SQL Server 2005 includes an undocumented function, sys.fn_varbintohexstr, that converts a hex value to a string representation of that hex value (0×3a becomes ‘0×3a’), but there is no function to go back from a hex string to a hex value. Below is something that does the trick quite nicely
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.HexStrToVarBin(@hexstr varchar(8000))
RETURNS varbinary(8000)
AS
BEGIN 
    DECLARE @hex char(2), @i [...]

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I’d had your piece sent to me by relatives there in KS as part of a general blast sending it to all their friends. It struck me how very different sides of the fence there really is, and I wonder if there’s any way around it. I grew up in Smalltown, KS [...]

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Back in 2005, Senator Hank Erwin of Alabama had proposed (among others), that hurricane Katrina was God inflicting punishment on the sinners which lived in New Orleans. Similar comments were made during other disasters which struck major cities (since presumably the most sin occurs in such places, like Ft. Lauderdale).
But now with the more recent [...]

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Time rolls on, work is slowly getting somewhat less crazy as time for Valhalla approaches. I always become a combination of depressed, manic, and generally a stress puppy when faire time comes around. I’m trying desperately to get into high gear for the faire, but I feel rather like I’m a manual transmission car and [...]

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Well at least it’s getting closer to being back to normal. Since midnight of Sunday after Visalia Faire (back on the 27th of April), we’ve been nearly at it 24 hours. For the first week it literally was 24 hours a day with 18-20 hours on, and a few hours for some quick sleep on [...]

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