I’ve been (and still am) in your boat, except for ASP programmers.

I only was able to successfully hire one competent programmer, and he ended up having Canadian visa issues which ended up getting him deported.

I think you have to be specific and ask those types of questions you were asking, though. Even if they don’t know (which most probably won’t), at least their answers may indicate a willingness to learn and better themselves (or a lack thereof).

Then again, I tried every technique under the sun to find competent people and only managed to twice, so what do I know?