Sunday, September 28, 2014

Weekly Update




1. Quote of the Week
Further to that point, in my mind you can have a database that is both relational and schema-less, in the sense that it is relational if the only thing in it is relations but it is schema-less if any data updating operation is allowed to change the number or degree etc of said relations, rather than that being reserved for so called data-definition operations. --LinkedIn.com
2. To Laugh or Cry?
Turning dirty data words into sweet talk
And an oldie, but goodie
Gardner to DBAs, BI Vendors Reinvent Yourselves
3. Online Debunkings
4. Elsewhere

An old classic:
Unskilled and Unaware of It
and a related consequence
How Our Botched Understanding of Science Ruins Everything
5. And now for something completely different
"Enjoy":
John Oliver: Nuclear Weapons
Fascinating:
Freaky Physics Experiment May Prove Our Universe Is A Two-Dimensional Hologram
About the PostWest:
PA: Israelis Must Return to Their Countries of Origin
How about the Arabs in Palestine, most of of whom originate in immigrants from Arab countries attracted to Palestine by jobs created by Jewish development?
If it's not Jews doing it, who cares. It's not so much care for Palestinians as it is hate of the Jews.
Any way, Nice people. Let's give them a state.
US Providing Indirect Military Aid to Hezbollah
Afghanistan and Iraq redux.
Go Easy on Iran So It Fights ISIS? That's Absurd
Indeed: Why should the US allow an enemy nuclear weapons, when fighting ISIS is Iran's own existential interest anyway? Let radical Shia and Sunni duel it out.
World Council of Churches Demands Israel Release Terrorists
Ah, yes, religion is the source of morality.




Sunday, September 21, 2014

New Paper on Domains



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

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Weekly Update




Housekeeping:

  • Added a LINKS page to the top site menu, with links to items I deem worth reading. Added a few from my old site and new ones will be added as I come across them.
  • Overhauled the FUNDAMENTALS list of sources at the right of the HOME page. It now includes links to the bibliographies of E. F. Codd, D. McGoveran, C. J. Date, H. Darwen and myself. 


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?
Survey data model, what is the best approach?
3. Online Debunkings
Dr. Robin Bloor: Big Data is “nonsense”
4. Elsewhere
5. And now for something completely different
Senator Challenges Zuckerberg
American patriot.
The Exorcisms of Anneliese Michel
Fascinating.

@The PostWest:



Sunday, August 31, 2014

Weekly Update




1. Quote of the Week
I use the word grain in the same sense as Kimball although I use it across Facts and Dimensions. I like the term over things like Uniqueness, Constraint, Key because it is a term that business readily understand, and can be used prior to the formal identification of a final key. In Dimensional Modelling it is a best practice for the Fact tables to have such a grain (a composite key across associated Dimensions) and is also necessary for many Dimensions (to assist with updates, type-2 logic etc.) - to the point where it is a best practice to identify the grain (Row Natural Key, Source Id, etc.) of the Dimension. The use of a surrogate key on either Dimensions or Facts must be backed by this level of rigor if data integrity is to be maintained. It also forces modeller consideration of source system issues such as multi-source key uniqueness, reuse of keys, deletions, etc. To clarify a little on Dimensions, the grain of an example type-1 customer dimension would be 'a customer id', the grain of an example type 2 customer dimension would be 'a customer id + as at time'. So 'grain' means the defined uniqueness for a row in the table. Generally, this also has the advantage of calling out poorly designed structures that have not established their relational uniqueness correctly - the cause of the irritating duplicate row issue in a Surrogate Key-oriented Fact table.--LinkedIn.com
Got that?

2. To Laugh or Cry?

3. Online Debunkings

4. And now for something completely different
Inside The Mind Of Leonardo
Fascinating.

Two books that every American should read (but won't).

@The PostWest




Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Data Analysts: Know Your Business Rules



My August Post @All Analytics

To ensure data operations make sense and results correspond to the real world and are interpreted correctly, analysts need to know the business rules on the basis of which a database was designed. Here are the types of rules for which they should be looking.

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






Sunday, August 24, 2014

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