I just finished a tutorial on making a Java chat server and client. My first attempt at network programming, and it works like a charm! Yea, I know it's nothing to brag about, but I thought it would be so hard to do any kind of network programming because it was hard enough to do interprocess communication in Visual C++. But Java is so clean and simple! And to think, it's free as in beer, and Eclipse is free as in freedom.
Damn, I should've gotten into Java a long time ago. I wouldn't have had to detour into these other crazy interests of mine. Not that I regret them, but I could've saved them for later, after I get a regular programming gig.