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Databases Quotes

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Databases Quotes

“...note that relational systems require only that the database be perceived by the user as tables. Tables are the logical structure in a relational system, not the physical structure. At the physical level, in fact, the system is free to store the data any way it likes—using sequential files, indexing, hashing, pointer chains, compression, and so on—provided only that it can map that stored representation to tables at the logical level. Another way of saying the same thing is that tables represent an abstraction of the way the data is physically stored—an abstraction in which numerous storage level details (such as stored record placement, stored record sequence, stored data value representations, stored record prefixes, stored access structures such as indexes, and so forth) are all hidden from the user. ... The Information Principle: The entire information content of the database is represented in one and only one way—namely, as explicit values in column positions in rows in tables. This method of representation is the only method available (at the logical level, that is) in a relational system. In particular, there are no pointers connecting one table to another.”

Information TechnologyDatabases
Book:An Introduction to Database Systems
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“■ Types are (sets of) things we can talk about. ■ Relations are (sets of) things we say about the things we can talk about. (There is a nice analogy here that might help you appreciate and remember these important points: Types are to relations as nouns are to sentences.) Thus, in the example, the things we can talk about are employee numbers, names, department numbers, and money values, and the things we say are true utterances of the form “The employee with the specified employee number has the specified name, works in the specified department, and earns the specified salary.” It follows from all of the foregoing that: 1. Types and relations are both necessary (without types, we have nothing to talk about; without relations, we cannot say anything). 2. Types and relations are sufficient, as well as necessary—i.e., we do not need anything else, logically speaking. 3. Types and relations are not the same thing. It is an unfortunate fact that certain commercial products—not relational ones, by definition!—are confused over this very point.”

Information TechnologyDatabases
Book:An Introduction to Database Systems
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“...SQL is very far from being the “perfect” relational language—it suffers from numerous sins of both omission and commission. ...the overriding issue is simply that SQL fails in all too many ways to support the relational model properly. As a consequence, it is not at all clear that today's SQL products really deserve to be called “relational” at all! Indeed, as far as this writer is aware, there is no product on the market today that supports the relational model in its entirety. This is not to say that some parts of the model are unimportant; on the contrary, every detail of the model is important, and important, moreover, for genuinely practical reasons. Indeed, the point cannot be stressed too strongly that the purpose of relational theory is not just “theory for its own sake”; rather, the purpose is to provide a base on which to build systems that are 100 percent practical. But the sad fact is that the vendors have not yet really stepped up to the challenge of implementing the theory in its entirety. As a consequence, the “relational” products of today regrettably all fail, in one way or another, to deliver on the full promise of relational technology.”

Information TechnologyDatabases
Book:An Introduction to Database Systems
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“...since there is so much confusion surrounding it in the industry. You will often hear claims to the effect that relational attributes can only be of very simple types (numbers, strings, and so forth). The truth is, however, that there is absolutely nothing in the relational model to support such claims. ...in fact, types can be as simple or as complex as we like, and so we can have attributes whose values are numbers, or strings, or dates, or times, or audio recordings, or maps, or video recordings, or geometric points (etc.). The foregoing message is so important‒and so widely misunderstood‒that we state it again in different terms: The question of what data types are supported is orthogonal to the question of support for the relational model.”

Information TechnologyDatabases
Book:An Introduction to Database Systems
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“As a cultural form, database represents the world as a list of items and it refuses to order this list. In contrast, a narrative creates a cause-and-effect trajectory of seemingly unordered items (events). Therefore, database and narrative are natural enemies. Competing for the same territory of human culture, each claims an exclusive right to make meaning out of the world.”

WorldHumansFormOrderCultureCausesNaturalEnemyEffectsEventsClaimsRefuseListsNarrativeTerritoryContrastCompetingItemsExclusiveCause And EffectTrajectoryDatabasesNatural Enemies
Author:Lev Manovich
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“The program grew out of a desire to address a gap identified after 9/11 ... The program does not involve the NSA examining the phone records of ordinary Americans. Rather, it consolidates these records into a database that the government can query if it has a specific lead - phone records that the companies already retain for business purposes.”

IfsDoeGovernmentDesirePurposeCompanyRecordsGrewOrdinaryProgramPhonesAddressesGapsNsaExaminingDatabasesQueries
Author:Barack Obama
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“We get information in the mail, the regular postal mail, encrypted or not, vet it like a regular news organization, format it - which is sometimes something that's quite hard to do, when you're talking about giant databases of information - release it to the public and then defend ourselves against the inevitable legal and political attacks.”

SometimesHardPoliticalTalkingInformationNewsOrganizationReleaseInevitableGiantsMailFormatVetsDatabases
Author:Julian Assange
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“The new advocates of ID [Intelligent Design] ask that their ideas be judged by scientific, not religious, criteria. OK, let's see how well ID stacks up as a scientific alternative to Darwinism. To gauge how well ID is doing as a platform for scientific research, I logged into the best database of the biological literature. A search for keyword ''evolution'' yielded 24,000 hits in the last decade. A search for ''intelligent design'' yielded not a single piece of research. Evolution by natural selection remains the basis of every successful biological research program.”

WellsIdeasLastsAsksLiteratureNaturalReligiousSuccessfulPiecesAtheismDesignEvolutionResearchProgramBasesIntelligentRemainsPositive AtheismDecadesAlternativesJudgedPlatformsSelectionCriteriaNatural SelectionDarwinismScientific ResearchGaugesIntelligent DesignDatabasesKeywords
Author:Chet Raymo
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“The USA Freedom Act does not propose that we abandon any and all efforts to analyze telephone data, what we're talking about here is a program that currently contemplates the collection of all data just as a routine matter and the aggregation of all that data in one database. That causes concerns for a lot of people... There's a lot of potential for abuse.”

PeopleDoeMatterCausesFreedomEffortTalkingConcernProgramAbuseDataUsaCollectionsAbandonRoutineContemplatingTelephonesProposeDatabasesUsa Freedom
Author:Mike Lee
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“Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida, literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians.”

HelpingSecurityProductsComputerWesternDefeatAgencyAlsOccupationAfghanistanConspiracy80sFilesCiaBin LadenSaudisJihadDatabasesMiscalculationsMujahideen
Author:Robin Cook
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“You essentially have a human-relations database on millions of Americans. The administration said, "Well we're not listening to calls, we don't collect content." As [Vice President] Joe Biden said when he was a United States senator, you don't need to listen to those calls. If you have who somebody called, when and where, and you learned, for example, somebody called a psychiatrist three times in the last few days and twice after midnight, you know a lot about that person that they may not want people to know about them, especially the government.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWantNeedsHumansWellsMayPersonsSaidStatesGovernmentLastsThreePresidentUnitedMillionsUnited StatesExampleListeningRelationVicesAdministrationSenatorsMidnightThree TimesPsychiatristHuman RelationsVice PresidentBidenDatabases
Author:Ron Wyden
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“Because of the war on drugs, pain patients are treated with skepticism and pain doctors live in fear of being prosecuted for overprescribing. The end result is that addicts still get their opioids without much trouble, while genuine patients often can't find treatment. Those who do must typically be tracked in a database and must schedule frequent, expensive doctor visits for surveillance like urine testing.”

StillsWarEndsPainResultsTroubleDrugDoctorsPatientGenuineTreatedExpensiveTreatmentSkepticismSchedulesTestingAddictSurveillanceWar On DrugsEnd ResultsDatabasesOpioidsOften Can
Author:Maia Szalavitz
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“This killer [in Orlando] was interviewed by the FBI three times and I'm not going to second guess what career law enforcement professionals do everyday to defend our nation. But we need to look carefully at this. Should we have a broader database? You know, someone comes to the attention of FBI not once but three times, does that suggest that local law enforcement needs to know.”

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Author:Hillary Clinton
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“We do a lot of "capital I" important stories, but one I'd highlight is the work we've done on guns, not only for the acclaim it's gotten but also because it showcases all the different kinds formats we use. So we compiled a database of all the variables of all the mass shootings in America - work the government doesn't do, thanks to the NRA - which allowed us to surface patterns and make data visualizations of it.”

KindImportantDifferentDoneStoriesUseGovernmentAmericaMassGunPatternsSurfaceThanksDataShootingDifferent KindsVisualizationFormatVariablesHighlightsNraShowcaseAcclaimDatabasesMass Shootings
Author:Clara Jeffery
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“Now companies tend to mine gigantic databases for insights into what might happen six months from now. That might always be valuable, but there's a different kind of value - and a competitive edge - in processing ongoing streams of data through a software model that can quickly and constantly make predictions about, say, whether a certain customer is going to defect, or an aircraft is going to run into trouble.”

KindDifferentMightHappensRunningCertainValuesCompanyTroubleMinesMonthsSixModelsEdgesValuableInsightCustomersDataStreamsSoftwareDifferent KindsPredictionsDefectsSix MonthsOngoingProcessingAircraftDatabases
Author:Kevin Maney
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“Um…” Simon started slowly “at the risk of stating the obvious I feel I have to point out that Interpol has the worldʼs best database of international criminals.” “Thatʼs the idea ” Gabrielle said with a nod. “And I feel compelled to remind you that weʼre international criminals ” he finished but Kat was already smiling. “Donʼt worry Simon. Itʼs not like anyone in there knows it was a bunch of teenagers who robbed the Henley.”

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Author:Ally Carter
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“I think Amazon is the preeminent pioneer in building a new way of doing commerce: personalized, database-driven commerce, where the big value is not in the purchase fulfillment, but in knowing as much about a customer base of ten or twenty million people as a corner store used to know about a customer base of a few hundred. In today's mass-merchandising world, that's largely gone; Amazon is trying to use computer technology to re-establish it.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWorldWayTryingUseBigsTodayUsedValuesMillionsTechnologyGoneKnowingBuildingInternetTenComputerMassHundredTwentiesCornersCustomersDrivenStoresFulfillmentCommerceNew WaysPioneersAmazonDatabasesComputer TechnologyPersonalizedMerchandising
Author:Andy Grove
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