Ask him instead about wine - which from what I gather from what he says on Shark Tank, is where he real passion is. 20 cent coffee maybe, but he probably follows that with a $$$ wine come evening.
Tables are fine for layout on small sites, save yourself time/money and don't shackle yourself to CSS which was never made for how it is used today (just wait for CSS tables when they are finally supported to make the jump)
Flash is also fine as long as it is used in a complimentary manor and not the basis for the entire site. Flash is a tool, it's not evil or good, just a tool, use it.
Java blows.