SQL Server, using a table as a queue

Question

I\'m using an SQL Server 2008 R2 as a queuing mechanism. I add items to the table, and an external service reads and processes these items. This works great, but is missing

Answer 1

I need mechanism whereby I can attempt to select a single row from the table and, if there isn't one, block until there is (preferably for a specific period of time).

You can loop and check for new rows every second:

while not exists (select * from QueueTable)
    begin
    wait for delay '00:01'
    end

Disclaimer: this is not code I would use for a production system, but it does what you ask.