Most contests are of the sort where you win a book.  This contest, on the other hand, is for people who have purchased the book (or have a copy from a library, or just "borrowed" it from a coworker's desk, etc.)  If you own the book, you probably noticed that I tried to lighten up the topic with the occasional joke, or humorous tidbit.  Obviously the topic is pretty dry in and of itself, and I am a bit of a cut up, as any of the ten people who have come to hear me speak know. 

So when I was during the final layout phase of the book, I thought I would have a bit of fun for later to insert a hidden message in the book.  Over the next 12 weeks, I am going to present on my website page for the book (http://drsql.org/ProSQLServerDatabaseDesign.aspx,) a series of twelve clues to find the hidden message, which is very inconpicuously hidden in the book for you to find, as a reward to those of you who really, really pay attention!  Or at least those who can follow a set of clues.

This contest is being sponsored by my publisher, Apress, and they are providing the following prizes:

Grand prize (1) - 250 GB WD USB Hard disk
First Prize (1) - Bundle of Apress books  (Pro SQL Server 2005, Pro SQL Server 2005 Assemblies, Pro SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, SQL Server 2005 T-SQL Recipes, as well as another copy of Pro SQL Server 2005 Database Design and Optimization to give to a friend, assuming you used your own copy to win the contest with!)
Second prizes (10)  - Apress T-Shirt

You can enter by sending email to contest@drsql.org, with "hidden" in the subject. As a bonus, Apress will also be providing a free eBook of SQL Server gathered from ASPToday to all persons who take a guess

I will review the answers and the first person to correctly identify the quote (including punctuation,) where the quote is from, the page number from the book, and what made this a hidden message, will get the grand prize.  The second will get the first prize, and so on.  If no one correctly identifies the information identified above, I will choose the closest response and award the prizes.  If persons get the correct answer, I will reveal that a winner has been found, but the names of the actual winners and hidden message will be revealed on December 27.

Fine print: All decisions by the judges will be final.  First and Grand prizes will not be awarded to any person who has received a promotional copy of the book, nor persons employed by Compass Technology in Chesapeake VA.  Any winners from these two groups will be awarded Second Prize.  All submissions become the property of drsql.org and may be posted anonymously here or on the blog at drsql.spaces.live.com at any time. 

Clues

15-Oct  The answer is a hidden message.   It is not as obvious as the quote at the beginning of the Introduction by Oscar Wilde: "I am not young enough to know everything." Just guessing one of the quotes at the beginning of a chapter will probably add you to my junk mail list :)
22-Oct The quote is from a movie, and the Smurf's were a TV Show.
29-Oct The movie is a comedy, and I didn't learn how to hide the quote by reading the DaVinci Code.
5-Nov  It is hidden in plain sight -  not any of the graphics in the book, especially not my picture on the cover, though my daughter's image is reflected in my glasses. 
12-Nov   You will find a lot of good stuff in the first half of the book, but not the answer to this contest. 
19-Nov  The message is hidden in plain sight.  You can't miss it, if of course you are looking in the right way
26-Nov The contest ends near when the movie's time period is (hint, the last clue will be revealed on December 24.)  If you want to find it though, you will have to really work for it.  This one is no gift.
3-Dec  On December 25, Santa delivers toys to good boys and girls.  In our country, we left him a cookie as a snack so he would bring us a Red Ryder BB Gun.  Of course, our parents told us that we would shoot our eye out, but we knew better.
10-Dec   Santa can quaff all the milk he wants too, but CASTing a spell on that cookie will be far more useful.
17-Dec  What role does security play in implementing your application?  - Also, This contest is so much easier if you own a copy of the book in PDF format. Purchasing a copy might be a win for you (and not such a bad deal for me either.)
18-Dec  Just because a value is not easily readable by a human certainly doesn't mean that it is unreadable by a computer program.
19-Dec  App App he's our man, if the App can't do it, then BobCan...
20-Dec  As this is a book about SQL, a SQL statement is required to find the hidden message.  The message is hidden in a result set value that ordinarily would just be gibberish...
21-Dec  You don't need to calculate the the square root of 126025 to find the message, but it sure might help.
22-Dec  select cast(0x486F706566756C6C7920796F752073686F756C64206E6F74206E656564206D6F726520636C756573207468616E2074686973 as varchar(60))

Ok, so the answer was found on page 355.  The value of the cookie, when casted to a varchar value reads: "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine. " a line from the movie "A Christmas Story" when the lead character uses his Little Orphan Annie decoder pin to reveal this message, much to his disgust.  I got the idea for the hidden message watching the movie last Christmas while working on the book :)