I agree with the 5 year cycle. Really, the database world simply does not change that much to require new systems (and porting existing apps, and new hardware to support...

Why rush?

SQL 2005 is working fine. It will be working fine 6 months from now. I'd much rather the new version be right than soon.

I don't mind learning new technologies, but I hate to be told which ones I have to learn.

Well situations vary, but as a full time employee in a company...

While the background check has the most potential for spotting problems, there is a very serious danger in this CYA world that ANY blemish will serve as silent justification to...

Lie detector tests are horrendously unreliable. This has been shown repeatedly in controlled scientific studies. Hiring or not hiring someone based on that is little better than doing based on...

This strategy is necessary in a lot of areas. Buying a used car (a better deal might never show up) or buying a house (you generally have time, location and...

It is actually a pretty good strategy. Time lost searching is non productive, and there is often not enough of a payoff for someone far better than what is required....

"everything in one place" really goes AGAINST what people are looking for. For example, because I work mainly in MS SQL, I am here on a site that does not...

Here's an incrediblly stupid one:

Texas Education Agency’s director of science terminated for forwarding to a local online community an e-mail message from the National Center for Science Education dealing with...

Firing someone for legal activities on their own time is outrageous except in very limited special cases. Not hiring people for those activities is much more common.

All my private online...

As a start, keep all internet signups that don't actually necessitate real names under pseudonyms (different ones for different subjects). Here is some help:

http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/

It produces credible names and addresses with...

Compressed air as a power source probably predates most electric applications. There is a themal heat loss, however which tends to make it much less efficient than electricity.

It's a complex problem. Certainly data used for testing should be obfuscated, but to be secure it has to be either encrypted or replaced by other data.

If it's replaced...

I can't see many customers moving off an ERP or CRM system that's running on Oracle to SQL Server.

Very true. Those guys presumably also already have there license figured out....

I'm not sure about all the gee wiz stuff, though I like carrying my blackberry (I'd often rather email than call). Having the internet connection is handy too, weather, news,...