[Cialug] Cialug Beginnings

[Matthew Nuzum]

Ah crap. I may have just started a flame war. (Welcome to Linux) In hopes of
offsetting that, let me just encourage you to seek input from multiple
people then follow your heart. ;-)
On Jul 20, 2011 1:37 PM, "Matthew Nuzum" <newz at bearfruit.org> wrote:
> 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! ♫
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>> Cialug mailing list
>>> Cialug at cialug.org
>>> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
>>>
>>>
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