I have severe asthma, when I have an attack that will last for hours this used to be how I would describe what it's like during that time. I loathe those periods when I can't think, process a thought correctly or function like I do when I'm just breathing like normal.
I can't imagine going through this every second of my day for as long you do did. And in comparison those few hours when I can't breathe and I'm waiting for my medicine to work feel like a blessing in the sense that it could very much worse like what you experienced. Wow.
I stumbled across this incredible article reading Jeff Atwood's now-apparently-controversial post on that subject I'm avoiding like the plague.
Back to the point, it basically summarizes what I tell all of my friends who gain an interest and want to learn fast. I've been learning for over a decade out of interest now since I was 12 and I will never refer to myself as anything other than marginally competent. I akin programming to math in the sense that the ceiling is not really there because there is always more to learn and thats what the majority of your (programming) life is spent doing.
Are we talking content abuse? It's in their ToS if we are. Not entirely sure how effective they're going to be at monitoring malicious content, but it's there.
Everyone learns differently, so hey to each their own. I dabbled for years throught my HS life in php, but when it came time to actually learn I was completely put off by my first intro to CS course that used the aforementioned 'Dive head first w/ C++!' method and left the course, and was one of 18 to do so.
Started learning python on my own around age 19 and everything just skyroketed from there. I'm much more comfortable using( saying that lightly ) C++ these days but I can't imagine ever recommending it to even an enemy as their first language.
An aquaintenance on a board somewhere put it best, " C++ is like a hurricane. Gorgeous but incredibly destructive". Personally I think it all looks hideous but I get the point now.
Thought the article was going to be a question as to why. But I wholeheartedly agree as to why Python is a great forst language.
The simple fact that it's syntax light will always be the #1 reason it's a great introduction. Worry about the syntactical hangups once you have the core concepts of programming down.
I never understood those CS courses that have you diving in blind with C++
I'm one of those people who when I learn anything, I take hand written no matter what it is. I've even had language books tell me, " You probably won't need to do this" and I make sure to add it in anyway. And when that 1% time comes, my first reaction is always to the clear and detailed description that I myself wrote down. This has happened several times, ( a lot when I was getting my feet wet in server administration ). As someone who like to learn ot all no matter how out of context for the enviornment, I much prefer when stuff like this happens. I'd rather know how to do something as a just in case, then panic because I don't know something at all.
I don't understand your stance on family time vs skill set? My day to day is usually like this: Get up, shower, pick up my house, go to work for 8 hours, come home where I make dinner and invariably end up cleaning my kitchen. Then i sit down with my boyfriend and just do whatever so that we're spending time together.
This past weekend I managed to pick up a book on Go and hoping to deploy something through appengine by the end of week. If you want something, you find the time.
It was a poor choice of words on my part, what I meant was; Everyone who does want one. I can understand under an artist viewpoint ( Ideally I would really like apps in the area to improve ) but you can easily get that in a touchscreen laptop. This just from my own personal use of my tablet but from most things I can see where I could care to use one I just ibstinctevely reach for my laptop.
Not trying to start a debate on stylus use, I'm sure those who use them with a tablet very good reasons for doing so. In my own personal life and opinion, I just don't see the need.
I really agreed with a lot of this article (but not all) but really couldn't get past the juvenile way in which it was written the entire time I was reading.
I dont't personally understand everyone's need for a stylus. I hear this complaint from time to time, and with how intuitive apple's keyboard is on the iPhone/iPad ( really its the only one I can remotely stand. And yes it's far from perfect) I just don't see much of a need. If I was taking handwritten notes in class id be carrying around a notebook.