If you are interested in learning more about core technologies in an area valuable (in terms of future technology trends), I would advise learning more about ne

If you are interested in learning more about core technologies in an area valuable (in terms of future technology trends), I would advise learning more about networking. Having strong networking knowledge is very useful and can be applied to cool areas of growth such as the Internet and mobile devices. I took a graduate level course in networking as an undergrad and it was one of the best decisions I've made. If you want to teach yourself, I recommend the following books: Computer Networks by Andrew Tanenbaum - This book is from 2002, but is still considered the Bible of Networking. It covers all of the advanced topics and is great as a reference. You can pick it up used for cheap. TCP/IP Socket in ____ by Michael J Donahoo - This is a series of books that cover network programming in different languages. There is a C/C++, Java, and C# version of the book that I know of, but there might be more now too. These books are very concise and to the point and teach you everything you need to know to write advanced network programs.