This may be lame but I was wondering if you know some really good resource on vertex/fragment programs, and especially the ARB version of them, without help from Cg or the like. For vertex programs I got some stuff but I`d like to see more demos to get the hang of it, as thought for the frament programs I didn`t managed to get anything usable, just some commands thrown over for no good reason. Thanks in advance.

Can't find anything good on google ? Hmmm..
Anyway, you can start with the cel-shading demo I've submitted to NeHe, with source code and complete walkthroughs included. You should still find it on the Downloads page under letter 'A'.
Good Luck

nVidia and ATi developer pages should give you tons of papers/demos. After that you have Nutty, Humus, Delphi3D,...