angel should not post while on crack...
Are you saying that you are an MCSE... blah blah blah? If you are, big freakin' deal, not as if it means a whole lot. A frickin' monkey can pass those tests. I've got an MCSE. So what. Does very little to help you out in a practical way other than to milk a few more dollars out of a hiring manager that doesn't know your true skill set. Instead of patting yourself on the back for a trivial title, try learning the systems. You'll get more respect and credibility when you being posting information that is correct for once.
Hotfixes are individual patches/fixes/updates that are released one at a time to correct known issues. In between service packs a selection of fixes may occassionally be rolled into a small package... think of it as a mini service pack. Eventually, all hotfixes are packaged together into a final service pack for public release.
This is not a concept limited to MS. Other companies call suck things a CSD (corrective service disks) or a Point Release or a couple other names I cannot recall.
MS has made commitments to quarterly service pack releases. They often don't meet that deadline, but that's the general idea. Win2K SP 2 is already in development and will likely be released close to the end of this year or after the beginning of the year... I'm being optimistic on the timeline...