Well after reading all the posts I'll have to disagree with them.

With Web Apps becoming more and more complicated the devision seems to appear between designers and developers. Same as in Games Industry for example.

It is true that some designers never ever write eve HTML, but that' because it is not their job, the designers are usualy required to be good with graphics packages and design assistance packages (if one can call them so). Their job is to design and produce a graphical representation of the page, so they'll come up with the color scheme, form layouts etc.

The developers on the other hand are not required to be overly good with picture editing, but are expected to know how to put all those things together. This is where HTML, CSS, PHP and others come in.

It's true that a developer can still come up with the designs, but most of the time they are rather basic, where's a good designer will be able to make a work of art even from the most basic site (that's why the b4st4rds are getting payed so bloody much )

If you want to go into design then the things you need to pay more attention to are:
Working with images
Color schemes
User interfaces design (for menues etc)
Usability standarts
HTML/CSS (rather basic)

If you are more interested in development:
(X)HTML/CSS
JavaScript/XML (Ajax)
Server Side Scripting (PHP, ASP.NET, not so much JSP)
Databases (MySQL, MS SQL Server, others like Oracle are used mainly in particular sectors, like banking)
Basic image editing

I tried to give a more balanced view of the things that are happening at the moment in the industry. Hope that helps