I recently saw an article on integrity in relational databases vs. multivalue databases.

I would agree with it except for two things:

I do believe that people will get attached to complex systems — but I don’t believe that the majority of people will be completely unwilling to apply other systems in new situations. The article makes it sound as if most readers will fall on one side or the other of the “MV vs. relational database” line and adhere to it. I believe that people have a more open mind than that, but that’s just me, and that’s where I disagree.

The other point at which I disagree is the strength of the typing and rules applied to the databases. My point of view is this:

Data stored in any database model has rules attached to it only by the accessing program. Only the accessing program will choose whether to read rule metadata stored with the actual data.

A database holds data. That data is either a number, some text, or both. The database can be in the form of a relational database with its atomic values, a paginated book full of written tables that have both text and numbers, or a multivalued database that holds just basic types. The same type of data, however, can be stored in all of these. Data in a database is *transformable*. It can be stored in one type of way or another, but it is still the same data.

The point of all that: a piece of data (alphanumeric/numeric or int/char/text/float…) must be accessed somehow. In the example of the book, if the book is closed, we can’t get to the data, but the data is still there. The data means nothing until we open the book (access the data) and start reading it (and interpreting it after we read it). The whole of a type of data in the table can be gathered by scanning the data — we see a bunch of small numbers in the book, we know they’re integers. We see decimaled numbers, we know they’re float. We see two letters in one field, it’s automatically some type of text that is supposed to be readable, or which has some implied meaning. If we see instructions above a table in a book that say that we need to change a column or a column’s interpreted amount each time something specific happens, we will decide to apply that transformation to keep data integrity, or we will decide not to apply the transformation for any number of reasons.

The accessing of the data, the method used to access that data, the way the accessed data is then read — these are the things that ultimately determine type. Data will lend itself to one type or another, even without our designation. We can store data in a relational database as text, but read it back as numbers instead, since text is ultimately stored as numbers in a computer. Although we can store data in one model or another, the accessing method which returns the data to us can completely mask data types.

So…we now have data stored in one form or another, we know that the data can have rules attached to it no matter what form the data is in, and we know that the data will lend itself to a particular type whether the database stores strong typing information or not.

There is nothing that prevents us from adding information to either a multivalue dictionary or data file and then applying referential integrity rules to data values in the file based upon that information. It is the accessor programs/methods that determine the application of the rules. Where my thought processes differ from the author is that I believe that multivalued databases are completely capable of self-maintenance and integrity.

What to say…

There’s a lot of energy at the office.
I made a great connection with a distant coworker — we talked on the phone for four hours about work matters.
I’ve decided that evening rush hour traffic is a pain in the neck and that I’m going to have to start to leave the office later — as soon as I can.

The result of today?
My computer was set up.
I learned the names of some of my coworkers.
I learned a little about the network.
I’ve coined the phrase, “I need to start leaving later as soon as possible.” — think about THAT one!!

I had a strange dream last night. I was a member of the graduating class of the year 2000 at Chiefland High School. This dream involves some other classmates from that time. All references to my classmates and I are as I would envision them at their current ages.

The dream started off with me in a bus. I was sitting next to a teenage boy, maybe 16, who was kind of fat and had plenty of freckles. He handed me two iron balls, not at all unlike baoding balls. The balls were attached to two leather straps, each strap about a hand’s length. The straps weren’t straight straps, they were circular straps, so they looped around and attached to the balls again. They looked like either an entertainer’s toys for making sparks, or perhaps some sort of deadly martial art weapon.

The boy said, “Take care of these for me, and make sure you give them back to me at the end of the day.” Fine and dandy, whatever…I nodded, and then he got off the bus and went into the school. It was at that point that I realized that I wasn’t going to see him at the end of the day because I had to stay after school for some sort of senior-class event. I knew I couldn’t be late for the event, which means I couldn’t go to the bus to give him his baodings back. I also realized that I didn’t know his name or his schedule, and that I would be unlikely to bump into him again. I just put the baodings in my backpack.

Flash forward. I’m feeling guilty because I couldn’t give the boy his things back. I’m wandering around school and looking for him, but can’t find him. It’s night time. There are SEVERAL buses parked in the back of the school. Strangely enough, it’s not my school at this point, but some school surrounded by hills. All of my graduating class is in the buses, but the buses aren’t packed. There’s plenty of room in each bus for every student to have his own seat and one extra seat to put his things in. There is a ladder on the back of each bus that is covering the emergency exit door. Students who couldn’t fit on the bus and still have an extra seat are hanging from the ladders. On each side of the back of the bus, there is a ladder. There are students there as well. The buses are getting ready to leave. I’m walking toward them. I shout out, “Where’s the fat kid with freckles?”

Randi Jo Hardee is hanging on the ladder on the back right side of one of the buses. She shouts back, “In the library!”. I turn around and run into the library, which is conveniently located behind me. As soon as I enter the library, I’m naked except for my underwear, backpack, and boots. I see the fat kid with freckles. He’s laughing at me. A librarian comes up to me (No, it wasn’t the CHS librarian, Karen Renfroe — I never had a problem with her, though I can certainly see why other people did.) and offers me some of the clothes to wear from the “library clothes closet”. I didn’t have one of the closets at my graduating high school…but hey, it’s a dream. So she grabs some clothes from the closet, the only pair of male clothes in the closet…the rest looks like her personal wardrobe. I’m handed a pair of parachute pants that I have to tuck into my boots for minutes on end because they’re WAY too big. Like clown pants, or pants that a 500 pound man would wear. I don’t want to know why the librarian has them. I also get a shirt made of deerskin. Fine and dandy. It fits perfectly.

I throw the baodings at the kid. He catches them rather neatly and pockets them, still laughing at me. I leave the library and the buses have already started to leave. They’re all headed toward a highway, and they’re heading out in pairs. The bus on the left turns left onto the highway, the bus on the right turns right onto the highway. Not only does that provide a way for the buses to leave me more quickly, but it also signifies people going their own separate ways in life.

The last bus is leaving. That’s the bus I’m meant to be on. There are two ladders on the back of it. One of them is empty. Kimberly Watson is hanging on the left side of the bus. Randi (Miranda) Jo Hardee is hanging on the right side of it. Mylaka Scott is hanging off the back of it on one of the ladders. I’m running. The bus is passing a sign that indicates the speed of the bus. It’s accelerating quickly. I shout out, “Stop the bus!” Mylaka shouts out, “Slow down dis bus!”. Randi Jo talks to somebody inside the bus through an open window by her ladder and tells them to pass the message to the driver. Kim shouts out, “Don’t stop, speed up!” The driver speeds up. But then Randi Jo’s message reaches him and he pulls over and stops. I get on my ladder on the bus, and we drive off into the night. Then I woke up.

Weird dream, eh? At least I can log back into Yahoo! now

I can’t seem to sign in to my Yahoo mail today. I can’t login to Yahoo at all. YIM (Yahoo Instant Messenger) isn’t working for me either. It’s 2:01AM, (GMT - 5) EDT, 07/23/2006. I wonder if I’m the only one having this issue…

I’ve recently found an article that describes my outlook on life. You may want to read it. It will provide a great deal of insight into my brain

Exception: I don’t mind BASIC (but I prefer GW BASIC or UniBasic), and although I detest character-based menu systems, I find them more efficient than graphic-based menu systems for the most part, and tend to use them instead.

Affirmation and quote: The aforementioned document says this:

Hackers are generally only very weakly motivated by conventional
rewards such as social approval or money. They tend to be attracted
by challenges and excited by interesting toys

as well as this:

Hackers tend to be
especially poor at confrontation and negotiation.

I don’t claim to be a hacker. I just claim that this document very much inline with my way of thinking. If that makes me a hacker, so be it. A point in case, as referenced by the above quotes:

I recently accepted a job at a local tech company. I’m starting the job at a (rather) lower salary than I would have liked. However, I get a chance to play with SBClient/SB+ Server — a 4GL language with lots of intricacies and fun quirks. I enjoy working with that software enough that the money doesn’t matter to me at the moment — as long as I can live on it. And I believe I can. I was told that I stand to receive a substantial pay increase in ninety days if I demonstrate my knowledge of the software. I hope that I’m able to do that — I certainly think I can!

Therefore, I’m associating a pay increase after three months of work with the recognition of my skill in a particular area.