Re: st: Maximization problem

[Neil Shephard <nshephard@gmail.com>]

1. Attachments to the list are deprecated (although in this instance
its been archived on the Nabble mirror for viewing as opposed to being
sent out to everyone).  See the FAQ linked in the footer of every
message to

2. Not everyone has the software to view M$'s proprietary file format.

3. I'd advise against using Excel for statistics, particularly issues
that arise from precision.  For further reasons and analysis of the
performance/accuracy of Excel for statistics see the resources listed
at http://slack.ser.man.ac.uk/progs/stata/avoid_excel.html (in
particular the articles from Computational Statistics & Data
Analysis).

4. I've not got the time to trawl through your spreadsheet work to see
if it might be do-able in Stata, and I doubt most others will either.
If you'd had a go at trying to implement it in Stata and were having
problems you might find people are willing/able to help with a
specific problem, but what you've asked is rather general and in my
opinion is expecting a lot from other members on the list.

I expect you can probably achieve what you want in Stata, but you're
going to have to learn how to program Stata/Mata.

Sorry if thats all a bit negative, just my opinion,

Neil

-- 
"... no scientific worker has a fixed level of significance at which
from year to year, and in all circumstances, he rejects hypotheses; he
rather gives his mind to each particular case in the light of his
evidence and his ideas." - Sir Ronald A. Fisher (1956)

Email - nshephard@gmail.com
Website - http://slack.ser.man.ac.uk/
Photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/slackline/
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