Should I take Oracle or Visual Basic classes or PHP & MYSQL, or Java or anything else or a combo of the ones I mentioned? My work experience is admin and I'm taking classes to hopefully get a more technical computer oriented job. Obviously without a CS degree I can't get a real programming job or anything too technical. I'd just like to use the skill I learn in my next job.

Oracle IMHO, more gov work

For an admin, Visual Basic. Admin's are never going to be given databases to futz around with, so forget MySQL or Oracle for now. VBA is a great for admins - you can use in conjuction with Microsoft Office and Access, which is something an admin who is making a transition to tech could be asked to do.

In my Humble opinion PHP & MySql is the best of all you mentioned and the easiest and in the most demand because they are free platforms. Basiy they are for web site production. Java is great but very technical and oracle is alot like MySql so if you learn one you will pretty much know the other! Best to you!

gotta Q You seem to know what you're about. I pulled out my old xhtml book today, and went back to the chapter I stopped at, the forms chapter, because it required server side. I went to a learn php site and tried out some basic examples, but they didn't display any results when tested. I did some research, and do I need to load a platform to run php off my computer? I searched and googled, but was leary of loading one without knowing exactly what I was doing.

You use WAMP to get PHP running on Windows or MAMP to get PHP running on the Mac. Both are free downloads although you should contribute some cash towards the cause(s). Setup is really easy on both platforms and you'll cool things while setting things up.

thank you! I was looking at the WAMP download, and just wasn't sure. Thank you

Oracle.