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

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"Leandro Guimaraes Faria Corsetti Dutra" <leandro_at_dutra.fastmail.fm> wrote in message news:pan.2004.05.14.01.29.33.527888_at_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.

Anthony said because we work with data, we should know what data is. He would want an answer to his question: "But what the heck IS data ?" Of course this is a trivial question for you :-) I remember Fabian Pascal started one of his seminars with several such "trivial" questions.

Why you have not answered the question ?

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