This is actually right in the SQL Server Books Online, but not easily found. Given a temp table named #temp:

if ( object_id( 'tempdb..#temp' ) is null )
    -- table doesn't exist
else
    -- table exists

Here is an interesting article on a way to turn many looping row-based operations into set-based ones: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/TSQL/62867/

I think the idea is a clever one, and I love the "Row By Agonizing Row" (RBAR) acronym!

I'm a big fan of the Opera browser for its speed and excellent out-of-the-box functionality. One of the few things I have been willing to concede that it was lacking was a good interactive debugger like FireBug, until now. Opera Dragonfly has arrived!

This article presents some interesting ideas on when and when not to use AJAX.

http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/stop-using-ajax/