June 29, 201412 yr JavaScript is the language that makes things happen on a web page. When you click on a button, a link, or a drop-down field, it is what determines what happens in response. At least that is the most common use for JavaScript but its application has expanded beyond scripting web pages. There are now high performance servers and databases that run on JavaScript. Most of the books I read are programming books. Most of the fiction that I "read" is sci-fi in the form of Audible downloads that I listen to on long trips. I also enjoy non-fiction science books by authors like Hawking and Michio Kaku. I spent over $600 in the past year on programming books alone. I prefer learning new skills through self-study over a classroom training. It is a much cheaper way to learn and when you are finished, you have the book for a reference. I need to turn you on to Learnable.com and SitePoint.com, both are cost effective ways to enhance your skill level, at least from a web design standpoint. Wait. I just did.
June 29, 201412 yr I need to turn you on to Learnable.com and SitePoint.com, both are cost effective ways to enhance your skill level, at least from a web design standpoint. Wait. I just did. Thanks for the suggestion. I have looked at the Sitepoint/Learnable web sites before but I have not tried them. I will take another look and probably give it a try. I have subscribed to safaribooksonline.com for several years and it has some good training videos available. A free website that includes many good videos is thenewboston.org, which I just learned has changed its address to buckysroom.org. I also subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud. Subscription costs for software, hosting, and training are a pretty big budget item in our home. I probably need to do some belt tightening. :lol2:
June 29, 201412 yr We've come a long way since Fortran and COBOL.It certainly has. When I took my FORTRAN class at UK, the computing center was still using card punches and card deck readers. I never wrote a line of FORTRAN after I graduated. Software technology is evolving so quickly, it is a real challenge to decide what area to invest my time in. For now, I am focusing on learning the MEAN stack, which consists a Mongo database, Express.js, AngularJS, and Node.js, all of which are fairly new but seem to have considerable momentum. As I mentioned in another thread, the great thing about pursuing a career in programming is that there is an overwhelming amount of cheap and free training available. It is harder to decide what to learn than it is to find training for it.
June 29, 201412 yr Author It certainly has. When I took my FORTRAN class at UK, the computing center was still using card punches and card deck readers. I never wrote a line of FORTRAN after I graduated. Software technology is evolving so quickly, it is a real challenge to decide what area to invest my time in. For now, I am focusing on learning the MEAN stack, which consists a Mongo database, Express.js, AngularJS, and Node.js, all of which are fairly new but seem to have considerable momentum. As I mentioned in another thread, the great thing about pursuing a career in programming is that there is an overwhelming amount of cheap and free training available. It is harder to decide what to learn than it is to find training for it. Going to Morehead in the mid-70's, we drove our stacks of punch cards to Lexington and prayed for a couple of things to happen. A short line, and not to interchange any colons and semicolons.
June 29, 201412 yr Going to Morehead in the mid-70's, we drove our stacks of punch cards to Lexington and prayed for a couple of things to happen. A short line, and not to interchange any colons and semicolons. Engineering students had a very low priority on CPU time. I often spent the wee hours of the night running my jobs. One of the toughest challenges I had was to tear my print-outs from the line printer without ripping somebody else's to shreds. A single typo, and you were back at the end of the line but the lines were shorter at 2 or 3 AM.
June 30, 201412 yr Author Engineering students had a very low priority on CPU time. I often spent the wee hours of the night running my jobs. One of the toughest challenges I had was to tear my print-outs from the line printer without ripping somebody else's to shreds. A single typo, and you were back at the end of the line but the lines were shorter at 2 or 3 AM. Those were the days, that's for sure. I was a graduate assistant at Morehead, tutored statistics and experimental psychology as part of my duties. We had just started getting into social sciences stat packages (SPSS, SAS, BioMed).
July 2, 201412 yr Author About halfway through "Under the Dome" by Stephen King - I guess that's the one that a TV series is based on, but I haven't watched any of the episodes. So far an opus in the tradition of "It" and "The Stand", with a not-so-subtle Bush-Cheney allegorical theme throughout.
July 6, 201412 yr Author About halfway through "Under the Dome" by Stephen King - I guess that's the one that a TV series is based on, but I haven't watched any of the episodes. So far an opus in the tradition of "It" and "The Stand", with a not-so-subtle Bush-Cheney allegorical theme throughout. Pretty good read. 3 stars out of 4. I'd give it another half star but you pretty much know what you're gonna get. Pretty much all of the bad characters get theirs, most (but nowhere near all in this case) of the good guys make it.
July 6, 201412 yr Author Read Gregory Maguire's (of the "Wicked" series) "Mirror Mirror"; his retelling of the Snow White tale with a healthy dose of the Borgias and Machiavellian scheming thrown in. Along with eight dwarves. One of those books that many either love or hate. I give it a solid 3 stars out of 4.
July 6, 201412 yr I downloaded and began reading Bob Garner's Book of Barbecue - North Carolina's Favorite Food and Python 3 Object Oriented Programming this weekend. I started an online course on MongoDb (a popular NOSQL database) a couple of days ago that requires some basic Python coding. I am planning to start attending a Python class in DC next weekend, so I thought that I would do a little reading before class.
July 8, 201412 yr The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume III, Red River to Appomattox Just got through the Red River Campaign which pretty well destroyed the aspirations and military career of Nathaniel Banks. as well as the relationship between Confederate Generals Richard Taylor and Kirby Smith. I love the way Foote tells the story. The book reads more like a novel and less like a historical account.
July 10, 201412 yr Author Read "Wish You Well" by David Baldacci. Without any spoilers, I'll just say that it is a major departure for him. 4 stars out of 4. Should be required reading for teens. Reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird.
July 10, 201412 yr Author Read "Yogi, The Life and Times of an American Original", by Carlo DeVito. Nice read; I really didn't know just how successful an entrepreneur he was.
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