Definitely this is true of SAS and SPSS, but don't worry about those tools not getting used. I've often observed that separating a statistical analyst from SAS/SPSS requires a crow-bar... :-) They'll find a way to get that data, despite incredibly foolish limitations such as 8Kb record-width and 8-char fieldnames...
I imagine that Oracle's old Darwin product (purchased from Thinking Machines) could access relational data directly, but that might be an invalid assumption also. Anyway, Oracle has apparently decided to get out of the business of creating DM/OLAP tools and get into providing the APIs to create DM/OLAP applications with the OLAP and Data Mining options. The reasoning is to embed data from data mining right into that sales-call application, so that the salesperson can see the prospects "score" in real-time within the application rather than having to fire up a separate console. Sorry for no help, but that's my $0.02. Looking forward to hearing more on this topic... ----- Original Message ----- To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2002 8:53 AM > > I have a question for anyone who has used a data mining tool. My > understanding is that most data mining tools do not access your database > directly, but require you to unload the data and put it into some specific > flat file formats before the data mining tool can search your data. Is this > true? This sounds very time-consuming and inconvenient. I am concerned that > the tool won't get used very much because of the effort involved. Does > anybody know of a data mining tool that can directly read database tables? > If so, is there any standard data model involved? Here are my theories for > why data mining tools don't read database tables directly: > 1. Data warehouse schemas are not standard. Some are simple star-schemas, > but others aren't. > 2. In-memory tables may perform associative look-up faster than database > queries. > > Your ideas are appreciated. > > Dennis Williams > DBA > Lifetouch, Inc. > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -- > Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com > -- > Author: DENNIS WILLIAMS > INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 > San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message > to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in > the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L > (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may > also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Tim Gorman INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
