Role-playing refers to the many paper-and-pencil games where you take on a personality of your character to interact with the "world".  It's similar to an interactive story where there is...

There isn't a lot of free time after work is finished, but when there is I devote it to my 3 favorite hobbies: my wife and 2 little girls. 

I...

I used Win98 and ME effectively for several years, but XP is infinitely more stable.  Of course it really depends what you're doing with the system. 

On 98, I'd typically...

Andy, I agree in general with everything you wrote.  Hungarian is great for coding but bad for columns.  However, I've been using a naming convention for column names that isn't...

I tend to work a lot of long hours to keep projects on schedule.  On one recent occassion I was working 2 projects that were on schedule and had a...

The prefix is helpful, but only in certain conditions.

If you're using the Query Analyzer object viewer or using Enterprise Manager to browse for your stored procedures, then a prefix probably...

I think it's important to draw a distinction between a freelance consultant and one who works for a vendor as well.  For instance, if you purchase an application and want...

In my mind that's way more work that just using bulk insert.  I have a couple of scripts that I tweak when I need to process Excel data.  If I...

Just to weigh in a little late on this one.. 

Developmental speed can often outweight a fully-optimized data source.  I.e. if all dates are "datetime" and all strings are "varchar"...

I've been telecommuniting for 5 years now as a database consultant (developer).  My corporate office is in San Jose, but I live in KY.  From time to time I need...

Reply to OP:

I think the only way to ensure you're hired or keep you job or earning power is to maintain your position as an expert.  That means being educated,...

Great article, a real eye-opener!  Nothing like seeing your own password in plain text screaming "here I am!" to wake you up in the morning!

I agree with an earlier poster...

Congrats!!  Thanks for offering your help to the world at large!

"Personally, I find naming conventions are rather silly.  I find it makes more sense just to assign common sense definitions for DATA column headings and objects."

If you're the only one...

ISO 11179-5 is the section on naming conventions.  Here's what they say about naming object classes (tables fall into this category):

6.1.1.1 Object class term

An object class term...