System Administration and Programming
Unix System Administration
UGU.com Unix Guru Universe - Publications, resources and contacts
Usenix/SAGE THE Unix user's group, and the Unix SA Usenix special interest group
The Book
 UNIX System Administration Handbook: Nemeth/Snyder/Seebass/Hein.  To get started, read this.  The Gods have spoken.
A Linux Laptop
 A stable, performant and Windows-app-running Linux laptop using Ubuntu
Windows System Administration
click here Tools and techniques I use on Windows systems I manage
An XP/Win7 Laptop
 A stable and performant Windows XP or Windows 7 laptop
Programming and Scripting Languages
Unix Shell
C Perl Java Python
Enhanced Commandline Interfaces
CMD.EXE Enhanced Windows commandline replacement for COMMAND.COM
gqlplus Replacement for SQL*PLUS, with command history, editing etc
Scriptable Network Clients
wget
curl		 Scriptable HTTP/HTTPS clients
weex Synchronize file/directory contents with those a remote FTP server (in the manner of rsync)
rsync Keep files and directories synchronised between hosts, securely
Emulation & Interoperability Tools
 click here
Performance and Tuning in progress
Security click here