willgodfrey

I asked something similar a few weeks ago here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2289974 Take a look at the comment I got, some good suggestions in there.

We are in similar boats, I am a structural engineer by day and have a tad of programming experience, mostly with Matlab and some VBA stuff. I wanted to start basic and proceed as necessary, skipping if I felt the material was too rudimentary.

Per the comments I got, I started with Zed Shaw's Learning Python the hard way (http://learnpythonthehardway.org/index). It's great so far. As wyclif mentions elsewhere here, the first half is incredibly simple, to the point that its nearly ridiculous. I've found myself performing the exercises quickly and moving on, if nothing else it's just plain good practice of the simple mechanics of writing code, even if the code I'm writing is rudimentary.

Also per the comments from that post, I registered and started a personal weblog using a wordpress template. It's given me my fair share of HTML work, which has also been helpful.

Good luck, enjoy the ride!

This looks very useful. My immediate concern is that the system relies on human beings to mark and forward the useful bits of information. Is it possible to set the fetch rules to actually search the contents of an email for certain keywords instead of relying on labels?

Correlation doesn't prove causation....?

Did they go to prestigious schools and get graduate degrees because they were rich, or did they become rich because they went to prestigious schools and got graduate degrees?

The visualization is interesting, no doubt, but I found it to have too little detail to really be able to draw any conclusions from.

Well, to look at it from solely a financial point of view, a room in an apartment is worth much more if you rent it out by the night or week rather than by the year (like you would with a roommate).

Here in my neighborhood, in Chicago, one can find a room for about $40/night; 15 nights and I already have half my rent. So yes, having a roommate might be less work (but that depends on what you consider "work") but I can make more money renting a room out by the night.

Just an FYI, the additional reactors going in in South Texas are ABWR's, not BWR's.

Thanks, I think this its going to be my weekend. Between this book and fmw's mention of the intuitive syntax, I think Python might be the way to go.

Wow, thanks for the link. Lot's of good stuff in there.

Recently found http://www.notakeout.com/.

It is a beautiful site, the recipes are great (unique and tasty), and the instructions and step-by-step instructions are awesome.

Not only do live-chat windows pop up at you, but they make an annoying, little noise as well.

It is obnoxious to say the least.

I agree, for the most part.

However, I want to note that by following an effective trend, the "two-sentence landing pages with an obvious call to action" in this case, isn't there a chance that one might be missing an even more effective/efficient way of doing things? Sure it works, but does it work the best?

   >I guess the inverse of the advice is "Don't refuse to do something
   >just because it's trendy -- base your choice on whether or not it
   >makes sense."

Also couldn't agree more, I think there is a really fine line between innovating because you think you can do better and innovating because you want to avoid the trend.

*Edit for formatting, I am new here.

I know I sound curt, but don't you find the bit about trends you quoted a tad ironic here on HN?

I mean, what's more trendy in Web3.0 than web apps with landing pages featuring a few bands of color for a background, drop shadows, Apple-like icons, 2 short sentences, and a request to signup?

Yes, but a 401k has an annual contribution limit of 16.5K while an IRA allows only 5.5K in annual contributions.

Ideally, having both accounts would give you 23K of tax-advantaged savings.

1-2 years cash on hand sounds excessive, though I understand your point. FWIW, I keep approximately 6 months cash on hand and another year's worth in something slightly less liquid but still liquid enough I could get to it in <6 months time. Like a CD ladder.

I registered and came out from lurking to comment.

As someone who, professionally, works worth only VBA and a form of LISP to do numerical analysis, this sounds great. I've been itching to expand my coding horizons for a while now and this seems very interesting.

I entered my email address and look forward to launch.