Is it possible in SQL Server to change default "order by" direction from asc to desc? This question came up in a discussion at work... given the following T-SQL statement:

select firstname, lastname from users order by lastname;


the default sort order on the order by clause is asc.  

Is there a setting within SQL Server that will allow you to change the default order used when the ASC|DESC modifiers are not specified?
No, the default sort order is always ASC.