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freedevbootcamp

Re:Ask HN: What are you reading? on Monday June 01, 2015 @04:18AM (#9637306)
For pleasure: Backbone.js Blueprints by Andrew Burgess

For work: Stealing The Network, The complete series collectors edition

Re:Ask HN: Is Java still worth learning/relevant? on Wednesday May 27, 2015 @09:02AM (#9611018)
In the midwest, java programmers are the top paid programmers and the most in demand.
Re:Ask HN: What web technology stack should I learn on Friday May 22, 2015 @05:10AM (#9587236)
This one was posted on HN just a few days ago. Looks good.

http://www.marinamele.com/taskbuster-django-tutorial

Re:Ask HN: How to train yourself to become a quick thinker? on Wednesday May 20, 2015 @06:38PM (#9579829)
I should have said this is from my 20 years of experience in an IT department. And as a response to my second point, it was in reference to technical problems that you see in an enterprise environment. I though you were directing your questions to technical knowledge not business/arguments/political competitions, my bad.
I think everyone has the capacity to be a quick thinker.

The two main components to being a quick thinker are not what you think.

The first one is a competitive spirit. If you have ever played any sports and you have felt the desire to win, this will get you half way to thinking quickly. Train yourself to be able to look at the problem and give up many different possibilities rather than just the smoking gun fix. Sometimes in a enterprise environment fixing the smoking gun is the most inconvenient. Being under pressure and using the competitive spirit can be one of the most satisfying jobs.

The second one is know your environment. You have to know your environment from top to bottom and everything in between. You have to be able to visualize the problem from inside and out in order to narrow the problem down to its core. The first thing you do at a new job is to find the documentation for everything and study it.

This vision of the environment could come from many different crafts whether it is a Network Engineer, Software Developer, DBA, or Systems Engineer. But you have to be in a position of knowledge about the entire infrastructure.

In order to recall knowledge/experiences from memory quickly you have to be an expert pattern matcher. Sometimes its a new problem that has never been discovered or documented but very rarely. Search google for the main topic and if you find a gazillion answers you know its a common problem. If you cant find anything you know someone has changed something or broke something and is more than likely a misconfiguration. How do you gain the knowledge in the first place? Reading. Reading books and blogs and stack overflow and everything you can get your hands on. You wont retain all the knowledge but you will remember that you found a fix for it at one time or another and can search for it again quickly.

Re:Tmux 2.0 released on Friday May 08, 2015 @02:15AM (#9510227)
Congrats to the Tmux team for a great open source tool. Its sad that HN decided to take this moment to talk about sourceforge and not the product announcement.
Re:Ask HN: Why hire junior developers? on Thursday May 07, 2015 @04:37AM (#9503869)
Junior developers are hired because somebody has to do the shit work that nobody else wants to do.
Re:Ask HN: Up to date network security books on Thursday May 07, 2015 @04:35AM (#9503864)
I would take this question to reddit/r/netsec
Re:Racking Mac Pros on Thursday May 07, 2015 @04:29AM (#9503858)
Great read. Nice website. Great Photos.
Austin is beautiful..
Re:Ask HN: What do you do when you're depressed for a day? on Tuesday April 28, 2015 @09:18PM (#9456050)
Stay away from the TV. Stay away from anywhere you can fall asleep. You don't need sleep. You need to do something that lets you talk to your inner voice like mowing the lawn, exercise, walking, riding bikes whatever. Talk to your inner voice about your goals and dreams and who and what you love. Spend time with family or loved ones. Call in sick to work.
A MBP running OSX is almost as good as a Linux laptop but with a better GUI. Just be happy they didn't give you a windows laptop. In the corporate world you would have to be a unicorn or rockstar to get a MBP. If you were a Linux sysadmin you might get away with running a Linux laptop but very doubtful. I love my Linux and my iMac 27inch no problem running brew to install things on OSX. Your MBP will be able to run vagrant and virtual-box which is Linux anyway.
Re:Ask HN: Need advice on Programming on Sunday April 26, 2015 @08:26PM (#9443846)
Watch this video to give you a good idea of what it takes to be a Front end developer now days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXqs6X0lzKI

Build tons of websites with just basic HTML/CSS then when you can drop code on demand and build a website without looking everything up learn javascript inside out like your life depends on it. Do not learn JQuery yet. Wait till you are a guru at Javascript before moving on to frameworks. Yes you have to learn the javascript frameworks. My suggestion would be to learn backbone.js , require.js, then when you get really good at the MVC give angular.js a shot.

This link will take you to a roadmap to learning javascript the proper way.

http://javascriptissexy.com/how-to-learn-javascript-properly...

Re:Does it ever make sense to turn down a promotion? on Sunday April 26, 2015 @08:08PM (#9443807)
Dude you got this. Just break out the books, the videos and start brushing up on everything like you were back in school. Find out what technology stack they use and start building lots of side projects. No days off. You want the answer to the question on the tip of your tongue. Act like a senior engineer and you will be one. Give it 120%. Good Luck.
Always be looking for a job. Always be interviewing. Because recruiters are whores your boss will find out. Just tell them that you are looking for a part time job. Schedule all your interviews during lunch or after work.
Re:Ask HN: I am about to be fired. What should I do? on Sunday April 26, 2015 @07:36PM (#9443717)
Break out the resume and polish it up. Use all 8 hours a day to find a job while at work. Connect to recruiters on LinkedIn and use every job search engine to get yourself out there. Resign on the 29th day. You will be penalized for 2 weeks of unemployment but it will be worth it. Good Luck.
Walmart Special - Acer quad core amd 2.2ghz, 17inch screen still going strong after five years. Only 350 bucks so I bought 2 of them.
LEO and the NSA would like it if you add as much personal information as possible, so please do that and help them out.
A college degree is worth one year of experience at most companies. If you are new to programming and have no experience someone with a college degree will have an advantage. However, if you are able to get some experience and work at a job for 2 to 3 years, you will be ahead of the college grad. Pay is the same with our without a degree. The only thing you will need a degree for is if you want to get into management. If someone is paying for school go ahead and go just for the experience.
Re:How did you bootstap your personal discipline? on Thursday April 09, 2015 @11:22PM (#9352416)
Watch this motivational playlist on Youtube. It will get you back on your feet and focused to change the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26U_seo0a1g&list=PLYzEWmEmHy...
Re:Ask HN: How to train my students to be Unicorns on Thursday April 09, 2015 @09:56AM (#9347500)
Thank you for taking the time to comment. You gave me some really good ideas.

I thought maybe the agenda was kinda bloated too especially since this is just the Front End Development. If you add Back end development you would probably be looking at 2 years to complete. Luckily my bootcamp is free and you can take all the time you need and only move on to the next topic when you feel comfortable with the current topic.

Vim - Here is what I have for vim and surprisingly enough is just enough to be proficient in vim.

3. Learn vim a. Do vimtutor b. Read Learning the vi and Vim Editors, Seventh Edition c. Up and Running with vi d. Venture Into Vim e. OReilly - Mastering Vim f. Vim for Advanced Users g. Learning vim plugins

Git - I use two video tutorials that will make anyone an intermediate person within 2 weeks.

HTML - We do about 12 websites CSS - We learn almost everything about CSS. It does take about a month just to do the videos and books. Javascript - We learn it in depth with three of the top books and several videos. This is where most of the time is spent. We do not move on to JQuery until we are proficient in javascript so we do not use JQuery as a crutch.

Bonus - We have the students sign up for HN, Reddit, and StackOverflow to teach them how to troubleshoot problems.

Im running out of room here but thank you so much for your input.

Re:Ask HN: How to train my students to be Unicorns on Thursday April 09, 2015 @09:41AM (#9347394)
The bootcamp really does not have a time because it is free, and what they are really getting is a mentor who can help them and guide them to all the best resources. I put together the curriculum after searching for the best books and videos and it took me 9 months.
Re:Ask HN: How to train my students to be Unicorns on Thursday April 09, 2015 @09:35AM (#9347352)
I dont really know if bootcamp is the right description of the school. It really does not have a time limit and my role is more of a mentor than a teacher. I did the Front End Developer curriculum to weed out all the bad videos and books and it took me about 9 months doing it part time at night. I dont expect a student to move on to the next topic until they feel comfortable with the current one and can do it by themselves.
Re:Ask HN: How to train my students to be Unicorns on Thursday April 09, 2015 @09:31AM (#9347323)
I picked vim because of all the plugin support and its long history. A person is going to have to learn an editor anyway so might as well learn the best. The learning methods I use for vim are just one book and several videos. I do not expect anyone to move on to the next learning topic until they feel comfortable and positive about learning vim. So if it takes a few months to learn vim they will retain the knowledge before they move on.

Thank you so much for your comment.

Re:Ask HN: How to train my students to be Unicorns on Thursday April 09, 2015 @09:27AM (#9347303)
Thank you for taking the time to comment. My motivation behind this is to teach people who have a goal or dream to be a software developer that can't go to school for whatever reason and can't afford a bootcamp.

By Unicorn I mean rockstar or be in the top percentage among peers instead of just being average.

It has been hard to find quality people who have the motivation, passion and drive to be able to have the determination to teach themselves.

What I meant be exceptional is someone that has tried and failed to teach themselves but is willing to give it another go. I should have used dedicated instead of exceptional.

I have already done the Front end curriculum this past year and weeded out all the bad videos and books to find the best material. It would take a part time student learning at night about 9 months for the bootcamp.

Thank you for your input.

Ask HN: How to train my students to be Unicorns

I have a free dev bootcamp for exceptional people who have a dream of becoming a software developer. I only have the front end curriculum ready but wanted to get some input on what I might add for front end or back end. I don't have most of the books listed but the learning is a combination of the best books with the best online videos.Thank you so much for you input. I really appreciate it.1....

( Read More... | 31 comments | 12 points | on HN )
If you are new or just starting out, keep being the dumbest person in the room but show them you know how to troubleshoot and solve problems and are willing to get up to speed quickly. If you feel like you're being misrepresented as an idiot when you have equal skills, start muscling your way into the really hard problems and show them you have what it takes to kick some ass and get shit done. This is the typical small fish in big pond scenario, you just have to get pumped up and show them your a big fish in a bigger pond.
Re:Ask HN: How do you keep track of everything? on Sunday March 29, 2015 @03:35PM (#9286164)
I used to keep everything in evernote, trello, google docs, email etc.. Then I decided that I do not want my most personal information stored on someone elses computer so I moved to txt files on my local HD. I had about 5 text files going with todo.txt, weekly.txt, blog.txt. 3yearplan.txt and such. Then I just wrote a javascript app that manages tasks for me using require.js, backbone.js, underscore.js, and bootstrap. Works great, uses local storage, I'm happy.
It all depends on how much time you have and what your end goal is. Do you want to be a web developer for your career or just a hobby? How much time do you want to put into this web app? Python/Django/Flask or Ruby on Rails are both great choices but I would go pick up the book or search on the internet for a book called PHP Apache and MySqL web development by Wrox. They walk you through building a web app for a music collection which is just what you want anyway.

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