What would be the most convenient way to connect Visual Studio 2005 (C#) to Oracle8?

using System.Data;
using System.Data.OracleClient;

        try
        {
            StringBuilder str = new StringBuilder();
            string ora = Properties.Settings.Default.OracleConnectionString;

            OracleConnection con = new OracleConnection(ora);
            OracleCommand cmd = new OracleCommand();

            cmd.Connection = con;
            cmd.CommandText = "SELECT timestamp FROM jde_out WHERE rownum = 1";
            cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;

            con.Open();
            OracleDataReader rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
            rdr.Read();

            str.AppendLine(cmd.ExecuteScalar().ToString());
            this.lblJDEtime.Text = str.ToString();
            rdr.Close();
            con.Close();
        }
        catch (OracleException err)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("Exception caught:nn" + err.ToString());
        }

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
  <configuration>
    <connectionStrings>
      <clear />
      <add name="Name"
       providerName="System.Data.ProviderName"
       connectionString="Valid Connection String;" />
    </connectionStrings>
  </configuration>

<add key="ODP.NET.ConnectionString" value="Password=abcdefg;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=abc123;Data Source=blah;"/>

string connectionString = @"
SERVER=(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP
(HOST=OracleHost)(PORT=OraclePort))
(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=OracleServiceName)))
;uid=UserID;pwd=Password;";

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <appSettings>
  <add key="My.Database.Connection" value="SERVER=(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP
    (HOST=OracleHost)(PORT=OraclePort))
    (CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=OracleServiceName)))
    ;uid=UserID;pwd=Password;" />
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

connectionString = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["My.Database.Connection"];