Very great post! /applause
Meatsploitable2 is a great starting place for anyone wanting to get introduced to pentesting. http://www.securitytube.net/ has all sorts of video resources to help you learn to tricks.
My advice to anyone practicing with this particular VM:
Once you successfully exploit the machine one way, start over and try to exploit it differently. This vm has plenty of vulnerabilities. Once you get comfortable and understand the concepts a bit better, start trying to automate your exploits.
RE: For those who want to be a hacker but have no idea where to start