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<br><div><div>On&nbsp;Jan&nbsp;3,&nbsp;2007,&nbsp;at&nbsp;13:01&nbsp;,&nbsp;J&nbsp;J&nbsp;wrote:</div>[I&nbsp;wrote]<br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div><blockquote type="cite"><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">You are kidding, right?</font></p> </blockquote><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Who are you people getting for DBA's? :)</font></p> </div></blockquote><br></div><div>Let's&nbsp;pull&nbsp;back&nbsp;some&nbsp;context&nbsp;here:</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><div><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><blockquote type="cite">Are you serious with this (data too large to fit into memory)?&nbsp; And if you use a good RDBMS then you don't have to worry about disk speed or distribution.</blockquote></div></blockquote></div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>Do&nbsp;you&nbsp;really,&nbsp;truly&nbsp;believe&nbsp;you&nbsp;don't&nbsp;have&nbsp;to&nbsp;worry&nbsp;about&nbsp;physical&nbsp;parameters&nbsp;such&nbsp;as&nbsp;disk&nbsp;speed&nbsp;just&nbsp;because&nbsp;there&nbsp;is&nbsp;an&nbsp;intermediate&nbsp;layer&nbsp;between&nbsp;you&nbsp;and&nbsp;your&nbsp;disk(s)&nbsp;called&nbsp;a&nbsp;RDBMS?<br><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Then&nbsp;our&nbsp;vendor&nbsp;must&nbsp;have&nbsp;been&nbsp;really&nbsp;ignorant&nbsp;when&nbsp;they&nbsp;recommended&nbsp;that&nbsp;we&nbsp;get&nbsp;faster&nbsp;machines&nbsp;with&nbsp;faster&nbsp;disks&nbsp;in&nbsp;order&nbsp;to&nbsp;fix&nbsp;problems&nbsp;we&nbsp;were&nbsp;having&nbsp;where&nbsp;the&nbsp;database&nbsp;could&nbsp;not&nbsp;keep&nbsp;up&nbsp;with&nbsp;the&nbsp;(write)&nbsp;data&nbsp;rate.&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;reality&nbsp;must&nbsp;also&nbsp;have&nbsp;not&nbsp;known&nbsp;about&nbsp;this&nbsp;magical&nbsp;property&nbsp;of&nbsp;RDBMS&nbsp;to&nbsp;make&nbsp;you&nbsp;immune&nbsp;to&nbsp;physical&nbsp;limtations,&nbsp;because&nbsp;getting&nbsp;faster&nbsp;disks&nbsp;*did*&nbsp;actually&nbsp;solve&nbsp;the&nbsp;problem.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Or&nbsp;are&nbsp;you&nbsp;saying&nbsp;that&nbsp;what&nbsp;happens&nbsp;is&nbsp;that&nbsp;you&nbsp;pay&nbsp;someone&nbsp;else&nbsp;to&nbsp;worry&nbsp;about&nbsp;those&nbsp;parameters?</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Of&nbsp;course,&nbsp;using&nbsp;a&nbsp;database&nbsp;in&nbsp;that&nbsp;scenario&nbsp;was&nbsp;actually&nbsp;not&nbsp;necessary,&nbsp;and&nbsp;the&nbsp;benefits&nbsp;that&nbsp;the&nbsp;vendor&nbsp;touted&nbsp;for&nbsp;their&nbsp;database-based&nbsp;system&nbsp;were&nbsp;quite&nbsp;irrelevant&nbsp;in&nbsp;our&nbsp;application&nbsp;context.&nbsp;&nbsp;We&nbsp;could&nbsp;have&nbsp;built&nbsp;a&nbsp;far&nbsp;(a)&nbsp;faster&nbsp;(b)&nbsp;simpler&nbsp;(c)&nbsp;more&nbsp;reliable&nbsp;and&nbsp;(d)&nbsp;cheaper&nbsp;system&nbsp;had&nbsp;we&nbsp;not&nbsp;bought&nbsp;into&nbsp;the&nbsp;"must&nbsp;use&nbsp;RDBMS&nbsp;because&nbsp;it&nbsp;makes&nbsp;everything&nbsp;better"&nbsp;voodoo&nbsp;and&nbsp;just&nbsp;kept&nbsp;the&nbsp;relevant&nbsp;data&nbsp;in&nbsp;application&nbsp;memory.&nbsp;&nbsp;This&nbsp;might&nbsp;have&nbsp;been&nbsp;a&nbsp;small&nbsp;amount&nbsp;of&nbsp;extra&nbsp;programming&nbsp;initially,&nbsp;but&nbsp;would&nbsp;it&nbsp;ever&nbsp;have&nbsp;paid&nbsp;off&nbsp;in&nbsp;maintenance.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Especially&nbsp;since&nbsp;we&nbsp;didn't&nbsp;actually&nbsp;own&nbsp;the&nbsp;data,&nbsp;we&nbsp;were&nbsp;just&nbsp;getting&nbsp;a&nbsp;feed&nbsp;from&nbsp;somewhere&nbsp;else.</div><div><br></div><div>Had&nbsp;the&nbsp;data&nbsp;been&nbsp;ours,&nbsp;that&nbsp;would&nbsp;have&nbsp;been&nbsp;a&nbsp;different&nbsp;story,&nbsp;because&nbsp;data-integrity&nbsp;is&nbsp;one&nbsp;RDBMS&nbsp;myth&nbsp;that&nbsp;I&nbsp;still&nbsp;believe&nbsp;in,&nbsp;as&nbsp;it&nbsp;hasn't&nbsp;been&nbsp;beaten&nbsp;out&nbsp;of&nbsp;me&nbsp;yet&nbsp;by&nbsp;encounters&nbsp;with&nbsp;reality...</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Marcel</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></body></html>