To enter, contestants posted their favorite Stata command, feature, or just a post telling us why they love Stata. Contestants then asked their friends, colleagues, and fellow Stata users to vote for their entry by ‘Like’-ing the post. The prize, a copy of Stata/MP 12 (8-core).
The response was overwhelming! We enjoyed reading all the reasons why users love Stata so much, we wanted to share them with you.
The contest question was:
Do you have a favorite command or feature in Stata? What about a memorable experience when using the software? Post your favorite command, feature, or experience in the comments section of this post. Then, get your friends to “like” your comment. The person with the most “likes” by March 13, 2012, wins. The winner will receive a single-user copy of Stata/MP8 12 with PDF documentation.
We had many submissions with multiple “likes”. The winning submissions are: Read more…
Dembe, Partridge, and Geist (2011, pdf), in a paper recently published in
Good company. Both are, in our humble opinion, excellent packages, although we admit to have a preference for one of them.
We should mention that the authors report that SAS usage grew considerably during the study period, and that Stata usage held roughly constant, a conclusion that matches the results in their Table 1, an extract of which is Read more…
Our target date for tuning on comments is Wednesday of next week. Don’t hold us to it, but we’re optimistic on meeting our deadline.
In the meantime, Bill Gould is so excited he’s put on hold his latest blog entry. It’s about linear algebra—matrices in particular—so it won’t exactly go out of date, and he’s looking forward to seeing the comments. Bill’s very proud of what he’s written, so be gentle. We’ll put up his posting right after comments are enabled.
You probably already noticed the icons at the top right of the blog, but in case you didn’t, Stata is now on Facebook and Twitter. Follow us at @stata and join us on Facebook to keep up-to-date with the latest Stata-related happenings. We will share events, announcements, blog posts, and more.
When Stata first started back in 1985, communicating with users–well, back then they were potential users because we didn’t have any users yet–was nearly impossible.
From the beginning, we were very modern. Back in 1985, there were competing packages, but no one (not even me) expected personal computers to replace the mainframe. Back then, about the best that could be said about the available statistical packages is that they worked (sometimes) for some problems. What made Stata different was our belief and attitude that personal computers could actually be better than the mainframe for some problems. That in itself was a radical idea! In the mainstream, mainframe computer world, there was a popular saying: Little computers for little minds.
And we’ve stayed modern since then. Stata was (in 1999) the first statistical package to have online updating and an automated, modern, Internet way to handle user-written code. Modern Statas not only have that, but can use datasets directly off the web. But we have fallen behind! It’s 2010, and StataCorp doesn’t have a corporate blog!
Well, we do now.
Well, that may not be the most exciting announcement we’ve ever made. But our blog will be authored by the same people who develop Stata, support Stata, and yes, sell Stata. It will be useful, and it might be more entertaining than you suspect. If it is, that will be because of the people writing it.
Welcome to Not Elsewhere Classified, the Stata blog.
Here we will try to keep you up-to-date about all things related to Stata Statistical Software. That includes not only product announcements from StataCorp and others, but timely tips (and sometimes comments) on other news related to the use of Stata.
Many entries will be signed by members of the StataCorp staff.
If you have any tips or comments for us, email [email protected].