CaptainKoala335

Sometimes it gets lonely in single player survival. But there is friendship to find. Here is a photo of me and my friend the chicken:

Another Captain! This is getting complex  8) I reserve cap't  for short as there is a cap too... 8)

 

Welcome btw  8)))

Thanks. Haha! We'll figure it out :-)

Welcome to the SixtyGig forums Koala, It's nice to see that new members are joining the Minecraft Community. Love hearing about first time Minecraft experiences, when I first started playing I spent countless hours tinkering around in single player as well. Minecraft is a great way to relax, and I find that it helps me to wind down, as you mentioned. I'm fascinated by your interest in music, but I also have a question. If you could play any one instrument beside the guitar or instruments you currently play, what would it be and why? Best of luck on your application, and have a wonderful day!

Thank you. Yeah, it's a very interesting and relaxing game (though I still get scared by the occasional enderman).
If I could switch to something else professionaly, I think it would be the drums. I'm very fascinated by rhythms :-)
As an amateur I tend to get some useful sounds out of almost any instrument. Still haven't touched the steelguitar or the pedalsteel. Would be cool to try out some day, and maybe take some lessons :-)

That coffee looks nice..... I swear coffee is the most lying drink that will ever exist, it draws you in with it's amazing smell and it looks great but then you take a sip and god I can't remove that taste! It's so foul!!

 

What was I doing again before I saw you stinken lying coffee oh yea!

 

Hi ya!

 

Good luck with your app!

 

Haha. I guess you are kind of right. But I love that foul taste :-)

Pro tip: make sure you have tried coffee from a good coffee maker that has recently been cleaned. No one likes bad coffee. Not even me.

Ah the golden days of the Commodore 64... you make me want to go to my emulator!

 

Advice for a beginner... alright, lets see then. I would firstly consider how far you want to take things, where do you want to go with this; is it a side interest or an emerging passion, will it come in useful to you once you are on your degree. 

 

It's certainly a good idea to begin with Linux as you are doing, learning the terminal and about tool chains will provide you with a very strong and well rounded starting point. Also Python is a very reasonable, friendly and powerful language to start with. Additionally starting with a language such as that will give you the knowledge you need to infer an understanding of just about any other OO (Object Oriented) language you may encounter. Yes there's arguments saying Python is not fully OO but I disagree, I think that those arguments are more philosophical. Python simply doesn't enforce encapsulation any more than something like C does for instance.

 

I digress, for an overview of what I consider to be important concepts to learn then.

 

First and foremost is SOLID, these are your Object Oriented core principles. Secondly I think it's important to get an understanding of  Design Patterns. The Gang of Four produce probably the best reading material on these. For video courses I use Pluralsight a great deal (I think they have a 30 day free trial). They have a really good library of Design Patterns here. Another couple of things to consider (not necessarily important to you right now) are; Development Methodologies such as Agile/Scrum and also Test Driven Development in particular. When you start getting a bit more advanced, the latter (TDD) may come in very useful. It's not only a way of ensuring your code is clean, bug free and extendible, but it also drives out your architecture and object design.

 

I would also encourage you, if you haven't already done so, to become familiar with and use distributed source control. You can make a free account with someone like Bitbucket and use their (Atlassian's) SourceTree client which is cross platform and cross distributed source control compatible.

 

Since you're currently exploring Python I would also direct you to JetBrains and their free community edition of PyCharm. This IDE leverages the technology of ReSharper (which they also built) for Python. If you don't already know about ReSharper, it is pretty much the industry de facto refactoring tool.

 

The Python specific resources I know about are:

Obviously Learn Python the Hard Way which you're already working through.

Dive Into Python

PyGame

Python.Org

Invent With Python

Codecademy

 

If I think of anything else I'll let you know. If you have anything else you want to ask please feel free

 

Wow, these are some good tips! Thank you very much. I copied your whole post over to my "Programming - things to learn" note on Evernote :-)

Commodore was good stuff…! I miss my 64/128. "Syntax error"… "Pres play on tape".

*sniff*

For those feeling left out: https://www.youtube....h?v=C7iIkF1SNMM

I like that philosophy. It's not just applicable to music either -- it works with many things in life. If more people explored past their boundaries more, then I think there would be many less people stuck doing something they hate because they weren't able to find (or didn't look for) something they enjoy.

 

There's an interesting story my father shared with me about music. When he was a teenager, the only music he had ever heard was the classical and opera music his parents always played. While he (at first) didn't enjoy the more poppy music, he forced himself to listen to it, and eventually learned to like it. Much like you're describing here

 

 

Indeed, I completely agree. As a matter of fact I have something similar to this ethos as my own personal doctrine which I follow in relation to programming languages. I take the position of a true generalist; this means that I seek to acquire as many new languages as possible. It also means that I am unable to truly dislike a particular language. Even the 'nasty' ones like Dephi, Visual Basic and Objective C, just to name a few.

 

There are always small details and intricacies that once one digs deeper often yield an advantage, a hidden new innovation/way of application or just a deeper understanding of the way of things. Something that can be leveraged to get one out of a dire situation or simply something to find enjoyment in.

 

It does take a great deal of mental fortitude at times

This is interesting thinking! Reading these additions made me happy

Nuluvius: You're a coder? Very cool. I've always liked the idea of coding, ever since learning to write the basic commands for using a Commodore 64/128 as a child. I only learned it to play games at the time, but I always liked that I had to type something to make the games work, unlike my friends, who had newer computers with Windows at the time (approx. 1997).

I didn't learn more until very recently, actually. After being a mac user for a few years I ordered a Raspberry Pi, just to have a small minicomputer to play with, and maybe learn some Linux. I got it a few days ago, and its really fun! Typing commands in the Terminal reminds me of my Commodore. I'm navigating quite good, even after just a few days.

I've started to learn Python as well, using http://learnpythonthehardway.org. Writing simple and basic small programs for now, but it's exciting to learn some new tricks! Do you have any tips for a beginner?

Mmmmm coffee...

Hahaha, you sir, are awesome!

Hi Koala! Musicology... I'd think that would be a very interesting thing to study. I've always enjoyed playing music (although not enough to make a career out of it.

Stick around the forums, stay active, and even if you don't get in the first time, remember to keep trying!

Oh, and despite what Ros says.. Coffee is *definitely* the right answer!

It's a very interesting field, I'm looking forward to diving in later this month :-)
I will defenitely try to stick around, you all seem like kind people.

 

 

Musicology, interesting. So what are your opinions on Nightcore?

 

Electronic music isn't my main field, so I had to do a little research. It's somehow related to happy hardcore, but it isn't happy hardcore, right?

Listened to some Nightcore stuff on youtube, and it has an interesting sound :-)

 

Indeed, such attempts have previously been made to classify it. There's been a bit of a discussion about this here. I'm of the personal opinion however that due to the diversification and freedom of content creation these days it has well transcended any one particular classification attempt.

 

I'm glad you are open to considering, exploring and experiencing many different varieties of music though.

 

Always considering and exploring :-)
I find that if you stumble upon a song, artist or a genre you think you don't like, try to force yourself to listen to it a few more times. Suddenly you may notice small details, and you start comparing with other stuff you do like, and before you know it, you're digging it!

That's how I discovered jazz when I was about 15 or 16. Initially, it was a tough listening experience, with weird chords and odd melodies. Two months later I couldn't stop listening!