Microsoft E-Learning courses for ASP.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005

We are about to start a new project which will levarage ASP.NET 2.0 with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - ahhh, I am so thrilled! We all know that in terms of technologies, the aforementioned two can be classified as babies - hey the official release of Visual Studio 2005 was like 3 months ago.

My role within this team will be project manager - quite challenging becuase I have to find the optimum between the skills of the team members and the project specific goals and domain. In regards with technology, I am now at the phase where I am gathering different sources for education about ASP.NET 2.0 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

One very valuable resource, especially for those who have solid background with Microsoft .NET framework 1.0/1.1, is the online courses at Microsfot E-Learning (link). The courses there are separated into different sections, based on the different Microsoft products and the targeted audience (IT administrators, Software Developres, Advanced Developers, etc.). Here are the two sections that we will need:

• Visual Studio 2005 courses (link) - includes coures for Microsoft .NET 2.0, ASP.NET 2.0, Windows Forms
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 courses (link) - these courses are free until November 2006!!!!

I personally like the format that these courses are presented. There is an offline browser, where you can download a specific course and go throught it whenever you want - just awesome!

What I don't like with this really very helpful service is that the courses which are not free, are available only for North America. See the excerpt below from here:

"Microsoft E-Learning products are currently available for purchase only within North America at this time. However, any content that is offered for free, or users who are redeeming a voucher or activation code, can access e-learning courses worldwide."

I am wondering - is it only a matter of billing control? If I am able to view the free content, then obviously there will be no problem to see the paid one. However, I guess that the billing system is not integrated with European's one, which may be the bottleneck with this. Or I could be wrong ...