AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.
Create a link to this page
Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:
The database.
You've probably already guessed that I believe that we have dropped the ball on this one too. (Isn't this guy EVER going to say something good? (Now that I've gone so far around the bend that I'm asking and answering my own questions, the answer is--As soon as I find something good.))
I believe, in fact, that most of us have never even seen the ball. Let's take inventory of your situation and see where you are. Do you have an up-to-date logical data model that includes everything? Has this model been translated to an equally up-to-date physical model? Is this the way 100% of your data is actually stored? Are all of your business processes exclusively tied to this structure? Is your name or Social Security Number in more than one dataset (as an element)? Do your part numbers have embedded meanings? Do your customers talk in terms of codes? Does anyone say, "The database requires that I....."?
My guess is that not 10 in 100 of you can honestly give the appropriate answers. This is not your fault. This is truly an industry or societal phenomenon. Most of us were taught to abandon common sense when it comes to storing and retrieving data. Somewhere along the line, complexity got substituted for reason.
Once that happened, we've been wide open for whatever crazy scheme almost anyone came up with. We've practically canonized some of the schemers even though they have simply written books about the things that you already knew.
Let's cut to the chase. "A place for everything; and everything in its place." This should be the canon of everyone in the business. Notice it says "A" place. One spot. Do not put the forks in with the spoons. Keep the apples with the apples, the oranges with the oranges. Do not make fruit salad. Do not make up subjects.
Before you go ballistic over this simplification; think about this real hard. You will realize that it is not a simplification; but exactly what you've wanted and needed to do for a long time. It is no trouble at all to find something when you know exactly where it is at all times.
Don't for a minute think that this cannot be done. The Customer Equipment Services Division of Eastman Kodak had this philosophy and structure in place in 1974, without a single line of database management software. They did it with ISAM, direct access, and ...
- Social Security number solves 1983 cold case: Sergeant happens upon evidence in...
- News wire article from: Houston Chronicle (Houston, TX) August 4, 2007 700+ words
...was his Social Security number. A Harris County...Croublet's Social Security number was on a payment...into a criminal database that searches...comment. The NCIC database has been operative...including a Social Security number, birthdate and...
- Rapsheets Launches One-Click Criminal Search that Checks Aliases Associated...
- Press release article from: PR Newswire March 1, 2004 700+ words
...applicant's Social Security number. Statistics show that...searches a third-party database for all names and addresses...the subject's Social Security number. Rapfinity then searches its criminal records database using the first and...
- Overuse of the Social Security Number. (News Shorts).(Brief Article)
- Magazine article from: Practical Homeschooling September 1, 2001 700+ words
...identity theft using the Social Security number, Social Security Administration...calling the misuse of the Social Security Number a "national crisis," and saying...records end up on some national database. For the full text of his speech...
- Nine-digit dilemma: reacting to the epidemic of identity theft, some states are...
- Magazine article from: Computerworld Buxbaum, Peter A. October 13, 2003 700+ words
...need to plug in your Social Security number for identification. Get your...will continue to be found in databases, whether or not they're...of someone hacking into a database, because these institutions...with other customers in our databases. We decided compliance was...
- PF members to get social security number.
- News wire article from: Asia Africa Intelligence Wire February 17, 2003 700+ words
...February 25 become the first citizen to get a permanent social security number (SSN). After this, more than 32 million Employees Provident...smart cards is part of a Rs 100- crore project. The SSN database will contain names of EPF workers. It will be a foolproof...
- Biometrics: The Next Social-Security Number.(Brief Article)
- Magazine article from: Wireless Business Forecast June 16, 2004 700+ words
...already in place. EURODAC consists of a computerized central database that archives fingerprints of asylum applicants along with...electronic data transmission between member states and the database. Any country wanting to join the EU must have a EURODAC mechanism...
- Education Department taking steps to reduce Social Security number...
- Newspaper article from: Community College Week May 22, 2006 700+ words
...exist. Sometimes the department will assign a pseudo number when a borrower uses one that belongs to someone already in its database. The Inspector General's office took a random sample of 40 cases and found that loan guarantee agencies didn't correct...
- Sprawling Fed Databases Threaten Edges of Privacy.(Moneywise)
- Newspaper article from: Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, NM) January 7, 2001 700+ words
...unaware of these databases and therefore...IMMUNIZATION DATABASES: After public...create a single database of all American...birth, social security number, birth order...creation of a database for one purpose...by the social security number. Although ...
- When your database outgrows RAM. (creating a disk-based data system in 1-2-3)...
- Magazine article from: Lotus Delonas, Nick April 1, 1989 700+ words
...keep it there. THE DATABASE INDEX Figure 1 shows a typical database as you would create...representing a Social Security number. As noted earlier, a database index is itself a...Security numbers. Some databases have no obvious key...
- Database Software Easy To Use Even For Nontechies.(INTERNET &...
- Magazine article from: Investor's Business Daily August 28, 2001 700+ words
...with dozens of databases to track everything...employee's Social Security number. No problem...menu. Here the database can be told to...that the Social Security number contain nine digits...large corporate databases, allowing you...
