We are in similar boats, I am a structural engineer by day and have a tad of programming experience, mostly with Matlab and some VBA stuff. I wanted to start basic and proceed as necessary, skipping if I felt the material was too rudimentary.
Per the comments I got, I started with Zed Shaw's Learning Python the hard way (http://learnpythonthehardway.org/index). It's great so far. As wyclif mentions elsewhere here, the first half is incredibly simple, to the point that its nearly ridiculous. I've found myself performing the exercises quickly and moving on, if nothing else it's just plain good practice of the simple mechanics of writing code, even if the code I'm writing is rudimentary.
Also per the comments from that post, I registered and started a personal weblog using a wordpress template. It's given me my fair share of HTML work, which has also been helpful.
This looks very useful. My immediate concern is that the system relies on human beings to mark and forward the useful bits of information. Is it possible to set the fetch rules to actually search the contents of an email for certain keywords instead of relying on labels?
Thanks. Currently it relies on labels that the user applies on the discussion in their inbox, but we're extending Fetch Rules to be sensitive to conditions similar to what you define in a gmail label, and more. (like, whenever a certain person discusses anything with a person from a specific domain or not from a specific domain, fetch the discussion)
Did they go to prestigious schools and get graduate degrees because they were rich, or did they become rich because they went to prestigious schools and got graduate degrees?
The visualization is interesting, no doubt, but I found it to have too little detail to really be able to draw any conclusions from.
Well, to look at it from solely a financial point of view, a room in an apartment is worth much more if you rent it out by the night or week rather than by the year (like you would with a roommate).
Here in my neighborhood, in Chicago, one can find a room for about $40/night; 15 nights and I already have half my rent. So yes, having a roommate might be less work (but that depends on what you consider "work") but I can make more money renting a room out by the night.
I turned off the sound on the homepage. Most of the feedback we get from normals concerning the popups is very positive - I'd definitely recommend it at as a customer development tool.
I know I sound curt, but don't you find the bit about trends you quoted a tad ironic here on HN?
I mean, what's more trendy in Web3.0 than web apps with landing pages featuring a few bands of color for a background, drop shadows, Apple-like icons, 2 short sentences, and a request to signup?
> Don't just do something because everyone else is
> doing it – do something because it makes sense.
I can't speak for the particulars of gradients or drop-shadows, but if two-sentence landing pages with an obvious call to action get signups, then it makes sense to do things that way.
I guess the inverse of the advice is "Don't refuse to do something just because it's trendy -- base your choice on whether or not it makes sense."
However, I want to note that by following an effective trend, the "two-sentence landing pages with an obvious call to action" in this case, isn't there a chance that one might be missing an even more effective/efficient way of doing things? Sure it works, but does it work the best?
>I guess the inverse of the advice is "Don't refuse to do something
>just because it's trendy -- base your choice on whether or not it
>makes sense."
Also couldn't agree more, I think there is a really fine line between innovating because you think you can do better and innovating because you want to avoid the trend.
I do find it ironic actually and that is why I like that one. It is very easy to be trendy and I think you know you are onto something big when it easily breaks them.
We are in similar boats, I am a structural engineer by day and have a tad of programming experience, mostly with Matlab and some VBA stuff. I wanted to start basic and proceed as necessary, skipping if I felt the material was too rudimentary.
Per the comments I got, I started with Zed Shaw's Learning Python the hard way (http://learnpythonthehardway.org/index). It's great so far. As wyclif mentions elsewhere here, the first half is incredibly simple, to the point that its nearly ridiculous. I've found myself performing the exercises quickly and moving on, if nothing else it's just plain good practice of the simple mechanics of writing code, even if the code I'm writing is rudimentary.
Also per the comments from that post, I registered and started a personal weblog using a wordpress template. It's given me my fair share of HTML work, which has also been helpful.
Good luck, enjoy the ride!