MEAP is short for “Manning Early Access Program”, a way for you to get an advance look at in-progress books by Manning Publications. Today only (Friday, October 1st), Manning’s .NET ebooks are going for half price! And yes, once the book is complete, you also get the final version of the book in ebook form.

Manning’s MEAP ebooks on .NET topics are:

• ASP.NET 4.0 in Practice
• Azure in Action
• C# in Depth, Second Edition
• Continuous Integration in .NET
• Dependency Injection in .NET
• Hello! Silverlight
• IronRuby in Action
• Microsoft Entity Framework in Action
• Multitouch on Windows
• SharePoint 2010 Site Owner’s Manual
• SharePoint 2010 Web Parts in Action
• SharePoint 2010 Workflows in Action
• SQL Server DMVs in Action
• Windows PowerShell in Action, Second Edition

All you have to do to get the discount is enter dotd1001 in the Promotion Code box when you check out. Now go get up to speed on some .NET topic and save money!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

For today only (September 26, 2010): Manning is selling the ebook version of Azure in Action for a mere US$15, which converts to CAD$15.36 as of this writing. The ebook is a MEAP book – that’s Manning Early Access Program – which means that it’s an in-progress book. Purchasers of MEAP books get updates and the final version as part of the deal.

To get the deal on Azure in Action, use the discount code dotd0926 in the Promotional Code box when checking out.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Today (Wednesday, September 22) Manning’s offering their SharePoint books, in both electronic and dead-tree form, at half price:

• SharePoint 2007 Developer’s Guide to Business Data Catalog
• SharePoint 2010 Site Owner’s Manual
• SharePoint 2010 Web Parts in Action
• SharePoint 2010 Workflows in Action

Just enter the promo code dotd0922 in the Promotional Code box when you check out at manning.com.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Want to get started developing sites and web applications that run on all modern browsers, including the upcoming Internet Explorer 9? You’ll need HTML 5 (along with CSS 3 and JavaScript) and a handy guide like Mark Pilgrim’s new book, HTML5 Up and Running.

If Mark’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s written all sorts of great guides, from Dive Into Python to Dive Into Accessibility to Dive into Greasemonkey to Greasemonkey Hacks, and much of his work is available as both for-pay books and free books off his website.

Today and today only (Friday, August 20, 2010), you can get the ebook version (PDF, ePub and mobi) of HTML5 Up and Running for just USD$9.99 (it normally goes for USD$23.99). Just go to the HTML5 Up and Running page in the O’Reilly site, order the ebook and  use the discount code DDHUR when you check out!

(And while you’re at it, take the latest platform preview of the HTML5-ready Internet Explorer 9!)

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

For today only (that’s Sunday, August 15th), Manning is offering the pair of their books, C# in Depth, Second Edition and Azure in Action for the price of one! Just use the discount code dotd0815 in the Promotional Code box when you check out. You can order the final book in either dead-tree or PDF format.

Both these books are MEAP books – that’s short for Manning Early Access Program, a chance for you to get in-progress and final editions of books currently being written.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Want to learn C# or brush up on it? From Wednesday, August 18th through Tuesday, August 24th, you can join Head First C# co-author Andrew Stellman and other techies in a week-long exchange about C# in an O’Reilly “Inner Circle” discussion, where he’ll talk about C#, .NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010.

(If you’re a new programmer just getting started, Head First C# is a great book that will keep you engaged, even in those parts where the going gets a little tricky. If you’re an experienced programmer who’s new to C# – or like me, hadn’t used it in ages – it’s still a great read; just skip the basic parts and enjoy the “Head First” style in which it’s written. And yes, if you want to developer for Windows Phone 7, you’re going to need to know C#. Want to get Head First C# at a discounted price? See below for details.)

The discussion will span a wide range of topics, including:

• Why use C# instead of any other language?
• C# best practices
• Becoming a better C# developer
• Dealing with objects
• Productivity hints
• The best of C#

If you want to join in (I’ll be participating), register for the Andrew Stellman on C# discussion at O’Reilly. See you there!

Save Big Bucks on Head First C#!

O’Reilly have a deal on Head First C#, Second Edition (published this May, and it covers C# 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010): use the discount code BKCBD when ordering online from O’Reilly and save 40% off the dead-tree edition and 50% off the ebook!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Today (Thursday, August 5) and today only, Manning’s offering their SharePoint books, in both electronic and dead-tree form, at half price:

• SharePoint 2007 Developer’s Guide to Business Data Catalog
• SharePoint 2010 Site Owner’s Manual
• SharePoint 2010 Web Parts in Action
• SharePoint 2010 Workflows in Action

Just enter the promo code in the Promotional Code box when you check out at manning.com. I got an email saying the promo code is dotd0805ccb; Bil Simser reports that the site says the promo code is dotd0805. Try them both!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

The Book

I do believe I’ll be ordering an ebook edition of Apress’ Windows Azure Platform. Here’s Apress’ description of the book:

Master Microsoft’s brand-new cloud-computing technology with Windows Azure Platform by Tejaswi Redkar. You’ll learn how to utilize Azure’s four core components— Windows Azure, .NET Services, SQL Services, and Live Services—both separately and together to build flawless cloud computing services.

What you’ll learn in Windows Azure Platform:

• Everything you need to know about the Azure Services components—from Access Control to SQL Services, from the Service Bus to Workflow Services.
• Understand both the architectural thinking behind Azure and the nuts-and-bolts code that binds your service together.
• Design, build, and deploy an Azure service with the assistance of a fully worked template for end-to-end application design that mimics a real-world scenario and gives you a rock-solid example of the design and development processes that you need to work through.

The Discounts

If you bought the ebook version of their previous Azure book, Introducing Windows Azure, you’ll get an automatic 50% discount off the the price of the ebook of Windows Azure Platform.

If you didn’t buy the ebook version of Introducing Windows Azure, you can still get a discount. If you place an order for Windows Azure Platform before the end of December 31st, use the discount code APRESSHOLIDAYML, which will apply a 25% discount to your entire purchase (so you can save on other Apress books, too!)

These discounts won’t last very long, so place an order today!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Manning Publications have a great variety of books on .NET development. There’s the stuff you’d expect, such as books on C#, ASP.NET and SharePoint, but they’ve also produced books on IronPython and IronRuby (not many books on these languages), functional programming is both F# and C# and doing brownfield development and building DSLs using .NET. Many of their books have helped me get up to speed with .NET development, and I’m currently working my way through The Art of Unit Testing.

Another great thing about Manning Books is that they’re available in both paper and electronic form. This is great news for me, as I have disk space aplenty, but I’m running short on shelf space. There’s also the fact that while technology-specific books are useful, their shelf life is rather short. I’ll still buy paper editions of books that are longer on theory and technique, but when it comes to specific versions of languages, libraries or frameworks, I’ll take the ebook version.

One more great thing about Manning Books is that they’re generous with the discount codes. Their discount codes are often for 33% to 50% off the regular price, and they announce them on their Twitter account, @ManningBooks. If you’re looking to build your tech library and save money at the same time, you should follow them.

(Just so you know: Neither I nor anyone at the Developer and Platform Evangelism team at Microsoft have any kind of arrangement to promote Manning’s books. I just like their books, and getting a discounts on them is a bonus.)