IFS 106 Favorites

Some of my favorite (cough) DB-related web sites

DB and Access

www.scsite.com/ac2003/more is a site reference in our book for "more" information on Access terms and such. There are some pretty cool online quizzes under the "Learn it online" and then "Who wants to be a computer genius" links. Enjoy.

Here are some relevant Wikipedia links for you:

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Access - "Microsoft Access" page
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_database_management_system - Access is a "relational database management system"
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_F._Codd - "Edgar F. Codd" was a pioneer in relational database technology
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structured_Query_Language - "SQL" or "Structured Query Language"

www.mysql.com is "the world's most popular open source database" which means 1) it's, pretty popular, 2) it's free, and 3) it's probably a little tougher to learn than Access. If you ever need to do some real database stuff, however, I encourage you to try it out.

Last and probably least, office.microsoft.com/access , is the Microsoft site for Access.

We'll talk about database normalization. It's not directly covered in our text, but it's an important topic:

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization - Wikipedia treatment with clearly defined 1st, 2nd and 3rd normal forms
• dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/intro-to-normalization.html - best intro explanation that I found in a few minutes of surfing... I love his new term: "Spreadsheet Syndrome"
• www.devshed.com/c/a/MySQL/An-Introduction-to-Database-Normalization/ - a nice, quick introduction with a simple example included

DB Ethics and Privacy

We will (briefly) discuss database ethics and privacy issues, mainly by looking cases studies from the recent past. Like:

• www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=24106 - AOL accidentally (or not?) made public search records for its users. How might this impact the privacy of AOL users?
• www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1090180335850 - includes examples of use of the I-PASS, cell phone and other databases by law enforcement and attorneys involved in private lawsuits like divorces.
• www.ipass.com/company/company_privacypolicy.html - the I-PASS privacy description... yeah, search on "law enforcement".
• Cameras are now in place in some cities, like Chicago:

www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-061003cameras-story,1,749962.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips are a way to tag or identify objects using radio waves. RFID is rapidly growing in popularity and raises its own set of datbase privacy concerns:

• www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/207 - is a FAQ list for RFID technology, short but informative
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID - is a nice Wikipedia summary, focus on the current uses of RFID that are out there and also the "Controversy" section
• www.verichipcorp.com/ - a company selling human-implantable RFID chips

Etc

Some miscellaneous sites for you:

• www.threadless.com/ - Let's follow the plot here... learn how to do a database... on the web... sell t-shirts with a hook... make a million dollars. Excellent. These guys are from the Chicago area too.

Well, the Noctrl student web page index is broke. So, please enjoy some of my absolute favorite Noctrl student web sites:

• samantha.blakely.students.noctrl.edu
• ryan.brodie.students.noctrl.edu
• kathryn.busse.students.noctrl.edu
• hilary.cebulko.students.noctrl.edu
• ryan.chabus.students.noctrl.edu
• stephen.cull.students.noctrl.edu
• katherine.ferguson.students.noctrl.edu
• jessica.griffin.students.noctrl.edu
• kimberly.justice.students.noctrl.edu
• steven.mangiantini.students.noctrl.edu
• katherine.menendez.students.noctrl.edu
• cora.ohnstad.students.noctrl.edu
• nick.robinson.students.noctrl.edu
• christopher.sanders.students.noctrl.edu
• diana.zimmerman.students.noctrl.edu

back to IFS 106... wtkrieger@noctrl.edu