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Storm and School Update
21 January 2010 09:40 amWell, we didn't get a thing except some pretty views of storm clouds, but apparently Canton got plastered by a tornado. Mom said this morning that 50-60 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed. That's pretty significant. I hope ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bonatirer and her house are okay! She's had enough troubles.
Today is a little bit cooler - high below 70 - and less humid, and the wind is still brisk but from the west instead of the south. (Hence the lower humidity.) Looks like the wind will keep up through Monday at least, from various directions.
Tornado in January. *shakes head*
In other news, I think this class will be fun, or at least the programming part; later on we'll be applying the stuff somehow to a real business and its accounting cycle, and that sounds less interesting to me. But VB sounds a lot easier to work in than Java or C++, since so much stuff is already pre-programmed. So a programmer can focus on what the program actually does, instead of so much effort on the visual display.
As a matter of fact, I read the first chapter in the Visual Basic textbook last night and I was actually excited when I finished it. "Stop the presses!", right? I rarely enjoyed reading any of my textbooks, much less my computer books. But this book makes sense. The first chapter gives a 50,000-foot level overview of why programming?, Why Visual Basic?, good programming principles, thumbnail sketch of where VB came from, etc.; all in all, what I'd expect from a textbook first chapter, but surprisingly with more practical information and less nebulous. The real surprise, though, is how easy to understand it is. Yes, I have a computer science minor, so I knew a goodish bit of the programming info. But I have never ever had a textbook that was even remotely as readable as this one. All of my computer texts used the typical programming jargon that I had to force myself to concentrate on, to read carefully and have to guess from context at the meaning. And I'm not stupid, and I've always been a fast reader with high comprehension. This book, though, is truly a teaching text, that explains not only What but Why, yet in ordinary language. It's really pretty awesome.
If you're curiousand it's either that or watch paint dry, give the first chapter a shot. The whole textbook is available for free on the professor's website.
A drawback to the course is that at least for a while, I'll have to be taking my laptop to school. We'll be working in Visual Basic 2008, but the lab computers only have VB 2005. They won't have 2008 installed until the school get some sort of licensing issue worked out. (I work in contracts and have dealt with licensing myself, so I'm not holding my breath that that'll happen any time soon.) It's not that I mind working on my computer, of course; it's a nice computer and I like my military surplus bag that doesn't look at all like a laptop bag. But it's rather heavy. And not only do I have to walk from my car to the school building, I have to take it from my car to my work building and back, for no other reason than I'd better not leave it in the car all day. *sigh*
bonatirer and her house are okay! She's had enough troubles.Today is a little bit cooler - high below 70 - and less humid, and the wind is still brisk but from the west instead of the south. (Hence the lower humidity.) Looks like the wind will keep up through Monday at least, from various directions.
Tornado in January. *shakes head*
In other news, I think this class will be fun, or at least the programming part; later on we'll be applying the stuff somehow to a real business and its accounting cycle, and that sounds less interesting to me. But VB sounds a lot easier to work in than Java or C++, since so much stuff is already pre-programmed. So a programmer can focus on what the program actually does, instead of so much effort on the visual display.
As a matter of fact, I read the first chapter in the Visual Basic textbook last night and I was actually excited when I finished it. "Stop the presses!", right? I rarely enjoyed reading any of my textbooks, much less my computer books. But this book makes sense. The first chapter gives a 50,000-foot level overview of why programming?, Why Visual Basic?, good programming principles, thumbnail sketch of where VB came from, etc.; all in all, what I'd expect from a textbook first chapter, but surprisingly with more practical information and less nebulous. The real surprise, though, is how easy to understand it is. Yes, I have a computer science minor, so I knew a goodish bit of the programming info. But I have never ever had a textbook that was even remotely as readable as this one. All of my computer texts used the typical programming jargon that I had to force myself to concentrate on, to read carefully and have to guess from context at the meaning. And I'm not stupid, and I've always been a fast reader with high comprehension. This book, though, is truly a teaching text, that explains not only What but Why, yet in ordinary language. It's really pretty awesome.
If you're curious
A drawback to the course is that at least for a while, I'll have to be taking my laptop to school. We'll be working in Visual Basic 2008, but the lab computers only have VB 2005. They won't have 2008 installed until the school get some sort of licensing issue worked out. (I work in contracts and have dealt with licensing myself, so I'm not holding my breath that that'll happen any time soon.) It's not that I mind working on my computer, of course; it's a nice computer and I like my military surplus bag that doesn't look at all like a laptop bag. But it's rather heavy. And not only do I have to walk from my car to the school building, I have to take it from my car to my work building and back, for no other reason than I'd better not leave it in the car all day. *sigh*
