Dude whats your problem anyway?
We are learning about new things, shareing ideas, and meeting new people.
Besides,
You can't win the books by making only posts.
You really have to contribute to the site by writing and submitting articles.
And I assure you people who are on top monthly leaders list don't win the books because the monthly leaders list doesn't include points for any tutorials or anything. I know because I was No. 1 last month and I didn't get anything.

No problem, just sharing...
What you say is fairy snuff really, but maybe the monthly leaders list should hold those points also, or maybe there should be a tutorials/articles monthly leaders list.
I wasn't so much complaining about chatting, it's an online forum after all, just wondering about persons unknown to me points grabbing.
I also wanted to contribute something to the site other than just posts on subjects I've gotten my head around. Working full time with family unfortunately doesn't lend itself to having the time to knock up tutorials no matter how much I'd like to, (let's face it technical books in the UK are expensive when you have other commitments), even if it was with the concept of getting you hands on a decent text.
...and hey, we've now communicated, shared and met each other, (new people), so my simple concern and query has achieved things for both of us...
Nice...

I completely agree with Rhys.
>And I assure you people who are on top monthly leaders list don't win the books because the monthly leaders list doesn't include points for any tutorials or anything.
Really? Why doesn't it? That should be fixed :)

You're right Rhys. I don't have time to write up tutorials, either because I'm a full time student. And technical books are expensive not only in UK but every where.
But there is a huge mess of information out there on the internet, all for free. Lets take a look at this month's prizes
C# Unleashed from SAM's
Professional C# 2nd Edition from WROX!
C# and the .NET Platform from APress!
All these teach and enrich about the language and features of C#.
But, you can find the same information these books give you for free. Lets say you want to learn C# and its features I would say try the free five day course at http://www.jaggersoft.com/csharp_course/index.html
to get u started.
And for advanced things msdn.microsoft.com
And there's always google.com to find whatever your lookin for.
Yes, its nice to have the books so you can read and refer to them an get different ideas from them and different points of view, but if you can't afford them you have to look for different alternatives. Try the library and try used books. If you have the time, you can try to win them here but if u dont have time its useless.
(Or you can download books in pdf format from kazaa)
I bet you would learn a lot more from dissecting other people's code and playing around with C# on your own. You would learn even more if you wrote a tutorial, because in trying to explain how to do something you're reinforcing it to yourself and you show and prove to yourself how much you really do know.
It was nice to listen to your ideas and share thoughts with you too Rhys.
P.S if u really want the books write a Level 2 Article.

Very good points weaponxt7!
Just to point out that Salman has done a great job of contacting other sponsors. In fact, if I remember correctly, the list of books available to choose from are not limited to those 3 but somewhere in the region of 15 books (off the top of my head).
But you're right. The Internet has a wealth of information. Strangely enough, I initially learned ASP.NET from the MSDN Documentation that shipped with Visual Studio .NET. I didn't have Internet access at that time (I'm in a 3rd world country), so I had to stick with what I had. ;)

Hey Stan, whas up.
Salman is doing a great job with everything.
I don't know where you got 15 books from (maybe you're talkin about the "Books" Link). But, if you click on the "Prize Program" link you see that under "Current Prize List" only the three books I mentioned are listed.
This is the link to "Prize Program"
http://www.csharpfriends.com/Members/Main/Misc/prizes.aspx
Learning ASP.NET from the MSDN Documentation. I should try that sometime. I usually use MSDN for C++, C#, and DirectX.
Anyways, I haven't gotten into ASP.NET yet. Currently I'm using C# and .NET to build apps and DirectX graphics programming.
I'll get to ASP.NET after I master DirectX 9 Managed in C#.

Thanks for the support on that. I too have largely been self taught from my earlier days in system testing through moving to a VB 6.0/SQL Server 6.5 support environment, MS Access support and development and now .Net.
In that time I've been on 10 days of technical training in the last 3 years or so, 5 days MS SQL Server 2000, 5 days .Net with c#. The .Net training was appalling and I feel I have learnt so much more from others code, the internet, (places like this :)), MSDN and traial and error, however, books tend to refer to things in a 'technically correct' fashion, and I hate to say it but it's easier to discuss things if we're all talking the same language and referring to things with the same words. But hey, that hasn't stopped me being employed as a full time programmer/analyst, as it's often what you can actualy do not what you say you can do.
When you're in employment a lot also depends on your employer and their commitment to making sure they get as much out of you as they can. I had to fight for Internet access to get to online resources, training is generaly considered an unnecasary expense and we suffer from the requirements of the business not being written down before we're expected to code.
However, I do really appreciate sites such as this where I can look for relevant information, (although I often find it's easier to scan the forums that articles or tutorials as they're more to the point), and I do appreciate Salmans work in maintaining it.
Thank You, and just to clarify, nothing was meant as an attack, it was just constructive critisism and idea's.
;)

Ideas?

Hi Rhys, I'm 100% behind you! Those were great ideas and I fully support them.
Weaponxt7, Yup, the Prize Program link only has 3 books though Salman has been able to get a lot more sponsors (e.g. MS Press for instance), so I believe information on that page is out of date. ;)

What you're saying is right Rhys, I have no argument about that.
Oh I know you never took anything as an attack. It's nice to learn about other people's points of view and stuff.
Oh and Stan, where is the new list of books your talkin about?

...he said it was out of date.

weaponxt7,
I dunno :) Salman sent me a link before with all the books. ;)

Stan,
I wanna see what he has on that list.
And paul,
who said what's out of date?

Posted: 04-10-2003 09:34 AM