Conversation started Jan 18, 2013 at 0:14.
ypercube
ypercube
Jan 18, 2013 00:14
is this on topic?
0
Q: How to calculate some specific things about a disk?

user1890338I have this situation where I need to calculate some things. I have following things with me, Disk characteristics: number of cylinders; number of heads; # sectors/track; 10 ms average seek time; 3250 KBs transfer speed; 7200 RPM rota...

database-administration homework disk-structures
Phil
Phil
Jan 18, 2013 00:44
flagged it a while ago. "Needs punting over to serverfault or some relevant SE site – 39 mins ago"
ypercube
ypercube
Now it has an answer ;)
Phil
Phil
@ypercube "not welcome in our community"
Phil
Phil
Jan 18, 2013 01:01
Appalling behaviour for a moderator, in my opinion. Not the first time either
Wonders where the others are
Mark Storey-Smith
Mark Storey-Smith
@Phil Not the first time and won't be the last :/
jcolebrand
jcolebrand
-4
A: How to calculate some specific things about a disk?

mrdennyThere are so many variables that it's a crap question. Here's some questions for you to ask back to the teacher. What database platform? How much header information per page? per row? What's the database page size? Is the data in the database page compressed? If so what kind/level of compress...

Why is this so downoted?
Mark Storey-Smith
Mark Storey-Smith
"There are so many variables that it's a crap question."
jcolebrand
jcolebrand
It's a ranty answer, sure
The question is crap to begin with
Mark Storey-Smith
Mark Storey-Smith
In fact, I could rightly remove the quotes and just say... There are so many variables that it's a crap question.
:)
Phil
Phil
Jan 18, 2013 01:07
It's a homework question that belongs elsewhere. Doesn't mean the user should be torn to bits
jcolebrand
jcolebrand
As someone not that long out of college, and who had quite a few years in college (my first transcript featured a very respectable 1.3 or less, quite a feat, if you ask me) I can tell you that most students don't have a CLUE.
@Phil It doesn't belong anywhere
Mark Storey-Smith
Mark Storey-Smith
@jcolebrand Maybe, but if any of us had answered a question with "its a crap question", I would expect it to be appropriately moderated
Phil
Phil
So it should be flagged. A moderator has the power to close. Absolutely 0 need to post a rants answer berating the OP
5
Mark Storey-Smith
Mark Storey-Smith
and rightly so
If I wasn't still working at 1.10am I might make an effort to coax a good question out of it, because it does have some merit. It would however require a great deal of coaching the OP and an essay length response as an answer... none of which justifies beating up the new arrival
@ConcernedOfTunbridgeWells could certainly craft a good technical response to a reworked version of the question
Phil
Phil
It's meant as a simple undergrad 1st semester question by the looks of it. Not a SQL Server performance question :P
Mark Storey-Smith
Mark Storey-Smith
Jan 18, 2013 01:19
And while I'm on my soapbox, the rant about reading a random record is utter bull. WTF does he think IOP capacity is calculated from if not from rotational speed, latency and seek time?
Simon Righarts
Simon Righarts
Jan 18, 2013 02:02
@MarkStorey-Smith Yeah I didn't get that either
Or maybe mrdenny was being completely over the top because the OP said "Time to read one record randomly" instead of "average time to read one record randomly"
Mark Storey-Smith
Mark Storey-Smith
Badly phrased question all round but you can see what the OP was after if you cut them a bit of slack
Simon Righarts
Simon Righarts
Yeah pretty much, and mrdenny was basically "nope, no slack for you"
Mark Storey-Smith
Mark Storey-Smith
Well, I've successfully unfubar'd the DW prototype that I mercilessly fubar'd a couple of hours ago, so I'm gonna catch a couple of hours kip!
Cheerio
Simon Righarts
Simon Righarts
haha, night
jcolebrand
jcolebrand
Jan 18, 2013 02:32
@MarkStorey-Smith sorry, had to take that phone call.
So, I'm all up for deleting that particular question as having no useful merit
Simon Righarts
Simon Righarts
Sounds reasonable. Particularly since it's going downhill
jcolebrand
jcolebrand
Here's the thing:
"I need the formulae"
Those are in a book.
Or in the teacher's notes.
I would know, I've had plenty of classes.
 
6 hours later…
dezso
dezso
Jan 18, 2013 08:42
That answer looks very unpopular
Jack Douglas
Jack Douglas
Hi user1890338, as you can see from the question closure, as it stands this is off-topic here. It's not far off-topic but it is that side of the line (incidentally it is probably too broad too: we prefer one question at a time). The community is the best judge of these things, but I don't want you to be discouraged from asking future on-topic questions here: it seems likely that you will have them. I'd also like to draw your attention to the community response to the one answer you have received—it's normally our aim to be polite and respectful. — Jack Douglas 41 secs ago
@Phil, @MarkStorey-Smith, @jcolebrand ^^^^^
I think we have the right outcome here: the question closed and the answer firmly voted down.
 
Conversation ended Jan 18, 2013 at 8:43.