O'Reilly Opens Online Tech School

bl8n8r writes "The popular book author has started the O'Reilly School of Technology which offers online training and certification. "The O'Reilly School of Technology and the University of Illinois have partnered to offer Certificates of Professional Development in information technology and related skills." Among classes offered are Linux/Unix administration, Open Source coding, Java coding, C Programming and others."

Comments

Re:Hard Knocks

[Channard]

No, but there will be plenty of scope for.. 'I'm doing an online course!' 'Oh, really?' 'No, O'Reilly' style jokes.

Open Source coding?

[Timesprout]

What does a class with a title that generic entail?

Re:Open Source coding?

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Personally I think this could be the most interesting course if done correctly. Rather than "Here's how you code, do this, do that" it could be a mix of coding standards, how to deal with people and how to deal with the bullshit drama in some areas. This would be a useful course for geeks lacking social skills and while they may not learn a huge heap about coding, they could learn a lot of more useful stuff to them in the long run.

Re:Open Source coding?

[Gigaflynn]

good times for the OS community btw, nice footer, I'm one of these strange people that worship the matrix

Re:Open Source coding?

[kuom]

This is what's listed under "Open Source Programming" on the O'reilly site (all of these are $398):

- Learn Perl for CGI Programming
- Linux/Unix 1: The Unix file system
- Learn Object-Oriented Programming using Java
- PHP/SQL 1: Introduction to Database Programming
- Introduction to PHP

I would hardly consider any of these specifically "Open Source Programming". There are plenty of closed-source perl/PHP/Java programs out there. This curriculum sounds more like a mix of web and database programming, mixed in with a little bit of UNIX system administration. I guess "Open Source Programming" is a catchier title.

But again, it's hard to narrow down on what exactly Open Source Programming is... I was hoping that there would be a certification for preparing someone to lead a open source project, and the course materials would cover project management, documentation, software packaging, and bug tracking system.

Re:Open Source coding?

[JPriest]

Coding involves much more than language syntax. Also, I can't imagine it could be any less useful than some of the fluff classes that were required for the Computer Science curriculum at the school I attended.

Hmmmm...

[Anonymous Coward]

O'RLY?

Re:Hmmmm...

[Anonymous Coward]

YA RLY.

Re:Hmmmm...

[Anonymous Coward]

NO WAI!!!

"Hmong classes offered are Linux/Unix...."

[jddj]

Damn. More offshoring...

Re:"Hmong classes offered are Linux/Unix...."

[garcia]

Yes, because there's not a good sized community of Hmong people in America (especially in Minnesota)...

Why do you immediately have to assume that those that are not "American" are off-shore?

Re:"Hmong classes offered are Linux/Unix...."

[jddj]

Bill, remind me to explain to you the concept of "a joke". Oh yeah: "you insensitive clod". The story actually did say "Hmong" first thing this morning, unless I was just that sleepy and out of it.

Re:"Hmong classes offered are Linux/Unix...."

[garcia]

jddj,

I realize that you are a 1 million+ user ID and don't understand my own brand of humor. If you had been around since 1997 and had known what I have posted like for the last 10 years, you'd know I was kidding.

Let me explain to you what a "garcia joke" is...

Re:"Hmong classes offered are Linux/Unix...."

[GaryOlson]

The fact that you can still make a "garcia joke" means you did not substantially and effectively participate in "the garcia experience". I feel sorry for you.

Re:"Hmong classes offered are Linux/Unix...."

[nih]

People like the free market idea until they are the ones who are losing due to competition.

Re:"Hmong classes offered are Linux/Unix...."

[smithmc]

  Why do you immediately have to assume that those that are not "American" are off-shore?

Because I prefer to think of those people who are "on-shore" in America, as Americans.

Best Business.

[void_bips(brain)]

Education has always been (and will always be) one the best businesses.

It's good that they FOSS is highlighted though :)
kudos.

Re:Best Business.

[Tamblyne]

Thus the outrageous cost, apparently. I know there's been a lot invested in these programs -- and apparently they intend to recoup it all the first year. The cost seems pretty high considering the salaries that are paid in these positions now -- unless you live in India.

I'd be interested in knowing just how many people have been priced out of the market.

Re:Best Business.

[void_bips(brain)]

Thus the outrageous cost, apparently.

Yup. And people are ready to pay. :)

unless you live in India.

Yup again. I am from India, :)
but couldn't get your price comparison with respect to India. You are not of the notion that Indian's are paid a pretty hefty salary. Are you?

Re:Best Business.

[Tamblyne]

Absolutely not. But I am of the notion that the cost of living is a lot lower. :-)

Re:Best Business.

[void_bips(brain)]

hehe. That's a pretty debatable topic.
Once my uncle said, "whenever an engineer goes abroad for the first time, she/he tells everyone... but then he never mentions any of her/his other trips".
The reason being almost everyone she/he knows will ask her/him to get some stuff when he gets back, as it'd be a lot cheaper.
This again is subjected to the place of visit.
I guess one thing may be cheaper here, but then the other one would be costlier.
Is there any (stupid) study/comparison out there.;)

Re:Best Business.

[phaggood]

> Yup again. I am from India, :) >but couldn't get your price comparison with respect to India. You are not of the notion that Indian's are paid a >pretty hefty salary. Are you?

Really? I was pricing out flats in Madras and the cost was not cheap, in Lahk(-?sp) or US $$. It was like buying a flat in SanFran.

CEU? Why not for credit?

[garcia]

I'd rather find a community college offering similar courses for credit rather than CEU. At least then I would have less of a chance of it not transferring. Too many poorly accredited institutions are out there today offering CEU courses which probably wouldn't transfer anywhere else anyway because they weren't taken for actual credit.

Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[WED Fan]

As a mid-level manager, I have yet to hire anyone with a certificate. We do hire people with proven skills. Prospective developers are given a few problems to solve to see how they solve it.

I did work for a company that hired only those with certificates. Not too many skilled there.

The problem with certificate schools is that state and federal job training agencies send out-of-work truck drivers, ex-cons, the chronically under-employeed to get trained in networking, programming, or project management. Then, there are the certificate schools that are just scams.

Re: Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[usurper_ii]

Well, I'm really bad about just getting a book and learning what I'm wanting to learn. And then when it comes to a job application, I have very little education to put on it. If I could read an O'Reilly book, which I was going to read anyway, and then take a test over it and get proof that I knew the material, I would go this route, even though it is just another worthless piece of paper.

What would stop me from doing O'Reilly is what they are charging. There are much cheaper ways to get pieces of paper that are just about as worthless, but still give you something to put on a resume.

Usurper_ii

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[EvilRyry]

You may know this, and I may know this, but the vast majority of people in management that do the actual hiring are easily impressed by certificates.
By having another well known entity like O'Reilly step into Linux and Open Source certification, they are helping foster their growth in small to medium businesses.

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[cyber-vandal]

How does a person who wants to get into IT but has no experience get into IT?

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[sanctimonius hypocrt]

...out-of-work truck drivers, ex-cons, the chronically under-employeed...

Well gosh, you wouldn't want to hire any of those people.

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[namityadav]

By gaining some experience in IT ! :-)

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[WebCrapper]

Do what most of us do and pick up a book. I've got my own library, a Safari membership and several people around me to pull knowledge from. There are enough people on the hundreds of Forums asking weird question to say that they're learning too.

Personally, I'm considering some of the online training, but it's only because I get reimbursed for it.

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[scott_mills_gray]

Hey, I'm the director of OST. I agree. Certifications are bunk. We're trying something different. U of I certification for passing courses that help you get some experience. For instance we're currently building plugins for Eclipse that will turn it into a learning management system so that ppl we can teach more languages and skills. We think the only way to learn is by doing it. We're simply helping ppl to do it.

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[cyber-vandal]

How do you get a year's experience from a book?

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[WED Fan]

...out-of-work truck drivers, ex-cons, the chronically under-employeed...
Well gosh, you wouldn't want to hire any of those people.

You are dead right, I don't want to hire them, and, I do not. I am not running a social service. I manage people in a very intense, clearance required business. I will training someone who has some experience and aptitude in IT and development. But, I will not hire unknowns. That includes those fresh out of school.

Only a fifth of my crew are degreed. But, the average experience each has in the industry is 12 years each.

No, I will not hire the out-of-work truck drivers, ex-cons, and problem employees.

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[WED Fan]

In my industry, one of the companies we do business with, hires young, under-educated developers. They train them through actual work projects that are funded through the government. A local congressman is very apt at getting money and projects for them.

Now, while we don't hire cert school grads, and never those fresh out of college, we do hire these guys from them. Why? Proven experience, verifiable skills, and they know the industry we work in, and have been able to deliver on tight, sensitive deadlines.

My company cannot afford those, but we act as a next tier for those companies, so they keep giving the under-privileged jobs and we keep taking them up to the next several levels. (One of those started at $32k a year at said company, spent 2 years there, developing. We hired him away from them at $64k. He was just hired away from us at $90k. He had no degree, no certs, but a great mind. Where is he going to be in a few years?)

I would tell someone just starting to look at working at company that picks up "government" jobs that have funding from congress.

Kind of a side note, but, for what it cost the taxpayers to train the one example I mentioned, he has now paid back in taxes and then some. Not bad for tax money, better than a "Robert C. Byrd Library" and a "Nancy Pelosi Municipal Piss Pot".

(The apt congressman is Norm Dicks (D), Washington.)

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[scott_mills_gray]

nice. Whatever it takes. What we're seeing in the industry is that a lot of programmers are just people who are not only self starters and not educated in the art of programming but they're also lucky.

They were lucky enough to have a friend or two who could get them started by supplying them with help building whatever environment they needed to learn and some advice along they way.

That's what we'd like OST to be. A friend for people who aren't so fortunate to have access to the kind of resources they need to learn this stuff in the first place. The certificate thing is a nice goal for our students to attain and we hope we're turning out good enough people to make it worth something.

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[GaryOlson]

Take a position with a small company which uses computers extensively; but has no formal in house IT support. There are thousands of small companies like this. Then, start small: patch your box and configure it with Open Source software and show your stuff. The guy next to you will notice how much better your system runs; and ask you to fix his system. Repeat as necessary.

Find a section of the computing infrastructure which is badly in need of maintenance, buy a book, and present a plan of action to your manager (which is usually the company owner). This plan should not focus on "fixing all the broken crap"; but, on how this will improve business -- usually meaning the owner will spend less money on contract IT support and less of his time working with a broken system. If you suceed, you have now started on a career in IT.

And, initially, you will have to do all this IT support over and above your normal 40+ hour work assignments. And don't forget to continue to read and discuss technical issues on various discussion boards {Slashdot for example}. I owe a great debt of gratitude to many individuals on the Compuserve hardware forums from over 15 years ago.

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[Joe Snipe]

I am the person you are describing, and you have just won me over.

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[Silver Gryphon]

Find a need and fill it.

Translation: Use the skills you learn from the books (you'll need more than one), and start making projects that solve a problem. Start simple: things you wish you could do, like right-click on a file name and accomplish a task related to that file. Then move to paid projects or find employment in a company that would be willing to let you tinker with some programming. If you learn fast, the experience grows exponentially as people realize, "Hey, this guy's good" and start asking you to write stuff for them.

When you have no experience, the experience you do get is worth more than gold. Distill all your experience into a resume, minute-long demo or a dozen pictures on a website. That's when you'll want marketing and business skills. And communication, of course... communicate the results in a business-problem solution and you can write your own ticket. The key is realizing that the business world has problems and it's up to you to convince them that you have (or can create) the solution.

Learning -> Knowledge -> Experience -> Application to a Problem -> Results -> "I can solve your problem."

So technically, the book itself doesn't give you experience, but applying the information does.

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[letchhausen]

Testify, the most incompetent people who manage to never get fired until the whole shebang is in flames is management and HR. Especially mid-level managers....

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[smithcl8]

It's called paying your dues. The best techs go through the b.s. first, get their feet wet, and then move up the ladder.

I took my first job in IT, traveling the country installing tiny computer networks of about 4 computers and a server. Pulling cable, imaging the systems, plugging them in. When I got back to the office, I was on a telephone helpdesk. Did it suck? Kinda. Did I learn a ton? Yep. Would I do it again if I was starting over? Yep. Would I do it now? Hell no.

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[FuckTheModerators]

My first tech gig was on a help desk for H&R Block. At the time, they used a computer-driven test rather than a technical interview. Basically, showing that you could perform simple Windows troubleshooting via a Powerpoint-ish interface that mimicked Windows.

So having basic technical skills and a customer service background landed me that gig. If "no experience in IT" means no formal experience, but plenty of time fixing your own or relatives' computers, finding that sort of entry-level position might be the way to go.

I've also worked places that want similar skill sets for NOC operators. You can get in, but you'll have to start at the bottom.

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[jessecurry]

where is that company located? Do you know of any similar companies in the Tampa area. I'd love to have the chance to "get my feet wet" programming something that is actually needed.

Re:Developer Certs v. Code Samples

[WED Fan]

Contact your local congressman. There is so much military presence in Tampa/St. Pete. that they must have a program there. You can start by asking his/her advice, kind of the same way you start mining local managers for job leads. But, if you have a congressman that is not so good at getting money like that for programs, you may have to see what you can find from the private sector.

Warning, you'll be working well under $20/hour.

Good thing the macbook is turned off

[Marcion]

I have the computer in this photo:

http://www.oreillyschool.com/images/photo5.jpg

It is the hottest laptop I have owned, this would really hurt.

Re:CEU? Why not for credit?

[TehDuffman]

Well it is a pretty accredited college... University of Illinois Urbana. Not a shabby school.

Re:CEU? Why not for credit?

[nomadic]

I suspect the University of Illinois is a properly accredited university.

that and a ham sandwich...

[SuperBanana]

"The O'Reilly School of Technology and the University of Illinois have partnered to offer Certificates of Professional Development in information technology and related skills."

students will earn 4 CEUs (Continuing Education Units) and a CEU letter from the University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education.

$1600 (let's see- that's 2-3 weeks pay) for a new school, completely unproven? I'm eligible for tuition reimbursement and such, but my HR department would laugh me right out the door.

This CEU/"certificate of professional development" and a ham sandwich at an interview would get me something to eat.

Re:that and a ham sandwich...

[WrongSizeGlass]

$1600 (let's see- that's 2-3 weeks pay) for a new school, completely unproven? I'm eligible for tuition reimbursement and such, but my HR department would laugh me right out the door. Actually they've been doing this since 1998. From their site:

Since 1998, the University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education and the Department of Computer Science has been offering online, experiential Information Technology courses and Certificates through Useractive, a company founded by U of I instructors and alumni. A partnership was formed with O'Reilly Media in 2002, and now in 2007 UserActive's course offerings became The O'Reilly School of Technology.

Re:that and a ham sandwich...

[scott_mills_gray]

Sorry, we don't supply the ham sandwich.

Re:that and a ham sandwich...

[QuarterSauce]

Right - you just provide the $1600 CEU napkin for when he's DONE with the sandwich.

Re:that and a ham sandwich...

[ichandarin]

"Unproven" ? The University of Illinois is one of the top tech schools in the country, and has one of the longest traditions of strong distance learning programs. The university is hardly new to this, and accreditation from this school is definitely worth the price tad.

Re:that and a ham sandwich...

[Joe Snipe]

This CEU/"certificate of professional development" and a ham sandwich at an interview would get me something to eat.

That's really not true!! If I was interviewing you, I would take your ham sandwich just for wasting my time.

Re:that and a ham sandwich...

[Silver Gryphon]

From what I've read of the other posts, it seems CEUs have no credibility, so little that people aren't willing to even look at the curriculum before judging. Maybe it's from being lumped in with the "special summer courses" on handwriting analysis and speed reading. Or because votech makes people think more of engine repair than rocket science. Regardless, it's a step in the right direction.

If you have O'Reilly in your foundation, you're well equipped as far as source material; the quality of instruction is the next question. Via CEU or full regional accreditation, if your students are well trained, your training program will gain credibility.

I.T. students go after vendor certs like candy from a piñata. Why, when someone offers more foundational skills, do they criticize it? Probably because there's no 'brand name' effect to it; if they were offered CEU's from MIT I wonder if they'd complain as loudly.

Re:ATTN: Windows/Linux refugees!

[Turn-X Alphonse]

WTF. How is this related to my post?

Learn Online and Achieve!

[KJE]

They seem to have several pictures that can come up on their front page.

This one makes me think that whoever wrote the Photoshop class has some work to do on the horizontal flip slides. =)

Re:Learn Online and Achieve!

[TehDuffman]

I don't know but all those pictures make me feel like owning a desktop is so uncool.

Re:CEU? Why not for credit?

[garcia]

I was talking in general when I talked about accreditation but CEU is generally not directly transferable. They would either need to do "Life Experience" credit or ask you to do a test out in order to bring these credits into a program.

Re:ATTN: Windows/Linux refugees!

[WrongSizeGlass]

WTF. How is this related to my post? After some stringent analysis and peer review, it is my professional opinion that based on its X/Y position as compared to your post, its relationship to your post is that of a hierarchical child.

In all seriousness, the guy is just being an asshat.


warning: The above content tests positive for sarcasm and/or is a failed attempt at humor and should be taken with a pound of salt.

Wow, I think this is great...

[writermike]

Some of the drawbacks aside, I am very jazzed about this.

1. I trust O'Reilly.
2. I definitely learn more by reading-and-doing than simply reading.
3. When I try to self-learn, I have trouble dreaming up interesting/challenging projects to complete.
4. I don't necessarily have the time to devote to on-campus learning.
5. I am not interested in attaining a "degree" or a "certificate." I just want to get my hands in technologies that will help me in my job.
6. I don't find the course prices out of line.

I sincerely hope it's successful and they start offering a larger range of the courses.

Re:how is this different from their old program?

[WrongSizeGlass]

it looks exactly the same to me, so this isn't really news. well ... it's news because /. says it's news. ;-)


warning: The above content tests positive for sarcasm and/or is failed attempt at humor and should be taken with a pound of salt.

Re:Talk about frightening

[RealGrouchy]

Yeah, "The O'Reilly Tech Factor: for kids"

- RG>

The O'Reilly School of Technology

[djupedal]

"The popular book author has started the O'Reilly School of Technology... and all students will receive an iPod containing a full library of recent audiobooks, also published by O'Rielly."

I vote 'redundant'

[Anonymous Coward]

Now will you mod me Funny, Insightful, Redundant, or Flamebait?

I vote for "Redundant" because someone else posted the same "joke" a full 30 minutes before you did. It's one thing to not read the articles before posting. It's another to not do a quick scan of the comments before posting.

I've made my case. Now it's in the Hands of the Mods.

Re:I vote 'redundant'

[NanoGradStudent]

Damn you morning coffee!

Re:Maybe it's because I don't read the books

[owlnation]

...but for a second there, I saw the headline and thought it was this O'Reilly!

Personally I'm holding out for The Colbert College. I want to learn more about Truthiness and Wikiality. Just think - a whole College with no books, and no essays. YAY!

Bill O'Reilly School for Populist Punditry?

[The Monster]

Bill O'Reilly starting up a school.

Before he was in the TV business, he was a teacher, so it's not that hard to imagine.

Every day begins with the announcements over the intercom, called the 'talking points memo'.

Kids who ask questions the teacher doesn't like get called 'pinhead'.

Guest lecturer Geraldo Rivera is brought in just so the student body can heckle him.

O'Reilly has been offering this for years

[poboxbot]

This "school" has been around for at least two or three years. Same partnership between O'Reilly and the University of Illinois, same courses, same cost, same certificates.

They just rebranded it "O'Reilly School of Technology."

Re:Hard Knocks

[ez76]

Let's just hope they don't use any O'Reilly publications as textbooks. I mean seriously, is it me or did their quality peak in 1992?

Re:CEU? Why not for credit?

[scott_mills_gray]

Hi, I'm the director of this thing. Our goal is to eventually become accredited, but to do so we'll have to get some rules changed. There are a lot of rules that exist either because of the legacy of the classroom, or because of the limitations of the first generation of Learning Management Systems (LMS companies like Blackboard lobbied to get implemented.

hmm

[jswigart]

Is this the Bill O'Reilly school, where one can major in douche-baggery?

Big disappointment

[matria]

I got the "web developer" certificate over two years ago; it was a sad waste of $1,700. I found numerous errors in every course, and had to patiently explain the error several times to my "mentor" before he finally realized what was wrong. I wonder if they've ever corrected the errors.

And then the certificate itself is just a drab printout. I would have done better to fire up GIMP and make my own. Very disappointing.

O'Reilly is a "book author"?

[Lord Balto]

I thought they were a book publisher.

certified innovators

[eegreg]

we are setting out to foster and grow the next wave of innovators -- you

I have never read about someone doing innovative things based off of certificates. I don't think Perl, PHP, Java, VBscript or the Unix file system are considered innovative anymore. It is good that they emphasize actually doing things instead of just learning out of a book, but I doubt it goes far enough.

Re:O'Reilly?

[scott_mills_gray]

Ultimately, that is the goal. How we and the community responds and contributes will determine the outcome.

Re:ATTN: Windows/Linux refugees!

[kramulous]

Actually not sure how it's related. That happens a lot here.
 
But I'm not sure how you got moderated as a troll for asking.

Re:ATTN: Windows/Linux refugees!

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Welcome to Slashdot : We don't have a fucking clue either. :D

Re:Hard Knocks

[Heembo]

Industry programming certification means only one thing: that you can pass their cert exam. It has very little to do with the ability to actually write production quality, secure code.

Re:Hard Knocks

[thryllkill]

It's just you. They're still a far above par technical publisher.

Re:CEU? Why not for credit?

[QuarterSauce]

How eventual is eventual? Useractive's courses have been around since 1998 - and under the O'Reilly banner since 2005. It was CEU then, it's still CEU now. CEU certificates are great for covering unsightly wall blemishes, but not much else. Seems like the money might be better spent on courses that have actual influence over employability.

Re:CEU? Why not for credit?

[gujo-odori]

I saw the O'Reilly name on the programs and thought this could be really good. When I saw the actual course offerings, though, I was rather disappointed. A course on Unix file systems? Come on. Most of the people reading this are already quite familiar with Unix file systems.

Next, the web programming and open source programming certs are so similar that I can't see why you have them both. When I looked at the open source programming cert, I was expecting to see perl and/or shell scripting, possibly python, and followed by C and/or C++ using GCC and GNU Make.

Instead, we get perl for CGI development, Unix file systems, OO programming using Java, Intro to DB programming, and Intro to PHP.

This overlaps heavily with the web programming cert, to the point where I don't get why you even offer both. For someone like me, who has a lot of sysadmin experience, some neteng experience, and some perl background (I'm an expert at regexes, although my overall perl skills are lower intermediate at best), and whose job involves no web programming, that entire course of study would be rather non-productive. And of course, there are those who would argue that the Java isn't the best choice of an OO language for a program calling itself an open source programming certificate, Sun's recent decision to open-source Java notwithstanding.

What would I like to see in that program?

1) Perl for (non-CGI) application development
2) Shell scripting (incorporating the use of awk and sed heavily, and laying the groundwork for writing make files)
3) OO programming with python
4) Beginning C using GCC
5) Intermediate C using GCC/using GNU make
6) Beginning C++ using GCC
7) Intermediate C++

Mix and match how those go together, but an open source programming cert with that kind of content would have me reaching for my credit card right now. Your current offerings and those you list as being in development, however, just have me thinking of how this program could have been.

Re:Hard Knocks

[geminidomino]

Amen. I still swear by my animal books.

Re:Hard Knocks

[ez76]

Me too, but the real ark departed 15 years ago.

Re:CEU? Why not for credit?

[GeorgeS069]

Great suggestions and if you look into the courses further you may see some of what you have suggested is there already!

'Linux/Unix 4: Scripting for Administrators Sed, Awk, and Perl'

This is the 4th part of the Linux/Unix Admin courses.

FWIW I started the Linux/Unix Admin courses Tuesday and Ive finished the first 3 already and I will start part 4 sometime today.

I've been working with linux on and off as a hobby mostly for the past 10 years and found the courses to be interesting and I did actually
learn many new things and saw just how much I knew already :)

I'd recommend them to people vaguely familiar with linux that need to complete their admin skills and want some document to prove they have a clue.