|
|
Post by Gorf on Jul 8, 2004 12:35:11 GMT -5
www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,64134,00.html "Some outside analysts see the inefficiency as an unfortunate but necessary consequence of the Pentagon's enormous commitments and largely successful track record. But others think the Defense Department could handle its operations a whole lot better. "If you ran your business this way, you'd be in jail," said Christopher Hellman, an analyst with the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. The Pentagon this year asked Congress for a record budget -- over $400 billion. And that doesn't take into account many of the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the Defense Department's databases are so screwed up, "they can't even tell us how or why our money's being spent," Hellman added. "
|
|
|
|
Post by 7thWoman on Jul 8, 2004 14:06:47 GMT -5
I'm sure it could be a little cleaner, but I wonder how many incompetent civilian employees they hired to design their database. That particular job market has had such a small supply of competent workers and such a high demand, that businesses and government operations have been hiring pretty much any "computer guy" to the job for the last 15 years. If you had to deal with some of the screwed up databases that the Univeristy of California uses, and listened to the reasons they give for making their decisions to use them, you would thinka little more highly of the Pentagon.
|
|
|
|
Post by IdahoBoy on Jul 8, 2004 15:30:13 GMT -5
I'm sure it could be a little cleaner, but I wonder how many incompetent civilian employees they hired to design their database. That particular job market has had such a small supply of competent workers and such a high demand, that businesses and government operations have been hiring pretty much any "computer guy" to the job for the last 15 years. If you had to deal with some of the screwed up databases that the Univeristy of California uses, and listened to the reasons they give for making their decisions to use them, you would thinka little more highly of the Pentagon. I LOVE working with databases!! Is there really a high demand for building them? I need to charge my clients more!  |
|
|
|
Post by 7thWoman on Jul 8, 2004 16:52:30 GMT -5
To be honest, I'm really not sure anymore. I know that database optimization is more important now than ever, and the supply of database guys out there who really understand optimization and can do it well is small. It sounds like it's a real headache. A lot of relational algebra and relational calculus. I can think of a lot of other specializations that sound more exciting.
|
|
|
|
Post by Gorf on Jul 8, 2004 17:22:28 GMT -5
Optimization, understanding table normalization, data integrity, indexing and concurrency issues isn't trivial but it also isn't "rocket science".
One issue that comes up at times is in understanding the difference between a classroom level "clean" environment where you can be pretty much assured of not causing 10s, 10s, 1000s, and even more people from being able to do their work, or lose hugs amounts of time and data by making a couple of small and seemingly innocuous changes to the structure of a table, indexes, or concurrency levels and a "real world" environment where you have to be extremely careful with any changes you make to databases because you could easily cause a major disaster with even the most minor of changes.
|
|
|
|
Post by IdahoBoy on Jul 8, 2004 17:37:08 GMT -5
>-(Gorf)-<[} link=board=news&thread=1089308111&start=4#0 date=1089325348]Optimization, understanding table normalization, data integrity, indexing and concurrency issues isn't trivial but it also isn't "rocket science". This is what I started with in databases. I didn't think it was so hard. |
|
|
|
Post by Gorf on Jul 8, 2004 18:09:53 GMT -5
Query optimization can be a pain in the arse as well, especially when you are writing queries for cross server use and not always SQL related.
But, again, it ain't rocket science.
The part of the Pentagon article I posted that was somewhat mind boggling is that it mentioned that they're spending something like $19 Billion per year on their high end servers, the databases, maintenance, and whatever else and basically not using them generating their reports and whatever other critical services they were put in place to cover.
Oy..
I'd accept someone giving me $19 Billoin for even one year to not do anything effective!
|
|
