Thursday, 6:30 a.m. Ernie [the accountant at work] brought me two more books, and I gave one to Staci. [It was called] “Top 500 Poems”, but only about 20 of which would be my choice. [The other book] was “Warbirds”, Richard Herman, Jr., Donald I. Fine, Inc. NY, 1989. More database talk, but read on.We had a little fun at the VP’s expense this afternoon. It’s humor, but not the fact that I’m still appalled how some people still think a few decades of experience and savvy can be better that the simplest, well-designed database. You’ll see what I mean.
[Authors’s note: bear in mind that in pre-trailer court years, this journal may have recorded almost any subject, a favorite of mine is database. I do not recall what point I was making with the following, but there is a good chance it was a success concerning one of my databases.]
First, files contain information. People distrust databases, which contain something different: information about information. I think it because you cannot see this “metadata”, yet some people will trust a clerk’s memory of a file location--and you can’t see that either!
The scenario is each employee has to signed a dated release for his paycheck. When I can’t read the signature, I fax it back. Today, the form came back saying the signature belonged to “Winston Palmer” with a note that I should “become more familiar with the employee’s signatures”. (All 700 of them?) But the note was initialed KM meaning the company senior VP had responded, not the site foreman.
Opportunity! Is his memory better than my database? I faxed it back again asking for more information about the amazing Winston Palmer. Who, in one week, managed to live in two area codes, became left-handed, and now preferred to speak Spanish. [The page contains a foot note saying “You’d have to see the form to spot all the implications”.]
