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Utopia Talk / General Talk / i'm going to "teach myself" to program 2
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Wed Apr 22 23:58:48
If you needed to build a script that was able to link an excel database or something similar to a calender to make scheduling repeat contracts easier, what language would you use?

How long would it take to learn enough to even be able to build such a thing? Months, Years?

nhill
Member
Thu Apr 23 09:51:57
Did you mean Excel or Access?
Murph
Member
Thu Apr 23 17:59:22
geez u guys killed that topic fast.

I'm reading the well grounded rubyist the last day or so. it's pretty good and clear.
cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Thu Apr 23 20:35:45
I'm going to assume I probably need to get acces's if you are asking. Excel kinda wicks anyways for that sort of thing
Hood
Member
Thu Apr 23 20:46:56
Dude, cthu. Fucking proofread your autocorrects.
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Thu Apr 23 21:56:14
Yes, I will definitely have too. Not used to it doing that. I do not recommend the galaxy 6

I'm going to assume I probably need to get access if you are asking. Excel kinda sucks anyways for that sort of thing
Murph
Member
Thu Apr 23 22:01:18
well excel can do a lot of shit i'ts really powerful but if you actually mean a database you're going to need some kind of database software (access)

I assume

but like if all the information is in excel than you shouldn't need access. either way I really don't know but it doesn't sound super complicated. I just don't know what language you would use for that / program / anything. or what's involved in scheduling a repeat contract

like do you want your program to look at all the contracts you've made and figure out what the future will be? I don't know.

you could ask somewhere like stackoverflow but you'd need to make it less vague by a lot.
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Thu Apr 23 22:07:31
The database doesnt exist yet. I just want to get off on the right foot an avoid an expensive data transfer to another program later
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Thu Apr 23 22:54:07
yup, definitely need Access.
nhill
Member
Fri Apr 24 12:56:25
Access may better suited for this use case, but Excel could work too. I was mainly asking so I could answer your question accurately and because Excel doesn't make databases.

If you're doing it to learn, Excel would actually be a better choice. It's much easier to parse Excel files than an Access database.

Actually "linking" it to a calendar (as in, it syncs automatically) would be kind of complex, but you could create a program that takes contacts from a spreadsheet to Google Calendar semi-easily. It would probably take a month or so to understand all the requisite concepts, but I bet you could hack something together in a day or two.

As for what language I would chose, Python is probably your best bet if you don't know any languages already. It's a simple language that has a lot of community support for things like parsing a spreadsheet.

You'd want to save the spreadsheet as a .csv file and then use the csv Python modules to extract the data (https://docs.python.org/2/library/csv.html#module-csv). After that you'd use the Google Calendar python client (https://developers.google.com/google-apps/calendar/quickstart/python) to create the calendar entries.

If you're going with Access it'd be a bit more complex and probably take a week or so. But it's still doable with a Python database driver (like https://code.google.com/p/pyodbc/).
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Fri Apr 24 20:32:30
Awesome, thank you nhill
Murph
Member
Mon Apr 27 22:01:39
have an interview w/ the bootcamp i'm applying to wednesday morning

here's hoping.
McKobb
Member
Tue Apr 28 13:41:35
http://youtu.be/71Lft6EQh-Y

You can watch this to prepare!
Murph
Member
Tue Apr 28 18:12:42
that isn't v good prep
cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Tue Apr 28 20:28:14
Just man up and know you can succeed. Your inner doubt is probably your greatest enemy
Murph
Member
Tue Apr 28 20:56:22
my greatest enemy will be the question if I can't figure it out..
cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Tue Apr 28 21:05:54
Unless you are retarded, there is no reason you cannot figure it out. Unless of course doubt eats away at you and you capitulate. The only question that is worth worrying over is 'how much is it worth it too you'? If you accept before hand that you are going to stumble, hut resolve to press on regardless, there should be no issie
Murph
Member
Fri May 01 15:00:20
got a second interview on wednesday should be the final interview
nhill
Member
Sat May 02 06:22:41
Let me know if either of you want to setup a live coding session. I'm available most of this weekend.
Murph
Member
Mon May 04 11:33:42
i really appreciate the offer man but I doubt I'll take you up on it since the final interview is wednesday and I'll either get in or not. if I get in it's on to learning more material to prep for the bootcamp
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Mon May 04 23:26:56
Thank you for the offer, however, I did not notice it in time. I would probably be wasting your time at my current skill level though.
nhill
Member
Tue May 05 01:11:36
Starting is the hardest part, but having someone hanging around that knows what to do and what is possible can help quite a bit. I do some intern training in my current capacity and, even if they're really new and don't do much themselves, they seem to get a lot out of it. My next free weekend is May 29th - 31st if anyone's interested. It would probably be a 30-60min screen share where we could talk and we'd share mouse/keyboard interactions
Murph
Member
Tue May 05 10:40:56
I do really appreciate it but don't worry about me too much I am active on another forum that has a lot of programmers on it.

fingers crossed and my interview goes well tomorrow and I'll be studying a lot more ruby by then though and getting into rails though I don't know what your expertise is.
nhill
Member
Tue May 05 17:01:15
"studying a lot more ruby by then though and getting into rails though I don't know what your expertise is."

Platforms/languages don't matter very much because once you get good at a few the rest are trivial. I work on iOS programming in objective-c or Swift, server programming in C# MVC (pretty similar to rails except the syntax), web app programming in JavaScript (React.js or Backbone.js), and we have a rails app, an app written in Go, along with a bunch of other permutations of languages/frameworks that any of us could be moved to at anytime. The key to success in this industry is to eventually get into full stack development.

Ruby/Rails is a good first step but you really narrow your skill set if you turn it into your identity like some devs do (i.e. I'm a rails guy, I do iOS programming, etc.). Only a heads up, I know you're early in the process so it doesn't have much relevancy yet.
nhill
Member
Tue May 05 17:03:39
Also, by "really narrow your skill set" I also mean "really narrow your pay grade". :)
Murph
Member
Tue May 05 22:08:16
oh yeah i know I don't plan on being some "NO I ONLY DO RUBY ON RAILS" guy by aany shot I'm just prepping for this bootcamp and all it's primarily ruby on rails though it does some javascript and some other framework iirc. or am I just thinking of the sql stuff.

it is to get you full stack ready though

god I really hope I get into it. AppAcademy if you're interested in looking it up or anything.

http://www.appacademy.io/#p-curriculum

yeah backbone.js
Murph
Member
Wed May 06 18:12:07
I think it went well
Murph
Member
Wed May 06 19:33:35
but upon looking at it I don't even know if I could get a job in the USA as a canadian citizen w/o a degree in Comp sci LOL

gunna call an immigratino lawyer tomorrow.
nhill
Member
Wed May 06 21:07:14
Looks like an OK curriculum, but I wouldn't expect anything magic from it. Really the only requirement is that you have a true passion for code and you're not using it as a way to make money. The money makers get weeded out at the top companies, and end up in dead end jobs making 50k at one of the money fake development shops run by sales people that employ programmers for credibility.

This guy has some food for thought, too:
http://lifeimitatescode.com/writing/a-fast-code-culture/
nhill
Member
Wed May 06 21:08:04
"money fake development"

*many fake development
Murph
Member
Thu May 07 09:11:04
I don`t expect "magic" I just want a good environment to work w/ some direction.

If I can't get a job in the states I will probably do one of these two bootcamps instead

http://www.lighthouselabs.ca/web
http://codecore.ca/

Murph
Member
Thu May 07 09:29:46
oh the lifeimitates code link isn't working for me wass it working when you posted or is it just an old link?
McKobb
Member
Thu May 07 09:32:10
somebody didn't pay the bills
nhill
Member
Thu May 07 14:04:40
Weird, it was up when I posted it... we must have killed their site ;)

http://web...ure/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Murph
Member
Thu May 07 15:53:02
I read like 85 % of that and then started skimming

it mostly seemed like he was picking on that one month online "program" that sounds like he's just some kind of more indepth code academy that costs money
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Fri May 08 23:03:56
My next free weekend is May 29th - 31st if anyone's interested. It would probably be a 30-60min screen share where we could talk and we'd share mouse/keyboard interactions '

I actually would like too take you up on that offer. I've started with something that should be simple (python). Think I can figure out how to actually put a program together though? Nope. I can get it to insta run a command. No idea how to save a program I can run later.
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Fri May 08 23:04:28
I see what you mean though. Second language wont even be half as hard.
nhill
Member
Sat May 09 02:03:12
Sounds good, let me know your email either here or through PM. I'll need this to get you setup on https://screenhero.com/
nhill
Member
Sat May 09 02:06:14
http://www.py2exe.org/ is one way to go about it, but it depends on your use case
Murph
Member
Sat May 09 08:19:58
http://collabedit.com/

might be an easier way to work together w/o needing programs.

a text document you can both edit together at the same time but it also autoformats your text in a bunch of languages (choose obviously). I had one of my interviews in it and it worked well.
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Sat May 09 16:26:44
Is Ubuntu a good version of linux?
nhill
Member
Sat May 16 16:14:20
Yep, it's a great version of Linux.

@Murph

I use collabedit to interview people and it often has display issues on Mac computers. http://code.stypi.com has its own quirks but I've had better luck with it overall. Collaborative text editors work well for interviews but very poorly for teaching.
nhill
Member
Sat May 16 16:17:19
@Murph

That being said, thanks for the recommendation!
Murph
Member
Sat May 16 20:53:21
k cool. I'm in the codecore bootcamp starting on the 25th. bought a macbook

all in on this shit lol. I know the macbook was kind of an extravagance but it should be a great cmoputer for like 6-7 years minimum
Cherub Cow
Member
Sat May 16 21:05:38
"bought a macbook"

Oh no D:
Why??

..
"should be a great cmoputer for like 6-7 years minimum"

Not to Billah, but the gaming laptop I purchased in 2010 is still faster than a new Macbook. Don't do these things to yourself :(
cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Sat May 16 23:38:06
anyone happen to know how to Co figure the display on ubuntu server mode to make terminator work? askin Google that is about as useful and praying for yahweh to do it.

specifically it tells me I need to be in an x environment. askiggoogle how to do that gives me a million definition of what x environment means with no commands at all given.
Murph
Member
Sun May 17 09:57:11
because macbooks were highly recommended by 90 % of the programmers I spoke to and I might be moving around a fair amount in the next 3-4 years (who knows) so it would be nice if I could just have one laptop and leave the desktop life for a while. I know I could have gotten a cheaper laptop and installed linux but I just wanted to go w/ the macbook pro I guess i'm drinkin the juice.
Cherub Cow
Member
Sun May 17 16:33:28
sellout! ;p
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Sun May 17 16:51:50
Hey murph, if you install ruby 2.1, and it won't run in powershell, what is the command to fix the command path?
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Sun May 17 16:59:28
Never mind. Found the data right after asking. A common theme lately
Murph
Member
Sun May 17 17:33:01
good cause I have no idea.
Palem
Person.
Sun May 17 18:44:45
Congrats on getting into your bootcamp thing :)
Murph
Member
Sun May 17 20:48:45
did I already post? I got into the hardre to get into one but couldnt' do it cause of work visas and the states.. the second one was literally super easy to get into because you pay straight up and it's not contingent on getting a job. oh well. they're still vested in people reviewing them highly and shit so it should still be good.. I hope. also it's just like.. you'll get out as much as you put in.
cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Wed May 20 00:06:24
is there any specific programs other than screen hero that you need me to have? Or any specific prep in general?
nhill
Member
Wed May 20 00:19:06
Nah, think of it as an apprenticeship. Whatever you are working on I can probably give you some pointers. If you're not working on anything you could watch me work on a side project a bit. It helps a lot to be exposed to someone experienced
Murph
Member
Wed May 20 20:34:09
refurbished macbook's screen was fucked up in less than two hours.

returning it in the mail and buying a new one from best buy. thank you credit cards jfc.
Hood
Member
Wed May 20 21:14:02
Learn the correct lesson and don't buy mac...
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Wed May 20 22:13:08
Isn't a Mac like a simulated computer or something?
Cherub Cow
Member
Thu May 21 16:57:34
Mac is from Hasbro's line of "Easy" products. So there's "Easy Bake" and "Easy Computer" (Mac)
Cherub Cow
Member
Thu May 21 16:58:07
*"Easy [Compute]"
..to maintain the verb :)
Murph
Member
Sat May 23 14:48:49
I have landed and am in vancouver now. v weird how fast this all happened. class starts in 2 days.
Palem
Person.
Sat May 23 18:58:57
Congrats! and Good Luck! :D
Cherub Cow
Member
Sat May 23 21:37:02
I bereeeve in uuuuuuu!!
McKobb
Member
Sun May 24 00:02:21
viruses grow up so fast :(
cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Sun May 24 09:13:13
Hows the rain Murph? gl in Van.
Murph
Member
Sun May 24 11:37:26
no rain? It may rain all spring/fall/winter here but it's summer now.
Murph
Member
Wed May 27 00:01:03
the start of this bootcamp has been insanely slow though. real painful and boring. oh wellz should be better oncce we get into material I haven't already done to death.
Cherub Cow
Member
Wed May 27 17:01:54
exortly! Plus it gives you a chance to do crazy/imaginative stuff while the new peeps learn the basics :)
cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Thu May 28 23:05:39
you could alway finish yourshit as quick as possible and then screaming at the top of your lungs for people to 'type faster, maggot!'
cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Thu May 28 23:22:50
also, what time do I need to be available nhill?
nhill
Member
Thu May 28 23:47:19
I'm available 10AM-10PM CDT on Saturday and Sunday. 1PM CDT Saturday would be preferred, does that work?
Murph
Member
Fri May 29 23:42:11
yeahh the last couple days better for sure. the first days were terrifyingly bad lol

I'll just try to stay busy if i'm ahead of people and shit.
cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Sat May 30 08:44:12
I dont believe thats possible but I can zee about tethering my laptop too my phone
cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Sat May 30 10:00:31
unfortunately i will not be able too till i get off work, or on sunday.
nhill
Member
Sat May 30 11:54:14
That's fine, what time?
cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Sat May 30 16:00:04
im available any time now
Murph
Member
Tue Jun 02 22:59:25
yeah there's just the like constant 2-5 minute periods of people somehow breaking their shit by enterring 4 lines of text in terminal or atom or anywhere I don't get it. it's pretty annoying and now like a bunch of other people in the class are also feeling like this so yeah. not just me anymore.
Murph
Member
Wed Jun 17 14:50:26
still here

still doing things
Murph
Member
Thu Jun 18 19:20:11
var wikiWriter = function() {
var arr = []

$.each($('p'),function(i, p){
arr.push($(p).text().split(''))
$(p).text("")
})

var count = 0

$.each(arr, function(i,array) {
$.each(array, function(k, char){
setTimeout(function(){
$($('p')[i]).append(char)
},count)
count += 10
})

})
}

also learning some jquery
Palem
Person.
Thu Jun 18 19:49:16
That's cool. I can make boobs

(.Y.)
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Thu Jun 18 20:01:48
8==D O:

Also, made any skynet like monstrosities yet?
Murph
Member
Thu Jun 18 22:17:54
not yet. maybe tomorrow.
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Thu Jun 18 23:20:55
You show a strange lack of enthusiasm for the end of humanity.
Murph
Member
Tue Jun 23 22:39:55
I'm v enthusiastic about it

I am SO over humans. seroiusly. people are thw orst.
Murph
Member
Sun Jul 26 10:36:03
so the course is over and I presented my project (on localhost) so now I just need to get it deployed on heroku so I can send out resumes but I'm struggling to get it deployed cause I need to have action cable set up which requires a redis server and a puma server set up to be listenng to a specific port and shit and i failed last night for like 4-5 hours so we'll see how this all goes.
McKobb
Member
Sun Jul 26 10:54:52
good luck! what's your project?I;
Murph
Member
Wed Jul 29 03:48:57
facebook clone cause i'm super unique like that.
Murph
Member
Tue Aug 11 01:39:18
http://fakestbook.herokuapp.com

it's whatever

barely done anything since july 26th like at all

it was designed and most thoroughly tested in chrome, it works almost the same in firefox but there is ilke one or two CSS things I've noticed I need to fix up but have been lazy about and don't care about life.
Murph
Member
Tue Nov 03 22:31:40
so after not doing anything for 2-3 months I finally started this contract and it's been really really bad. It's a short contract, ends by Dec 31st. I really need to get a job lined up for after that, with some company where I'll be working WITH people and not just solo working and not learning shit effectively at all.
Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist
Wed Nov 04 08:29:38
You'll get there. by all accounts its a shit industry when you are just getting into it and amazingly profitable if you keep at it and never stopnlearning
Murph
Member
Fri Nov 06 18:27:55
well the problem is like, I just want to work on a team/with developers that can teach me and shit

not hacking something together by myself.
chuck
Member
Sat Dec 12 11:03:00
Getting started is definitely a challenge.

I'd always been a hobbyist growing up. Took my first job after college with a software company in QA with a view to moving to dev work. Three years in, they wouldn't let me take a pay cut to enter their programmer training program so I left in search of more serious credentials than "I read a book, I promise."

Spent a year in an M.S. Comp Sci program doing undergrad prereq work and TAing a class for Fashion/Marine Biology people who wanted an easy credit building simple static web pages.

A friend in the program with a day job needed help at work, recommended me and *bam* I was a working programmer. Getting your second or third programming job is very easy, it's just really tough to get the first if you are self-taught. I took four real CS classes, none of which had anything to do with the day to day stuff you need to know. They were useful but I'd say that the vast majority of programming as a profession - whether you go to school for it or not - has to be self-directed learning.

-----------------------

TL;DR: it's hard to find someone willing to take a risk on a new dev. Just keep building stuff every day and learning. The rest of your career will be a cake walk compared to getting started. Even after the first job, you have to keep learning though. If you ever stop a) building new things or b) exposing yourself to new ways to solve problems you obsolesce. You'll start off behind where a CS undergrad would be but the willingness to grind through docs yourself
chuck
Member
Sat Dec 12 11:03:43
...gives you a leg up on them in the long term since after the first job DIY is how everybody learns everything.
chuck
Member
Sat Dec 12 11:30:42
Murph: see if there is a local Programming Language <X> Meetup near you.

Regardless of the job search, it's a great way to meet people who can teach you things. I've met Doug Hellmann (creator of a great little utility for Python called virtualenvwrapper) and Ned Batchelder (author of coverage.py) that way.

A lot of the time the meetups are even run/organized by recruiters for companies that use <programming language x> so there can be more direct benefits as well.

Good luck! It's a pain in the ass getting started but if you legitimately enjoy coding, it's such a ridiculously good gig. I get a fantastic salary, no-premium health care (like as if I were living in a real first world country instead of the US of GOP), and lots of little silly perks (daily catered lunch, flex hours, unlimited vacation policy, ping pong/foosball game room) for doing something that I have always done as a hobby anyway.
Murph
Member
Sun Dec 13 11:22:20
oh sorry for not updating. started a job w/ a very legit and amazing looking company/environment just this last week. Super stoked on the future here and should learn an insane amount and maybe eventually not be a terrible programmer
chuck
Member
Sun Dec 13 14:54:09
Congrats and many happy returns. Learn everything you can!
Murph
Member
Thu May 26 22:56:20
still doing this job thing. still terrible. maybe less terrible though.
chuck
Member
Fri May 27 14:42:54
Bit by bit!

Once you are good at building type-of-thing X, try to make a conscious effort to get experience building other, different things.

Repeating the same year of work 10x over is one year's experience, not 10!
Murph
Member
Sat Jun 04 22:30:28
nah for sure I get that

I'm in a RoR shop so there is just so much Rails to still learn and get used to also we mostly consult on one platform that has tons of things to learn and shit. Got so much to learn before I'm going to be worried about not learning new things

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