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1. Database Truth of the Week

"The original normal form and the later First Normal Form (1) are distinct. In the early 1969 RDM there was only "the normal form" of relations [a term Codd borrowed from FOPL]. It was based on the initial version of the join operation, which was different than today's join. Had 1NF and further normalization to at least 2NF had been introduced then, the normal form would have made no sense, as there would have been then multiple normal forms, which make sense only with the post-1970 join definition currently in use. Thus, there is no way to answer "what is the difference between the original normal form and 1NF?" without taking into account the definition of join, and -- if defined as we now do -- no way to understand the original normal form, except to say that in the context of the original join definition it would correspond to today's Fifth Normal Form (5NF). This is why a relation is really in 5NF by definition, not in 1NF as per current understanding." --David McGoveran

2. What's Wrong With This Database Picture?

"The term database design can be used to describe many different parts of the design of an overall database system. Principally, and most correctly, it can be thought of as the logical design of the base data structures used to store the data. In the relational model these are the tables and views. In an object database the entities and relationships map directly to object classes and named relationships. However, the term database design could also be used to apply to the overall process of designing, not just the base data structures, but also the forms and queries used as part of the overall database application within the database management system(DBMS).

The process of doing database design generally consists of a number of steps which will be carried out by the database designer. Usually, the designer must:

• Determine the data to be stored in the database.
• Determine the relationships between the different data elements.
• Superimpose a logical structure upon the data on the basis of these relationships.

Within the relational model the final step above can generally be broken down into two further steps, that of determining the grouping of information within the system, generally determining what are the basic objects about which information is being stored, and then determining the relationships between these groups of information, or objects." --Halil Lacevic, What is a Relational Database?, Quora.com

3. To Laugh or Cry?

"A relational database is one where entities (a.k.a. tables) have the ability to establish associations with other entities. These relationships are conceived by associating the foreign key of one entity to the primary key of another. For instance, say I have an Employee entity and a Company entity. Both tables would have a primary key that is used to identify each record in the table. The Company table’s primary key field might be called CompanyID or just simply ID. It can be named anything as long as it’s designated as a unique value (usually an auto incrementing integer) that identifies a specific record."

"A relational database is a database (storage of data) that separates data into its component parts for efficient examination, while continuing to connect them together in something called a relation."

"A relational database is a way of organising data tables that is efficient in terms of storage used."

"A relational database is a collection of data items organized as a set of formally-described tables from which data can be accessed or reassembled in many different ways without having to reorganize the database tables.""A relational database stores information in a structured format called a schema. This schema is defined according the rules or database normalization. These rules are meant to ensure the integrity of the data." --What is a Relational Database?, Quora.com

5. Housekeeping

Due to a newly overhaul of this site planned for 2018 (1) the DICTIONARY OF DATA FUNDAMENTALS project is being revised for integration with it and (2) the TERMINOLOGY page has been renamed FUNDAMENTALS.

Details about the overhaul and how the DICTIONARY and FUNDAMENTAL page fit into it will be provided in a future post.

6. Publications

• Paper #2 in the new UNDERSTANDING OF THE REAL RDM series, Logical Symmetric Access, Data Sub-language, Kinds of Relations, Database Redundancy and Consistency, is available for ordering here.
• Paper #1 in the new UNDERSTANDING OF THE REAL RDM series, Interpretation and Representation of Database Relations, is available for ordering here.
• My book, THE DBDEBUNK GUIDE TO MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT DATA FUNDAMENTALS, is available to order here.

7. Oldie but Goodie

The Future of RDBMS - Part I (links may be dead)

8. Elsewhere

• Your lack of constraints is disturbing (but see To Really Understand Integrity, Don't Start with SQL and forthcoming debunking) 
• Larry Ellison on Oracle’s “self-driving” database (If you liked what MS did to Windows, you'll love this)
• Judge shocked to learn NYPD’s evidence database has no backup

9. Of General Interest

• Most data is 'crap' so don't bother with data scientists
• The "science" in data science: To become a data scientist, focus on coding
• Why No One Talks Much About “Big Data” Anymore

10. The Sillicon Valley Dystopia: Technology as Mechanism of Tyranny and Non-human Destruction of Civilized Free Society

• Facebook's Sandberg: Fake accounts are freedom of expression
• Facebook 202X: How It Becomes The Multitool For The Modern Totalitarian
• What Facebook Did to American Democracy
• Tech Giants, Once Seen as Saviors, Are Now Viewed as Threats
• Google US Censor for Chinese Government
• Working at Google seemed like a dream job. The reality has been a pointless nightmare
• Why Uber Is A Scam --> Evidence Uber says UK National Insurance contributions would cost tens of millions of pounds
• Twitter Is Crawling With Bots and Lacks Incentive to Expel Them
• Facebook scrubs Russia data from fake accounts
• How Facebook Outs Sex Workers and link their clients under her fake name to her real profile
• People at Facebook Don’t Know How Facebook Works, but don't want you to know either

And Now for Something Completely Different: The Sinking Western Civilization and the PostWest

 

My Take 

Coding is not education, but the opposite thereof; and education is not job training

• Google announces $1 billion job training and education program
• Steve Wozniak announces tech education platform
• Apple CEO Tim Cook: Learning to code is so important

For what education is, see my comments (as sgeneris) to I'm a 19 year old high school dropout

• The Utility of the Humanities in the 21st Century, but The Looming Decline of the Public Research University

Must Read

"The American empire is coming to an end. The U.S. economy is being drained by wars in the Middle East and vast military expansion around the globe. It is burdened by growing deficits, along with the devastating effects of deindustrialization and global trade agreements. Our democracy has been captured and destroyed by corporations that steadily demand more tax cuts, more deregulation and impunity from prosecution for massive acts of financial fraud, all the while looting trillions from the U.S. treasury in the form of bailouts. The nation has lost the power and respect needed to induce allies in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa to do its bidding. Add to this the mounting destruction caused by climate change and you have a recipe for an emerging dystopia. Overseeing this descent at the highest levels of the federal and state governments is a motley collection of imbeciles, con artists, thieves, opportunists and warmongering generals. And to be clear, I am speaking about Democrats, too." --The End of Empire

"We live in the most technologically connected age in the history of civilization, yet rates of loneliness have doubled since the 1980s. [It is] an “epidemic,” [with] employees being overworked in his essay." --Work and the Loneliness Epidemic

"Nevertheless, by making capital accumulation synonymous with progress, money-based metrics have turned human betterment into a secondary concern. By the early 21st century, American society’s top priority became its bottom line, net worth became synonymous with self-worth, and a billionaire businessman who repeatedly pointed to his own wealth as proof of his fitness for office was elected president." --How Money Became the Measure of Everything

Book of the Week (Order via this link to support this site)

Barry C. Lynn, Cornered: THE NEW MONOPOLY CAPITALISM AND THE ECONOMICS OF DESTRUCTION (Review)

Video of the Week

A Subprime Education

Evidence of Internal Collapse

• Scared: If current trends continue for another 20 or 30 years, US democracy will be toast
• The Empire Comes Home: Counterinsurgency, Policing, and the Militarization of America’s Cities
• The Human Stain: Why the Harvey Weinstein Story Is Worse Than You Think , America’s Sexual-Assault Epidemic
• German Towns Filled With Refugees Ask, ‘Who Is Integrating Whom’

Evidence of External Demise

• America bankrupts itself in wars for the benefit of its enemies: Iran’s very good week: America Has Become Dispensable in Iraq, The west is in denial over Iran, ‘Burying head in sand’ to escape reality like pre-WWII, No strategy: As Islamic State falls, Iran, Russia are ascendent, while Iraq is increasingly divided
• North Korea warns states: Don't join any U.S. action and you're safe
• By lavishing infrastructure dollars on illiberal governments, Beijing is supplanting American soft power
• As nuclear threat mushrooms, situation worse than Cold War
• NATO faces an existential problem 

Upside Down and Backwards

• If you believe this, I have a tower in Paris to sell you: Cutting Corporate Taxes Would Boost Workers’ Income, White House Says 
• Corporations to keep tax break lost by millions of Americans

• Pinch me: UN Elects Congo to rights council despite abuse, WHO chief selects Zimbabwe's Mugabe as 'goodwill ambassador'

Systemic Hypocrisy

• Ex-DEA agent: Opioid crisis fueled by drug industry and Congress
• NYT columnist: Weinstein and Our Culture of Enablers, but NYT killed Weinstein story in 2004
• Tech companies to lobby for immigrant 'Dreamers' to remain in U.S., but Facebook and Google competed for anti-immigration ad dollars during the 2016 election
• Risks of aging Senate -- More than half of the senators running for reelection in 2018 will be over 65, but Ageism in Our Society: Silicon's Valley's Brutal Ageism, Almost half of tech workers worry about losing their jobs because of ageism
• Competition is just propaganda for the gullible masses: The T-MobileSprint Merger Is a Terrible Idea
• Pathetic: What would happen if Amazon brought 50,000 workers to your city Ask Seattle, Jeff Bezos Screws Over Workers At Amazon, Now He Wants To Do The Same At The Washington Post, How Amazon took Seattle’s soul, yet Cities around US offer billions in tax breaks to be Amazon’s HQ2

Anti-semitism, the Myth of a "Palestinian Nation" and the Illusion of a "Peace Process"

• Why There Is No Peace in the Middle East
• Leaving UNESCO: There is no crueller tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice
• Clueless West: The U.S. Sees an Opportunity in the Palestinian Reconciliation, but Hamas chief: We won’t discuss recognizing Israel, only wiping it out, Hamas' step-by-step plan, Veneer of positivity fades in Palestinian unity talks as tough issues surface
• This demonisation is fundamentally anti-Jew
• How WW II American Leaders in North Africa Learned to Disregard the Interests of Jews
• The Jewish complex

Note: I will not publish or respond to anonymous comments. If you want to say something, stand behind it. Otherwise don't bother, it'll be ignored.