perhaps the 'set to nothing' was a little misleading - VB6 will destroy an object when it's COM ref count reaches zero. Setting the object ref to nothing does just that - resets the counter.

There are techniques out there to kill an object dead like forcing a garbage collection (although even this is open to debate as to whether the memory is truly freed) The thing is the GC is there to manage memory for you. If you machine resources are tight the GC will be called more often. It's no biggie.

I largely would go along with your opinion on books. I never learned anything from making online camera shops or step by step chapers on buiding orders databases BUT there are a few good reference books available. They list the possibilities and leave the rest up to you.

Lastly everyone differs on how they rate themselves - for me a year using a technology like .NET is not long at all. I wouldn't rate myself as advanced, others with the same amount of time under their belt might.

Hmmm....perhaps thats why my wages are 5hite <cough> i am now an ADVANCED .NET developer everyone!!