What is on Your Mind?

hello all my name is chris. i have no schooling in computers and i am looking to learn as much as i can befor spending any money on something i do not evern know if i would like. i see computers everwhere i go. i work for Garda.

i am asking for help in learning all i can about computers and i am willing to read anything i can. i learn better by doing. so i am asking for some help on where to start. so much to read. could you help a newbie out plzzz!!!

here is some of the books i have picked up to start learning. home networking for dummies, simplified computers, hacking the next generatton. looking to pick up some more. would like to know where i should go next in books.

---------- Post updated 12-31-09 at 05:00 PM ---------- Previous update was 12-30-09 at 09:59 PM ----------

Just want to say thanks for all the help! I see newbies are not liked. i will just learn what i can from books. have a great day all and happy new year!!

It's unfair to say newbies are not liked. No forum could exist without "newbies".

You didn't give us a lot to go on. If you want to learn everything about computers, then I'm here to tell you that's not possible!

Maybe you should just read the books you have, then decide which branch of computing you want to specialise in, then, perhaps you'd have a more specific question that we could help you with.

Wishing you a happy new year in 2010.

i want to say thanks to scottn! i have read and i still do not know what i want to learn. there is alot out there to read on computers. i would like to know what kind of programming is the best for a newbie to learn. if i want to be in to net i learn what?

is unix and linux the way to go for the net?

i have also thought about java?

i just need some help with where to put all my thought right now.

i am better at hands on. is there one that you can learn by making your own programms?

At this point, I'm inclined to offer the canned "google is your friend" response.

From Active Directory up to Z (pronounced Zed!) and a whole lot of everything in between could be relevant to you. No-one here will advise you (hopefully) to learn C# or Java or .Net if you don't have the pre-requisite skills. Those being, a fundamental understanding of basic programming.

My personal point of view is that C is the best language ever devised. Before I started on that I learned (as my first "proper" language) Pascal. And BASIC before that (and Z80 assembler before that).

PHP is a nice language. Download something like Apache Friends, or something similar, and bash away. Download Linux (pick one), install it and bash away at shell scripting.

I wouldn't advise starting with Java, Perl, or the likes until you've mastered the basics.

First you have to decide what it is you want to learn.

Google is your friend.

Do you have any friends or family in the field? If you do I would suggest asking them about their jobs. Ask about what they like/dislike, the skills required, etc. Another thing I would do is look up the various computer related jobs and then read up on some of the job functions. For example if you are looking into what a Network engineer does, read up on the basics of routing and switching. For programming, learn a little bit of a simple programming language like BASIC.

I am a systems administrator and what I do is manage the day to day operations of our servers. I work with several other system administrators doubled up as help desk techs at one of our many sites in a 24x7 environment. Some things I do on the job is shell scripting and light perl programming, user account management, fix problems users have, manage backups, periodically check servers for hardware and software problems, assist support vendor engineers and developers with installations, occasionally install updates, write documentation, and other things. I enjoy the challenge of figuring out those weird problems that occasionally pop up, the satisfaction of seeing my scripts in action, and helping users (the appreciative ones anyway). I don't enjoy having to work a non-normal schedule 2/3 of the year.

I hope this helps.

what you mean by "google is your friend"? i had a long talk with a guy last night at a new years party. he works on computers. he builds his own and works on a call center.

he told me the same thing as all you find what you want to do. pick something and work on it.

i told him hard to pick then there is so much. he told me that you can not learn it all and even if you could you could not be good or great at all of it.

so i will just keep reading and learn the BASIC. maby try some of everything but language. i will only try one language at frist so i don not get messed up.

thanks all for the on going help in my learning and have a great 2010 and may all your wish and dreams come to be. happy new year.

i am off to barns and noble. read read read. reading is never done. learning is never done eather.

my brain hurts

That is not true at all.

Newbies are very much liked when they respect the community by doing their own research first.

You should show that you have done your own "homework" first, which means you should not simply start posting questions that can be answered by searching our database or the network (like using your friend Google).