Pan-STARRS Sci/Tech Discussion

2003_06_13 - Mark Waterson - Databases for Dum... I mean Astronomers ;-)

Many people have been asking "what can a DBMS do for me?" so I am 
putting together a basic introduction to the topic.  I'll try to explain 
what a "database" is in today's computing world and how it evolved that 
way, define some of the jargon and terms and describe what the different 
kinds of database systems are about.  The most common systems today are 
relational DBMSs using SQL, so we'll look at what SQL is and isn't, and 
some simple example queries.   Maybe if the network gods smile, I can 
show some live demos using the postgresql installation on the POI 
server. If there's time & anyone is still awake, we can talk about how 
DBMSs relate to Pan-STARRS, and why some of these things are hard.