Discussion on:

Hone your IT skills with these five web apps

What websites, besides TechRepublic of course, do you find yourself returning to when you are looking to enhance your skills?

StackOverflow

My (currently) preferred site (in addition to TR of course) for learning a new programming language, or boning up on a skill is w3schools.com.

Thanks for the 2 links in the e-mail. Since I missed the little note at the top and you named the links two different things I thought there were two lists. Oh well, I'll pay more attention next time.

Thanks for the list looks like at least some of these could be very good.

They look and act like ordinary web sites to me. They opened in my browser without installing any additional plug-ins or executables..

I remember the bad old days of the mainframe and I am not falling for the attempts to push the Genie back in the mainframe bottle. All this web app stuff is just about laying a trap for the dumb end user with bright trinkets. What the industry wants is to charge a passive user base up the butt in a pay for play scheme. IF users fall for this they deserve the screwing they get. Just say no to anything other people control: code, cable, phone you name it.

Check out Spiceworks forums - you want Tech answers? you got em. It's one of the best peer forums I have ever seen and it is totally free as is the software!! I use Spiceworks to manage my network. Here's the link: http://community.spiceworks.com/

I had commented, but I believe multiple links didn't pass muster with the spam filter. Some other resources (just add dot com to the end).

1) Pluralsight - specifically geared towards Microsoft, but branching out. And they do a pretty nice job, I think.
2) virtualpairprogrammers - They are java-centric but are very entertaining and very responsive, too.
3) VTC - There is a ton of content on this one, not just dev stuff. Most that I've used has been pretty nice.
4) learnnowonline - I specifically used their java version when it came out. I think some of it is a bit presumptive so if you're aren't exactly on their wavelength it gets a bit, uh, difficult.
5) msevents - Just to add on to msdn above, tack on dot microsoft dot com and there is a plethora of short webcasts on most topics, ranging from basic to advanced.

Just thought I'd throw those out there, too!

I tell my staff that "Google is your friend" when you want to research something. But sometimes the research means having to slog through an seemingly endless number of dead-end webpages.

Having a selection of vetted knowledge websites pointed out -- now that is a real treat!

Also, I am loving the TechRepublic blog format. Keep up the good work!