Codeacademy

reading around the subject is always good.

Yeah, reading is good, sorry if I made it sound like it isn't.

Udacity's CS101 is OK (course materials are at https://www.udacity.com/wiki/cs101/downloads if you don't want to sign up - can't remember if you can see the youtubes without signing up) and brings up more concepts that you'll probably see on your course, but on the other hand there's something to be said for Codecademy's more fun and more hands-on approach too.

PS I am a serial CS-then-ICT dropout so actually probably the worst person to take the advice of

i'm doing the ruby section of this for fun and it really is fun. but i blew through like 60% of what's available in a short time. what is one to do next to make progress?

I'm doing this! Since it's been 10+ years since I had a programming class, I'm going all the way back to the beginning. I mean <em><strong>ALL</strong><em> the way back.

can you have friends on this thing? harbl, be my friend!

sent from my butt (harbl)
Posted: December 27, 2013 at 10:18:29 PM
i'm doing the ruby section of this for fun and it really is fun. but i blew through like 60% of what's available in a short time. what is one to do next to make progress?

build a websyteeeeee

i hope someone at codecademy is reading the funny stuff that i'm writing when they ask me to write paragraphs and stuff like that. seriously there's been some comedy gold, hope they're checking it out and laughing

youre the one theyve been waiting for

I might try doing this again. I petered out fairly quickly last time.

I know it would be deeply unethical, but it would be neat if they collected all of the things that people chose to wrote and published them as one <ol>list</ol>

btw this week i'll be peppering my posts with beginning html tags, hope everyone is ok with that

I can't find a way to add friends or start a custom ilxor group. boo.

Yeah I haven't done this for a while, been meaning to learn jQuery and also my html/css is super-rusty and I'm meant to do some web stuff for work now so it might be an idea to pick it back up, but I have mile-long list of good intentions of that kind so eh

yeah, it's kind of weird that they don't let you make a group or add "friends"! some commenters on one of their help page were speculating that codecademy intends to monetize the site by selling it to businesses/organizations, who would then get to take advantage of custom groups/friends/etc.

The problem with not doing it for several months is that they rewrite half the ones you've already done so they're not ticked off any more and my completionist tendencies go nuts

oh, didn't see this, karl. i did finish all of ruby but now i've done nothing for a few weeks so i forgot it all and too much to do with my actual job :(

1 Year Passes...

so yeah, i fizzled out as well. iirc, i started to sense that the instruction was really thin in some areas, like i was rushing through all of CSS in like 45 minutes and i needed way more time and repetition. i guess i should have just slowed myself down and assigned myself exercises and tried to experiment a little more.

but i kind of want to try something else out, a little more in-depth. has anyone tried udacity? are there other good alternatives? i'd be willing to pay a little bit for something a little better. a little for a little.

kinda feel like using these interactive tutorials as part of a wider constellation of instructional material is more useful than as a singular walled garden, like google a lot which is what u do when ur building a webiste irl, get a book, and most importantly work on an actual project, which i mean u do make actual websites so youve got that which the best learning environment

these learn 2 code exercise sites present such a small fraction of the actual issues u will encounter irl which is part of what makes them useful but also limits their effectiveness as a learning environment

yeah plan what you want to finish it and google every little roadblock til you get there imo

also read the documentation I found that stuff a lot more useful than college notes etc at times

like coding is not actual coding which is why ppl generally call it developing these days

i guess what's difficult for me is that i want to get past the basic "beginner's website" that they teach you to build and learn how to manipulate things in experimental ways.

i really like this guy geoffrey lillemon's stuff. he changes his website constantly and the most recent version is really difficult to use and loads slowly, but generally i like how his art is embedded into the website, the way the user interacts with it. there are all these layers of images (i don't know if they're videos or flash or what) and...it's hard to explain.

i just want to know what kinds of code he's using. i'd like to be barely proficient at them so i can have more freedom in making my own stuff without relying so heavily on others.

is it all just JS/CSS/HTML?

i guess the obv answer is that i need to be patient and just learn everything possible about the basic website so that i can deconstruct it? learn to crawl before you can walk/run, etc.

i just wish there was a codecademy module that went through all the things that are NOT recommended. like, autoplaying videos and music, creating strobe light effects that might damage the viewer's eyes and cause them to sue, making lines of text blend to each other and become unreadable. instead everything is like "now we're going to teach you how to make a very professional CV that any senior vice president would love!"

u can see if u inspect hes using some css animations and also loading some js files for... something - u shd email him and ask tho good chance if u show interest in his particular project hed be into talking about it, espcailly if u showed him the cool stuff u made, or he might have it up on github too

i'm guessing he'd never respond, heh. he's one of the few people who appear to have taken the net art thing to the next level and probably has loads of money and doesn't talk to strangers

or if hes to busy and bigtime to f w u track down some lesser collaborator, someone will have blogged or want to talk to u or have a github

when ppl do clever things they like to talk abt it is the assumption im working under

i have a friend who does similar stuff http://www.yellowandorange.com tho i think hes mostly video these days anyway id be happy to introduce u i think he has a show coming up maybe

that's really cool! that's exactly what i'm talking about. i'd love to meet him sometime, but i want to get a lot better at it myself first. i'd love to talk to these people when i share the same CS vocabulary, or at least parts of the same vocabulary.

oh but regardless if he has a show coming up let me know, it would be nice to meet you and to see his stuff in person

i cld just introduce u on facebook or w/e, i wldnt worry abt not having the right skills hes super nice and humble and im sure wld be happy to talk shop, tho u wld have to refriend me lmao

smdh at myself

ha i do actually remember thinking to myself i have already been obnoxious once toward zach today maybe i shdnt go in a second time but then i did

anyway dont worry ilx we r friends again

<3

for real let me know if you attend one of his shows anytime soon. i'm reading/watching this and like his stuff a lot so far.

cool will do, tbh i havent seen him in a few years but thats mostly a function of not being in new york and were not like super tight but id be cool to see his show and say hi

tho i might be totally imagining that he said he had a show coming up, but maybe we cld visit his studio or something

oh no wait here we go https://instagram.com/p/zOGmAbL3CT

cool, yeah i'd be up for going to the show for sure

cool man its on

i've been doing the web design courses w/ this - they're fun!