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February 27, 2016

"Readings in Database Systems": wisdom from Michael Stonebraker

and two other guys--updated and free online.

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Posted by Bob DuCharme at 11:03 AM |

September 13, 2014

A schemaless computer database in 1965

To enable flexible metadata aggregation, among other things.

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Posted by Bob DuCharme at 11:09 AM |

July 20, 2014

When did linking begin?

Pointing somewhere with a dereferenceable address, in the twelfth (or maybe fifth) century.

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Posted by Bob DuCharme at 9:40 AM |

May 1, 2013

A nineteenth-century linking application

An encore presentation.

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Posted by Bob DuCharme at 8:38 AM |

January 6, 2011

More streamlined communication

Teenagers now, Taylorites in 1910.

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Posted by Bob DuCharme at 9:49 AM | | Comments (2)

March 26, 2009

Setting up your microcomputer facility

A 1985 filmstrip. Not a slideshow, but a filmstrip. And dig that funky music.

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Posted by Bob DuCharme at 8:56 AM |

April 5, 2006

Measuring information

A short but dense classic offers some solid background.

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Posted by Bob DuCharme at 6:11 PM | | Comments (2)

February 8, 2006

Pulling data out of computers in the mid-twentieth and early twenty-first centuries

Report generation in the 1950s and the future of RDF.

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Posted by Bob DuCharme at 5:48 PM | | Comments (2)

January 17, 2006

Bill Kent

Bill Kent combined timeless abstract ideas about data modeling with practical advice, and always with a sense of humor.

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Posted by Bob DuCharme at 9:16 AM |

January 6, 2006

Selling IBM mainframes in 1979--the colors! The outfits!

A machine with half a meg of memory cost $62,500... but it supported multiple concurrent users.

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Posted by Bob DuCharme at 5:31 PM | | Comments (2)

December 6, 2005

25 years of database history (starting in 1955)

A 1981 article in IBM's Journal of Research and Development gave me a much better perspective on how database systems got where they are.

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Posted by Bob DuCharme at 5:19 PM | | Comments (2)