Uncreative Labs

Joined: 21 Dec 2005 Posts: 66

Start reading and playing.

I'm pretty good at what I do, but the computing universe is so large now that it is impossible to do it all.

At work I do performance analysis, operating systems code, and most importantly debugging ... I debug lots of stuff. Some of it mine, but a lot of other people's stuff too. Debugging is a wonderful way to learn things.

At home I don't have the time to do what I want, but I'm working on it. Today I spent too much time analyzing the performance of the TCP/IP stack I'm writing for my PCjr. (No TCP yet .. just UDP.) I was suprised at how long it was taking to compute UDP checksums .. I spent most of the day rewriting that code in assembler, which is a first for me. (Usually I let the C compiler do the work for me, unless it proves inept as it did in this case.)

Anyway, just dig in and play. Btw, you'll never do it all, not even if it is your day job. Just pick the parts that interest you. Between hardware and software (and the delicate interface between the two), there is more than a lifetime of work just on the major architectures, nevermind the unique ones ...

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

Quote:

I want to be a virtual walking encyclopedia on the subject.

Not setting your goals very high, are you... Laughing

In reality, you'd be better served (as previously mentioned) by doing what you like. You can't force yourself to learn something you don't enjoy. You've probably heard it before, but it really depends on how old you are (younger the better). At 46, I'm becoming very ornery about learning new technologies (as I found out this week at work when they changed all our Unix-based equipment to WinXP... Evil or Very Mad

)

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

I can recall some "milestones"
1) dave p ( not on here)
said " i thing a copy of norton utils ( ver 4) will let me unprotect these
programs- totally clueless guy!
2) while wer were backing up 20-30 systems a day to replace pc's thje next morning,. I discovered that long path statements would chole xcopy.
we xcopies the entire end-user hard drive to a directory that had a fairly long
path of it's own.
I tried to explain how i shortened the path so it would not choke and
not copy important date to the company network. AFTER ALL
that was the object of backing up these pcs before removal and replacement.
I was told " don't bother they wont understand this"
these were ms certified experts ???? and other assorted idiots.

Guest

Puckdropper wrote:

Surround yourself with people are are dumber than you. Then, accomplishing your goals become easy. They won't know enough to ask a question you can't answer...

Seriously, though, much of that sounds like a basic CS degree. For more stuff, though, you'll have to either persue another degree or higher formal edmfuhnsdfcation.

I would sell my soul to the devil if I could go back to school and get a CS degree. I just can't afford it. I have to work full time. I cannot afford college. I don't qualify for grants because I make too much money. And student loans, I don't want to get into debt for something like that. Plus I'm mentally ill, so that will deeply impact what I can and cannot learn.

Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:25 am

The mental illness wouldn't happen to be laziness, would it? That one's easy to cure.

If you really want to get the equivalent of a college education, you just need to do it. Pick a programming language, say, Ada or BASIC (Both are good for beginners...but Ada will take you farther.) and learn how to program in it. Get a book or three and read them.

Guest

Puckdropper wrote:

The mental illness wouldn't happen to be laziness, would it? That one's easy to cure.

I get easily frustrated and enraged when I can't learn something. Anger turned inward, and when I feel that way I have suicidal ideation.

Guest

I'm sorry to hear about your illness KickinWing but I don't think that is your problem. I think you are just taking the wrong approach to learning such a topic. You really should take the other guys advice and narrow it down to a certain aspect of computer science that you want to learn. Computer science is too broad. There is too much for even one person to learn, including card carrying MENSA members.

It would be best to take a course or two at your local community or technical college. Programming is logic. Logic is like math. And math and logic are cumulative subjects. You have to start with the basics and then move forward to more advanced concepts. You might be trying to learn Everything in the wrong order. Don't put the cart before the horse. Programming is tedious and time consuming. And you know what? It actually takes programmers an 8 hour work day to write at least 20 lines of decent code in most cases.

Take a college level intro course on the subject to see if you actually like it. You might just find it understandable. If not don't fret, because most people don't understand it. Your brain just might not be wired for it. Its not your fault and I'm not saying you are born stupid. Your gifts may lie elsewhere.

Even if you find that programming isn't for you, not knowing how to write computer software doesn't make you illiterate at computers. Many support technicians, such as my self, know very little programming and don't need to know it in order to succeed. I know a little batch programming and thats about it. Sometimes it comes in handy, often times not.

Joined: 28 Feb 2006 Posts: 127 Location: LI, NY

MIT offers "Open courseware" were you can basically take MIT courses for free (No need for college loans and/or grants! Razz

). You don't get a degree or anything but it's the knowledge that matters. (And MIT being one of the best tech school around, it's good knowledge too).

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html

If the work starts to get you frustrated, just simply move on to something simpliar and different. No one says you can't come back and try it again at a later date. (When you may have aquired the knowledge needed for the task you couldn't originally get).

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 8:08 pm

Sometimes you need to learn something first before something else will make sense. I should be able to do the physics II now that I've had quite a bit more math... Now all I need is a photographic memory...