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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.

I’m a propeller head - or at least, I used to be one until I traded in my cap for a marketeer’s (sic) fez. My techie colleagues have been mostly forgiving of my decision to “sell out” on my former role as a technical support engineer. They have mercifully opted to forgo making references to cliches such as, “I’m not in marketing, I work for a living!” when I ask them how their jobs are going. Still, I know that with my new title, I am less likely to be engaged in the kind of cool water-cooler-type conversations that take place when smart people are taking a break. This unintended consequence of my professional transition from technical geek to technically meek is the reason why I think my presence generates a Seinfeldian “Hello Frosty” reaction whenever I insert myself unceremoniously into such a conversation. I understand where you’re coming from: “It’s not personal, it’s just technical stuff.” Just like teens who want nothing to do with their parents, techies want to talk tech with other techies - not with marketing techie wannabes. Inside, however, my inner geek is crying out for respect: “Wait, I was just about to crack a joke that involves a C-shell command on AIX…”

This segueway brings me (somewhat awkwardly, I’ll admit) to my role as Shameless Promoter Of Things That Benefit My Employer (a role that comes with the fez rental). Microsoft is allowing people to vote on the topics that will be used for several BoFs (Birds-of-a-Feather sessions, if you’re still working on that propeller hat) that will be held at the Microsoft TechEd North America 2008 Developers conference and frankly, we’d like for you to vote for ours.

To vote, go to https://www.msteched.com/dev/voting.aspx. Be sure to scroll about halfway down the list until you will see our entry, Making Sense of All: Heterogeneous Data Access on the .NET Framework 3.5 with an appropriate checkbox, which we’d like for you to check before you submit your selections (I can’t assume everyone knows how to vote since the Florida Election Debacle of 2000). More information on the topic, if you’re really not going to click above and vote:

In this BoF, we’ll peel back the layers on data access from the .NET platform. We’ll look at the common problems facing today’s applications with a particular emphasis on applications in a multi-faceted, heterogeneous application environment. With all the options now available, including the Data Access Application Blocks, LINQ, Entity Framework and vanilla ADO.NET which is the one for you? Come armed with your questions, ideas and burning issues and we can promise a lively discussion!

If our topic is among the most popular topics voted on, then my esteemed, suitably credentialed, and technically astute colleague Jonathan Bruce will be there to run the show and keep things technically interesting for the smart folks. And if that isn’t incentive enough to vote for this and attend, then consider that I might even make it which means that should you show up, you will have a chance to crack an inside joke that relies on geek humor and watch me struggle to get it and try to fit in.

I can guarantee that feeling smug about your tech cred will never feel so good.