Wednesday, December 9, 2009

assign 02

1.) Government to review its use of databases as minister admits critics are not always wrong

Labour PartyConservative PartyLiberal Democrat PartyGordon BrownDavid CameronMPs' Expenses HomeNewsNews TopicsPolitics Government to review its use of databases as minister admits critics are not always wrong Ministers are planning a series of conferences in the New Year to review the way the Government handles people’s personal personal information in large databases, in the wake of growing criticism about the so-called 'database state'.

Michael Wills, the justice minister, also admitted that the Government had sometimes been too quick to dismiss criticisms of big state databases to keep information about people. Mr Wills said that two major conferences would be held in the New Year to allow officials and campaigners to discuss security issues surrounding the Government’s handling of data. The conferences will specifically look at fresh plans to force every voter to hand over their National Insurance numbers in order to be able to qualify to vote, as well as issues surrounding the ContactPoint database. However officials said that ministers were happy to expand the remit of the conferences to include a more general discussion about how the Government handles government data. The news came after a report earlier this year from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust found that a quarter of all government databases were illegal and should be scrapped or redesigned. Projects such as the ID cards register and the Contactpoint index were "fundamentally flawed", breached data protection and human rights laws and should be ditched. The trust said Britain’s “database state” wastes billions from the public purse and often breached human rights laws. Unveiling an strongly-worded 65 page response to the report, Mr Wills said it was “riddled with factual errors and misunderstandings and reached conclusions without setting out the evidential base for doing so”. Mr Wills admitted that the Government had to “take its share of the blame for this failure of discourse” to make the case for an increased use of Government databases by Whitehall.
( By Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor)

2.) Verification database is credited for Texas’ decline in uninsured drivers

The number of uninsured motorists on Texas roads is steadily dropping, and officials credit a new electronic database that helps police verify drivers’ proof of insurance during traffic stops.

State officials who supported creation of the TexasSure database — which aims to make sure everyone on the road can afford to pay victims’ medical bills and property damage in an accident — say they’re happy with the initial results in the year and a half since the database became available to police.

But TexasSure is not without flaws. While police using TexasSure are able to match vehicle registration information with insurance coverage 99 percent of the time on personal vehicles, they often cannot make the match on many commercial vehicles, according to a state audit released in late November.

"In a state as big as Texas, with as many drivers as we have, it will take time to be fully implemented," said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, who wrote legislation creating the program as a state senator in 2005. "I think it’s pointing toward success."

How it works

Most police departments that regularly use TexasSure consider the program a secondary method of verifying proof of insurance in the field.

For example, during traffic stops many officers still ask a driver to produce a proof of insurance card — and if the driver can provide a valid card, that’s all the officer needs to see. But officers will use TexasSure if the driver claims to have forgotten or misplaced the card.

TexasSure may also help an officer determine whether a proof of insurance card is a fake.

An officer can either access TexasSure from a patrol car computer or ask a dispatcher to call up the information. The database is maintained by HDI Solutions, a vendor hired by the Texas Department of Insurance.

About 23 percent of Texas motorists are uninsured, according to department estimates in June, the most recent month available. That’s an improvement from June 2008, when the TexasSure database went online, and more than 25 percent of motorists were thought to be uninsured.

More up-to-date statistics are expected to be released this week.

The flaws

But it likely will be at least another year or two before most registered vehicles in the state are listed on TexasSure, officials said.

TexasSure has already matched 13.5 million insurance policies with vehicle registrations — but nearly all of them are personal vehicles.

As of October, insurance companies had voluntarily reported 101,401 commercial vehicles to TexasSure. The Department of Public Safety had reported 83,000 more self-insured vehicles. But those vehicles are likely just a small fraction of the commercial vehicles in Texas.

State auditors noted in their report that they could not obtain a reliable count of commercial vehicles in Texas.

The agencies working on TexasSure — including the insurance department, DPS and Department of Motor Vehicles — began by building a database of personal vehicles. Their goal is to add commercial accounts as soon as feasible, but lawmakers didn’t impose a deadline. (By GORDON DICKSON)

Sunday, November 22, 2009

assign 01

Hierarchical:

Refers to systems that are organized in the shape of a pyramid, with each row of objects linked to objects directly beneath it. Hierarchical systems pervade everyday life.

Hierarchical systems are as popular in computer systems as they are in other walks of life. The most obvious example of a hierarchical system in computers is a file system, in which directories have files and subdirectories beneath them. Such a file organization is, in fact, called a hierarchical file system . In addition to file systems, many data structures for storing information are hierarchical in form. Menu-driven programs are also hierarchical, because they contain a root menu at the top of the pyramid and submenus below it.

Relationship:

Its central idea is to describe a database as a collection of predicates over a finite set of predicate variables, describing constraints on the possible values and combinations of values. The content of the database at any given time is a finite (logical) model of the database, i.e. a set of relations, one per predicate variable, such that all predicates are satisfied. A request for information from the database (a database query) is also a predicate.

Monday, August 17, 2009

My_Idea_Is

PART II.
A. Discuss what you have learned and understood about what DBMS is,so far.

I have learned that DBMS is responsible in building up or managing database.It is a collection of interrelated data together with a set of programs to access the data, also called database system, or simply database.The primary goal of such a system is to provide an environment that is both convenient and efficient to use in retrieving and storing information.A database management system (DBMS) is designed to manage a large body of information. Data management involves both defining structures for storing information and providing mechanisms for manipulating the information.In addition, the database system must provide for the safety of the stored information, despite system crashes or attempts at unauthorized access.

B.Define how each of the ff. fit and function within the framework or relational DBMS system.

*Data field- all area in a computer memory or program or screen.It is a place where you can store data. Commonly used to refer to a column in a database or a field in a data entry form or web form.The field may contain data to be entered as well as data to be displayed.

*Forms- a kind of specifications of which data types are you gonna use.

*Foreign key- the uniformity and simultaneous access for your datas.is a referential constraint between two tables. The foreign key identifies a column or a set of columns in one (referencing) table that refers to a column or set of columns in another (referenced) table. The columns in the referencing table must be the primary key or other candidate key in the referenced table. The values in one row of the referencing columns must occur in a single row in the referenced table.

*Queries- Allow us to view data in different ways.is a form of questioning, in a line of inquiry.

*Records- The answered queries that you had put on or stored.

*Reports- Allow us to format a data.It is a document characterized by information or other content reflective of inquiry or investigation, which is tailored to the context of a given situation and audience.

My_Idea_Is

PART II.
A. Discuss what you have learned and understood about what DBMS is,so far.

I have learned that DBMS is responsible in building up or managing database.It is a collection of interrelated data together with a set of programs to access the data, also called database system, or simply database.The primary goal of such a system is to provide an environment that is both convenient and efficient to use in retrieving and storing information.A database management system (DBMS) is designed to manage a large body of information. Data management involves both defining structures for storing information and providing mechanisms for manipulating the information.In addition, the database system must provide for the safety of the stored information, despite system crashes or attempts at unauthorized access.

B.Define how each of the ff. fit and function within the framework or relational DBMS system.

*Data field- all area in a computer memory or program or screen.It is a place where you can store data. Commonly used to refer to a column in a database or a field in a data entry form or web form.The field may contain data to be entered as well as data to be displayed.

*Forms- a kind of specifications of which data types are you gonna use.

*Foreign key- the uniformity and simultaneous access for your datas.is a referential constraint between two tables. The foreign key identifies a column or a set of columns in one (referencing) table that refers to a column or set of columns in another (referenced) table. The columns in the referencing table must be the primary key or other candidate key in the referenced table. The values in one row of the referencing columns must occur in a single row in the referenced table.

*Queries- Allow us to view data in different ways.is a form of questioning, in a line of inquiry.

*Records- The answered queries that you had put on or stored.

*Reports- Allow us to format a data.It is a document characterized by information or other content reflective of inquiry or investigation, which is tailored to the context of a given situation and audience.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Normalisation

Normalization -is a systematic way of ensuring that a database structure is suitable for general-purpose querying and free of certain undesirable characteristics—insertion, update, and deletion anomalies--that could lead to a loss of data integrity.

My Assignment

DATA TYPES 1. What are they? a. A data type (or datatype) in programming languages is a set of values and the operations on those values. 2. What roles do they play in database? a. They determine what kind of data will be processed or will become input. 3. 3 Database Management Systems Program a. Visual FoxPro Visual FoxPro is a data-centric object-oriented and procedural programming language produced by Microsoft. It is derived from FoxPro (originally known as FoxBASE) which was developed by Fox Software beginning in 1984. b. SQL SQL (Structured Query Language) (pronounced /ˌɛskjuːˈɛl/)[1] is a database computer language designed for managing data in relational database management systems (RDBMS). Its scope includes data query and update, schema creation and modification, and data access control. SQL was one of the first languages for Edgar F. Codd's relational model in his influential paper, "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks".[2] and became the most widely used language for relational databases[3][4] c. FoxPro FoxPro is a text-based procedurally-oriented programming language and DBMS, originally published by Fox Software and later by Microsoft, for MS-DOS, MS Windows, Apple Macintosh, and UNIX. Kinds of Data Types and Description a. integer : In more common parlance, whole number; a number that has no fractional part. b. floating-point : A number with a decimal point. For example, 3 is an integer, but 3.5 is a floating-point number. c. character (text ): Readable text

MV vs DATAF

A data field is the smallest subdivision of the stored data that can be accessed. A data field can be used to store numerical information such as price, count or a date or time, or even a data and time. A pair of data fields can be used in combination to hold a geo-spatial coordinate. Also, a data field can be used to hold a block of text. A data field takes up permanent storage within the data-store.
while..
A variable is a place to store a piece of information. Just as you might store a friend's phone number in your own memory, you can store this information in a computer's memory. Variables are your way of accessing your computer's memory.