Elysian Shadows

Okay, so I am in computers exploratory(i could teach the class), and my "teacher" is talking about how were gonna be learning to use databases, and instantly me ears perk up becaude i have been doing php with mysql development lately. I then raise my hand and wow he with all these terms and shit involving real databases, then shes like "oh were using MSExcell, ever used it?" and she proceeds to try and "show" me how much "more powerful" it is than what i have been doing with php. I log on to my website and show her all my crazy database shit and that shuts her up. She gave me detention for being fresh. Bitch. Moral: try and survive through long grueling hours of computer class teachers not knowing anything about the main point of their job; computers.

PS: my friend has a mac. 'nuff said

Is this a high school class? Sounds like she saw you as disrupting her class when you were doing a show-and-tell of your websites. But I doubt that you took up a lot of her time.

For someone who doesn't know a lick about databases, Excel isn't a bad way to start. With it you can still learn all the basic concepts about column organization, classifying data and even normalization.

But the class appears to move too slow for you. Did you have a choice on whether to take it, or placing out of it?

Lol, It's middle school, so no choice. But, Excel to me is absolutely nothing like Php and MySql. Excel is completely a GUI and MySql is all letters and numbers in a text file.

MS Excel is not a data base it's a spread sheet. You can import spread sheets into a data base, but you cannot do query's on Microsoft Excel. When I first learned data bases we used Microsoft Access. Excel is a joke imo. Another thing, Excel doesn't have column or row names other than "A" or "1".

Martyj wrote:MS Excel is not a data base it's a spread sheet. You can import spread sheets into a data base, but you cannot do query's on Microsoft Excel. When I first learned data bases we used Microsoft Access. Excel is a joke imo. Another thing, Excel doesn't have column or row names other than "A" or "1".

You're right that Excel isn't a database, but that doesn't mean it's a joke. It is actually very powerful, just not as a database. It's not intended to be a database.

I treat Excel for what it is, a massive array!

it's rows and columns, and if you're stuck in a boring class, then theres loads of things you can do with those boring sheets.

In our computing class, we had to create a list which did a binary search, and did a bubble sort on a list of words, most people in the class declared an array of 100 strings, and I was like "wtf?, excel IS a giant array, no matter which way you look at it, so just use an integer as a makeshift pointer, and use that to do the search!"

Saved a lot of time initialising the array, and i'm guessing memory since it only had to store a single number (a row number) at a time, as opposed to an array of strings!

But, back to my point, excel is good for what it does, calculating sums, keeping track of numbers and making simple graphs, so don't knock it for that, but for databases, use another package

ibly31 wrote:Haha teacher gets OWNED

Sounds like you were being an arrogant twat and got bitch slapped for it.

Yes, yes i was. Lol. But the teacher reslly doesnt know ehat she is doing. She is always yelling at people to "get off those sites" when they have my docukents open and are looking at their pictures...

RyanPridgeon wrote:

ibly31 wrote:Haha teacher gets OWNED

Sounds like you were being an arrogant twat and got bitch slapped for it.

This.

If its boring for you, make it not boring in your own way. Don't hurt your fellow students and make the teacher's life harder because you happen to excel (pun) in this area.

Wow, what an arrogant little prick.

What if one of us told you how NOT hardcore your web development is compared to our video game engine development? What if we tried to show off by showing you up?

You aren't making people respect you more. You're just making people think you're a little brat.

I agree, nobody likes it when you brag for the sake oif bragging to undermine the teacher, you should support them if you have an opinion, not undermine them.

Also, this sounds like you're doing ICT, am I right?, if that's the case (and depending on your level I guess) php wouldn't be something that an ICT class would cover, MS Excel is an entry level piece of software that anyone can learn (that's probably why they used it, pending the skill level of your class)

That may have been a valid point if you were covering either programming or web design, but seriously, there's no point bragging about firstly an almost unrelated project, and secondly a project which contradicts the lesson objectives.

Long story short, don't undermine, suggest, advise if you think somethings wrong, don't argue, or, well you know what happens...

the fact that she was trying to show me how much more powerful excel is than real databases is what made me want to show her my php tests. And I wasnt trying to make her job harder or make her feel stupid when i was blinding her with database-related vocab, i thought she understood what I meant. And again, its a middle school class, so it's not a specific class, just the teacher trying to teach us how to use computers.

Edit: she did use the word database, so what i was trying to show her is that mysql is a database and hiw excell isnt goid for thwt purpose because its just a spreadsheet editor.

Technically Excel is a file model database, so your teacher was correct. The most powerful database management system? no, but it is a powerful program. You should consider when your middle school teacher learned about computing, databases existed before PHP and mySQL.

daâ‹…taâ‹…base
  /ˈdeɪtəˌbeɪs/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [dey-tuh-beys] Show IPA
–noun
1. a comprehensive collection of related data organized for convenient access, generally in a computer.
2. data bank.

I can remember doing something like that back in grade school, trying to teach the teacher. Now that I'm in college, I'm more introverted and humble, because I know no matter how better I get, there will always be other's 10000x better than me, and I'll admit I'll never know 100% what I'm talking about. I see this more often than enough in my classes; students act like they invented the technology. I guess it's just ambition, it's fun learning something you enjoy, and like to share that knowledge to others. But I also don't want to be known as a smart ass who can't shut up >_< too many in my classes like that already.

I would say learning about databases with excel would be a much better place to start. One of those things everyone should just know.