[Cialug] Cialug Beginnings

[Matthew Nuzum]

C is becoming a niche skill these days. It implies only three industries I
know of: driver/kernel development, embedded development (we're arguably in
the post C world here too) and algorithm/library/high performance computing
world. At the least, many have moved on to c++.

I'm getting back to opinionated ground, but I don't usually encourage people
to start out with old technology. The stuff that's bleeding edge today will
be entering mainstream in 3-4 years and be in demand.

C as a language represents all that is archaic and old. At least use
something object oriented. C++, Java, C# and Go are examples.
 On Jul 20, 2011 11:38 AM, "Pawel" <pdarowski at gmail.com> wrote:
> So a hiring manager would like to hear about some personal projects?
Perhaps
> one good example of an overcome challenge? I guess it would paint a decent
> picture of the applicant's self-motivation and ability to seek answers.
>
> Thanks for all your input. I'm beginning to see that the biggest challenge
> of development [in my eyes] is having a vision or finding that interesting
> problem that needs solving. Once it's found, the rest is research and
> determination.
>
> Two more quick question while I still have the floor! :) How important are
> certifications in the real world? And please, what is the "industry
> standard" for C certificates? I'm having an impossible time finding a C
> cert... And my instructors don't really know of any.
>
>
> See you around,
>
> Pawel Darowski
> PDarowski at gmail.com
>
> On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 9:44 AM, Matthew Nuzum <newz at bearfruit.org> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 5:03 PM, Pawel <pdarowski at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Since I cannot attend meetings for quite some time, perhaps the IRC
>>> channel would be a good place to start taking advantage of the knowledge
>>> that already exists in this group. My question is: how did some of you
start
>>> your careers as Linux professionals? My goal is to use Linux in my
>>> professional life from Day 1.
>>>
>>
>> I too am usually unable to make it to the meetings. I do about one per
>> year. However I still feel reasonably involved with the group by
>> participating on the list.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Any tips, stories, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>>> Thank you,
>>>
>>
>> The common thread among the people I've met through this group is that
>> we're tinkerers. Find some fascinating problem or challenge and dig into
it.
>> Back in "the day" the most interesting linux problem was figuring out how
to
>> get it to actually install. This one has been pretty soundly dealt with
now
>> though. :-)
>>
>> (in my case I owned only about 5 working floppies and lived off campus at
>> ISU (near towers) and had to ride my bike to Durham to download 5
slackware
>> disks, then ride back home to complete the next phase of the install -
>> which, btw, is slower than a 14.4k modem)
>>
>> Some people are financially motivated - they want to run PHP or Ruby or a
>> server and make websites for money. A huge number of people I've dealt
with
>> are into Games and want to make their own. You'll not find a more diverse
>> set of development tools than is available in Linux (check out PyGame).
Yet
>> others are into robotics or hardware hacking which is yet again very well
>> suited for Linux. A few people use Linux to hook up to their TV to record
>> and watch TV shows.
>>
>> By the way, this kind of activity looks great to potential employers.
They
>> really like to see people who are problem solves and are self-motivated
to
>> learn new skills and explore new ways of doing things.
>>
>> I will say that there are three trends to keep in mind as you're looking
>> for interesting challenges:
>>
>> 1. We're in an increasingly heterogeneous environment - windows, mac os,
>> linux, ipads and more all need to talk to each other
>> 2. The web is either the most important application deployment platform
>> now, or is right up there (this ties into the prev point)
>> 3. Mobile is huge (and the number one mobile platform in the world runs
>> Linux)
>>
>> (You asked for opinions...)
>>
>> --
>> Matthew Nuzum
>> newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin and twitter
>>
>> ♫ You're never fully dressed without a smile! ♫
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Cialug mailing list
>> Cialug at cialug.org
>> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
>>
>>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://cialug.org/pipermail/cialug/attachments/20110720/a0d6ac5b/attachment.html>