Unexpected Databases

This is not your parents' data.

If you thought that databases were all full of boring numbers and dry data, you couldn't be more wrong! Databases can be, and are, used to manage and track all sorts of interesting things. Some of them are practical, while others might be silly or entertaining.

For instance, college student Maria Rose Belding is using databases to better manage food pantries and their resources. Maria Carrasco reports on Ms. Belding's achievements in this USA Today article. If food's not your thing, maybe a database tracking tattoo designs is more to your liking. This article from Kitty Knowles explores a growing new business based in Sweden. Inkbay uses database technology to match up tattoo artists with prospective customers. Tattoo artists upload their artwork into the database and potential clients can search for designs or artists to find the tattoo that appeals to them.

Supporting Web Links

Discussion Questions/Activities
  1. Consider exploring one or more of the databases highlighted in the article or in the Supporting Web Links section with the class. This could be an interesting way to open a discussion about the ways databases are created and managed, as well as career opportunities in the field.
  2. Divide the class into small groups. Ask each group to brainstorm and identify something that could be tracked and quantified by using a database. Encourage students to be creative and ask the groups to share their idea with the class.
  3. As an individual project, ask student to find a recent article about an interesting database. Students should write a brief synopsis of the article and include their thoughts about it too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lights, Camera, Render!

Image
Computer networks make animated movies possible. Old-school animated movies were hand-drawn, frame by frame. It took time and skill. Today's digitally animated movies also take time and skill, but not in the same way. Jon Gold of Network World looks at how DreamWorks uses technology to create blockbuster movies like Moana and Shrek . Hundreds of digital artists work to bring an animated movie to life. Each artist generates huge amounts of data. The numbers are staggering - the average movie may have 350TB of data contained in more than 500 million files. Handling this amount of data poses challenges for an ordinary network. Gold describes how DreamWorks has set up their network to respond to the workload and the changing needs of the film studio throughout the film's production. Supporting Web Links Team accelerates rendering with AI What is Rendering?  How Network Rendering Works The Benefits of Using a Render Farm Render Farms: The Ultimate Time-Sav
Keep reading

Shutting Down Stream Ripping

Image
A recent court decision shuts down a site. Copyright on the Internet can be tricky and finding a definitive answer explaining all the rules can be even harder. But, when it comes to downloading YouTube videos and converting them to MP3 format -- a process known as stream ripping, a California court just shut down a popular website used for this purpose. Torrent Freak's Ernesto writes about the ongoing battle between the YouTube-MP3 site and the RIAA. The site was taken to court last year for copyright infringement by the RIAA, which represents a number of record companies. Ultimately the parties agreed to a settlement in favor of the RIAA and the YouTube-MP3 site has been shut down permanently. Supporting Web Links YouTube Stream-Ripping Site Shutting Down Download YouTube Videos on Android … Legally How to download YouTube videos to iPhone & iPad How to Download YouTube Videos The best free YouTube downloader 2017 Download Thousands of Free Music Tra
Keep reading

Writing in Style

Image
A guide to creating professional-looking documents. Microsoft Word has been around for more than 30 years, so you can be forgiven for thinking you know everything there is to know about this software application. Word is arguably Microsoft's most well-known and most used application and every edition contains new features. Learning and using them all is probably not something many people will bother to do. However, you don't need to master every feature in Microsoft Word in order to create useful, polished documents. In this MakeUseOf article, Joel Lee talks about the importance of good design. He sets out 10 simple design rules and explains the importance of each one. Following these rules can help make your reports, letters, and resumes look better and be more user-friendly too. Supporting Web Links Windows 10 Tip: How to use LinkedIn and Microsoft Word to help you write your resume How to Use the LinkedIn Resume Assistant in Microsoft Word Word help center Video:
Keep reading