For all you guys interested in getting IT books for free,

There are many ways to get ebooks online but the easiest of them all is IRC

to get on to irc u need an IRC client, a popular one is mirc (http://www.mirc.com/)

once you have the client you then need to know which network has the stuff your looking for
a not so well known one is irc.irchighway.net

once you have connected to the network u then join a channel; a good one is ebooks

for those of ypu too impatient to google up the info u need here are some quick steps to get u started

1. download and install mirc from (www.mirc.com)
2. start the program and create a profile
(at this point u should be staring at a blank page within mirc)
3. type the following commands:
/server irc.irchighway.net (you should see a lot of text based messaged as the client connect to the network)
/join ebooks
(once you have connected to the network and joined the ebooks channel)
4. use the @find or @seek command to find the books your looking for
e.g
@find mysql
@seek php


you can use these tutorials to hellp u better understand
http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/irctutorial.html
http://www.ircbeginner.com/ircinfo/mirc.html

HTH

Well I've always dogged around the problem by using this library, www.blat.net
You can use it to send out mail via smtp and its in the public domain
for receiving mail via pop3 there are a couple of free classes out there, too lazy to look em up right now but search codeproject.com you might find info there also its a great forum for MS programming tech.

HTH

@Kobojunkie
"There is a reason and that is one of the reasons why I say a bank running on freeware technology makes me cringe."
I'm really really trying, but for the life of me, i cant figure out this reason[/] that makes you [i]cringe, on this, is would you please tell us in plain terms for dummies like my self to understand?

Bros biko don't mind the tone of my post - i'm a tease cant help it!

But really - I'd like to understand ur position on this what is it about an enterprise or bank using freeware/opensource that bugs you so (oops! makes you cringe? ) as you have pointed out there are great opensource solutions with enterprise support; Red Hat Linux is a good example you mentioned, another example that comes to mind is SUN's reason for buying MYSQL

@webguru
As bros Kobojunkie so succinctly put it, Which bank, which country? I'd love to meet the CIO/CTO that put his neck on the line for that one, a php webbanking application, really??

For the record, is it technicaly feasible/possible to build a secure, scalable e-banking solution can be built in php, yes. but for a whole lot of reasons (some valid some not) its not expedient.

Here is my point, A solution is only as good as the (skill/experience/knowledge/integrity/vision etc of the) people who put it together, and yes although the technology utilized will have impact, its not the key to the issue, the people who created it are,

Cheers!

"I mean the very fact that it is opensource makes me cringe"

Please help me a little bit, just how is the part of your post meant to be translated,

Bros this is english oh!

P.S: my post wasn't meant to antagonize you, that said, i stand by my initial position,

"I mean the very fact that it is opensource makes me cringe to think of a bank that uses php to handle my sensitive data. I would prefer to use a bank/organization that runs a seriously enterprise level banking system."

Bros what would you consider "a seriously enterprise level banking system" ?

Personally i consider php in the same category as gwbasic - great for quick hacks, not serious work. However for you to imply that opensource technology is inferior, man i bow to your knowledge!

Please google a lil bit on software security and u will quickly find out that the implementation language has nothing to do with how secure the application is. E.g buffer overflows were the most common application venerabilities and that happens the most in asm, c, c++ code.
There are all sorts of other attacks that can be leveled against software especially web application, sql injection, denial of service, xss.

Please lets go easy on the FUD!

@Ghenghis
"this is not a java vs. .NET thingy, i think java is just, simply the best choice, both tactically and strategically for you. "
If i had to chose between java and .Net i would go with Java, but that said if i had a choice, i wouldnt use Java,
but i certainly wouldn't use php either!

Is pascal relevant?
That depends, its a very good procedural language, its the base language of the Borland Delphi product/language (which by the was has oop extensions) and a lot of people still use it.
That said its not as popular anymore, and if you ask me i would say go for python, c#, c++, java in that order.

However if the point of learning the language is to get employment in Naija, Java or C# is the most popular in naija development circles (although some people still use VB6 )
Finally if its for school, Bros, make una learn pascal oh, as obsolete as your lecturer may be (and i quite agree with that sentiment by the way) he still marks your exam papers!

HTH