Rahul Dravid - a legend in Test Cricket

Rahul Dravid is a fantastic cricketer, and a role model for younger generation - focused, hardworking and humble.

Dravid recently became the 2nd highest scorer in Test Cricket (Sachin Tendulkar is the leading scorer). His contribution to Indian cricket is enormous and his nickname, "The Wall", is a testimony to his concentration, skill and will that has given India tremendous success in Test cricket. 

Dravid isn't worshiped in India like Tendulkar. He has played his cricket under Tendulkar's shadow. This isn't because his skill, will or contribution to Indian success is second to anyone. Its just that he lives in the same era as another great cricketer - Tendulkar.

Indian test cricket will never be the same when Dravid retires.

Learning SAS

I want to learn the heavy-weight of Statistical softwares - SAS. It seems like the default choice for high-end statistics and I want to understand why.

I'm working in the healthcare practice in our firm and want to analyze claims and credit data (Terabytes, 50M+ records). Traditional ways (SQL) are limiting and desktop statistical softwares like R and Stata aren't suitable for such large data analysis. Other contenders (Matlab) don't seem to be in the same league.

So, its time to take a deep dive into SAS.

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I'm looking for some advice to create a learning plan...

Good books

• I like learning by examples and found this on Amazon - Learning SAS by Example: A Programmer's Guide by Ronald P. Cody)
• I know some R, so this might be interesting - SAS and R: Data Management, Statistical Analysis, and Graphics by Ken Kleinman and Nicholas J. Horton
• Others?

Good tutorials

• I like video tutorials with examples e.g Statistics202.
• I also like tutorials from a programmer's perspective better
• Anything for SAS out there?

Good blogs

• Anything like R-Bloggers out there for SAS?

Experts

• Will start exploring this. If you know of someone, please let me know. 

Good training courses in New York area

• Preferably not the ones run by the company themselves. I'm looking for SAS experts who can run hands-on classes

SAS interest groups in New York area

• I learn well in a study group. Any meetups?