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The Future of Databases

Posted by timothy on from the your-flight-status-is-'maybe' dept.

gManZboy writes "Ever wonder where database technology is going? This is something that Turing award winner Jim Gray from Microsoft has given a lot of thought to. He recently published an article in which he looks at the many forces pushing database technologies forward, and what those new technologies will look like. Gray writes, 'the greatest of these [research challenges] will have to do with the unification of approximate and exact reasoning. Most of us come from the exact-reasoning world -- but most of our clients are now asking questions that require approximate or probabilistic answers.'"

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  1. Re:approximate answers.. by Tackhead · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    > > most of our clients are now asking questions that require approximate or probabilistic answers.'"
    >
    > * 42..ish

    Larry: Of course, he only had the two arms and the one head, and he called himself Jim Gray.

    Melinda: But you must admit, he did turn out to be from another planet.

    Larry: By my yacht! Melinda Gates!

    it.slashdot.org: Infinity minus 1. Improbability sum now complete.

    Larry: What are you doing here?

    Melinda: With a degree in human-computer interaction and another in psychology, it was either that or back to refactoring Microsoft Bob into Longhorn::Clippy on Monday.

    Bill: Oh God. Ford, this is Melinda. Hi. Melinda, my semi-cousin Ford, who shares three of the same mothers as me. Is this sort of thing going to happen every time we attempt to unify approximate and exact reasoning?

    Melinda: Very probably, I'm afraid.

    Bill: Bill Gates, this is a very large drink. Hi.