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1. What's wrong with this picture?

David Hay: Part of the ... confusion as to what exactly was meant by “data modeling”--conceptual, logical or physical--is that most data modeling activities seem to focus on achieving good relational database designs ... my approach is the portrayal of the underlying structure of an enterprise’s data--without regard for any technology that might be used to manage it ... a “conceptual data model” ... that represents the business.

Nigel Higgs: ... many folks do not get the difference between the Barker entity relationship style of modeling and the relational style of modeling ... [because] the modeling conventions are very similar and the former [is always] a precursor to RDBMS design.

Clifford Heath: Any terminology for models must project three aspects of intention: (a) audience, (b) level of detail and (c) purpose. These three variables are sufficient to discriminate all the main kinds of models in use. The traditional terms of "conceptual/logical/physical" are manifestly inadequate.

Remy Fannader: Models are meant to describe sets of instances (objects or behaviors).

--Kinds of Data Models, LinkedIn.com

2. Quote of the Week

The first consideration that needs to be made when selecting a database is the characteristics of the data you are looking to leverage. If the data has a simple tabular structure, like an accounting spreadsheet, then the relational model could be adequate. Data such as geo-spatial, engineering parts, or molecular modeling, on the other hand, tends to be very complex. It may have multiple levels of nesting and the complete data model can be complicated. Such data has, in the past, been modeled into relational tables, but has not fit into that two-dimensional row-column structure naturally. --Jnan Dash, RDBMS vs. NoSQL: How do you pick?

3. To Laugh or Cry?

Can I have a data model on Hadoop? --LinkedIn.com

Improving Site Performance and Reliability by Removing SQL Joins (h/t Greg Jorgensen).

4. Of Interest

Functional dependencies applies to whole database or to a particular relation?

And now for something completely different (My take on the news)

• Facebook Could Be Eavesdropping On Your Phone Calls  
• Google wants to solve password problems by tracking more of you
• Siri, are you scanning me? Apple's answer to Echo could include camera 
• 'Interview' with Uber was just free data-mining

Horror if the government does it, but it's OK for corporate parasites whose entire business plan is to profit from violating your privacy.

Pinch me's of the week

• US Military Uses 8-Inch Floppy Disks To Coordinate Nuclear Force Operations Probably much more secure, but still.

• Computers may be given 'human' rights

• Black holes study is not conducive to understanding humans. 

Book of the week (purchase via this link to support this site)

Rushkoff, D., THROWING ROCKS AT THE GOOGLE BUS

The must-read for all Americans and America emulators.