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Ask Slashdot: How Will You Update Your Technical Skills Inventory This Summer?

Posted by Soulskill on from the underwater-basketweaving-using-node.js dept.

Proudrooster writes "As technologists, developers, and programmers it is essential to keep moving forward as technology advances so that we do not find ourselves pigeonholed, irrelevant, or worse, unemployed. If you had to choose a new technology skill to add to your personal inventory this summer, what would it be and why? Also, where would you look for the best online training (iTunesU, Lynda.com)? The technologies that immediately jump out as useful to me are HTML5, XCODE, and AJAX. How about you?"

29 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. Marketing babble galore by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This Ask Slashdot sponsored by: Dice.com.

    1. Re:Marketing babble galore by murdocj · · Score: 2

      I'm a fan of the middle ground myself. But because I've been working in Ruby on Rails I see way too much "omg you gotta switch to this cool new tech which is a little more obscure and slightly less functional and certainly less reliable than what it replaces, but wow, it's new!!!!"

      So I've gotten a bit jaded.

    2. Re:Marketing babble galore by foniksonik · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Looks like a question from a high school student to me. Maybe answer it appropriately?

      Ajax is still heavily used in web dev but typically you use a wrapper library like Jquery, Dojo or similar.

      HTML5 isn't really a skill or a technology. It's a buzzword to describe a set of HTML extensions, CSS extensions and the way you combine them with JavaScript.

      XCode is an IDE to develop Objective-C applications for iOS and OSX operating systems.

      These are fine if you have something in mind. If not might I suggest the following.

      Read a book on Design Patterns and get a cookbook for your favorite language (JavaScript, Ruby, Python, PHP, C++, LUA, etc) that uses said patterns (factory, decorator, etc).

      Try making a game using a game engine such as Unity or Unreal.

      Buy a $25 Arduino board and find some tutorials on programming for it.

      If it must be web related, try out NodeJS and use Meteor framework to build an app.

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    3. Re:Marketing babble galore by mrvan · · Score: 2

      I switched to python around 10 years ago and never looked back. People who think python is all new and shiny now are missing a lot of history - 10 years ago python was almost 10 years old and already at version 2.1.

      The language has evolved into an (IMHO) extremely elegant platform for >90% of my needs, from scripting and data processing to web applications. I especially like the way that decorators and generators allow elegant expression of many functions. Dynamic ("duck") typing has drawbacks (especially IDE support and compile-time checking) but this is lessened somewhat with pyling and unit testing, and it makes a lot of code so much more elegant than e.g. java, where you spent half your time and lines of code working around limitations of the type system. Obviously, python is not perfect. The whitespace is sometimes annoying and packaging is a mess, but at least they're working on the latter.

      Besides python, I use R for statistics and C if things need to go fast, and for the latter python makes it really easy to integrate C and python code.

    4. Re:Marketing babble galore by binarylarry · · Score: 2

      Java is SO dying, I mean the most popular operating system in the world uses it for application development:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)#Applications

      --
      Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  2. AJAX? by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 2

    It's a JSON world baby. I'm learning flash myself, it's the COBOL of the future, niche knowledge for the win.

  3. no formal training by X10 · · Score: 2

    I don't do formal trainings, not any more. I'm happy with my focus on Android, but if I'd want to switch to other technologies, I'd download the tools and read the docs on the web. Same as I did for Android.

    --
    no, I don't have a sig
    1. Re:no formal training by White+Flame · · Score: 3, Insightful

      People learn new platforms via reference materials, which brings existing programmers into their realm. This is especially true with Android, since it builds off of Java and to a lesser extent from the user & app-programmer perspective, Linux.

      Learning to program, however, is a separate skill. I'd suggest learning Java, then applying what you've learned to Android. If you're good at learning on your own, then go straight into Android programming examples from Google's materials and learn both at the same time, sussing out any weird language understandings with Java references.

    2. Re:no formal training by micheas · · Score: 2

      https://android.googlesource.com/ and your favorite dev environment (whether that is vim and various shell tools, emacs, eclipse, netbeans, visual studio, or whatever) Is the definitive source of android documentation. But, not what you want.

      If you want to see the basics of writing an android app look at the source for phonegap and titanium. Those two frameworks combined with The New Boston will allow a programmer to come up to speed quickly

      But, you seem to want to through together an app that you built yourself, without having to actually learn java and such. For that Buzztouch http://www.buzztouch.com/ is a pretty good solution, and you might not need more than that, depending on what your app does.

      --
      Work bio at MMWD
  4. spam? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This story submission feels like spam for lynda.com.

  5. HTML5, XCODE, and AJAX by Ignacio · · Score: 4, Informative

    Those are not skills for this summer, those are skills for several summers ago.

    1. Re:HTML5, XCODE, and AJAX by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 2

      Because lynda.com just happens to sell online course videos for those specific topics at $25/month?

    2. Re:HTML5, XCODE, and AJAX by sexconker · · Score: 2

      Those are not skills for this summer, those are skills for several summers ago.

      And they are skills for some monkey slave. The trick with programming is that a competent programmer with access to the internet should be able to pick up a language they've never even heard of as they go.

      Need to do X in language Y? Google.com. How to do X in Y. Read. Learn. Do.
      Code monkeys may be able to read and do by copying, but they generally won't learn unless they spend an ungodly amount of time and effort on rote bullshit (i.e., formal certifications).
      It's the application and business logic, external considerations, and the people that dictate them that are hard. If you have access to the internet, the language is the least of your worries as a programmer.

    3. Re:HTML5, XCODE, and AJAX by arth1 · · Score: 2

      Yeah, technical skills for the summer is more like how to dig a good pit barbecue, or how to remove a swimsuit with no hands.

    4. Re:HTML5, XCODE, and AJAX by mysidia · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Those are not skills for this summer, those are skills for several summers ago.

      Agreed...

      Learn yourself some HTML6, haXe, Zimbu, Opa, F#, Rails 4.0 (released a few days ago), CoffeeScript, Google Dart, Ceylon, , Django 1.5, MS Excel, 'R', Dao,Hadoop, MongoDB, C# 4.0, Python 3,

      Not. More seriously: go buy some books on cooking, and learn that, or find some other hobby that fancies you -- maybe remotely leveraging skills from your technical job, maybe not. Learn some new hobbies -- have fun; concentrate on gratitude. Happy people are more successful. Don't worry about competing with other people for "knowledge of the latest fad".

      Try to figure out which worldly subject is important, but that you know the least about -- read a book or two on it. To have depth of knowledge; reading a book isn't good enough, you need lots of experience to learn -- if you don't do a lot of programming in the language, you won't learn it very well.

      On the other hand, you can expand breadth of knowledge into other subjects such as History or Art, by reading, and doing a little ---- the weaker you are in a subject, the easier it is to learn a meaningful amount

      The fewer subjects you are that weak in.... well, the more global intelligence you will have :)

    5. Re:HTML5, XCODE, and AJAX by rthille · · Score: 2

      Ruby **shudder**

      --
      Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
  6. Vodka mostly by decipher_saint · · Score: 5, Funny

    to kill off the slow brain cells that are holding me back from synergizing my knowledge of vertically integrated mobile platforms in local cloud-based content management system datafication.

    --
    crazy dynamite monkey
  7. Node.JS by xyzio · · Score: 2

    I'll be learning the latest and greatest hotness - Node.JS. Watch me create jaw dropping, brilliant code on both sides of the request transaction. Meow. Latest and greatest? Yes, of course! http://developers.slashdot.org/story/13/06/27/1733243/nodejs-and-mongodb-turning-javascript-into-a-full-stack-language

    --
    Just because it's hard doesn't mean you shouldn't try, it means you should try harder!
  8. None of these fads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't care about web technologies and fads which will last 2 years.

    I will continue to expand my skills in C, C++, cross-development infrastructure, build tools, SOC firmware support, device drivers, build infrastructure management, Linux, compilers, and similar stuff.

    With these skills, I will still have a good job in 20 years, because most newbies are terrified of the middleware guts, because it's the hardest part, and everything is built on top of it, so it can't go away.

    Once all the AJAX experts are out of work in 15 years, I'll still be making a living writing C.

  9. Re:What? by CanHasDIY · · Score: 3

    Other than that, not irrelevant.

    Lol, damn but do I love it when some high-and-mighty know-it-all makes such a novice mistake...

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  10. Re:Assembly Language by slew · · Score: 4, Funny

    Im learning assembly language. It will never become obsolete unlike some high level languages.

    Nah, go for the metal, I'm learning binary this summer...

    0, 1, ok now time for some fun in the sun... ;^)

  11. This summer I'll learn how to dream in code by Spy+Handler · · Score: 4, Funny

    that way I can get all my work done while I sleep

  12. Re:Summer? by sexconker · · Score: 2

    When you progress to parent it will.

    That's not progression. Hell, even regression would be preferential to that. I guess it would be subgression.

  13. Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I will be re-reading MSCE course materials. Sometimes I forget where to click.

  14. ham license by NikeHerc · · Score: 2

    Gonna get my ham license this summer. I may try to take the technician and general tests the same day. I'm not sure this particular technology skill will help keep me employed, but it will surely help keep my sanity.

    --
    Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
  15. Re:AJAX is too bulky by Dahamma · · Score: 2

    Gonna be hard to beat this one...

  16. Mercenary outlook by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This seems a rather mercenary outlook to me. You are asking for suggestions on how to spend your spare time with the goal of keeping yourself employed, without regard to whether you would enjoy the subject or process.

    I'm all for goal-driven careers, but studies show that the most successful people are the ones who like what they do. It largely doesn't matter whether the skill is the most "in demand", it only matters whether the skill is in demand "enough". This is illustrated by successful people in (what we would consider) pedestrian careers such as furniture sales, property rental, or owning the local laundromat (which, BTW, is the most common way to be successful).

    The first step is discovering what you enjoy. The easiest way to do this is to spend 1 hour in quiet solitude. This is unexpressibly difficult if you've never tried it - you need a situation which has no interruptions whatsoever (kids, phone calls, other people), and you need to stick with it for the duration. Solo long road trips, long walks, hiking, and biking work well for this.

    For the first 1/2 hour your head will be full of day-to-day thoughts, reminders, personal maintenance, reviewing memories, and so on. After awhile, this will quiet down and your mind will start to wander. Whatever you think about most is likely your source of joy.

    Figure out some skill that feeds into your joy, choose a project that requires this skill and which also feeds into joy, and resolve to complete the project by the end of summer. Write the goal down (this part is important!) with as much detail as you can, stick it in an envelope, and put it away for later.

    Your brain has likes and dislikes, as well as a goal-setting mechanism that you can use to your advantage. If you want to be happy, you should start the process of being happy right now, while you still have leisure to do so.

    (Oh, and to answer your question: I'm writing a paper on hard AI.)

  17. re: Huh? by Proudrooster · · Score: 2

    Yes, that is about the size of it. I am still a command line, C, HTML/CSS, JSON, Javascript, PERL, PHP, SQL, backend database, Linux type of developer. I see apps taking over the web on tablets both native and in HTML5. I realize there is still a huge base for this stuff, but I wanted to fast forward 10 years. It was a sincere question not an advertisement for Dice.com or Lynda.com as others have suggested.

  18. C and nCurses by Sesostris+III · · Score: 2

    I used to maintain C (with curses) well over a decade ago, but it's all gone now (rusted away to nothing). However, with the advent of the Raspberry Pi (which I think runs better either headless or without going into X) I'm getting this strange urge to revisit and re-establish some C skills. Back-to-basics, as it were.

    In addition to this, I'll probably aim to study for some Java certification, and get a solid handle on design patterns.

    If I do need to get to grips with something "modern", it'll probably be Google Web Toolkit (GWT)

    OK, I'll be honest, the Java certification and GWT would be for work. The C and nCurses would be for me!

    --
    You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough. - Blake