What is your recommended beginner's hacker training course?

i think hacking is a state of mind, and not a learned skill.

hackers, entrepreneurs and artists have a certain "what if" personality that leads to a never ending quest to answer these questions, they are usually very personal questions of curiosity. The quest to see the result is often more fun than the result itself for these people, it's about the process of discovery and exploration, and not about the answer. A runner runs a marathon because it is ultimately fun to train for one, not because the need to go 26 miles. A hacker is the same way, we just find it fun to hack, to explore.

If you want to know what quests other hackers are on, you can always go to defcon in las vegas during the 1st weekend in august. Defcon is more like an art gallery of hacks, than it is a place to learn how to hack, that comes in from an inner desire.

TAKE CLASSES AT A COMMUNITY COLLEGE.

You might be able to teach yourself from a book, but that only works for a very few people (ususally those who are trying to learn a new language rather than someone with no experience). I tried to teach myself some SQL (with no database or programming experience), it didn't work. After 6hours/week for 4 weeks at school, I was doing ok. Heck that was 3 months ago, and it has tremendously helped me. Now, I am looking into a taking some java classes at a technical school. The classes are cheap and you will get more than the fundamentals in 2 months. The rest will come as you practice and work along side a developer on your project.

I downloaded HH a little while ago. Good for people with no experience.

Professor Felleisen is an amazing professor, I had him for the fall semester for "Fundamentals of CS 1" and he really pushed you. Then his higher level course, "Software Development", I hear that he radically changes the requirements at the last minute. I guess that's to help you learn how to design a solid program in the beginning and then be able to easily change it down the road. It's supposed to be more like the "real world" (but I'm not quite sure when I'll get there).

If you mean hacker in the traditional sense, I'm not so sure you can learn to be a hacker. It's an attitude of mind that makes you want to take things apart to see how they work, and then try to see if you can put them back together again better. If you have that mindset, play with a computer, and you'll learn enough on your own just by following what interests you. If you don't have that curious mindset, try to develop it; it's the hardest part of the hacker nature, but also one of the essential ones.

If you mean "competent programmer," then the best route that way is a good computer science degree (which will teach you mainly theory) followed by a job programming (which will teach you how to apply the theory). Both the theory and the application of the theory are important; vocational-training computer courses that teach the application often omit the theory altogether.

Hackers can benefit from formal education, too. The important thing is understanding how things work, not that you discovered them on your own. Learning by reading and by observing is as valuable as learning by doing; and the computer world has an endless stream of good examples of what NOT to do.