http://morison.biz/technotes/articles/36 Back in '99 I was determined to get out of semiconductor CAD software and into this wizzy Internet stuff. Probably the smartest thing I did back then was to build (and rebuild and rebuild) a web+email server for my own domain. Can I Really Build My Own Server? What you'll need is time, patience and persistence: don't give up on any roadblock until you've drilled down and solved it, or Googled someone else's solution that works. TBH, you should ideally have a basic understanding of building open source software from source (mostly following README or INSTALL instructions), TCP/IP networking and operating systems. It's probably enough to have built a C/C++ package from scratch, written few lines of shell/perl/python/php script and installed+configured an operating system. A degree in computer science is decidedly not needed here; practical, hands on experience is what this project is about. As for TCP/IP networking, if you don't know much about it, you should. Anyone who takes a car to a shop and doesn't know what a spark plug does in the engine, even if it's only in theory, is at a big disadvantage. I highly recommend one of the best technical books of the last few decades, TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1. (Or, read it online on the Safari Books Online site. Job hunter's "Recruiter Survival Guide" Job hunting? Take that time you would have spent with a recruiter and spend it on a project like this one. If you're good and want to work someplace good, where good work is appreciated, really work your personal network, use your alumni org, try Joel's job site, etc. Just don't knock yourself on contingency recruiters and the mass market job sites. Most recruiters on Dice, Monster, etc. know they're going to comb through 10 bazillion resumes to actually nail ... en 2006-2008, Rod Morison Software technotes@morison.biz Sun, 01 Aug 2010 10:28:02 GMT Yet Another Community System http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 70