[weambulance]

(07-18-2017 03:57 AM)expectation Wrote:  

I'm trying to setup a Python environment where I teach myself code from anywhere remotely (Switching off between Work and Personal Laptop) preferably via browser. My job is pretty demanding so this option would be nice.

I'm not entirely sure if I'm able to connect via AWS Remote Desktop EC2 from my work laptop. Anybody know a platform where I can code and compile thru a cloud platform but via browser? or if I can do that from AWS Free tier somehow?

Are you comfortable using the Linux shell?

[expectation]

Used linux shell at my old consulting gig when I ran SAS programs on a corporate environment - so I think I can get used to it again. I already have a data science-ish background but have moved on to Big Four Consulting. Now, I realized it sucks with the amount of time & and pay - so I decided to go back into Data Science - and Python seems to be the best bet.

I gave AWS another shot and I couldn't even RDP from my personal mac - so I gave up. Maybe useful later on if I want to setup a database S3. So I signed up c9.io and already have my environment setup within 5 minutes. It even provided a book so I can follow along "Learn Python the Hard Way".

[godzilla]

Udacity has some good free python courses as well if you need to brush up.

[Metzer]

What are peoples opinion on Team Treehouse? I'm wanting to learn more front end development (and further back end). My current role of 3yrs is 'full stack' in c# using asp.net building web apps. However the actual front end aspect is very minimal. Have noticed most jobs requiring full stack ask for html/javascript/css - these are my weakest areas as i've never really bothered with front end.

I've have also started learning MVC as that sort of 'forces' me to learn the front end stuff too.

Opinions?

Thanks

[weambulance]

I think Team Treehouse is great. I did a ton of courses on there starting about late 2014. I just had a basic account; I didn't think the pro content was really worth the extra $25 a month.

I haven't used it in like a year though, so I'm not sure what the current content is like. They update things pretty regularly, and I would assume the material is only getting better, but I can't say for sure.

[Cattle Rustler]

Team Treehouse is da shit, great bang for the buck.

[expectation]

Udemy has Python for Data Science and Machine Learning curriculum for 10 USD from 195 USD discount for the next day or two btw. Better cop that before it expires.

[Atomic]

(07-18-2017 07:54 PM)expectation Wrote:  

Udemy has Python for Data Science and Machine Learning curriculum for 10 USD from 195 USD discount for the next day or two btw. Better cop that before it expires.

Don't be fooled by their marketing. All udemy courses are that price now. They always say 95% off for the next 24 hours or whatever, but the price never changes. I haven't paid more than $10-$15 bucks for a Udemy course in the last year, and that's with courses that have 60+ hours and 300+ videos worth of content.

[Blaster]

For what it's worth, if you want to learn python there are completely free tutorials on the python website. Python 2 or Python 3. I can't speak for anyone else, since I'd been programming for a long time when I learned python, but I just taught myself. I didn't take any courses or anything.

In addition to the basic language and standard library, you'll want to understand the packaging system and public repository (pip and pypy). If you don't know how to use the command line, learn. It's worth it.

For data science, you can get started with numpy and matplotlib libraries. But you also may want to check out anaconda, which is a large suite of data science tools focused on python and R.

Somewhat advanced talk, but might be interesting:

[Blaster]

Also here's an online tutorial for using the unix command line, which is highly recommended if you are going into software development.

[philosophical_recovery]

FWIW: I don't know if this was mentioned here, but Windows 10 now has an Ubuntu bash command line available for free.

You can open a windows command prompt, type "bash" -> enter and you're now in a linux shell.

From there you can ssh into your remote setup.

This is at least 10x easier than figuring out dual boot. It's in a much safer environment.

I've been using it for a few months now. I have a linux box at home that's never seen windows, a remote server that hosts websites I'm working on, and a surface book.

Once you have git figured out, it's fairly easy to do some coding, commit everything to git and push it to a service that stores your code in a private repo.

My workflow is like this:
Start building something at home where I have 2 monitors set up for ease of looking up information, coding, command line, and output for whatever I'm doing. Reach a hard stopping point, commit the changes, and push to code repository. Grab the surface book and leave.

When I'm free to do work again I grab the surface book. Log into bash on windows. Pull code from repository. Work on it. Commit changes. Push to server.


In this way I'm free to work on whatever computer I own whenever I want as long as I have internet. Someone could destroy either my desktop or laptop and my code is still out there. All I would need to do is set up a new SSH key on a new device to pull data from my online repository.

It's even more helpful if your toolchain works on all environments. IntelliJ works the same on Windows and on Linux, so I've been using that for most. It's great for when you're working on things like python or other non-web languages. It's free for those, but it's fancy javascript features aren't free. I still edit javascript in it, and it's okay, but it's not the best without the paid functionality.

Brackets, which is put out by adobe, is great for web development and for being consistent among the operating systems you use.

But I don't encourage web dev for noobs. You can do it, but there's so much you need to know just to troubleshoot what's going on. If I were to do it, I'd start with something easy like nginx and static websites until that makes sense.

[quino_16]

Is Computer Architecture worth learning for getting a career in IT? I am debating with myself if I should take a class on it at my local CC.

[Atomic]

(07-25-2017 08:56 AM)philosophical_recovery Wrote:  

snipping post about bash terminal/git workflow

I use the same workflow but I still work with dual boots. Desktop with multiple monitors at home normally runs linux unless I need some specific windows functionality such as video recording using camtasia. But when I do use windows I still work with the bash terminal. Push everything to private repos on github, login to my server, pull the most recent changes down. Head off to the coffee shop with the laptop, pull from git, work, commit, push, rinse and repeat.

A great thing about it is the version control. If I royally fuck something up on my local machines and can't figure it out all I need to do is delete everything and pull the most recent stable version from git. It comes in handy when I work with inexperienced guys that write hundreds of lines of codes and then realize they have tons of bugs and errors being thrown. The look on their face when I tell them it will be faster to "rm -rf someDir", clone, and do it all over again is always priceless.

Which leads to a good subject, incremental development and test-driven development.

Incremental development for those that don't know is writing a few lines of code, making sure it works, writing a few lines, make sure it works, over and over again. That way you don't run into the problem I wrote out above. The last thing you want to do is "break the build", push live bad code.

Test-driven development (TDD) is a development cycle where you write your test cases first and then the corresponding code. It's a different mindset and forces you sit down and think about what your code is actually supposed to do before you just go slinging methods and classes around left and right. At the beginner level I wouldn't worry about automated testing and TDD but know it exists because it will be something you will have to tackle eventually.

My biggest gripe with most university level Comp Sci departments is that they rarely focus on testing whereas in the real world you sure as shit better have a solid testing plan.

[philosophical_recovery]

Yep, I really think version control is essential. It's not even limited to the programming industry.

Some frameworks actually build some tests automatically, which is handy. But the core parts of projects need tests written. I think it really depends on project scope and what is going on when deciding whether or not to do test driven development.

[TheFinalEpic]

I've been working at building algorithmic trading programs with Python over the last few months, making some strides. Stuff is fascinating to me.

I also built a password recovery system that saves me probably 5 minutes every day.

What projects are you guys working on?

[Blaster]

(07-25-2017 12:21 PM)quino_16 Wrote:  

Is Computer Architecture worth learning for getting a career in IT? I am debating with myself if I should take a class on it at my local CC.

I think it depends somewhat on your timeline, current demands, and what sort of development you are interested in pursuing. My hunch is probably not, unless you're specifically interested in low-level hardware hacking. Computer architecture is useful in a foundational sense but you're likely to spend a lot of time working on things and developing skills that aren't immediately marketable. If I was a programmer cherry-picking from the classic computer science curriculum, I'd probably opt for Compilers, Operating Systems, or Databases before Architecture.

Computer architecture is usually something like "electrical engineering for computer science students". You learn how to build a computer (CPU + Memory) from digital logic circuits, either in a simulator or on some kind of breadboard. You learn about the CPU fetch-execute cycle-- how instructions and data move from memory to the CPU and what the CPU does then. You learn binary arithmetic and some sort of assembly language. The more hardcore and advanced the course is, the more you'll deal with modern, real-life processor architectures. There are computer architecture courses on Coursera and MIT Open Courseware.

Honestly this kind of knowledge isn't even that useful for geek squad type jobs. It's really meant for professionals who wind up developing specialized processors for companies like Intel or nVidia after 10-15+ years of experience doing systems programming with C and C++.

[weambulance]

(07-25-2017 12:21 PM)quino_16 Wrote:  

Is Computer Architecture worth learning for getting a career in IT? I am debating with myself if I should take a class on it at my local CC.

Most likely not, and if you do want to learn it, I would say skip the course and head straight for youtube. I can dig up some specific resources I like if you're interested.

Computer architecture is important when you're writing very high performance software, like 2.5-3D games or simulations (and you shouldn't be using Python for that). But most other software is not performance-limited in a way that knowledge of architecture helps solve.

[quino_16]

@Blaster & @weambulance

Thanks for the replies.

I decided to opt the computer architecture class for a database class. I managed to find the textbook online so.

Besides the database class, I am going to take a internet programming survey course (it covers a lot of the technologies such as html/css, javascript, xml, etc.), a javascript class, and class on C. I know that C is outdated but the C++ classes were full.

Do you guys have good resources/textbooks for C++? From what I recall, I did not see C++ mentioned a lot in this thread. Overall, I am trying to figure out if want to go into web development or software development.

[weambulance]

C isn't outdated, C is awesome (but imperfect). C++ on the other hand is full of tacked on, largely unnecessary extensions that make the language enormously bloated. The best way to develop in C++, in my opinion, is to focus on C fundamentals and only sparingly use C++ features when they are absolutely necessary.

I should point out here that I hold the unpopular opinion that Object Oriented Programming and almost everything that grew from it is not only useless, but actually harmful. Much of C++ is designed to support that programming paradigm. So if you like OOP, well, you'll need to use C++ features.

C programs are mostly compatible with C++, but there is some divergence post-C89. It's kind of like the difference between Python 2 and Python 3, minor syntax differences and a few specific rule changes. You probably will not have issues with this starting out. When I was learning C I accidentally compiled all my programs as C++ for weeks and I never once had a program fail to compile because something I'd written didn't work in C++.

I recommend at least running through Casey Muratori's Handmade Hero Intro to C videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3ntGDm6...MLNDd3ASRp

You can get K&R -- The C Programming Language 2nd Ed, by Kernighan and Ritchie, the guys who wrote the C language -- here, it's worth reading through and keeping on hand:

http://yunus.hacettepe.edu.tr/~yurdugul/3/C/c.pdf (PDF)

I use tutorialspoint.com a lot as a reference for the C standard library when I'm programming as well.

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/c_standard_library/

I have a bunch of other resources for C, I'll put together a list at some point soon. Sorry, but I don't have C++ specific resources to recommend. Cuz C++ is shit. Really it's because I simply never use more than a couple C++ features in my code, and I don't use C++ libraries at all. I use a handful of C libraries from trusted developers for things I'm not very good at yet (graphics, for example) and otherwise write my own libraries.

-----

I highly recommend Brian Will's videos on youtube, too, just in general:

https://www.youtube.com/user/briantwill/playlists

Lots of short and sweet content there.

[SnowHugger]

is learning Java as opposed to JavaScript a bad idea?

looking at remove jobs, very little Java needed, everything else is JavaScript...

[weambulance]

Java and JavaScript are wildly different, despite the names.

It depends on what you're trying to do. If you just want a job as soon as possible, learn JavaScript, node.js, and React. Node.js and React are both JavaScript based so that simplifies things, and React is by far the most popular JS framework right now as far as I can tell. You'll also need to learn about HTML and CSS, and probably some kind of CSS preprocessor like Sass.

There's a Silicon Valley bias to the data but this is a good source for looking at what languages and frameworks are popular:

https://www.hntrends.com

It updates monthly.

Fair warning, the JavaScript and web development world changes constantly and rapidly, and often for absolutely no good reason. I have very little patience with it.

[godzilla]

If you want a job right away I would learn PHP or Java. Java is known to be pretty tough for beginners though but the job market is very good for that language. A lot of bootcamp are switching to teach Java. PHP might seem like a strange choice but every developer I know hates it and doesn't want to work with it. However, its still very popular and I get hit up every once in a while for a PHP job even thought I've never used it.

Even though the job market is good for Javascript, because its the only front-end language, every asshole knows it to some extent.

Avoid Ruby, every bootcamp grad knows. Ruby developers get paid really well if they have experience but thats about it.

[SnowHugger]

Besides remoteok.io what else is there to look for these?

[frenchcorporation]

(08-02-2017 12:08 PM)SnowHugger Wrote:  

Besides remoteok.io what else is there to look for these?

Companies are open to it, even if their job posting doesnt mention remote work.

The times I've worked remotely, it wasnt mentioned anywhere in the job posting, & I just went remote for them after working for them for 3-6 of months.

Obviously if you want to do remote work for a company from day 1, then this isnt ideal, but remote work happens a lot more often in this manner. Companies need a certain level of trust, so if you can be in the office physically and prove yourself, they will be more likely to be ok with remote work

But mention it upfront multiple times in the interview, and get an agreement in writing ideally

[weambulance]

(08-02-2017 12:08 PM)SnowHugger Wrote:  

Besides remoteok.io what else is there to look for these?

https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job/

There's a list of job boards and a long list of companies that allow/favor remote work there. Plus a bunch of other stuff.

I have another curated list like that somewhere, but it's probably mostly the same information.

Hacker News (http://news.ycombinator.com) also has a "who's hiring" thread at the beginning of every month.