Re: H1B cap
No employer can get you an H-1B visa right now. Since H-1B visa cap is already reached for 2007. I am not sure about your current circumstances, but even in F-1 visa, can't you do some limited (20 hours a week) kinda work? That may be your best option short of getting paid under the table from a fishy employer.
By the way, even if you get a job with an employer now, you won't join their payroll in April 2008 (unless you join them in OPT). They will merely sponsor your H-1B visa at that time and the actual visa will come to allow you to start work on October 1, 2008.