I'm a GIS (geographic information systems) developer working for the state government and I'm pretty miserable in my day job. I've been thinking about what I could do in the green tech sector.
Howdy HN,I have an idea for a web application that seems suited to a subscription based revenue model. There are already a small handful of similar products but they all look really pathetic with the exception of maybe two which fall squarely into the marginal category.I believe I can implement my idea well enough that it puts the other services to shame but I worry that the lack and shoddy...
To answer your questions directly...
1. I'd start with JavaScript because it's fun and useful (despite its warts) and either python or ruby.
2. Stackoverflow.com, The Pragmatic Programmer
3. I had a client/server computer science course that was making me build very small apps but it wasn't until I had an idea for something I really wanted to build that I started staying up all night learning. Before I had either my own "itch to scratch" or a professor requiring me to building something I floundered and got bored quickly. I needed a clearly defined goal to accomplish.
4. Sadly, no. My professor wasn't really interested in his students. Google was my only friend.
5. For someone to sit down and clearly explain fundamental concepts to me like OOP, MVC, etc. It's one thing to read about it but someone over my shoulder pointing at things and explaining why a block of code sucks or not would have really helped.
Best of luck. If you nephew sticks with coding, he will really thank you later!