RE: What is a "database"?

The best one that I heard is that data mining showed a correlation between
diaper sales and beer sales.  In an experiment to laughingly disprove the
relationship the company made a stack of their highest margin beer at the
end of the diaper aisle.  Over the period of the trial they discovered their
over-all beer sales didn't increase but their product mix changed to reflect
increased sales of their high-margin beer.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Langston [mailto:jlangston@conexfreight.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 1999 12:44 PM
To: boothm@goddard.edu
Subject: Re: What is a "database"?


Data Mining is a new concept.  Data Mining looks at data in
a different matter than a simple data base.  Say, for instance,
you have all your sales in a file (most people do).  You also
have your vendor file, and the dates.

You now look at your data by dates, say, and see that a
certain product sells 25% more during a certain 3 month period
then any other months.  Looking for a correlation you see the
months are November, December and January.

By data mining you can, as administration, say you need to stock
up on umbrellas 25% more during the winter months <g>

Stuff like that.  I don't think the title should apply to a programmer,
though, as that's not really what programmers do.  Do they ever
get titles right?

Regards,

Jim Langston

"Karl Lauritzen Jr." wrote:

> I am also perplexed by this.
> We were just bought by a huge conglomerate and they classified our jobs.
> Since I do all programming and all projects, I am now a database
> administrator and data mining expert.
>
> What is this data mining deal? I thought thats why the as400 was so cool.
> You had your data ready to be mined at any time by any program.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <boothm@earth.goddard.edu>
> To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 1999 9:43 PM
> Subject: What is a "database"?
>
> > It is becoming clear to me that I don't know what a database is.  I'd
> > thought it was the base of data that an organization accumulates, but
now
> > I hear people speak of being a database administrator and there seems to
> > be clumps of these people around non-AS/400 machines.  What is it they
do?
> > _______________________
> > Booth Martin
> > boothm@earth.goddard.edu
> > http://www.spy.net/~booth
> > _______________________
> >
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