Question : Sharepoint service provider SSP never works for me simiple task

All i want to do is create a customer list that each of our departments can share in a single web application.  There are 4 collections under one web application that i have set up.

I want to create custom list based on  "business data" so that I only have to update one location when there is a new customer not 5.  I think its absoltely crazy that you have to use SSP  (and all the setup nightmare) in order to do this simple "sharing" task.  I mean share is in the name of the product.

Anyway..

I finally have ssp set up and again, that was just the beginning.  the rabit whole goes much deaper and difficult.  

I have to import a application definition file in order to point to a simple table i created on sql server.

I downloaded the SDK and use mi9crosoft bdc creator too to no avail.  The tool completely confused me, (entities, instances, identifiers, finders, specificfinders)  i mean COME ONNNNNNNN

I have been programming for 10 years and im still confused.

Can somebody step me through how to point to a table with one field in it "select name from table" and create a damn application definition file.

I was somehow successful with microsofts tool as well as BDC Creator tool and import sucessfully,

only to see "There are no Business Data Types loaded in the Catalog in the Business Data " when i chose business data.

I have looked everywhere and SSP seems to be setup correctly

please help me before i   format c:  >>c:\microsoftemployeesreallysuck.txt

Answer : Sharepoint service provider SSP never works for me simiple task

Honestly, I think that the BDC Metaman tool (http://www.bdcmetaman.com/) is much better than MS's SDK version.  

However, if you are up for doing a little coding, you can do cross-site lookups in a webpart.  Checkout Bamboo's Cross-list lookup part (http://store.bamboosolutions.com/ps-42-8-cross-list-web-part.aspx) to give you some ideas (or it might even do the job for you).  

If you are just getting started in coding for SharePoint, check out Todd Baginski's SharePoint Object Model Tookkit (http://www.sharepointblogs.com/tbaginski/archive/2007/11/08/SharePoint-Connections-2007-Code-Samples-and-Session-Materials.aspx)
...  It is a good kickstart for learning how to access the object model.