In the May 31 issue of eWeek, the weekly column by Peter Coffee
is "When databases think". He talks about innovatons in an upcoming
database release that are "aimed at life sciences' needs" (like genetic
mapping, etc.). He talks about wishing you could walk into a hardware
store, wave your broken plumbing part in front of a terminal, have it
diagnose the problem and tell you what aisle it's in.
Anyway, he says: "I remember a conversation I had about 15 years ago
with Wayne Erickson of Microrim, an early pioneer in putting relational
database power on desktops with R:base. Erickson talked about the
challenge of searching for data that can't be described with numbers or
text." Another quote: "Erickson noted during our conversation, for
example, the difference between the requests "Show me that graph I
saw last month of projected business growth rates" and "Show me that
graph with the red and blue lines on it."
Karen
