One system that I worked on about 10 years ago, required a heck of a lot of database work. We were on SQL Server 6.5, and the database collation was set up so that code was case sensitive. The big problem on this project was that developers loved writing these monser stored procedures that were thousands of lines long. The stored proc in question was about 2000 lines long, and riddled with the same variable names, with different cases, e.g. @PatientRx @patientRx @patientrx @PATIENTRX @Patientrx @PatientRX This wasn't limited to one variable either, but multiple variables. I eventually re-wrote the stored proc after about a week of trying to figure it out.

I fully agree. I'll just say: It depends. :)

I personally think that the UNC path (\\server\directory) is the way to go. I'll qualify this statement: If you wrote a service that needed to get files from a shared folder on the network, you must bear in mind that your service can run under different credentials to the logged on user, and as such may not have the same network drive mappings.