The Challenge Of Negation In Searches And Queries

Negation poses certain challenges for queries and searches. This paper deals with exclusionary queries implemented using the ISO database language SQL and a dialog-based interface and with retrieval searches involving negation. This research arose because instructors in database courses noticed a large proportion of students making mistakes on certain queries. The paper explores underlying comprehension issues and makes practical recommendations on identifying potential sources of error and avoiding incorrect or misleading results. Proposed actions include changes in general education and database training and encouraging implementation of the new SQL:1999 standard

With Deepest Sympathy: Understanding Computer Crashes, Grief, and

Abstract: This paper argues that the language we use to describe computer failures reveals our struggles to negotiate our relationships with modern technologies. Computers frequently crash, and when they do, users frequently frame their experience as if it represents a compressed experience with the stages of grief: the initial denial of loss, desperate bargaining, rising anger, inevitable depression, and finally, an exhausted acceptance of the loss. The loss of computer data has been compared to the loss of a child or family pet, a kind of “micro-grief ” (Golden, 2002). This research will examine the ways in which the metaphoric language we use to describe our failed interactions with technology represents real grief and loss, an often overlooked aspect of the dark side of human-computer relationships