I saw a comic from Kendra Little recently, which reminded me of my first SQL Server crisis. I got hired as a contractor to support a large Novell network. In my first chance to work with SQL Server, a new database server running SQL Server 4.2 on OS/2 1.2 was installed on our network to support a new data entry application. This was mandated by a government legal change on Jan 1.

As the junior person, I was supporting the installation by corporate developers on Dec 31 at 5 p.m. We finished getting things set up, ate dinner, and then I watched the developers do some smoke testing and prepping the application and database servers for go-live at midnight. It was exciting to me as a young professional to be part of this deployment.

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