I am 19 and I think this is terrible advice.I would love to work at Microsoft not just because of the pay but because of the people I would work with. Some of the greatest minds in the world call Microsoft their place of work. Mind you I am doing my own thing and not looking to get hired but still if presented the chance I would take it.
Codeacademy.com you cannot go wrong there. It is a great starting place with lessons that teach you by making you code. Best way to learn anything IMO.
Someone should whip up a quick website listing all these books. I would do it myself but I have neither the money or knowledge to do so. I will be reading all the books listed in this thread post haste.
As I said earlier in a related post "email clients are stuck in the 90s. The way they look and organized hasn't changed in 20 years. You need to throw out all you think an email client should be and make your own. That is my sincerest suggestion. If you do not believe me go look for yourself. Outlook,Yahoo Mail,Gmail,etc all look the same as the did 20 years ago. I use Thunderbird but I hate how it looks and works." Plus it is still insecure but Mozilla may fix that with Persona.
Email clients are stuck in the 90s. The way they look and organized hasn't changed in 20 years. You need to throw out all you think an email client should be and make your own. That is my sincerest suggestion. If you do not believe me go look for yourself. Outlook,Yahoo Mail,Gmail,etc all look the same as the did 20 years ago. I use Thunderbird but I hate how it looks and works. Which is why I asked one of the people at Mozilla if I could contribute. No response yet though.
I can vouch for them. The lessons are easy and the material is indepth. It covers from typography all the way to UX design. They keep adding more lessons. Which reminds me I need to catch up.
I started with Ubuntu Linux then made the switch to Mint for a while and switched back just within the past month. After a few weeks of dealing with constant error popups on Ubuntu 13.04 I decided to permanently switch to Mint. May switch to Debian or OpenSuse just to see what they are like.