For those looking to build a local VPS host for use in developing and/or testing systems prior to migrating them to production, here's a tutorial on setting up a basic virtual machine environment using Ubuntu Server 8.10 and KVM:
http://www.classhelper.org/articles/ubuntu-kvm-server/
It's written with the beginner in mind, and doesn't go into the nitty-gritty of paravirtualized VMs, custom networking configurations, or LVM-based virtual machines. Still, I think it's a good starting point for folks who want to experiment with virtualization on their LAN, and happen to have a spare computer laying around. Enjoy

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Educational resources for parents and teachers:
http://www.ClassHelper.org