With ADO.net 3.5 you no longer need to use/install the Jet driver for working with an Access database.

You can use this connection string(reads Access 2007 and below).

Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=C:\myFolder\myAccess2007file.accdb;Persist Security Info=False;

Thanks to ADO.NET 3.5 Cookbook, 2nd Edition(if I were smarter I would have used my amazon correspondent link)

And ConnectionStrings.com

Found an rss feed full of LINQ  N-Tier resources check it out here

The Visual C++ Team Blog just announced Visual C++ 2008 Feature Pack Released!

I noticed this on Microsoft downloads last night. Any way here is the official download url http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D466226B-8DAB-445F-A7B4-448B326C48E7&displaylang=en

This Feature Pack includes MFC items( Office 2007 ui items, Visual Studio ui items) and TR1(Technical Report 1) additions

In case you had not heard Microsoft added some new badness to MFC

The MFC Feature Pack library supports new features in the following areas:

Menus

Toolbars

Panes

Ribbon Control

Outlook Alert

Controls

Dialog Boxes

Customization

Visualization

Special Features

 

See What's New (MFC Feature Pack)

Walkthroughs (MFC Feature Pack)

Reference (MFC Feature Pack)

Samples (MFC Feature Pack)

Download (MFC Feature Pack)

I notices Scott Gu has turned to the dark side. (Tip/Trick: Creating and Using Silverlight and WPF User Controls)

My question, is this Scott Hanselman's influence?

• donxml.com
• linq pad.
• xpath mania
• zoomit
• data base schema changes now elegant way to update your code? no....
• Refactoring Databases: Evolutionary Database Design
  by Scott W. Ambler and Pramod J. Sadalage ( on safari )
• -LINQ to SQL debug visualizer.
• SQL metal
• Dynamic SQL is not evil. ( Parameterized SQL, concatenated strings do not qualify.)
• NetTiers is a active record pattern. Subsonic would be Repository Pattern, ADO.net is Data Mapper Pattern. Metadata Mapping Pattern is entity framework or Nhibernate.
• LINQ to Entity allows for One to Many relations.

I will be attending VS live this week in San Francisco.  Is any one else?

Something strange happened to Visual Studio 2008 after I installed Silverlight 2 beta tool kit.  It got slower, but the UI has changed.  I now see two scroll bars where the far left sometimes popes up a postit not type window telling me I have dead code. There is a little green/red icon in the far right corner indicating a success/failed build.  There is some type of color coded navigation under the vertical scroll bar.

SQL Server Data Services this looks to be Microsoft's answer to Amazons Simple DB it sounds promising. 

SQL Server Data Services FAQ

Rather then spend another 10+ hours on hold with HP tech support to have them replace my video card for the fourth time.  I replaced my latest ASUS 7600 card(bad fan)

with an ASUS 8600 fanless/silent model.  As a side benefit I can now use the Nvidia control panel to rotate my monitors.