Just a twitch in my brain :
- know basic HTML… seriously
- have Firefox browser, the (most) standard compliant browser whatever that standard is ( actually i don’t really care about standard, it works for me as long it looks good on any browser ), always develop using this, then test on the rest of bunch, namely IE, Opera and Safari, and don’t forget your phone browser, which is more or less having the same base with Safari ( Webkit )
- have Firebug extension for Firefox, save a lot of trouble on debugging, CSS, Javascript, AJAX
- have a good text editor, not Notepad, use serious one designed for programmer like UltraEdit, Crimson ( Win ), TextMate ( Mac ), or vim, geany, bluefish ( Linux )
- can edit (X)HTML using number 4, not using brain-killing-WYSIWIG-tools like Dreamweaver, so that is why knowledge on number 1 is a must.
- know CSS. Yeah, sometime great design can be produced without table and image.
- know how to program Javascripts
- can program at least in one of popular server side language, namely Java, PHP, Python, ASP (ick..), ability to use frameworks also helps, just pick one, Ruby on Rails, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Prado, Django, Turbogears, Pylon, and so on, and so on. Knowledge on SQL also mandatory if working with database.
- know how to put all those above together and produce good looking and usable website ( must be both not just pick one ), meaning, it must be clean, clear for user, optimized for viewing on any platform, even any device, through any bandwith… such a heavy undertaking eh.. oh yes, it must be clean from error messages and bulletproof from any possible hacks.
- have sex regularly , heheh, well at least once in a while… to clear up all those dirty xhtml, css tags and program errors from your brain… come on, no matter how cool a website you can produce , nobody really cares about who creates the good stuff. So get a life, have fun in real world, get a real good stuff for yourself.
- that’s it I think
Great post, and I couldn’t agree more with most of it… but hey, cut Dreamweaver some slack man… its a darn fine editor (with a disproportionately large userbase of idiots – but the tool itself is darn good)
@Derek :
. What is saddening for me is that less and less people learn the very basic concept and becoming dependent to such tools, and I’ve found some case where people identify the concept with the tool and make it as if it is the same entity. Good for Adobe 
when people think html as Dreamweaver, it was good decision to buy out Macromedia and retain Dreamweaver existence. Great for casual users, creating nice website couldn’t be easier for them, provided they’re willing to dispose hefty $$ for pro level tool.
they simply don’t know where to start, because they took the tools for granted and ignore the inner working… and this already happened since 5 years ago, and what make it worst is the fact that this happened to all kind of design / software development education background, many of them are self taught ( like myself ) but also plenty of them came from proper design school and / or computer science.
yes, I 100% agree that Dreamweaver is a GREAT tool, I myself use it from version 1.0
But for me, it is scary, especially when I have to interview ( in recruitment process ) web designers / developers who brags that he could do this and that using Dreamweaver, but then their mouth shut tightly when I ask them to do simple html page using text editor
btw, Great videos on CodeIgniter, really helps me get started on CI quickly. I’m working on a personal project using CI, hopefully ready for beta launch in next couple of weeks.
Can’t wait to see what you produce!