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The image of the herald is one that pervades Western culture. The Biblical image of the archangel Gabriel announcing the forthcoming births of both John the Baptist and Jesus is one that Christians are very familiar with.

I’m not much of a herald. I’m hardly angelic, and I don’t own a horn much less own one. I think I would have made a great town crier, though. I’ve been told that my voice carries - over cube walls, through doors, down hallways, across vast expanses, etc. I’m reasonably sure that being told that I have a voice with such a unique gift for being heard above the din of an office setting is a compliment. Isn’t it?

All of this self-analysis brings me to the reason for my post today: my self-appointed role as town crier for news and announcements of interest to my loyal readers. To you, my faithful minions, I thrice toll my bell of harkening and lift my voice to loudly proclaim:

DataDirect to Support ADO.NET Entity Framework for Oracle Data Sources

Admittedly, this announcement is anti-climatic, for those of you who read this posting on the Microsoft blog last week, but it does bear repeating. There is a lot of interest right now among developers in the ease-of-use of LINQ and the productivity of the Entity Data Model. <marketing hat> Our announcement is meant to reaffirm that LINQ-based and Entity Data Model-based applications will experience the same unique benefits of using DataDirect’s Connect for ADO.NET providers for relational database access as ones built to use current technologies such as DAAB. </marketing hat> (Sorry for that segueway, but you know I’ve got to give a shout out to now and again in order to pay the bills ^_^)

While this is hardly earth-shattering news or something with the weightiness of, say, a royal proclamation, it is one that we’re proud to make because it’s a signal of where our products are headed…sort of like a graduation announcement. It’s enough to make a tough guy like me misty-eyed and emotional - it’s like I’m witnessing a precocious little tyke growing up right before my eyes! *sniffle*

That’s all for now. I’m off to hum a few bars to warm up for my daily auditory assault of my co-workers. Your comments and feedback are welcome so long as it doesn’t compete with the “11″ setting of volume knob of my strident self-important braying.

“Gee Mike, how can I become as wise about data connectivity as you?”

The above question is proof that although a question may be easy to ask, the answer may not be simple (nor the questioner sane in this case). My professional career started without even cursory knowledge of what a driver was, how relational databases worked, or even how to program in something more modern than FORTRAN (not dating myself as much as hinting that my college career was somewhat atypical for someone in my position). Since that time I have become “sufficiently proficient” in the subject of data connectivity to get myself into trouble, but not quite good enough to get myself out - sort of an anti-Macgyver in that regard.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to share with you the secret of how I managed to acquire the thimbleful of lore that I have to date: listening to people smarter than myself. Thankfully for me, I haven’t had to look far for overqualified individuals at my place of employment - it’s like looking for a tall tree in a forest of redwoods. The great news is that these resident geniuses are actually more interested in going forth and helping others who grapple with the weighty questions involving data connectivity than they are in trying to give me the “Dick and Jane” version of every new concept that comes along.

You can meet these Superstars of Standards-Based Database Access APIs at DataDirect’s Architect Tutorials at one of the following dates and locations:

Thursday, October 4th | St. Louis, MO - Hilton Frontenac
Thursday, October 11th | Toronto, ON - Westin Harbour Castle
Tuesday, October 16th | Irvine, CA - Hyatt Regency

This year’s theme is, “Successful Strategies for SOA Enablement & Data Connectivity,” which sounds much more useful and technical than “See Spot Program ‘Hello World’ In FORTRAN”. If my personal recommendation amounts to anything - attend and don’t forget to bring a warm thinking cap.

Those familiar with my personality (the real-life, much more interesting one) know that I am given to spontaneous speechifying on frequent, mostly inappropriate occasions. As a result, they rarely encourage me to share one of my not-so-humble opinions or to grace them with my pithy, Gibran-esque observations on the nature of the human condition, et al. (For those of you who deign to counter this self-assessment of my wisdom, consider the date of this posting before commenting… ^_^)

Every so often, however, I manage to fool someone into thinking that my pedagogical pontifications are worth listening to and I am thus granted a podium on which to speak and share my wisdom (such as it is). Such an occasion is nigh and I encourage you to come out and support my heretofore unfulfilled dream of having a full room with a rapt audience spellbound by my oratory.

Event: The 2008 MySQL Conference & Expo

Location: Santa Clara, CA

Time: 11:55am through 12:40pm on Tuesday, April 15th

Title (sure to whet any appetite): Increase the Flexibility of MySQL-based SOA Frameworks with a Data Access Layer

The Goods:
While many organizations implementing Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs) are adopting a standards-based approach for development of new application services, few are applying the same methodology to their MySQL database access logic. A tightly coupled, MySQL-specific approach to application service design eliminates the benefits of an SOA strategy and results in an infrastructure that slows application deployment and reduces business logic reuse and flexibility.

Additional Details: See http://en.oreilly.com/mysql2008/public/schedule/detail/2578

If you come, you should know that I accept heckling so long as it is followed with an offer of a craft beer not sold within the state of North Carolina - barleywines are my favorite though anything strong that I can fit into my suitcase for the flight back will be graciously accepted. Oh, and don’t forget to leave me your business card so that I know who to credit for the soothing of my bruised ego.