KDnuggets™ News 10:n20, Aug 25

Features

New Poll: Your experience with Foursquare, Facebook Places, or other geolocation services - Aug 24, 2010.
Geolocation services are the latest trend, and they present new opportunities for data mining as well as new privacy challenges. What is your experience with geolocation services?
Poll Results: half of SAS users consider switching - Aug 24, 2010.
among potential switchers, about 60% consider WPS, and 33% consider R. See full results and comments
M2010 discount for KDnuggets Subscribers - Aug 17, 2010.
The SAS M2010 Data Mining Conference attracts the brightest minds in the field of analytics. Join hundreds of attendees and listen to experts from the health care, financial services, manufacturing, retail and education industries. KDnuggets News subscribers are entitled to a 30% discount on M2010 - see details.
Front-line Predictive Analytics Experts Speaking at PAW DC - Aug 24, 2010.
A wealth of front-line experience is sharing their knowledge at Predictive Analytics World DC, October 19-20, 2010, including speakers from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Life Line Screening, Merkle, MetLife Auto & Home, Miles Kimball, Monster, Paychex, Xerox PARC.
Most viewed items for Aug 15-21 - Aug 22, 2010.
P != NP Proved by HP Labs researcher?; Most Comprehensive Social Media Analytics Platform List;
Top jobs: Data Mining Analyst at Waste Management, Houston, TX; Researcher, Predictive Analytics at Xerox Research Center, Webster, NY;
Most viewed items for Aug 8-14 - Aug 16, 2010.
P != NP Proved by HP Labs researcher?; New Poll: Switching from SAS to WPS ?;
Top jobs: Director of Research, Algorithms and Data Mining at JustAnswer, San Francisco, CA; Junior Analytics Manager at Opera Solutions, San Diego, Jersey City, New York, USA;

Courses (see also All Courses)

Tools for Discovering Patterns in Data, Sep 13-14, Charlottesville, VA - Aug 2, 2010.
a practical, experience-based, concepts course, known for demystifying data mining with clarity and humor. Learn to isolate the essential aspects of a problem and select and combine appropriate software tools to find useful patterns in noisy, incomplete data.
Data Mining/Survival Analysis Techniques - Aug 24, 2010.
Look deeper into your data and make better informed business decisions with data mining experts Michael Berry or Gordon Linoff. Attend one of their upcoming classes and see how they have solved problems for customers around the world.

Webcasts (see also All Webcasts)

Data Mining: Failure to Launch [ Sep 9, Free Webinar ] - Aug 24, 2010.
Attend this free webinar to learn how to get started with data mining and overcome both strategic and tactical limitations that cause data mining projects to fall short of their potential.
Free Webinar, Sep 15: Data Visualization for Fraud Analysis - Aug 20, 2010.
The 4 key phases of data visualization for fraud analysis and other insights on applying data visualization techniques to identify fraud.

Software (see also All Software)

Search, Web, Social Media Analytics + Monitoring Resources - Aug 23, 2010.
these resources are free or free to try
Predixion: Closer to liftoff - Aug 21, 2010.
With the beta launch we have people from around the world enjoying predictive analytics in the cloud via Predixion Insight
Aster Data Offers Free MapReduce IDE To Boost Use of Big Data - Aug 19, 2010.
The new MapReduce IDE (Aster Data Developer Express) is a point-and-click visual development environment. Aster says that any developer familiar with Java can complete a rich analytic application in under an hour
KNIME selected as Gartner Cool Vendor! - Aug 16, 2010.
KNIME wasselected by Gartner as "Cool Vendor 2010" in the key technology areas Analytics, Business Intelligence, and Performance Management.

Jobs (see also All Jobs)

Statistician, Ford Credit at Ford, Dearborn, MI - Aug 22, 2010.
develop, implement and support analytics using advanced statistical/econometric techniques and work closely with our IT and business partners around the globe to embed analytics into critical decision processes.
Director of Semantic Division at Reputation management firm, London, UK - Aug 21, 2010.
5+ years of experience in a text-mining environment, including responsibility for management, and in technology executive roles for at least 10 years. Manage all operational and strategic aspects of the division, reporting directly into the company's CEO.
Senior Manager or Manager - Statistician at Global consulting organization, 8 locations: San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, Raleigh, or Washington-DC - Aug 20, 2010.
Large, global consulting organization is launching a predictive analytics practice and is looking to hire 10 immediate Statisticians. create, design and build new business models and help their clients integrate and operate them.
Senior Software Engineer at Amazon.com, Seattle, WA - Aug 20, 2010.
develop algorithms and build systems to automatically solve a variety of Information Retrieval and Data Mining problems related to the Amazon Product Catalog - one of the company's biggest assets
Sr. Statistician at Adknowledge, Kansas City, MO - Aug 19, 2010.
Adknowledge Analytics Department provides a central lab for statistical analysis, machine learning, and distributed computing, to service business needs throughout the rest of our company for targeted consumer advertising
Software Engineer, Game Analytics/Data Mining at Turiya Media, San Francisco, CA - Aug 19, 2010.
Turiya Media is a new technology firm that was launched to focus on the interactive gaming space. We build software that brings predictive data mining to online games.
Sr. Software Engineer at Efficient Frontier, Sunnyvale, CA - Aug 18, 2010.
to develop user interfaces for the web. As a senior member of the team, you will be responsible for end-to-end ownership including design, implementation, deployment, and resolving support issues.
Data Mining Analyst at Waste Management, Houston, TX - Aug 17, 2010.
Be subject matter expert across a $13B enterprise as you unlock the power of large scale complex data sets utilizing state-of-the-art data mining tools to solve a variety of problems.
Senior Data Warehouse Engineer at Convio, Berkeley, CA - Aug 16, 2010.
Convio is a leading provider of on-demand constituent relationship management software and services to nonprofit organizations. Convio offers a casual work environment surrounded by the most collaborative and innovative talent in the on-demand CRM software industry
Senior Analyst at Xplus1 [x+1], New York, NY - Aug 13, 2010.
Consult with clients regarding development & alignment of marketing programs across on-line channels; Analyze and interpret marketing program results to drive future client marketing strategies
Manager, Online Marketing Optimization & Analytics at Xplus1 [x+1], New York, NY - Aug 13, 2010.
lead a team of analysts that help clients achieve the optimal ROI on their marketing programs using [x+1]'s sophisticated predictive modeling technology, data analytics and reporting tools.
Researcher, Predictive Analytics at Xerox Research Center, Webster, NY - Aug 13, 2010.
design, develop, and deploy state-of-the-art, data-driven predictive models to solve business problems using the latest and most appropriate technologies in machine learning, pattern recognition, statistical modeling, information retrieval or stochastic operations research
Research Scientist / Software Engineer at Morpho Detection, Newark, CA - Aug 12, 2010.
develop image processing algorithms to aid in the detection of explosives, weapons, and other contraband, contributing to the safety of air travel.
Data Analyst at RichRelevance, Seattle, WA or San Francisco, CA - Aug 11, 2010.
RichRelevance is the leading provider of dynamic e-commerce personalization for the world's largest retailers, including Wal-Mart and Sears
Sr. Analytics Product Manager at Medio Systems, Seattle, WA - Aug 11, 2010.
responsible for product and marketing strategy and execution for all of Medio's analytics products, as well as driving awareness and usage of Medio's analytics products in market.

Academic/Research positions

Lecturer In Statistics at Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, NZ - Aug 21, 2010.
The School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences is offering a permanent, full-time lectureship and invites applications from suitably qualified candidates within the field of statistical science.
Ph.D. position: Business Process Mining at K.U. Leuven, Leuven, Belgium - Aug 19, 2010.
Insights into business processes can be found via the analysis of the event logs of information and/or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, hereby verifying process compliance (expected behavior versus portrayed behavior).
Fellowship in Social Networks, Data mining at U. of Pisa, Pisa, Italy - Aug 12, 2010.
The PhD student will work in our joint KDD LAB on topics in social network analysis and data mining.

Audio/Podcasts/Video

Profits vs. Privacy as Businesses Mine Consumer Data [Video] - Aug 19, 2010.
One example: Avis. After looking at rental patterns and website browsing habits, the company is better tailoring e-mail marketing pitches. It's working, with marketing costs slashed in half and loyalty going up.
Where Do They Go? Web Analytics for Success [Podcast] - Aug 14, 2010.
Which parts of your Web site attract, retain or repel your prospects and customers? Knowing those answers can be a big difference in how you run your part of the world, but the sooner you find out, the better

Publications

Data mining the heart - Aug 22, 2010.
How do we choose a mate? What scientists are learning from online dating. For example: Men get more responses from women if they don't smile in their profile pictures
New book: Data Preprocessing for Chemometric and Metabonomic Analysis - Aug 17, 2010.
this book brings together an overview / summary of the major techniques in (generally) common use.. The effort arose from years of involvement with grad students and their questions and needs.
Forrester Wave: Open Source Business Intelligence, Q3 2010 - Aug 14, 2010.
2009 could best be described as "the year IT professionals realized that open source runs their business."
Big Data is Watching You - Aug 12, 2010.
There's a boom in large-scale analytics. Some of the most interesting cases are in the areas of identifying individuals, groups of people, or behaviors of (groups of) people.
VC view on IBM and Business Analytics - Aug 12, 2010.
VCs are investing in business analytics for the following reasons: 1. The impact of cloud computing...
How I won the Predict HIV Progression data mining competition - Aug 12, 2010.
my initial attempts were not very successful, but then I identified certain areas of the dataset that didn't appear to be randomly partitioned.

News Briefs

Deadline for the INFORMS Data Mining Contest is Oct 10 - Aug 24, 2010.
the goal is to predict stock price movements (over 60 minutes) at five minute intervals with accurate predictive analysis solutions.
Researcher Cracks ReCAPTCHA - Aug 23, 2010.
Homegrown algorithms for cheating Google's reCAPTCHA released earlier this month. Researcher was able to beat the updated reCAPTCHA 30 percent of the time.
Online games are a gold mine for design ideas - Aug 23, 2010.
video gaming is no longer a private pursuit. Gaming services such as Microsoft's Xbox Live not only connect players in living rooms the world over, they can also record every move each gamer makes
Equifax Capital Markets Integrates KXEN Technology - Aug 21, 2010.
Equifax can build models faster and identify variables that are most predictive of mortgage loan default and delinquency.
A Chip That Digests Data and Calculates the Odds - Aug 21, 2010.
The company is redesigning processing circuits from the ground up to natively process probabilities - from the gate circuits to the processor architecture to the programming language.
Jingwei International Q2 2010 Financial Results - Aug 19, 2010.
Data Mining revenue grew 72% year-over-year to $4.4 million. Jingwei International is a leading provider of data-mining, interactive marketing and software services in China
Citizen Scientists Discover Rotating Pulsar - Aug 19, 2010.
Einstein@Home project uses data from Arecibo, the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope
Pervasive DataRush Reaches 2 TB/Hour Processing Speed - Aug 18, 2010.
Pervasive DataRush(tm) processes MalStone B-10 data at rates of two Terabytes per hour on a 32-core Intel Xeon 7550 server.
Teradata buys analytics vendor Kickfire - Aug 14, 2010.
Kickfire's analytics appliance was noted for its use of MySQL and a special chip for boosting query performance
IBM buys Unica for $480 million - Aug 13, 2010.
Unica will expand IBM's ability to help organizations analyze and predict customer preferences and develop more targeted marketing campaigns.

CFP - Calls for Papers (see also All CFP)

Learning on Cores, Clusters, and Clouds, due Oct 17
FLAIRS-2011 Data Mining Track, due Nov 22
Data Mining Applications and Case Studies, due Nov 30

Quote

The price of light is less than the cost of darkness.

Arthur Nielsen (thanks to Neil Mason of ClickZ)