Got enthusiasm, need experience?

Contact: totierne@hotmail.com txt me on: + 353 86 825 6032 (Irish number), VOIP number: (Later)

Leave comments on free_tuition free_tuition_old_pitch For many come and few are chosen.

If you did not find this offer compelling, tell me why it is not compelling

Free Software/Computing Tuition: Swap your enthusiasm for my 10 years commercial experience, suits enthusiastic beginners, basically grooming to fit in with open source development projects of your choice. Requirements: internet connection and 3 gig of hard disk space free. Broadband may be required for large downloads such as gcc (C++ compiler), java jdk and eclipse (or you could just use a 'live' linux cd and send your results to a mail account! be imaginative and work with, or subvert, the restraints you have). Be wary of giving out personal details especially if you are under 18.

News of interest to free if not Free developers, Oracle release oracle express edition xe which when in production one can use in your production apps for free, as long as the database is 1 processer , 1Gig Ram and < 4 Gigs database. A great deal for learning and doing a bit of deploying with.

check out MIT opencourseware, free lecture notes from one of the best technical universities.

Note That:
1/Most people these days start coding the html php route.
2/Do what you can before you get old and sell out for employment reasons.
3/PhD actually reduces your life long earnings (academic pay is less and you lose 3 years employment).
4/Check out dice.com for the lowdown on how many jobs are available given expertise in various technologies. It is a U.S. site but I suppose every countries computer software business converges on the U.S. model. (I am in Ireland).

My experience: over 10 years enterprise software development in Java and C with a Database for storing data. Linux or cygwin on Windows encouraged (bash for scripting).CV/Resume

Your experience: 3 months C or Java wanting to learn enough from my experience to join or start an free/open source project, what working in a team involves, source control (CVS), wiki for developer documentation, www.c2.com for reference, mailing list etiquette, organising and being organised, join or create a 'sandbox' project on sourceforge.net for announcement on freshmeat.net .

Why? At 13 I stopped developing in computers as I did not link up with other proto programmers, after dabbling in programming for a year on my own, so I want other people to take the next step sooner. The internet should make that less likely but there is still likely to be a gap where one needs to gain enough experience to submit code to a project.

I was thinking of arranging the group on a points system like experts-exchange.com or suns duke dollar program, so you get 10 points for saying what you are doing that week, and there is a question and answer section where one can earn and spend points, and it is obvious for all to see who has the ability to answer questions and should be given more leeway/respect/qdos/bling whatever you call it. I suppose I need a few people to make it work, I suppose that is why there are classes of peers in real life colleges and universities. I do not have all the answers, but that might make for a better learning environment, you get what you put in. My goal is to pass people on to more established projects, when they graduate from a high touch learning environment to be more constructive and self directed.

If I wanted to throw a couple of manuals at you to keep you quiet :) I would point you towards:
linux
http://www.tldp.org/ (linux documentation project) http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-Proj-Mgmt-HOWTO/index.html (picking and starting projects) http://www.tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/index.html (linux introduction) http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Programming-Languages.html (compare programming languages) http://www.tldp.org/LDP/lpg/index.html (linux programmers guide (1996)) http://www.tldp.org/LDP/tlk/tlk.html (The linux kernel (1998)) http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/KernelAnalysis-HOWTO.html (Kernel analysis)
cygwin(if you cannot install linux)
http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/cygwin-ug-net.html
java
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/ (java tutorials )
theassayer (free books for example on Java and C++)
http://www.theassayer.org/ (free books) http://www.theassayer.org/cgi-bin/asbook.cgi?book=57 (C++) http://www.theassayer.org/cgi-bin/asbook.cgi?book=58 (java) http://www.theassayer.org/cgi-bin/asbook.cgi?book=1008 (enterprise java)

Non technical aspects to programming, follow the article which is good, then read the comments, sorting by highest score first:
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/29/1622207&mode=thread&tid=156

Linux is preferred, cygwin is nice for scripts under windows, but java should mean that the scripting environment and operating system is not so important, it is really there if you mean free as in http://www.fsf.org . Even sun's java is not free enough for http://www.fsf.org one should really use a free java implementation, but I do not take that line, there are too many advantages in using suns implementation, if sun causes trouble, it is nice that some people are working on Free java.

I suppose the very basics of java one can learn from most books the above suggest some knowledge, or they could be hard going (maybe I am trying to test your enthusiasm...) I do not know the half of what is in those links, but if you want to spend your enthusiasm on individual effort they are a good start. I would say that it is best not to work in isolation. Good Luck

I could be guilty of trying to teach what I know, rather than what is current. Always learn by doing and have a tiny pet project to get some implementation experience. Think about what community you want to join and or build, what small goals can a few people of similar experience gather together around, with little additional guidance.

Please also send me an email/txt if you are involved with projects that help newbies, or are involved in projects that would be a suitable destination for newbies after a few months training.

Posted 29 March 2005

Current number of replies: 3
1.1 software developer (perl/php/postgres) though new to java, knows a little of linux
2.Beginner to software programming. knowledge of Microsoft OS and Microsoft office.
3.Recent Computer Science graduate.
4.(you go here)
I know someone who is interested in network security/administration (salesperson wanting to be more technical to help there sales) but it is just beyond where I want to go. Computer security seems a necessary evil at best through a zero sum game and worse, still if anyone is interested in finding a learning partner, there may be a match there,
. Employment trends check out www.dice.com, I would say linux, java, database, ejb, java server faces, struts.
Free open source trends check out apache.org, freshmeat.net and sourceforge.net. I would say debian/ubuntu, python, hibernate, spring, my faces, firefox extentions, openoffice.org base, various custom applications
You tell me more I want to continue a dialog.

(I will help 1 or 2 but I really want to help a group of individuals become a team and or link up with other teams.)

Note that savannah.gnu.org, sourceforge.net, and the larger open source projects, mozilla, debian, ubuntu, openoffice.org, have boards where the currently more able can join in. I hope to get people up to that speed.

This could be done over the internet though I reside in 33 Elm Mount Close, Beaumont, Dublin 9, Ireland.

Initial technical tasks:
Set up a group wiki (editable web page, using tomcat/jspwiki)
Set up a group cvs (source control system)
[I have a spare pentium 3 400 mhz to be used as a server and a broadband connection. I will kick these tasks off on demand. If you can bring these facilities to the group all the better.]

Initial management/non technical tasks:
Discuss individual goals and objectives
Discuss group goals and objectives

Check out googles summer of code, link follows, there might be good mentoring ideas there, it is important to be clear about what you want, I have made clear what I have to offer. You get out what you put in. http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/31/1959220&tid=217&tid=156

Keywords: Free software, GNU, open source, linux, java, c, sourceforge, freshmeat, programming, development, training, wiki, database, collaboration.