Never a Dull Moment
I'm always amazed at just how much there is going on in the SQL Server community, not to mention the .NET community as a whole. Right now I am working on a number of projects, some including SQL Server design and architecture work, some not. One of the things I'm doing is trying out the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Best Practices Analyzer as part of some consulting work I'm doing for another business unit within the company. It's not a bad tool, and certainly saves you from having to dig up all that detail by hand, particularly if you are analyzing multiple servers at once. I just wish it had some reporting options other than “Purge Report” and “Print Report” .... like maybe “Save”?
I also really took to heart the link from a month back or so posted by Don Kiely. It got me thinking and I've been digging around a lot more lately in vendor database applications, just amazed at the crap I am finding. If the quality of a system's database design truly is an indicator of the quality of the system overall, and I believe that it is, we're in trouble. My company is currently piloting a system that is priced in the 7-figure range, and I've had an opportunity to dig into the DB schema, although not the system code itself. Quite possibly the worst database design I've ever seen in almost 10 years of working with and around MS SQL Server.
Anyhoo ... glad to be a part of this community.