Well in life so far i've been good at two things, bikes and computers. I can already code very basic html and other bits and bobs, but that was stuff i did for fun, now i'm gonna get serious on it. My next door neighbor is a computer programmer and he has no qualifications what so ever (computer wise) and he makes a fair bit of money to my understanding, he said to me just earlier that, if i can show an employer some of my practical work they are more likely to take me on than someone who has a handfull of qualifications, but (relatively) no practical history. So my kerfuffle is, whether i should go to college and study computer programming get some qualifications, or make like my neighbor and teach myself (which i'm more than prepared to do) and show an employer my practical skills in the form of a website/(online portfolio?) ??? i have neccesary skills like touch typing (when i have both hands fully functional etc ) responsible answers only please, try not to clog the topic, i would prefer only people to reply that have gone through the same perdicament or are computer programmers themselves (i think simon is a programmer is he not?), but if you think you have something that will do well in contributing to my perdicament please post, many thanks.