Finding the active node in a SQL Server Cluster

DBAs are an eccentric breed aren't they?

At my place of work, No Frills Corp, we have 2 types of DBA: DBAs who are perpetually on the edge of a nervous breakdown and will happily go a whole day without saying anything except "No", "I'm busy" and "Must be a problem with your app", and DBAs whom you should not engage in the simplest of conversations unless you have a couple of hours to spare.

I much prefer the taciturn DBAs, but in both cases the best policy is not to talk to them unless you really have to. So, what if you just need to know something simple but important, like which node of our active-passive cluster is currently active?

The other day I came across the very simple answer to this question:

SELECT ServerProperty('ComputerNamePhysicalNetBIOS')

Bosh!