[lollipop26]

Machine doesn't matter, but I recommend Linux or Mac as most of the tools are built with, and are easier to work with on unix-like machines. Invest in an SSD as well, as running a dev server as well as tools do hit hard on the disk.

As for languages, master vanilla HTML, CSS and JS. It's handy especially if you have to work around stuff, or just want to do bare-metal code instead of high-level. But you should have a standard stack in order to finish stuff quickly. The usual choices would be:

- UI: Bootstrap or Foundation

- Rails + Ember

- Express (Node) | Flask(Python) + Backbone | React | Angular

- You could also roll your own combination and be proficient with it.

Portfolio? Don't bother. Just run a Blog and Tweet about it. Join meetups in your local area and be visible. Get involved in open source by doing bug reporting or documentation. Eventually, you'd end up knowing a lot, and actually help in code. Use those as your credentials, as they are more credible because others can vouch for you.