Everyone knows we all got into computing to make games

READ THIS:

http://news.quelsolaar.com/#post45

Awesome read from a one-man army that built an MMO in his spare time from scratch ON HIS OWN. The article attached discusses some of his tips from his personal blog. This guy is an absolute boss and as with most people that perform incredible feats of personal achievement happens to be a wise character.

API - Application Programming Interface

The API is a term I have seen and heard a million times throughout my travels into the world of computer science and I always had a vague idea of its definition. I understood it mostly to be a kind of go-between for the user and a specific type of program.

 Turns out I wasn't too far from the truth, an article I was recently reading summarised what the API is really well so I thought I'd share it with you.

 Essentially the API is a set of pre-defined rules that programmers have to follow if they want their code to work on a certain application. For instance if you were on the web and you wanted to view a PDF file, you would have to have a 'plugin' that allows you to read PDFs within that browser. The programmer constructing that plugin however would of had to adhere to the rules set by that browser's API to create that functioning plugin.

 APIs are literally everywhere, if you're using Windows right now you may notice how, in all the menus and boxes that come up the style of these interfaces are pretty much the same and that is due to the fact that Windows itself has a general API and again programmers wanting to create programs within windows will have to adhere to the pre-defined rules of that API, making all programs developed under that API have a similar feel.

 So the next time you are considering writing code make sure you are aware of the API for the particular system you are trying to manipulate.

Facebook Group for all self-teachers

There has been talk for quite a while discussing the need for a centralized group where everyone who wants to get involved in the process of teaching yourself computer science can meet and discuss progress, tips and tricks etc..

 So I took the liberty of setting up a quick Facebook group that serves that very function.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/360250364063011/

 Join up, post articles, suggestions, wisdom.

 Share the wealth.

o O o

o o O

OOO

Introduction to Computer Memory

 Got an interesting link set to me from a friend concerning Computer Memory, apparently this text is THE text for understanding computer memory physically and theoretically. Obviously with memory being one of the most integral parts to programming I feel this has to be jumped to the top of my reading list.

ftp://ftp.linux.org.ua/pub/docs/developer/general/cpumemory.pdf

 As I am currently following the lecture series at the moment I will start updating what I am picking up from this text, from the first few pages I read already, just 'flicking through' I know it is definitely worth my while and will give me a great advantage in the future when I begin to practice assembly language and any other low-levels tinkering I may have planned.

:)

Time to tick off those hours

I've decided that trying to tackle all of computer science in one go with no real structure for someone like me is incredibly futile so I am going to structure my learning around completing a series of online lectures. Obviously biting off more than I can chew left me escaping my responsibilities in a bubble of gaming and procrastination, so I am going to ease myself into a good cycle by forcing myself to watch just one lecture a day from a selected series. As I get more confident with myself I am going to up the pace, but for now I can manage just one video a day.

 As I have stated previously I am going to be starting with computer architecture and pad out the theoretical learning with practical experience in Assembly language. I have a layman's understanding of computer architecture but I would still consider myself a complete newbie to this topic area. With everything being essentially new I am going to take this slow and do one lecture then make sure I fully get it, summarise what I know into an interesting post, then tackle the next lecture.


 The Lecture series I am going to follow is an old one from 1996 but is recommended as a great introduction to computer architecture. It follows the book 'Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs' - (The full book can be found here, for free). The sites description of the lectures is as follows;
- 'These twenty video lectures by Hal Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman are a complete presentation of the course, given in July 1986 for Hewlett-Packard employees, and professionally produced by Hewlett-Packard Television. '

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-001-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs-spring-2005/video-lectures/

The Article that started it all.

If you enjoy what is being attempted the link below is the initial page where I got the idea and the logic behind the 10,000 hours.

http://www.norvig.com/21-days.html

Incase anyone was wondering what the hell has happened I've hit a major discipline low and have spent the last three days literally fucking around. I'm still on my 9,998 hours and still struggling to understand that floating point definition. 

 I am currently sucking hard. The intention is strong the discipline is not. 

I want this, I really do.

I'm going to start listening to this wolf.