I can see why sometime it's needed, but as a manager when I had the choice it was to only get into the testing if I had someone that was...

Thanks for the comment and the blog note. Find anything of interest on the blog? I'm still exploring the medium.

Good stuff as always David!

My two cents; firewall rules to block developers from direct access to production is a very cool thing, and probably easier to sell in the SOX...

It's not just the time pressure, it's often terribly hard to spot a great candidiate when they are right in front of you. They many not interview well, you may...

Nothing wrong with Tony or anyone doing the editorial, though Im not sure I want it to be a soapbox for too many things, SQL or no. Would be nice...

I don't think it's wrong to ask to have users submit a reasonable amount of detail so that they can repro a bug. As far as cursing and the rest,...

One of the more advanced parts of SQL 2005 partitioning is switching partitions in/out. It's not hard to do, takes a minute to wrap your head around the idea. When...

Thanks for the feedback. There's definitely a ton of detail on partitioning that could be done, but I think it's one of those features that isn't that hard to learn...

Just a matter of adding the switches to step#2 of the job. Details on the switches in BOL at ms-help://MS.SQLCC.v9/MS.SQLSVR.v9.en/repref9/html/2028ba45-4436-47ed-bf79-7c957766ea04.htm.

I don't think it always sucks. Definitely there is a focus on solving problems quickly and pragmatically, which isn't always the same as elegantly. I think Steve is on the...

Reading SSC every day is a good part of a professionald development plan, especially combined with a few targeted blogs.

Email is definitely tricky. For years I've sent all application email by adding rows to a table and having a console app on the server process them. In dev/test we...

That's a nice take on the music bits, but isn't it only true because it's digital? If you buy (license) a painting and it's destroyed in a fire, they aren't...

As a minimum I'd ask for the request via email.

This stuff is going to happen to us sooner or later, we'll be faced with a moral/ethical decision due to...

I think GUID's are made for that kind of scenario. All the same pros and cons apply! As long as the hardware isn't fully utilized already I suspect it will...