Let me put it this way: I woke up at 6 this morning to the words "biggest bank failure in US history," and immediately thought to myself, "Well, I woke up to th

Let me put it this way: I woke up at 6 this morning to the words "biggest bank failure in US history," and immediately thought to myself, "Well, I woke up to the depression." After listening for a little while, I realized it was the same WaMu news from last night, so not a big deal. But things are going downhill and it's due a a fundamentally flawed economy woefully dependent on credit. I expect tough times ahead, but I'm not too concerned. I have real, technical skills that should keep me working through whatever may come. One thing that I'm doing is brushing up on my DBA abilities, because I figure that no matter how bad things get, maintaining databases will not be an option: They're part of the infrastructure now. Call me RMS, but now is the time to make sure that your skills with open source software are top-notch. If things go down the toilet, you can bet that businesses will be hesitant to use expensive Microsoft products when free alternatives are around. Now, Microsoft would hopefully adjust to the decrease in demand, but I'll take the almost guaranteed increase in demand any day over that gamble.