Re: In an RDBMS, what does "Data" mean?

From: Leandro Guimarães Faria Corsetti Dutra <leandro_at_dutra.fastmail.fm>
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 22:29:42 -0300
Message-ID: <pan.2004.05.14.01.29.33.527888@dutra.fastmail.fm>

Em Fri, 14 May 2004 00:44:47 +0100, Anthony W. Youngman escreveu:

> Newton came up with these philosophical concepts called "mass",
> "energy", "space" and "time". On these, he built his (fairly) simple
> consistent model. And then Einstein came along and said he'd got his
> fundamentals wrong - mass and energy were the same thing, and space
> and time were the same thing. And because Newton didn't take the
> fact that these things were interchangeable, his model didn't work
> when compared to reality.

Nice story. But irrelevant.

> Okay. So what is "data". Because if we can't anchor that in the real
> world, we have no way of knowing if, or how strongly, relational
> theory is relevant (and usable) in the real world.

So you are suggesting Newton wasn't (and isn't) relevant in the real world? Or are you just trying to be smart?

Now, it is a nice thing to be smart. But remember it is not everyday we face situations where Relativity is relevant and usable in the real world... in everyday life Newtonian physics are quite useful, and unless you are in some limit situation relevant -- and much simpler than The Real Thing.

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Received on Thu May 13 2004 - 20:29:42 CDT