Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

1. Quote of the Week

Later, as use of RDBMS became more widespread, the complexity associated with design of a RDBMS was also well documented ... The associative database model is claimed to offer advantages over RDBMS ... “two fundamental data structures” as “„Items‟ and a set of „Links‟ that connect them together ... Items, which have "a unique identifier, a name and a type” and Links, which have “a unique identifier, together with the unique identifiers of three other things, that represent the source, verb and target of a fact that is recorded about the source in the database ... “each of the three things identified by the source, verb and target may each be either a link or an item.”
--Homan, J. V. and Kovacs, P. J., A Comparison of the Relational Database Model and the Associative Database Model, Issues in Informtion Systems, Vol. X, No. 1, 2009.

2. To Laugh or Cry?

A Comparison of the Relational Database Model and the Associative Database Model

3. Online Debunkings

• Are our Universities teaching students how to address real world data challenges?
• Reductionism Data Mgmt. by Inertia ...or by Choice

4. Interesting Elsewhere

Why Domain Expertise is More Important than Algorithms

5. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


My August post @All Analytics.

One of the most common misconceptions is the view of the relational data model (RDM) as “just theory”, implying it is not practical. But the RDM is theory adapted and applied to the practical needs of database management and it serves as the scientific foundation that guarantees, among other benefits, provably logically correct query results.

Read it all. (Please comment there, not here)







 

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

1. Quote of the Week

I am designing a mySQL database. I created tables and added extra columns for future use. Will it affect performance?
--LinkedIn.com

2. To Laugh or Cry?

Why you should never, ever, ever use MongoDB

3. Online Debunkings

Fixing 7 common database design errors

4. From the industry

Amazon's MySQL database challenger Aurora exits preview

5. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

See series starting at

The First Normal Form in Theory and Practice, Part I

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

HOUSEKEEPING 

• New Appendix to paper #3: While working on my book, I collected all comments by readers and replies by me (edited) and David McGoveran and added them as Appendix B. It further clarifies some of the aspects of the proposed relational/2VL solution to missing data. Those who ordered the paper in 2014 and 2015 should email me for a copy.

• Added to LINKS page: 

Why even the most intelligent software architects don't understand the Relational Model

1. Quotes of the Week

In 15-20 years from now: Information will stay only in XML (no more tuples, no more objects). Imperative languages as we know them today (Java, C, C++, C#) will be gone. We will program with some extension of XQuery, or in any case a declarative dataflow/workflow language specially --Daniela Florescu, 2010 Interview

Exactly 20 years ago I wrote this article: "Storing and Querying XML Data using an RDMBS". I curse myself every day for doing so. I should be damned by the fires of hell for ever opening my mouth and letting people believe that one can REASONABLY use SQL to query hierarchical, complex structures like XML or JSON.  NO, PEOPLE. YOU CAN NOT! --Daniela Florescu, 2015, LinkedIn.com

2. To Laugh or Cry?

SQL Will Inevitably Come To NoSQL Databases

3. Online Debunkings

Data Scientists: The talent crunch (that isn't)

4. Interesting

• What ORMs have taught me: just learn SQL
• What’s left of NoSQL?
• Complicating a metaphor
• Data Scientists are bullies that need a guiding hand

5. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

My July post @All Analytics:

One would expect “data scientists” to be keen on the dual scientific foundation of database management -- the relational data model (RDM) -- but they know little beyond “related tables” and, in fact, complain that more often than not data “do not fit” into them. Much of that is the result of poor education and an almost exclusive focus on software tool training. Even the analyst intent on acquiring foundation knowledge is more likely to be misled than enlightened by published information.

Read it all. (Please comment there, not here)

 

 

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

UPDATE: I refer readers to Apache Cassandra … What Happened Next. Note that this was an optimal use case for NoSQL. Read it focused on the simplicity of the data model and particularly physical data independence relative to RDM. 

In Oracle and the NoSQL Effect, Robin Schumacher (RS), a former "data god" DBA and MySQL executive now working for a NoSQL vendor claims that Oracle’s recent fiscal Q4 miss--a fraction of what's to come--is due to its failure to recognize that

"... web apps ushered in a new model for development and distributed systems that ... [r]elational databases are fundamentally ill suited to handle ... Their master-slave architectures, methods for writing and reading data, and data distribution mechanisms simply cannot meet the key requirements of modern web, mobile and IoT applications. I tell you that not as an employee of a NoSQL company, but as a guy who has worked with RDBMS’s for over twenty-five years. In short, you simply can’t get there from here where relational technology is concerned, and that’s why NoSQL must be used for the applications we’re talking about.

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

1. Quote of the Week

My feeling is that the field of NoSQL was created EXACTLY so the data should not be normalized like in relational databases--which has the disadvantages that data needed for real time/online applications needed to be joined at runtime before being used by the application. Under the time constraints of an online system, this is unacceptable. Hence, application developers want to store persistently the data EXACTLY in the way application see it: pre-aggregated, potentially inconsistent, and potentially replicated. Bottom line, there is no "rule" of how you should store the data. Just look at your application needs. Not everyone has the same requirements as iTunes or Netflix, so you don't need to copy their design.
...
If this is a question for you... maybe you shouldn't be using a NoSQL database in the first place !? Why do you think you need one and good old relational databases aren't good for you? Just because it's "fashionable" ? My point is: if you knew exactly WHY you need a NoSQL database, you knew EXACTLY how to structure your data for it.
--LinkedIn.com

With consistency gone, whatever is left?

2. To Laugh or Cry?

Data Modeling in NoSQL

3. Online Debunkings 

• Something Does not Make Sense  
• Help us define data scientist for a kid

4. Elsewhere 

• What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero  
• Enterprise financials in the cloud: Why the fog of skepticism may be lifting

5. Added to LINKS page:

• Extending the relational algebra to capture less meaning (h/t Erwin Smout)
• Thinking for Programmers (h/t William Sisson)

6. And now for something completely different
 

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

My June post @All Analytics. 

This may prove to be a trend, and while it will ease data analysts’ work, it also requires them to know and understand databases better, rather than rely on IT staff. Since in my writings here and elsewhere I demonstrate that even database professionals do not have a sufficient grasp of data and database fundamentals -- those “invisible” aspects that are not in any DBMS manual, or that you cannot get from just working with a tool -- maybe this is a good time and place for database education for analysts.

Read it all. (Please comment there, not here)

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


15 years ago I posted The Myth of Market Based Education @the old dbdebunk.com. Last week I deplored the substitution of tool training for education and increasingly young age at which it substitutes for education, preventing any independent and critical thinking rather than instilling it:

... a systemic problem that perpetuates itself without a solution and worsens rather than improves, particularly with Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft getting involved in the school and academic systems.

Shortly thereafter

...the San Francisco School Board unanimously voted Tuesday to ensure every student in the district gets a computer science education, with coursework offered in every grade from preschool through high school, a first for a public school district. Tech companies, including Salesforce.com, as well as foundations and community groups, are expected to pitch in funding and other technical support to create the new coursework, equip schools and train staff to teach it.

Basic computer literacy, perhaps, but computer science for pre-schoolers? Tech companies have a unique notion of the "science"--witness "data science"--they want to impart to young children. This week's quote is a description of it by one of my readers as experienced by his son:

1. Quote of the Week

My son, who is a sophomore in high school, had a class in Microsoft Excel and Access this semester. This "class" was created and delivered online, in the classroom, by Microsoft for the school systems. His "instructor" is a baseball coach. Anyway, he asked me for some help with a portion of the Access module on queries. The "lesson," a set of step by step instructions with no explanations, instructs the student to use the "find duplicates" query wizard. Directly following that was the "find unmatched" (meaning in their terms rows in one table that should also be in another table but are not) query wizard. This is yet another example proving your point.

I rest my case. 

2. To Laugh or Cry?

Small Data - Too many relationships spoil the model...

3. Online Debunkings

Something doesn't make sense

4. Interesting Elsewhere

How to interview an Oracle DBA candidate (NOT)

5. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

Working on a book of 2000-2006 material from the old dbdebunk.com, I came across the following 10/29/04 exchange. MySQL has probably improved--although, adding features post-hoc to products that were not explicitly designed for such upgrading is always problematic--more complex and limited than necessary. However, education and foundation knowledge have become worse and, from a foundational perspective, so have products and practices.

JG:  fell asleep dreaming of column constraints. I woke up thinking of foreign keys. I've been married to MySQL for so long that I had no idea all of these other things were possible!

Using a database and not knowing about foreign keys? My immediate reaction was to be astounded. However, he just happens to have begun with the least-robust database product on the market, and his learning is (evidently) confined to whatever product he happens to be using.

Astounded? Nah, standard operating procedure.

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


1. Quote of the Week

In this paper we briefly review some of these issues and then concentrate on the problem of generalizing the formal framework of the relational data model to include null values. A basic problem with null values is that they have many plausible interpretations.
--Database Relations with Null Values, Bell Labs, 1983

No, that's not the basic problem.

2. To Laugh or Cry?

Relational table naming convention

3. Online Debunkings

• Comments on "Table Constraints and Data Science"
• Comments on "1NF, Part 3: The Domain Imperative"
• Enterprise Data Modelling

4. Interesting Elsewhere

• Why even the most intelligent software architects don't understand the Relational Model
• Obfuscated SQL Contest Winners! (h/t Todd Everett)

5. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

My May post @All Analytics.

I’ve often expressed skepticism here and elsewhere about “data science” as currently used and hyped. Science is about development, testing, and application of theories. Data science is about general theories of data. For example, "relational theory" is the application of logic and set theory to database management to guarantee provably logically correct data analysis results, yet it is absent from the list of desirable skills for “data scientists”.

Read it all. (Please comment there, not here)



 

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


I have just posted descriptions of all new versions of all six papers in the PRACTICAL DATABASE FOUNDATIONS Series:

#1: Business Modeling for Database Design
#2: The Costly Illusion: Normalization, Integrity and Performance
#3: The Last NULL in the Coffin: A Relational Solution to Missing Data
#4: The Key to Keys: A Matter of Identity
#5: Truly Relational: What It Really Means
#6: Domains: The Database Glue

The changes are significant and there are a few error corrections.

Since these are new versions, not revisions, the following applies:

• Those who ordered in 2015 get free copies.
• Those who ordered in 2014 get a 50% discount.

Please email me with proof of purchase.

For more details and how to order see PAPERS page.

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

1. Quote of the Week

He started his SQL Server career when he debuted as an accidental DBA in 2005.  Seeing Reporting Services 2005 demoed for the first time sealed the deal, and it has been all data ever since, leaving the worlds of networking and systems admin behind. After being a full-time dev/operational DBA with everything since SQL 2000, he is now back to BI, as a Senior BI Engineer/Consultant. --Online Bio

2. To Laugh or Cry?

• Relational table naming convention
• Database relationships
• Actions & Facts Revisited
• Null employee's proper surnameBasing Database Models in Reality A Blogger’s Challenge

3. Online Debunkings

• Experience Means Little Without Product Knowledge
• Comments on First Normal Form, Part 3

4. Interesting Elsewhere

Obfuscated SQL Contest Winners!

H/t Todd Everett.  

5. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

In a LinkedIn thread that followed my Comments On Stonebraker Interview, Erwin Smout mentioned David Maier's 1991 critique of the 1990 Third Generation Data Base System Manifesto (3GM), of which Stonebraker was one of the authors. I was aware of the 3GM, of course, but had not read it because, at the time, it did not benefit from favorable reviews. I considered The Third Manifesto by Date and Darwen more significant, in part because it was authored by relational experts and because it was backed up by a proposed fully computational language with a fully relational component. But when Erwin mentioned Maier's piece, I asked him if he had a copy and he found a scanned PDF copy online.

Having not read the 3GM, I am not in a position to comment on Maier's critique thereof, but I would like to comment on the general topics in his Preliminaries that attracted my attention.

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

Housekeeping: I have added the following:

• A WRITINGS page documenting almost all of my published print and online writings;
• A link to my Amazon author page  to FUNDAMENTALS on HOME page;
• A link to database References page @Teradata website to the LINKS page.

1. Quote of the Week

I am new to this domain. Please guide me to choose which database to choose among the NOSQL databases. Also which OS the database supports and how to add data to the database(which language). The requirement is to store pictures and alpha numeric s in database. A web server would be designed to extract data from the database and display in web application. The important requirement is scalability so I explored and found that NoSQL database will best fit the requirement. --LinkedIn.com

CJ Date calls this "I don't know how to do my job and am looking for somebody to do it for me."

2. To Laugh or Cry?

Docbase, Graphbase, Colubase, Triplestore ,which better fo RDF triples

3. Online Debunkings

• Comments on Stonebraker Interview
• Understanding the differences between transactional and analytical database design 

4. Interesting Elsewhere

• Concerns of an Artificial Intelligence Pioneer
• Anthropomorphism Gone Wrong Poor Motivating Example for OOP 

5. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


Revised: 12/2017

Interviewed about his Turing Award, Michael Stonebraker is "modest" about his jointly-with-others contribution:

"... the Ingres database [sic] brought Codd’s lofty relational ideas into the realm of ordinary individuals ... turned [them] into constructs that could be manipulated by ordinary people ... it was argued at the time that RDBMS couldn’t perform, but we showed it could be efficient."

and gives most of the credit to "Ted" Codd:

"What Ted proposed was radical ... a complete change from how things were being done in database [sic] ... he turned the problem of data management into one of relations. That dramatically simplified things ... The conventional wisdom was that you should build for the particulars of how the data is stored. He saw that made no sense ... he [moved] the actual manipulation of data away from assembly language programming of the time to higher levels of abstraction that would later become structured query language, or SQL ... He brought principles of encapsulation and abstraction to programming databases, like with a high-level-language in programming."

Quite. Except that Ted was vehemently critical of SQL as a botched concretization of the RDM which, as it turned out, ensured that his ideas would never be truly and fully implemented (one of which, incidentally, was a relational declarative data sublanguage that would replace programming for data management DBMS functions). On the one hand SQL, whatever its flaws, was much superior to the database technologies that preceded it; on the other it has been forever identified with the RDM, to the point where the chance for true RDBMSs was lost (the assembly language statement is not quite accurate -- COBOL, FORTRAN and special purpose languages were used at the time -- assembly language was used for writing access methods at the I/O level, but even that wasn't pure).

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

1. Quote of the Week

To clarify my point further, although M doesn't care about how it's implemented, the implementation has a strong influence on the logical structures that it's trying to implement. In a normalized or demoralized [sic] debate, a fully normalized physical schema is always good, when implemented on an infinite performance hardware. --LinkedIn.com

2. To Laugh or Cry?
I recently attended a presentation on Azure DocumentDB, Microsoft's NoSQL cloud product. I made the following notes:

• Polyglot persistence: Wasn't this what the RDM was supposed to substitute? 
• Hierarchy: Didn't we get rid of HDM decades ago?
• NoSQL: No SQL, but a "SQL-like" language (it's barely relational and now it's used for documents?)
• No integrity, data independence: Nothing learned from the past.
• Cloud: At least mainframes were under each company's control.

Progress.

3. Online Debunkings

Comments on "Michael Stonebraker Explains Oracle’s Obsolescence, Facebook’s Enormous Challenge"

4. Interesting Elsewhere

Unskilled and Unaware of It

5. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

My April post @All Analytics.

Aside from domain constraints, every R-table designed to represent a single class of entities is also subject to table constraints that approximate in the database class business rules in the real world. If the rules are not documented, for the conscientious analyst who wants to guarantee sensible data manipulation and result interpretation they are the next best thing.

Read it All. (Please comment there, not here)



 

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

DBDebunk readers should know of David McGoveran (see his bibliography under FUNDAMENTALS), whose work on relational theory and practice has appeared or been discussed on the old site and here over the years. On more than one occasion I mentioned the Principle of Orthogonal Design (POOD) identified by David, who had published several years ago work he did on the subject with Chris Date. The POOD has relevance to updating relations and particularly views and led to Date's VIEW UPDATING AND RELATIONAL THEORY book .

I recently mentioned that David's and Date's understandings on POOD have diverged since their joint effort--currently Date and Darwen reject the POOD as formulated then and David has problems with Date's understanding of it and with their THE THIRD MANIFESTO (TTM) book.

David is working on a book tentatively titled LOGIC FOR SERIOUS DATABASE FOLKS where he will detail his views on RDM in general and POOD and view updating in particular, but in the meantime I asked him to publish an early draft of a chapter on the latter subject, which he did-- Can All Relations Be Updated?--and which he has just revised.

He has asked me to post a clarification on the nature of the differences with Date and Darwen (see next) and I used the opportunity to interview him about his impressive career, which covers much more than database management. David provided written answers to questions.

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

1. Quote of the Week

Hopefully with the emergence of better cloud infrastructure and unstructured databases, it'll become easier and easier to build utilities to handle the intake and transformation of big, messy datasets into units of info ready for insights. SocialScale (socialscale.io) just launched an MVP a month ago to provide instant access to raw social data (via Gnip), ready-for-analysis, in any tool. --LinkedIn.com

2. To Laugh or Cry?

Are SQL Relational DBMS's Here to Stay?

3. Online Debunkings

• Comments on Integrity constraints as approximations to business rules
• Comments on First Normal Form, Part 1 Atomicity

4. Interesting Elsewhere

• Lies, Damn Lies And The Myth Of Following The Data
• What Does Big Data Mean: A Cynic's Guide

5. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

See series starting at

The First Normal Form in Theory and Practice Part I

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

1. Quote of the Week

I'm not sure why you think integrity constraints are purely logical. Primary keys are physical constraints. They enforce that the primary key remains unique. Here's an example of SQL that creates a physical foreign key constraint.

ALTER TABLE FactInventoryCollections
 ADD CONSTRAINT
  FK_FactInventoryCollections_ClientPK,
  FOREIGN KEY (ClientPK)
   REFERENCES ViewCubeDimClient(ClientPK);

Physical constraints allow the database engine to return an error if an operation attempts to insert a row that violates any defined constraints. --LinkedIn.com

2. To Laugh or Cry?

When One Data Model Just Won't Do: Polyglot Persistence

3. Online Debunkings

• Comments: Atomicity and its reinterpretation
• Comments: Corporate Data Model re-defined as Enterprise Data Model (EDM)

4. Interesting Elsewhere

David McGoveran has been working on a book tentatively titled LOGIC FOR SERIOUS DATABASE FOLKS intended to set some matters straight regarding the formal, set-theoretic and logic foundations of the RDM which have been misinterpreted. While he is not ready to publish yet, I asked and he agreed to post at his site a draft of a chapter on view updating which I consider a must read (together with the Introduction), particularly since it exposes the thinking behind the Principle of Orthogonal Design rejected by Date and Darwen.

• Introduction
• Can All Relations Be Updated?

David invites comments.


5. New Links

Added the following to the LINKS page:

• The database curmudgeon speaks again
• Synthesizing 3NF Relations from FD's
• KnowOS

6. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

See  

The First Normal Form in Theory and Practice Part I

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


1. Quote of the Week

I have been in the data side of IT for quite some time now and have seen the evolution of how data is ingested, manipulated and regurgitated to the end users in hope of telling our consumers "how much of something did something". The main issue seems to be complexity of the data models and the fact we don't have a model that can expand with the data without adding tons of new schema. The solution.  --LinkedIn.com

2. To Laugh or Cry?

• i have a table with 4 FK's, help me with query to find the tables

3. Online Debunkings

• Comments on The Conceptual-Logical Conflation and the Logical-Physical Confusion
• Comments on 1NF Is Not Structural Regression

4. Interesting Elsewhere

• Knowledge-Based Trust Estimating the Trustworthiness of Web Sources
• Google wants to rank websites based on facts not links

5. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

March blog post @All Analytics:

They should be represented in the database by integrity constraints -- not perfect substitutes, because they are very loose approximations to the rules -- but if they are enforced in the database by the DBMS they are usually recorded either in the definition statements that created the tables and constraints, or the database catalog.

Read it all

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

See the series starting at

The First Normal Form in Theory and Practice Part I

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


March 28, 11:15,  Mountain View

MEANINGLESS, BUT CONSISTENT: DATABASE TRUTH VS. CORRECTNESS

You're a SQL Server ace: your ability to squeeze everything from SQL and your performance tuning skills are unparalleled, but do you know what your tables really mean and, therefore, what queries make sense and whether results are correct and their interpretations sensible? This is a critical part of data fundamentals, the grasp of which is poor. It is a subject usually neither much covered in education, nor part of job requirements and industry dialogue, yet can defeat the entire purpose of your DBMS expertise. This presentation covers

• Meaning, business rules and table interpretations;
• Types of business rule; 
• Meaning and database truth; 
• Business rules, integrity constraints and database consistency; 
• DBMS and user reponsibilities.

Session Level: Intermediate

Event full details

Contact: Mark Ginnebaugh  mark@designmind.com

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


1. Quote of the Week

what is an index in database? how can it make the search faster? please help me understanding this. Project Manager Technical
--LinkedIn.com

Note the job title.


2. To Laugh or Cry?

Tableau Data Modeling Resolving Many to Many Relationship

3. Online debunkings

Comments on Codd's Marks are not SQL's NULLs

4. Interesting elsewhere

• Lies, Damn Lies And The Myth Of Following The Data
• Surviving Data Science at the Speed of Hype

5. And now for something completely different 

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


My February post @All Analytics.

To apply manipulation that makes sense to data originating in database tables and interpret results correctly, the analyst must know the meaning of the table(s) -- the underlying business rules. For tables designed to represent facts about a single class of entities each, the analyst should expect two categories of rules: property rules (discussed last month) and class rules, of which there are several types.

Read it all. (Please comment there, not here)



 

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


1. Quote of the Week

The most visible limitation of the relational model has been its inability to handle multimedia files, but the importance of this has been overstated. In fact, the relational model has some far more significant limitations that have not yet been challenged:

Every new relational application needs a new set of programs developed from scratch, which is labour-intensive, expensive and wasteful.

Relational applications cannot be readily tailored to the needs of large numbers of individual users, which is an issue for ASPs.

Relational applications cannot record a piece of information about an individual thing that is not relevant to every other thing of the same type. This limits our ability to continually improve customer service levels.

Information about identical things in the real world is structured differently in every relational database, so it is difficult and expensive to amalgamate two databases."
--Simon Williams, The Associative Data Model

2. To Laugh or Cry?

• Rise of the Multi-Model Database
• 42% of Database Pros Struggle to Manage NoSQL Solutions

3. Online debunkings

• Alternate Keys, Normal Form question
• With large hacks, how should we change database design

4. Interesting elsewhere

Rare Alan Turing journal shows his genius at work"

It's clear that fundamental logic is at the heart of computer science and everything we do--and in that sense it's clear the whole field owes Turing so very much" ... But in a sense, it also shows how far we've come."

Including away from logic.

5. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

GE: The future in data modeling is Object Role Modeling (ORM). It is a far superior way to approach data modeling (compared to any record-based methods such as relational) that avoids all the pitfalls of "Table Think" and the necessity of normalization.

Big data or any other kind of data--you still need to know your data and what it represents. That is the myth in big data--that you don't need a schema, i.e., knowledge of what the data means. True you may not need a SQL schema in Oracle, but you do need to know your data. You need to have names for things (that is the vocabulary) and their relationships.

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


1. Quote of the Week

I was wondering what people were using and what people would recommend as a good data modelling application? I guess I want to do two things - one reverse engineer existing databases into an ER diagram, as well as start from scratch and design a new conceptual/logical/physical data model. Any suggestions?
--LinkedIn.com

2. To Laugh or Cry?

Just Give Me the Factless Facts, Ma'am

3. Online

42% of Database Specialists Struggle to Manage NoSQL Solutions

4. Elsewhere

Test shows big data text analysis inconsistent, inaccurate

5. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

See series starting at

The First Normal Form in Theory and Practice Part I

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


1. Quote of the Week

I like a GUID as a primary key on every table so that I can uniquely identify that row. For consistency I'll call it "UID" and defined as a NewSequentialID. I'm aware of the various discussions that have been had regarding Guids vs sequences vs COMB etc., etc., but for me any performance issues have occurred in the size of databases I've worked with. The ability to create a new UID as part of an insert is of huge benefit to reduce round trips if you're handling that kind of thing from within a business layer outside of the database server. --LinkedIn.com

2. To Laugh or Cry?

Data Principles

3. Online debunkings

Comments on Relational Fidelity & Analytics Integrity
Comments on Data Model: Neither Conceptual, Nor Logical, Nor Physical Model

4. Elsewhere

Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies

5. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


1. Quote of the Week

The future in data modeling is Object Role Modeling (ORM). It is a far superior way to approach data modeling (compared to any record-based methods such as relational) that avoids all the pitfalls of "Table Think" and the necessity of normalization. --LinkedIn.com

2. To Laugh or Cry?

Types of database management system and their evolution

3. Online debunkings

• Comments on Relational Fidelity & Analytics Integrity
• Comments on June post @All Analytics

4. Elsewhere

Big Data is Dead!

5. And now for something completely different

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


"To Laugh or Cry?" Test Your Foundation Knowledge

Tuesday, January 20, 2015 6:30 PM

Microsoft
1065 La Avenida
Building 1
Mountain View, CA  (map)

RSVP here
 


You are a DBMS ace, able to squeeze every ounce of performance out of it. But how about your foundation knowledge, how good a grasp of data fundamentals do you possess? Are you a data management ace too?

The two are distinct and while the former is necessary for a career, it is insufficient for an informed, intelligent, reliable and productive data management practice. The industry is full of myths, misconceptions and traps and without foundation knowledge you are unable to see through them.

This is your opportunity to test yourself. If your instinct is neither to laugh, nor to cry at the contents of this presentation, education may be in order.

• How misconceptions that you are unaware of, lead you astray;
• Practical implications thereof;
• How foundation knowledge, scarce in the industry, is the only way to see through them.

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


My January post @All Analytics 

To ensure operations on database tables or extracts thereof make sense and result interpretation is correct, the analyst must know what the tables mean. The meaning is not in the tables, but in the business rules it is associated with it, which may be undocumented.

Read it all. (Please comment there, not here)



 

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

Pls see the PAPERS page for current version of this paper, when it becomes available.

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


To all my readers and colleagues, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Xmas and a healthy, prosperous and Happy New Year!!!!

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

1. Quote of the Week

Relational is/was a way for humans to understand how computers could organise data. From a day back when disks were expensive. --LinkedIn.com

2. To Laugh or Cry?

How Google Will Use Firebase to Supercharge Its Cloud Computing

Another reinvention of a (square) weheel.


3. Online debunkings

Calendar supertype

4. Interesting elsewhere

On Persistence and Data Management

An oldie but goodie; check out my comment.


5. And now for something completely different

Fascinating:

John Cleese on the Black Knight and Douglas Adams' High Heels

About The PostWest:

White House exempts Syria airstrikes from tight standards on civilian deaths

Remember all the fuss about Israel not doing enough to prevent civilian deaths? The hypocrisy!

• Iranian Supreme Leader calls for Israel's 'annihilation'

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

by Erwin Smout

[FP: Two weeks ago I posted a debunking of an article blaming some SQL sins. Erwin has some additional comments.]

1. Multisets

From the original article:

It is beyond any doubt that set is the basis of mass data computation. Although SQL has the concept of set, it is limited to describing simple result set, and it does not take the set as a basic data type to enlarge its application scope.

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest

Housekeeping: I have added a link to Nijssen's paper The Entity-Relationship Model Considered Harmful to FUNDAMENTALS on the HOME page. UPDATE 2: The paper is fine if read with a PDF viewer other than
Adobe Reader XI (11.0.09).


1. Quotes of the Week

Platfora’s mission is to empower customers to transform their businesses into fact-based enterprises. Platfora's Big Data Analytics Platform masks the complexity of Hadoop, making it easy for customers to understand all the facts in their business... --Platfora.com

Q: I don't know what the different between detect inference in database and prevent it, any help?
A: Why would you want to prevent inferences that a DMBS makes? That's where the power of it is. --LinkedIn.com

2. To Laugh or Cry?

Graphs: A Better Database Abstraction

3. Online debunkings

• Should the move from a fixed schema truly be to “no schema”
• The fine line between “informality” and “loss of intellectual rigor

4. Interesting elsewhere

You Too May Be A Victim Of Developaralysis

H/t Will Sisson.

5. And now for something completely different 

• Must watch: State Legislatures and ALEC

• Fascinating: Ebru Art,Sand Art

• About The PostWest

If they do this:

Fatah official calls for blood to 'purify' Jerusalem of Jews

PA airs 'anti-Semitic' film as tensions mount in Jerusalem

Four killed in terror attack at Jerusalem synagogue

then obviously we should do this:

Croatia likely to recognize Palestine as a state MidEast

Sweden To Recognize State Of Palestine

Spanish Parliament Calls on Rajoy to Recognize Palestine

UK lawmakers vote to recognize Palestine as a state

and this

EU threatens 'further action' to protect two-state solution

EU considering 'sanctions' against Israel over settlements

Makes perfect sense. So what else is new?

Follow @DBDebunk Follow @ThePostWest


See:

• Data Sublanguage Parts 1-2