[litepost]

There's always Academy X in San Francisco, and related courses/institutions around the world (especially the US):

http://www.academyx.com/training/san_francisco/programs/web-developer/

LAMP in 3 months for $2000. (Sounds about right to me?)

@Zak & @pg: "For a non-hacker to judge the skill of a hacker is nearly impossible - it's hard enough for hackers to do it. PG discusses it at length: http://paulgraham.com/gh.html"

This isn't necessarily/always true. A person can always be judged by their prior work, as in any other field. The actual quality of the "hacking" may be difficult to discern, but the overall quality of the product/s should typically be visible rather easily/immediately.

If someone's built a product that works and/or sells reasonably, that's usually a good sign!!