Coming Soon to a Debate Near You: Drill Down
2006-04-14
Posted by: badanov
We have seen this term used on some Internet boards lately, and tonight, while watching the PBS program NOW, we heard/saw the the use of the term.
In the lexicon of the leftist it means to get more data. But the term is a database term and it means something different.
As an example, our last story about finding the top five defensive backs for the 2006 NFL Draft. Listening to a liberal, drill down would mean to get all the data you can on defensive backs. There's gotta be 300 or 400 defensive backs in NCAA 1A and 1AA schools throughout the nation.
How are you going to "drill down" for more information if you have a large list and a small result set requirement? You must execute a sort. The sort result is known as a drill down.
For our purposes we simply developed a paper table which listed out the top ten defensive backs by interceptions, total tackles and pass plays. Out of that sort we got ten seniors, all perfectly good players, all had great years in 2005; all great prospects for the NFL.
In a data sense, drill down means not to get more data but to cull data out and actually get less data but a clearer sense of what the original data sort means.
Sounds like a contradiction the way the leftists use it, huh?
Is that really much of a surprise?
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