>> I am the Director of IT for a small/medium sized marketing company, where I
>> personally write the code that runs our applications.
>
> I'm sure I'm not the only code monkey who shudders at the implications of this statement.

Which part of small/medium marking company did you miss? I worked for one of those and the IT department was 3 guys, The Unix Guy (me), The Novell Guy, the Desktop Guy...eventually we grew and got a technical manager who rose in ranks, but as we moved to NT we all got training (no new hires) and I went on to be DBA, they replaced me with a new Unix Guy... they did have a programmer staff of 3 people which we all worked with, more so perhaps in my DBA role but their experience was working with unidata database (not SQL) and we moved to (surprise) MSSQL. The role of the database was also changing from mail list management to full campaign management including responses and outcomes.

If it helps, forgot his statement about manager and focus on just:"... where I personally write the code that runs our applications. We use a variety of technology at our office, the majority of which rely on MS-SQL and MySQL databases. I am familiar with tables, SQL queries, and have a general understanding of how the SQL databases work. What I'm looking for is a good book, particularly a newer book, to explain general database design techniques, and maybe explain some relational tables. We have some tables that have million of rows, and I'd like to know the best method of designing these tables."

So, he is one of those programmers who is moving into database design..he's moving up in the world.

It's not citizens versus non-citizens ( citizens 'born here' just have an irrevocable status of legal resident )...

The question is of legal resident status...and a license generally will prove that.

Actually, two corrections....

  1st) the question is not of citizenship which is generally not a lawful question to ask but of legal resident status.

2nd) Most (and more as new Driver license laws are adopted) states require proof of legal residency before granting the license. In NH (the life free or Die state) it was not required when my wife first got her license but was later added as a requirement (determined by friends and her renewal ) {actually, the requirement may have been there but moved from individual station checking to central checking in we used her green card as one of IDs first time, but for the renewal all the paperwork needed to be sent to the central office and they needed to issue a letter}

WRONG!

> Do you know that if you are a foreigner who wishes to marry a US citizen, it is both QUICKER /and/ CHEAPER > for you to come here on a tourist visa, sign a waiver saying you have no intention of marrying a citizen, get
> married anyway, and fill out a visa application that basically says "Oops. Can I stay anyway?" than it is for you > to actually go through the process the "proper" way? Just one of the reasons immigration is ... "problematic".

I have done the K1 Visa process (for my wife) it's much cheaper though i does require some patience. Doing what you proposed will require a lawyer and could result in a 7 year or life ban from the US, certainly not cheaper and potentially not easier.

IF you want an alternative process which can potentially be both cheaper and easier than the K1 Visa, then go to the other country and get married there and ally for the spouse VISA which will get processed in that country's US embassy which will potentially be much faster and possibly cheaper.

It still isn't certain to work....

Different OSes and File Systems both
will automatically 'touch' certain files and structures and mark them with a time stamp based upon the activity. If they look at those time stamps and see that last access time of something is earlier than something which should have been created or accessed later... they can tell that the clock was messed with it.

It's actually Simpler that even that....

Schools either have a Teacher for a class or they don't. If they have a Don't have a teacher then they need to find one. Once they have a Teacher then they stop looking for one.

The Teacher might not be the best, might even be pretty bad...but is having THAT teacher in the class room better than having no one in the class room? If yes, they won't look for a new teacher and they won't get anyone better. They will only get rid of the teacher if it's better to not have anyone, and then they will quickly look to find a new teacher as quickly as possible.

They will need to use a Substitute Teacher till they replace the Teacher and even in the rare case where they hire a long term substitute to give them time for a long term search. It's relatively difficult to know how good of a teacher they will from an interview and once you have hired them you stop looking and you are back where you started.

Unlike a company which can hire more people then they believe they ultimately need or hire an extra person as a secret replacement (assuming that the replacement turns out to be better than the original), most schools don't have the flexibilities to hire before they fire. Even if they did, it would be hard to do it secretly and what kind of teacher do you think the poor teacher will become once they know that the school is working to replace them. There is also the issues of attachment and continuity with regards to the students.... how much does their education suffer every time you change their teacher?

Something to think about... with all the talk of shortages of teachers, how many schools actually have a current opening? I know when I was looking for Teaching positions many years ago, they were few and far between.

First it was a joke... but seriously.

All our wealth is measured in some unit of which I have the ability to increase and you don't. The more I print the more I have and the less you have, no matter how much you started with.

The Government sure does create wealth..they print the money!

Are they expecting you to work locally for the 6 to 9 months if you do get the job? If so then I would consider it, if I was going to work remotely I would recommend video conferencing suggest that they visit your 'office'

My idea... get a set of the locking plugs and install them right after the furnace shutoff switch.

The locking plug won't accidentally unplug and if event of power failure I can unlock(twist) and unplug it and then connect it to a generator.