Foreword

I first met Shawn via email a number of years ago. He hung out at the same mailing lists that I did and had interesting things to say, so, when I needed some help on a project, he was on my list of potentials. I remember sending out an email late one evening, expecting a response sometime the next day. Forty-five minutes later as I was checking email one last time before going to bed, I already had a response from Shawn, who was three time zones later than I was. Not only was he willing, he was enthusiastic about the project and brimming with experience and ideas. That was the beginning of a relationship that brought us together daily for the next three years, and it's been fruitful for me ever since.

During the tail end of our project together, Shawn got another request for help on a project, this time from the Microsoft database community as a whole. The request was to fill a much-needed gap in the knowledge of Microsoft's latest database technology: ADO.NET. And once again, not only was Shawn willing, he was enthusiastic, setting up his own ADO.NET forum on the Web and jumping into DevelopMentor's new .NET mailing list, answering most of the deluge of database questions off the top of his head. The growing base of knowledge that Shawn was gathering about the importance of ADO.NET in a fully networked world, and the corresponding details that you need to make it actually work, eventually caused him to ask me whether he should write a book. I told him that if he could think of anything else to do in his free time, he should do that instead. Writing a good book (which I knew was what he was after) is too hard. The only way to make it through is if you've got a burning story in your heart that you can't not tell.

Thankfully for the rest of us, Shawn's story has burned its way onto the pages of the book you now hold in your hand. Whether Shawn has already helped you with your database problems online or whether this is your first exposure to his work, I'm quite confident that it will be, like mine, a very fruitful relationship indeed.

Chris Sells
www.sellsbrothers.com