I have one simple point to clarify your argument against code tables, which you touched upon, but which I believe needs to be heavily emphasized.

By forcing "codes" of different types...

Based on the recent discussion that cropped up regarding HT, we decided to disable it on one of our dual Xeon processor Dell boxes. In test scenarios, we saw...

I totally agree with the view that Brian mentions above - after all, they always say that the greatest security threat comes from within. If system-level security is implemented,...

I recall quite a bit of heated argument over homogenous vs. heterogeneous networks not long ago. There were quite a few arguments from both sides - I'm not sure...

To play the devil's advocate here, I would like to add a different point of view. I work for a company that does insurance auditing, and in this business...

If you can wait for SQL 2005, Integration Services looks VERY powerful so far in SQL 2005 beta 2. It definitely looks like it can handle everything you described....