Thank you, Mike - this is one of the most useful and best-written articles I've ever seen on a practical SQL Server topic.

I admit to being guilty of using...

Please!... be careful of the adverse remarks about USPS - some of our fellow readers are Postal Service employees, and you know it's not good to get them angry

sorry - the link to the Luke Chung article is

http://www.microsoft.com/Office/previous/access/10years/chung.asp

-- SteveR

It's not a bad list, but the point that Mary Jo Foley misses is this: If these are the major flops, that's a big part of why Microsoft has been...

Hi Stephen,

The problem with creating and dropping a "normal" table in a stored procedure is that two users might try to run the same procedure at the same time and...

I've been using temporary tables in SQL Server for years, and they have helped me solve a lot of problems. Please don't tell Joe Celko about this, as he will...

Sorry, I fat-fingered the message form just after I typed "OK ".

I was going to say something like "OK, I hear what you're saying and I'll just have to...

OK

hello nmt,

"...However, as I understand the electronic commmunications issue, it is in fact the law that the justice department must seek a warrant, from a special FISA court ...."

Not necessarily,...

hello nmt,

"...It's also clear that you need a warrant to obtain phone call records. .."

Actually, it's not at all clear that the gov't needs a warrant to obtain records...

SteveJ, thanks for bringing this tragic story about the 911 database abuse to our attention. It's actually a very good model to use when thinking about government use of data....

>>the Oracle PLSQL crowd has been having a hissy fit. <<

I love it when that happens!

Thanks for your reply, Grant!

-- SteveR

Very interesting discussion, thanks. I left the old-style syntax long ago because of potential for uninteneded results.

Just curious, does Oracle *STILL* not support the ANSI-92 JOIN syntax in its...

If you go beyond just DBAs and other IT workers, I imagine that there is a huge chunk of the workforce these days that fall into the category of "information...

Photography - I was an enthusiastic amateur photographer from age 17 to about 30, when marriage, buying our first house, and starting to raise a family brought other priorities.

I...