Well, my previous project didn't last long. The pressures of work, and number of hours I've been working, have overtaken everything. I've just taken a week off, so I feel a bit less exhausted, and have the energy to start another course. So many half finished courses that I was thoroughly enjoying but ran out of steam to complete. So many more courses I'd like to take.
On Friday, the long awaited Linux Foundation course Introduction to Linux was released. I have a basic knowledge of Linux but many gaps so I'm looking forwards to filling those in. Another thing that I find useful about taking courses is vocabulary. I have very few words for things. I don't speak tech-speak. I don't remember the names for things. I remember concepts and ideas, but I'm really bad at labels for them. I'm not sure how anyone at work has the faintest idea what I'm talking about most of the time.
When I took one of Udacity's first courses, cs101, there were comments on the forums telling people to search for the answer instead of asking. I think that's horrible. One of the biggest problems when you're starting off in a subject is not being able to find answers for yourself. Even Google, with its auto completion and predictive suggestions can't work out what to tell me if I ask about a thingy that makes the whatsit do this. As a beginner, you don't know what is available. You don't know what to ask to get the answer because you haven't got enough of the picture yet. I would have to ask my husband or friends to give me the words to be able to look things up for myself.
Anyway, back to the course. I've been looking forwards to this for a long time. I hope I don't run out of energy before I complete it.
