I want to start do some useful software development in my spare time on fixed income credit risk (self development)

web type applications are the way forward but I feel they are very complex.
The architecture that I think is appropriate is
Java Web Client
+
EXCEL Server
+
MS ACESS database

Can someone recommend any good resources or comments on this subject or even recommend a good application that would be useful to build. Has anyone built anything around this type of architecture? THe ojective is to understand and use current technologies in demand. Thank you in advance.

Selecting the most approriate software technologies for building a web-based application is not an easy decision - even when you have defined the application requirements and the target end-users.

Your selection of Excel/Access/Java suggests you wish to start with the tools you probably already have access to or own. I do a lot of work with Excel, but would not use it as a server-side tool to deliver web content. The Microsoft web-components are bulky, and the interface between Excel and Java is very limited (you'd need 3rd party software to do it).

I've been doing some work with open-source scripting tools (PHP for server-side computations and dynamic page design, Python, mySQL for database work). These tools generally offer very solid interfaces to Java or Microsoft based API's. They come with a large support community and are inexpensive to use.

Interestingly, Excel XP does now offer a real-time server API which will allow you to do interesting things - probably best for an intrAnet environment though.

B.