Chapter 4 Readings

Foster and Godbole, Database Systems, Chapters 1, 2 and 3: 
The chapter begins by defining databases as a kind of record-keeping. I have worked with databases before, and have never thought about them as such, but I can see the connection. The chart that followed demonstrated how the database part of the computer is used, and really relied upon, by the other parts of the computer. I am used to thinking of it as separate, but it makes sense that it is one of the cogs in the machine that need to work together for the whole to work. Also, I thought the concept of data independence was interesting. The data needs to be kept somewhat separate from the systems that manage and access it, so that it isn't altered by changes in those systems.
The idea of their being a conceptual level to a database was interesting to me. I was expecting the internal and the external, and the external is already what the user interfaces with. From what I can understand, the conceptual level is what the user perceives, in a more abstract and less practical way. I am not certain of this, as I thought the external was how it is perceived. These three schemas (external, internal, and conceptual) are connected by the mapping that both links them and controls how they are actually seen. That makes sense to me.
There is a whole section about how to manage the information in the database and the various inner workings of that. Managing information is key to the functioning of a computer. Managing information is also becoming increasingly relevant to those in the information science field in general. This, I think, is the influence of technology as it becomes a bigger part of the infrastructure that we work in.
The DBMS engine connects the various parts of the computer to the operating system. This seems to play a critical role in the running of the computer. Everything needs to be connected to the operating system for it work.
I was relieved to see that chapter 3 started with a glossary of basic terminology and their definitions.Often with technical topics, jargon is used, and when those words are not known to me, I can have trouble following the ideas. The use of tables and charts helped me to see the information in a different way, too, which made it more clear.

Wikipedia definition of database: 
From what I can tell, the database manager is what the user works with, not the database itself. The database is the organized collection of data, but the manager allows us to access it and work with it. We say that we use the database; should we say instead that we are using the database manager?
Databases first were used in the late 60's, but were further developed in the 70's and 80's. Like all other technology, it evolved over time as the technology improved. Databases can be categorized according to their content; when it is done that way, there are many kinds of databases. They really are complex systems. I was not surprised to read that they have their own languages.

Wikipedia definition of entity-relationship model: 
This way of understanding the data in the database is based on the relationship between the information that it contains. Their are different kinds of ways they can be in relationship. Again, they make a distinction between conceptual and logical data. I read that the entity is an independent object that can exist on its own, and the ideas in relationships connect it to other entities. It was interesting to me that this is based on parts of speech, which seems to be foreign in a computer environment.

Database normalization process: 
There are three normal forms of databases. I am boiling them down to: 1. no repeating elements 2. no partial dependencies 3. no dependencies on the attributes. These forms are ways to save the information in tables or charts. I can understand how, depending on the information that you have, you would organize and save it different ways.