Unfortunately, if you look at most contracts these days (at least the ones that I've seen), I think you'll see that they state that all inventions created as part of the job are assigned to the 'employer', not the contractor. I rather suspect (hope) that the principle is, if there's no financial damage, there's no problem.

I used to work at company X which made widgets, and developed a database system for them to sell their widgets. I left a couple of years ago, and am thinking about doing a project for company Y, which make a completely different kind of Widget, totally non-competitive with company X. In neither case is/was the software a fundamental part of their business - they sell widgets. So, the question is, given that there IS overlap in the way they think about certain things to do with customers, do I need to be concerned about 'reusing' concepts I developed for X in company Y's new system? I mean, every company has a 'Users' table and an 'Organization' table, and I'm pretty sure I can reuse those kinds of elements, for example, but what about other more specific data structures? If the analysis yields the same 'answers' in terms of entities, is there a potential issue? So does anyone have any guidelines they stick to in these kinds of situations? Technically it looks like it MIGHT be the case that once you've worked in Industry A, you can't ever work for a different company in Industry A without worrying about this kind of thing, but that CAN'T be right. Can it? This isn't intended to be a legal question, so please don't say 'consult a lawyer' :) Thanks for any thoughts...

Thanks for the input - great thoughts. Thing is though, I am *NOT* a professional Web site designer. I'm primarily a relational database guy. Obviously you're probably asking yourself what the heck I'm doing at the Code Project, but I've got sucked into doing the Web app development side of things. Its just not where I want to place my focus. Long and short of it is that (based on your guys' feedback) I need to decide on a better domain name, and start by using that for e-mail, then come up with a Web site in the future.

I've had my own domain and Web site for years, but I've never been happy with the domain name (too long + difficult to spell). Also, I'm no longer in the Web site design business - I'm focused on database stuff and database apps, so I don't really need a showcase for my work. Ss it is 'that time of year', I'm strongly considering rationalizing my on-line presence; migrating to a gmail account, dropping the dedicated Web site and smartening up my Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. Does anyone have any thoughts as to the advisability of this? Do I need to have my own domain name/Web site to look professional? What do you guys do?

I had a projector (1/4 HD res) for > 5 years in the basement, and really enjoyed it. No problem with bulb burning out spectacularly, but the entire did require replacing once :( The issue is that you really must have the lights down, which is great when you want the movie theater experience at home, but a PITA for general TV viewing. We recently moved from US to UK and the new house has no basement, so we've gone for a 32" LCD, and to be honest, we don't miss the projector much. In fact (and I know some will disagree) I would say that the sound quality is a much more significant factor than HD vs standard. $0.02

Hi, I'm looking for a SQL-based reporting system with the following features for running against a SQL Server 2005 database. - SQL for each report is to be hand coded (i.e. NOT 'ad-hoc/drag-n-drop end user reporting') - Users will select parameters at run time - Output to browser (don't care about controlling hard-copy formatting) - Must be able to include complete T-SQL. - Ideally include support for transactional operations I wrote something very much like this in my last job, but would rather buy this time. Anyone used or even know of such a beast? I've scoured Google with no result. Everything I've found is either 'Build reports without knowing SQL' or 'use this toolkit to integrate a specific report into your application. Thanks, Max.

Can I ask which make/model of laptop that is?

... but the increment for a 64 Gb SSHD on a new Thinkpad is 'only' about $500!

I suspect that since most database development is read rather than write, the balance will tip very much in favor of SSD - just looking for any real life confirmation. I've heard that boot time (for example) of computers equipped with these is unbelievable (e.g. x4 as quick as a regular hard drive).

I would be using all external components, including two monitors. And yes, even a 7200 rpm HDD is pokey, hence the SSD question - I'm want to run the database locally. Seems like SSDs are pretty thin on the ground as yet.

I've been a two-platform development guy for years; a well-specced tower for 90% of the time, with a laptop for occasional use. My tower is getting flakey, so I'm considering making the jump to laptop-only, since I also think I'll be traveling more. I'm using VS 2008 + SQL Server 2005 with mostly-read databases (aren't they all). Does anyone have any experience with using solid state hard drive on a laptop? I *suspect* that a dual core with an SSD will fly... can anyone confirm/deny? Or am I best off sticking with a tower?

Hi, Long time listener, first time caller... I've got a reasonably significant database in production (120 tables, 100+ UDFs and SPs) and (horrors) no real documentation for it. That's been (sort of) OK up to now because I've been the sole developer, but now more folks are going to be working on it, so I need to document it. Does anyone have any recommendations for tools to use? I'd like to be able to: - Record EXTENSIVE notes about tables, columns, functions, SPs, indexes - Ideally, record relationships between functions, i.e. to be able to group related functions together - Generate a nice ER diagram. - Print things out nicely Thanks in advance! Max.