Actually I was always involved in that programming is a big and meaningful part of my life, as is teaching. So to make the transition to actually putting some of my experience on paper and sharing with a bigger audience than just my college students came rather naturally. In retrospect, it was bound to happen.

Q: Do you think beginners realize the importance of data and databases to Visual Basic?

Of course! Databases are the banks that hold the currency of information. (Sorry) Information (derived from data) and the efficiency of its handling is becoming everything in today's world. The way to get and store info is through DB's. We see that the world is realizing that faster than ever, with the cyber explosion of the net, etc...

I have found that even beginning programmers want to find out about databases as one of their first tasks. They think, I'll find out if VB can do this or that with a database. If yes, I'll learn the language. If no, I'll look elsewhere. But of course, they always are pleasantly surprised. VB can do just about anything and everything database related. And this is what actually turns on many programmers to the language.

Well, Microsoft did an excellent job of encapsulating the ADO functionality into a data control. In fact, they took what they learned from DAO and made it even easier with ADO. While in my opinion, ADO is not a big deal in VB6 because it is just too new and not ready for prime time, in VB7.0 it will be de rigour. So learning about what it can do and how to use ADO will breed a new wave of DB programmers ready to jump on the ADO bandwagon with the next release of VB. And some of the things like persistent recordsets or marshalling recordsets across a WAN or the Internet just simply change the way we think about databases. I promised myself as a new year's resolution that I would not use the words 'paradigm shift", but I think that the term applies with ADO. It just provides us a totally new way of thinking about recordsets.

I must admit this was strange. It was very much like an out of body experience. But after a while, it began to feel quite natural. When the book was first published, the first few weeks were thrilling. I would wonder if I would walk into a bookstore and mobs of shrieking programmers would recognize me and either ask for my autograph or stone me to death! However, the picture became quickly part of the decor. The main focus really remains on the contents of the book and how that is welcomed. And one more thing, the bad thing about having the photo on the book is that the picture looks just like me.

Teddy Roosevelt, or TR. And we would have Sushi. In the VBDB book, there is a palindrome "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama". This is spelled the same, either forward or backward. Try it. And TR was the man that was responsible for this monumental earth moving initiative - the Panama Canal. It would be interesting to see how Teddy (whom the teddy bear is named after) would relate to something as abstract as software. Someone so used to the physical in a big way discussing something invisible and unvisualizable as software. Then feed him sushi just to make things more interesting.

The Wiz, of course! Need you ask!?

Q: Where's your favourite coffee shop? And what's so good about it?

Any place that has books nearby and a decent cup of java. So this answers the second part - what’s so good about it: Books! Although it wouldn't hurt if the beans came from a southern facing incline, latitude 43 degrees south, and roasted at 192 degrees, but then again one shouldn't be too picky.

One word: discipline.

Oh heck maybe a few more words: It's feasible and even very enjoyable, but has its price (time away from family and friends). But most of all, you need a lot of dedication. If you are not prepared to live the book for several months, you might want to reconsider doing it at all. However, if you do complete the job, the sense of satisfaction is tremendous.

A friend told me that I'm left handed because my brain did not get enough oxygen at birth. I prefer to think that my hand already belongs to a mirror universe and thus is one step closer to the virtual world of programming. On second thought, possibly that friend is right.

The usual load of exciting newness and the drive to proof oneself at work and socially with new (great) colleagues. But I miss writing and will shortly get back to it.

Probably the skyscrapers' landscape is reminiscent of integrated circuits. And with all the positively charged ions about, when walking from building to building in Chicago, one feels like an electron bouncing around from place to place. So the natural progression is to take control over your destiny and become a programmer. However, I could be wrong on this one.

The Soviet Union is defunct? You're kidding. When did this happen? Well, it's actually VB programmers that will be responsible for calibrating the world's moral compass. Let me explain. Personally I don’t want to pass moral judgement over anyone. But there are a few megalomaniac rulers who step over the line of international decency, and they do need someone to smack them from time to time. But the best way to do that is by international consensus. It should be not only the responsibility of the US, but that of all other so-called developed nations to uphold the Pax Universal. Ratify treaties and establish dialogs, those sorts of things.

Maintaining technological prowess is certainly the surest way to achieve control over one's standard and of living quality. This will necessarily include the well-being of the whole planet since hot spots in any place impact the security and peace of all. To maintain that prowess, computers, software, and programmers are the key elements. And VB is the most widely used programming language. Therefore, VB6.0 programmers are responsible for maintaining world peace. Q.E.D.

My first serious (production level) application was using a database called Knowledgeman in the mid 80's, right after the introduction of the IBM pc in August of 1981. Since then, the hardware has gotten smaller and smaller and memories larger and larger, and processors faster and faster. Way back, it was like swimming in a bathtub, but now it is like speed surfing on a mega-ocean! The possibilities of new applications are limitless! Limited only by your imagination. If you can imagine it, you can program it.

Universal Data Access implies getting data in both relational and non-relational formats. ADO permits us to program to a single interface and it does the dirty work of getting data from text files, spread sheets, databases, etc. ADO is a brilliant approach to getting data anywhere. Rather than force-fitting data into s specialized format, ADO leaves the data where it is and gets it from its native format. Very ingenious.

You betcha! I am starting to get itchy now about writing another book. Hopefully, I can be started by early next year. I'm working on a business plan now for my next book. Thanks for asking.