Class Journal Week 6

Mahrad Saeedi

1. Based on what you have seen of the FDA database, do you feel that you have a better understanding of how the data mentioned in section 5.1—Spotify music, Fitbit exercise tracking, Twitter tweets, IRS tax returns, etc.—might look when stored on a computer?
2. Section 5.2 half-jokingly says that, by building a bookstore, you actually built the death of bookstores. You just built a drug database—have you actually built the death of pharmacies? What do you think of this analogy?
3. Section 5.3 says that the Java language can “talk to a database.” But you just “talked” to a database in this assignment. Why do you think you would need a programming language to do the talking?

Anu Varshneya

1. Based on what you have seen of the FDA database, do you feel that you have a better understanding of how the data mentioned in section 5.1—Spotify music, Fitbit exercise tracking, Twitter tweets, IRS tax returns, etc.—might look when stored on a computer?
   • After working with the FDA database, I feel that I may have a basic understanding of how the data mentioned in section 5.1 is stored because it provided insight as to how data is stored in tables and how information can be interconnected using keys/indexes. The FDA database also brought insight into how information could be categorized into different tables and interconnected using these keys/indexes. This is relevant to each of the programs that section 5.1 mentioned because each of those programs interconnects loads and loads of data and quickly accesses data from different tables, most likely using a key system. For example, Spotify provides information regarding songs, albums, artists, and more. It also provides information about other similar songs, other songs in the album, and other songs by the artist. When accessing this information, you are taking advantage of the interconnections of the data tables in each category where each category (song, album, artist) has its own table.
2. Section 5.2 half-jokingly says that, by building a bookstore, you actually built the death of bookstores. You just built a drug database—have you actually built the death of pharmacies? What do you think of this analogy?
   • I think this analogy means that by creating a bookstore utilizing a database of books and customers, Amazon made physical book stores obsolete. By making a drug database, I don't think I built the death of pharmacies. However, I think that by creating a drug database, I have create the means by which someone could create a pharmacy that is the death of pharmacies. If pharmacies were purely used for information about drugs, the database created in this class could replace physical pharmacies. However, pharmacies are also where consumers can purchase drugs. This task is not something that is inherently part of our database, and therefore could not replace physical databases. If this task could be added as functionality (say, by having a database of consumers and doctors and prescriptions from doctors) then yes, we could technically build the death of pharmacies.
3. Section 5.3 says that the Java language can “talk to a database.” But you just “talked” to a database in this assignment. Why do you think you would need a programming language to do the talking?
   • It might be beneficial to have a programming language "talk to a database" in instances where a lot of data needed to be searched through and the results must constrain to several different requirements. In our assignment, we were narrowing down our data by only a handful of requirements and our database was relatively small. In the case that you have a large database and a lot of requirements that the results must fit into, having a programming language systematically interact with the database is much more efficient. For example, writing a SQL command every time I want to find a web page on Google sounds terrible. I'd much rather type in some key words in the box on the screen and let the code behind the scenes systematically sift through the terms that I entered and produce a search query to search through Google's infinitely large database.

--Anuvarsh (talk) 14:46, 12 October 2015 (PDT)

Kristin Zebrowski

1. Based on what you have seen of the FDA database, do you feel that you have a better understanding of how the data mentioned in section 5.1—Spotify music, Fitbit exercise tracking, Twitter tweets, IRS tax returns, etc.—might look when stored on a computer?
   • The FDA database assignment definitely gave me a clearer idea of how data in Section 5.1 is stored. Databases aren't really something I think about when I'm listening to music on Spotify or looking at Twitter, but I imagine that the information is handled in a very similar way as to what is done on the FDA tables. It's intriguing to imagine all of the music files on Spotify laid out in a table like the one we worked with, but it makes a lot of sense and is simultaneously very overwhelming because of how much data exists out there! The FDA database, furthermore, showed me how important it is to be so meticulously organized when it comes to these big data projects and it makes me have a lot of respect for those who organize and update databases.
2. Section 5.2 half-jokingly says that, by building a bookstore, you actually built the death of bookstores. You just built a drug database—have you actually built the death of pharmacies? What do you think of this analogy?
   • I don't exactly agree with the analogy. First of all, the means behind building a drug database and Amazon are completely different. Amazon, on one hand, is not only for organizational purposes but for buying and selling--it's a business, and the organization of the database is for convenience of the consumer. In that way, Amazon built the death of a bookstore because it's more convenient and the ordinary person can use it for a variety of reasons. In contrast, the FDA database is available for public record and for information or to check data. Second of all, I see Amazon is more of a tool, while the FDA database is more of a resource. On Amazon, you can search for specific items, pay for them via the database, and then have those things delivered to you--you hardly have to lift a finger. While an online bookstore and a drug database are both large and very specifically organized databases full of useful things, until the pharmacy takes the place of a pharmacist's job and can fill prescriptions and give them to you, I don't see building a drug database as the death of pharmacies.
3. Section 5.3 says that the Java language can “talk to a database.” But you just “talked” to a database in this assignment. Why do you think you would need a programming language to do the talking?
   • I think a programming language acts like a translator of sorts, making it much, much easier to "communicate" with the database and manipulate or search through the different items in the database. I can talk to a database but it takes a very long time to understand and execute. A programming language is needed to make these processes much easier; otherwise we would spend half of our time with databases just trying to figure out how to find what we need, let alone actually finding it.

Kzebrows (talk) 15:49, 12 October 2015 (PDT)

Brandon Klein

1. Based on what you have seen of the FDA database, do you feel that you have a better understanding of how the data mentioned in section 5.1—Spotify music, Fitbit exercise tracking, Twitter tweets, IRS tax returns, etc.—might look when stored on a computer?
   • Working with the FDA database directly imparted a sense of how databases are structured and look when stored on a computer. Drawing upon this new knowledge, I can much more clearly imagine how companies that rely on digital data such as Spotify, Fitbit, and Twitter have their data structured on a computer. Although these companies all collect data in unique ways, the masses of data they acquire are more than likely funneled into large relational databases using code similar to how we imported the Drugs@FDA data into our own database. The primary difference would simply be in scale. As opposed to cleaning up one file and creating two tables, these companies are likely to constantly be importing large quantities of data and sorting them into accordingly large relational databases with many connected tables. This is the fashion that these companies' data likely sits on their computers.
2. Section 5.2 half-jokingly says that, by building a bookstore, you actually built the death of bookstores. You just built a drug database—have you actually built the death of pharmacies? What do you think of this analogy?
   • I do not believe this analogy applies to the creation of our drug database. In the case of Amazon, they built an online bookstore that offered ways to purchase either digital or physical copies of books that were previously only attainable at bookstores. Thus, they offered more flexible access to a slightly more versatile version of the same old product. Although Amazon could never directly replace the same kinds of emotion one gets when walking into a quaint bookstore, the ease of access they offered through the internet allowed them to take over the market. Although bookstores still exist and thrive for the unique experience they offer, building an online bookstore (Amazon) absolutely initiated the decline of bookstores. However, this case is fundamentally different from the FDA case. When building the drug database, we did not introduce an online version of the same product (access to prescription medications) that makes pharmacies invaluable. Instead, we simply built a way to access new drug information. Data regarding a drug is entirely different from the drug itself. Thus, we have not engineered the death of pharmacies, as our database in no way directly competes with them. All in all, I do believe this analogy is a good one though. Perhaps a better example would have been with building an online television/movie database (Netflix) serving as the death of DVD stores. I certainly remember all of the Blockbuster DVD stores I used to go to as a child going out of business because of this along with similar streaming technologies. In a similar fashion, offering products/services online certainly offers an ease of access that threatens to put stores that traditionally offered these products/services out of business. In the age of technology and urbanization that often renders cities nearly incommutable (like our beloved Los Angeles), anything that can replace a common time consuming drive with a few clicks on a screen seems almost fated to outcompete the former. We're even starting to see online grocery services thriving. It's certainly a slippery slope. Perhaps in a few years the analogy well be less of a joke and more of a reality.
3. Section 5.3 says that the Java language can “talk to a database.” But you just “talked” to a database in this assignment. Why do you think you would need a programming language to do the talking?
   • Although we "talked" to a database in this assignment, having a programming language adds a great deal of utility to interfacing with databases. In pgAdminIII, we could interact only with the database in isolation. However, when we interact with databases via a programming language such as Java, we bring the rest of the programming tools we have into the picture as well. Particularly, the interactions with a database might be more valuable when pipped into sequences of commands that could manipulate the data extracted into the database or easy the process of importing data into the database. For example, if we were given a way to talk to the database on the command line with UNIX, we could have directly imported the edited text file and then proceeded to manipulate the database all in one place. In addition to this, I get the impression that a good programming language would simplify the way in which the user interacts with the database. With a good standards library and existing code, perhaps simpler commands would be available to perform common database manipulations.

-- Bklein7 (talk) 11:25, 12 October 2015 (PDT)

Emily Simso

1. Based on what you have seen of the FDA database, do you feel that you have a better understanding of how the data mentioned in section 5.1—Spotify music, Fitbit exercise tracking, Twitter tweets, IRS tax returns, etc.—might look when stored on a computer?
   • Working it the FDA database helped me visualize what data looks like when stored. Before doing this assignment, I didn't really have a concept of how a database might be structured, but after working so closely with the data, I can see how various other companies might use this formatting. It also made me appreciate how much data can be stored on a computer, especially with so many different functions and applications
2. Section 5.2 half-jokingly says that, by building a bookstore, you actually built the death of bookstores. You just built a drug database—have you actually built the death of pharmacies? What do you think of this analogy?
   • I like the analogy as it applies to Amazon, which provided a much more convenient way to purchase things, such as books. I don't think that this analogy applies to everything. While it is true for many services, there are some things, like pharmacies, which still need some human interaction. It seems inevitable that many services will become obsolete due to computers, but certain industries (such as drugs) require more human intuition than simply purchasing a book, for example (I hope).
3. Section 5.3 says that the Java language can “talk to a database.” But you just “talked” to a database in this assignment. Why do you think you would need a programming language to do the talking?
   • I think a programming language helps simplify the process, especially if the data is in an unknown format or if you want to perform an action on the data regularly. Using an intermediate program allows the user to perform more functions, as well, making it easier and more efficient to manipulate the data. Programming languages are just another way to use a computer to perform a human activity more methodically and quickly.

Emilysimso (talk) 14:04, 12 October 2015 (PDT)

Josh Kuroda

1. Based on what you have seen of the FDA database, do you feel that you have a better understanding of how the data mentioned in section 5.1—Spotify music, Fitbit exercise tracking, Twitter tweets, IRS tax returns, etc.—might look when stored on a computer?
2. Section 5.2 half-jokingly says that, by building a bookstore, you actually built the death of bookstores. You just built a drug database—have you actually built the death of pharmacies? What do you think of this analogy?
3. Section 5.3 says that the Java language can “talk to a database.” But you just “talked” to a database in this assignment. Why do you think you would need a programming language to do the talking?

-- Jkuroda (talk) 14:37, 12 October 2015 (PDT)

Veronica Pacheco

Based on what you have seen of the FDA database, do you feel that you have a better understanding of how the data mentioned in section 5.1—Spotify music, Fitbit exercise tracking, Twitter tweets, IRS tax returns, etc.—might look when stored on a computer?

I feel that I definitely have a better understanding of how the data in, for example, Spotify might look when stored on a computer. The text files we got from the FDA website were larger than what we have been working with normally however it wasn't so larger that scrolling through the file was such a tedious task. When the article mentioned that Spotify gets it data from music files from the record company, I could only imagine how big those files are and how handy it is to write the sed command to easily have all that data go into SQL. I find myself always being impressed or left in awe every assignment because in a large scale it's so efficient and it has a huge impact on how everything works.

Section 5.2 half-jokingly says that, by building a bookstore, you actually built the death of bookstores. You just built a drug database—have you actually built the death of pharmacies? What do you think of this analogy?

I don't think we built the death of pharmacies but perhaps we built a database for more efficient pharmacies. I think the analogy is true on some level but you will always have those people who have all the information but would still like to have the person-to-person experience or even have someone else explain the information about the drug to them. I think that works with not only the bookstore but with anything. Some people would still prefer to buy an album at Best Buy than listen to it for free on Spotify.

Section 5.3 says that the Java language can “talk to a database.” But you just “talked” to a database in this assignment. Why do you think you would need a programming language to do the talking? I think that the programming language is written for the efficient for the computer. For example, in SQL when it reads create table it knows exactly what you want it to do. That's why I feel that for me it could be a challenge to wrap my head around the different languages. I think I am just accustomed to be more wordy or descriptive to try to explain one thing but for the computer languages there are specific actions and characters that have specific meaning.

Vpachec3 (talk) 16:53, 14 October 2015 (PDT)

Kevin Wyllie

1. Based on what you have seen of the FDA database, do you feel that you have a better understanding of how the data mentioned in section 5.1—Spotify music, Fitbit exercise tracking, Twitter tweets, IRS tax returns, etc.—might look when stored on a computer?
   • Yes, and no. While this assignment gave me insight into how data is processed into a more presentable, user-accessible form, some part of me doubts that an intern at Spotify is manually copy/paste-ing information between programming interfaces. The sheer volume of data trafficked through Spotify and Twitter must call for an even more automated process. Again, formatting is a huge issue here, so I would assume that these hugely-popular services have a way of standardizing how data is entered in the first place (a user posting a tweet, or a producer inputting a music file) so as to minimize the amount of human involvement required. The first thing that comes to mind are the fields you fill out when you create a new account on a website. Each is a separate entry, and some even restrict which types of characters you can use. I'd imagine this is an easy way to automate data entry; instead of presenting the data to a human who must categorize and process different pieces of information, the user enters information into separate areas which are probably designated to organized in a way that maximizes the efficiency of the system.
2. Section 5.2 half-jokingly says that, by building a bookstore, you actually built the death of bookstores. You just built a drug database—have you actually built the death of pharmacies? What do you think of this analogy?
   • I think the analogy does not apply to a pharmacy at all, because pharmacies provide a physical product, instead of a virtual product, as is the case for (even physical) books. The utility of a book comes almost entirely from the data it stores (obviously excluding things like childrens’ pop-up books). So, all or most of a book’s worth stays in tact when that book is converted to a digital format. But while you can download an ebook, you can’t treat strep-throat with (solely) data.
3. Section 5.3 says that the Java language can “talk to a database.” But you just “talked” to a database in this assignment. Why do you think you would need a programming language to do the talking?
   • As I mentioned, maybe some sort of intermediate programming language could be used to automate the process of data entry itself. As Dondi mentioned in class, a million entries is the point at which a database is considered to be moderately sized, and the files we worked with didn’t even come close to that size. At such large volume of data, I’d imagine that the protocol for this assignment would run into several issues.

Kwyllie (talk) 15:17, 14 October 2015 (PDT)

Lena Olufson

1. Based on what you have seen of the FDA database, do you feel that you have a better understanding of how the data mentioned in section 5.1—Spotify music, Fitbit exercise tracking, Twitter tweets, IRS tax returns, etc.—might look when stored on a computer?
   • I feel as though I for sure have a better understanding of how the data from Spotify or Twitter may appear when being stored on a computer. This exercise with the FDA data allowed me to see how files look in their data format when they are being moved and manipulated around on a computer. I can only imagine how large the files are that these various companies have to sort and deal with since the FDA drug files were only a fraction of the size of, say, numerous music files that Spotify has to collect and sort into a database. It is definitely a great help to use sed and the other commands to work with the files when creating and using a database in order to get the work done efficiently.
2. Section 5.2 half-jokingly says that, by building a bookstore, you actually built the death of bookstores. You just built a drug database—have you actually built the death of pharmacies? What do you think of this analogy?
   • I think that this analogy works a little bit better for the bookstore than the pharmacies because it is more applicable currently. I have noticed recently in both NorCal and SoCal, that bookstores have been running out of business for many years now as the Kindle, Nook, iPad, and other electronic reading devices have developed. People no longer go to bookstores to find hard copies of books because they are now accessible and available for purchase online. By building an electronic bookstore open to the public, the death of real bookstores that are located in buildings is triggered. When using this analogy for pharmacies, it does make sense that by allowing all of the drugs to be accessible and researched through a database, the need for paper handouts and meetings with pharmacists may decrease. However, I think that pharmacies are different from bookstores in the sense that you must be prescribed drugs by someone and the drugs need to exist as physical matters otherwise the patients wouldn’t be able to consume the drugs. Pharmacies will always be needed in this sense since the drugs must be stored and organized somewhere where they can still exist as physical matter for humans to consume.
3. Section 5.3 says that the Java language can “talk to a database.” But you just “talked” to a database in this assignment. Why do you think you would need a programming language to do the talking?
   • I think that a program language helps tremendously with the talking to a database because it allows there to be direct communication between the language and the database. If the data is in a confusing or unfamiliar format, then the language can help you make the commands and manipulations you desire to perform. The language makes it much easier to work with the data in a database as well as much more efficient since it would be very difficult for a user to try to “talk” with a database without using a common language.

Lenaolufson (talk) 17:32, 14 October 2015 (PDT)