How I discovered SPSS: in at the deep end

[Page added 4 Nov 2011]

The first time I ever used SPSS (not!) was in 1972, in a desperate attempt to obtain badly delayed results from a live "Life in Oxford" survey designed and conducted from scratch (under my supervision) by students on the SSRC Survey Methods Summer School at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.  By the final evening of the course we had managed to code and enter all the data and get preliiminary frequency counts, but little else. 
I wanted to have much more analysis to give students in return for all their efforts, but Clive Payne (our resident SPSS wizard, who up to then had done all the computing) had to leave early for a "pressing social engagement" (I think it was it was his wedding anniversary or his wife's birthday).  He handed me the only copy of the manual (first time I'd ever seen it!) and I was left on my own in the computer centre with only the operator for company. Despite heroic efforts from both us, we obtained nothing but indecipherable error messages and I was eventually thrown out at midnight as the operator wanted to go home. 

(Click cartoon to see it full size)  On top of that I missed my dinner and most of the end-of-course party!  

These tutorials should help you to avoid all that. 

Perhaps I should rename the  course SPSS Without Tears!