[Melbourne-pm] more computer programming stuff

Nathan Bentley nathanb at finite.com.au
Sun Sep 21 23:23:06 PDT 2008


Yeah. At the risk of starting a fight with the following comment...
Novell is scrabbling for products and owning something in the
marketplace even more than Google is looking for something to replace
its gradual decline in click advert dominance.

Mono might be worth thinking about. Novell still has plenty of money to
burn away in the open source market and its backing Linux pretty heavy
since MS kicked it out of the workplace with Active Directory. It's a
safe assumption that .net development will go mainstream onto Apache.

If I can give you some advice though, if you're looking for a career in
computing, particularly development, don't do what everyone is looking
for now because by the time you're hot on it something else has come
along. Pick a foundation code and work from there. Portable connectivity
looks like its going to be a safe bet for the next couple of years and
I'm predicting that the next step is (finally) going to be home media
devices in the mainstream (Internet TV etc). 

The non web code, I got no idea. I'm going to make a wild prediction and
say that it might be worth looking at something really out there like
machine code or logic gate mathematics (which might be right up your
alley) since silicon processors are developing at such a rate that soon
they will peak in how small they can be made - we may see a revolution
in the processor industry. Being in the know would be advantageous for
sure. Although this will probably require a study of Physics, advanced
math, a life dedicated to study and a long trip overseas...

Otherwise, I was talking to a guy here not too long ago who was telling
me that a Ford subsidiary he was with uses PHP to control its
manufacturing assembly line - at the machine level, which I didn't think
was possible.

I left school in 98 and we were still using Mac IIc's and coding in
Pascal "IF", "THEN"... I though I was king of the hill with a 1024Mb 5
1/4 inch BigFoot HDD. Now my cheapo Sagem phone has the same storage
capacity in a Micro SD card that's so small I can't even see it without
my glasses.
  

Regards
 
Nathan Bentley
CONSULTANT - FINITE IT RECRUITMENT SOLUTIONS
 


LVL 6, 411 COLLINS ST, MELBOURNE, VIC 3000
TEL 03 9617 3900   FAX 03 9617 3999   MOB 0416 831 495  DIRECT 03 9617
3935   WWW.FINITE.COM.AU
 

-----Original Message-----
From: John Thornton [mailto:jdthornton at ozemail.com.au] 
Sent: Monday, 22 September 2008 3:03 PM
To: Nathan Bentley
Cc: 'Melbourne Perlmongers'
Subject: RE: [Melbourne-pm] more computer programming stuff

Nathan, that is interesting!

It is mindblowing what is going on with computer applications right now.
No
doubt that in 5 years time, maybe even 2 years, so many things will be
so
different, such as this web stuff that goes 3d and interfuses browser
and
page. 

I left school in the DOS era and can scarcely believe how much computers
have changed in my lifetime. When I did math at uni your textbook had a
microcomputer program in DOS for optimisation qs. Back then 40MB was
considered pretty good for a PC hard drive! Nowadays I download far more
in
seconds such as the 450 MB Flex trial that I just downloaded. 

Most of what I know about computers is self-taught. There are some
things
such as environmental variables that I have got from books. BTW when I
left
school I was hopeless with computers. A teacher even thought that I had
"technophobia" but that's how arrogant teachers were in the 90s - the
expectation was that the computer was so fantastic that all a kid had to
do
was look at the screen to learn it and anyone who didn't get it was an
idiot. Not for a moment did this dropkick teacher ever consider that HIS
teaching methods may have been part of the issue.  

John

-----Original Message-----
From: Nathan Bentley [mailto:nathanb at finite.com.au] 
Sent: Monday, 22 September 2008 1:22 PM
To: John Thornton
Cc: Melbourne Perlmongers
Subject: RE: [Melbourne-pm] more computer programming stuff

Hey.

Don't discount .net languages because they're committed to IIS / win
platforms.

http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page

It sounds like you're still finding what's best for you as far as a
language goes and that's good because you'll be exposing yourself to all
the styles of development and giving yourself plenty of options. 

Moving forward though you'll want to find 1 or 2 core languages and
focus on them. Unless you're one of those uber genius types that can
learn everything and anything! 


Regards
 
Nathan Bentley
CONSULTANT - FINITE IT RECRUITMENT SOLUTIONS
 


LVL 6, 411 COLLINS ST, MELBOURNE, VIC 3000
TEL 03 9617 3900   FAX 03 9617 3999   MOB 0416 831 495  DIRECT 03 9617
3935   WWW.FINITE.COM.AU
 

-----Original Message-----
From: John Thornton [mailto:jdthornton at ozemail.com.au] 
Sent: Monday, 22 September 2008 12:27 PM
To: Nathan Bentley; 'Guy Morton'
Cc: 'Melbourne Perlmongers'; John Thornton
Subject: RE: [Melbourne-pm] more computer programming stuff

That's interesting. 

I suppose that I should say where I am getting my learning from at
present.
As a graphics student I have access to all of the VTC [Virtual Training
Company] tutorials. In fact, I only discovered such access [In addition
to
the Indesign VTC tutorials listed specifically in my written course
notes] a
few months ago. After 5 mins I realised that I had access to a treasure
trove! I went absolutely crazy :) I mean, nobody in human history tried
to
learn more about computers at the same time!! I got into loads of
tutorials.
There's stuff on ethical hacking, encryption, mysql, 3D animation,
search
engine optimisation...and of course umpteen programming languages of
which
Java and Ruby have been the ones that I have got into the most. I add
that
the people who give these tutorials are incredible.  

I admit that some of this stuff goes over my head a bit. I mean, I will
never be an ethical hacker. Interesting to know how they do it though!!
:)
And a bit frightening. I have to say, knowing what tools they age and
that
anybody can get them I will never buy anything over the net.  

So it's been self-taught application that's been the go so far. At least
in
programming. I do have a tutor for the graphic design in my course. 

Interesting that you mention the .net framework programming. I did get
into
those tutorials by Mark Long. What I don't like is that .net is limited
to
the windows OS platform. I could get into javascript as well. There are
tutes on it. 

I guess that it all dovetails into that old question of self-taught
versus
qualified people and at present I am going gangbusters teaching myself.
Whether doing a course proper would augment my learning or stymie it is
a
difficult question and something that I will have to decide, I suppose.

Thanks again
John     

-----Original Message-----
From: Nathan Bentley [mailto:nathanb at finite.com.au] 
Sent: Monday, 22 September 2008 11:53 AM
To: Guy Morton; John Thornton
Cc: Melbourne Perlmongers
Subject: RE: [Melbourne-pm] more computer programming stuff

Hi John

As a recruiter I can tell you where the money is at the moment and
speculate on the future if cash is your priority?

Given that you likely have a creative bent since you're doing design Guy
is spot on in his recommendation for Flash and the like. 

The development languages like Perl, C's and C.net's might not be as
useful to you from a career point of view as
AS3/Flash/Flex/AIR/Silverlight or Jscript/AJAX since they're the hot
topic with growing Internet trends where media studies also put options
on the table.

If you want to play it safe, ASP.net might give you the best of both
worlds? PHP plays with the creative languages more and more and there is
a lot of community driven resource to help you learn it also.

PHP is getting a bit more portable these days too, although Java is
still the king of the hill for growth sectors like portable media.

In terms of training, I know of a couple of places that can knock you
out a quick course, but, as with all development you're going to need to
get a basic introduction and then work the language yourself to learn
it. You'll end up paying huge amounts of coin for very little practical
knowledge if you rely on training institutions alone.

What's that quote from the Matrix? "Knowing the path isn't walking the
path"?   

A crowd named dynamicwebtraining.com.au had a good rep in Sydney when I
was in the industry, they can offer a fair bit, but get your wallet
ready.

Good luck with it!

Cheers
 
Nathan Bentley
CONSULTANT - FINITE IT RECRUITMENT SOLUTIONS
 


LVL 6, 411 COLLINS ST, MELBOURNE, VIC 3000
TEL 03 9617 3900   FAX 03 9617 3999   MOB 0416 831 495  DIRECT 03 9617
3935   WWW.FINITE.COM.AU
 

-----Original Message-----
From: melbourne-pm-bounces+nathanb=finite.com.au at pm.org
[mailto:melbourne-pm-bounces+nathanb=finite.com.au at pm.org] On Behalf Of
Guy Morton
Sent: Sunday, 21 September 2008 12:47 AM
To: John Thornton
Cc: Melbourne Perlmongers
Subject: Re: [Melbourne-pm] more computer programming stuff

Forget Dreamweaver. Learn Flex (or SVG+Javascript, or preferably both).

Get an iPhone and write an app for it in SVG+Javascript..

Guy


On 20/09/2008, at 9:17 PM, John Thornton wrote:

>
>      Hello
>           I am a uni graduate [BA in maths/philosophy...yeah I know I
> wasted my youth :)] and at the moment I am doing a Dip of Graphics  
> Design by
> distance mode. It's a pretty tough course actually: photoshop,  
> Indesign etc.
> I am looking to work in the graphic design area in the future.  
> Anyway, I am
> enjoying getting into programming so much, especially Java and Ruby,  
> that I
> am open to doing a computer science/programming course in the  
> future. Anyone
> know of any that are aimed at people with no programming knowledge  
> or close
> to it? I would prefer TAFE or off campus. I do not understand the
> postgraduate fee system. I want something hands on where I get to  
> program.
> Sure, you have to understand something about what an object is to do  
> OOP.
> Fine. But I mean I don't need the history of programming, socio  
> postmodern
> Derrida critique of the programming ethos etc etc [OK that's a touch
> sarcastic].
>
>      I really have to make a big decision in the near future with  
> where I
> go with this graphics stuff. One option is to complement it with  
> some web
> programming/set up stuff which would be where programming could come  
> in.
> Other options are to spend my money instead on more software and  
> even at
> student prices software in graphics costs a bit! I have Indesign,
> Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver. They are HUGE  
> programs. If
> anyone knows of any good Dreamweaver/web courses that would be good  
> too.
>
>     Anyway, hope that the Storm can come back. [I am a Melbournite]
>
>     John
> _______________________________________________
> Melbourne-pm mailing list
> Melbourne-pm at pm.org
> http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/melbourne-pm

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