RE: What is a "database"?

["Art Tostaine, Jr." <Art@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

WalMart uses what they claim to be the second biggest database (behind D of 
Defense) to do data
mining.  They learned that men usually buy diapers on Thursday, and they 
usually buy some beer also.

Walmart decided that since Thursday was payday for a lot of people, these men 
would cash their
checks, run out to Walmart for supplies (diapers, milk, etc.), then, since they 
had their paycheck
money, would also pickup some beer.

So, they put beer next to diapers, and they reminded the rest of us who forgot 
what we went for to
buy the diapers. :-)

Walmart knows everything that you buy with everything else so they look for 
correlations.  Chips
with soda, etc.

They may not know who you are if you pay with cash, but they know what you 
bought!

Art Tostaine, Jr.
CCA, Inc.
Jackson, NJ 08527


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
[mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of Joel Fritz
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 1999 12:28 PM
To: 'MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com'
Subject: RE: What is a "database"?


Data mining is an attempt to harness serendipity by using software to
discover relationships (correlations etc.) you hadn't thought of.  Bizarre,
but it works sometimes.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Karl Lauritzen Jr. [mailto:klauritzen@natlloyds.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 1999 9:04 AM
> To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Subject: Re: What is a "database"?
>
>
> I am also perplexed by this.
> We were just bought by a huge conglomerate and they
> classified our jobs.
> Since I do all programming and all projects, I am now a database
> administrator and data mining expert.
>
> What is this data mining deal? I thought thats why the as400
> was so cool.
> You had your data ready to be mined at any time by any program.
>
>
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