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Then I suggest that you create a YouTube channel where you explain and solve newbie questions, similar to those asked in our QA section. That would attract a lot of traffic.
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A suggestion based on my experience: Until recently I was still supporting mainframe applications written in COBOL and using DB2. Very fast, very powerful, and perfect for the hundreds of thousands of records processed in batch every night. (24/7 on call was stressful, but that's another story.)
I wanted to try other languages just to see what they were about, so I took an old problem from my college days and decided to solve it in "new" ways -- using languages I'd never learned. (example: Python)
I solved the n-queens problem: How many ways can you place n queens on an n by n chessboard such that none are attacking each other? I had to learn basic language structure and controls as well as the development environment and was able to improve my solutions through iterative improvements. First I wrote code to solve a standard 8 x 8 chessboard, then expanded to n by n. I wrote the solution in 3 different languages. Most fun I'd had programming in years.
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I like the idea of the app. I can try it out. Thanks
"It is easy to decipher extraterrestrial signals after deciphering Javascript and VB6 themselves.", ISanti[ ^]
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Welcome to the club.
Pornhub?
>64
Some days the dragon wins. Suck it up.
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theoldfool wrote: Pornhub?
Of course.
"It is easy to decipher extraterrestrial signals after deciphering Javascript and VB6 themselves.", ISanti[ ^]
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What real world computing problem interests you? Pick up something simple and decide what language you want to write it in... and then visit sites like SO.
My 2c
Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have. -Anon
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Don't beat yourself up. The number of languages, frameworks, program types, and acronyms (Machine Learning "ML" or Artificial Intelligence "AI", Programs "Apps") are exploding exponentially every day.
The reply above recommending picking one language and programming in that one, is the best answer. Also, download Visual Studio Community edition and try that. It helps a lot, displaying / correcting syntax mistakes as you go.
Finally, pick one area, to work in. For example, desktop business programs, mobile phone programs, machine learning, website development, and so on.
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The field has grown too much for universal proficiency. I suggest that you look at some subject that interests you, and learn about that.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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dan!sh wrote: None of the things make sense to me anymore.
I know that feeling! I hadn't done anything in C# for about twice that length of time, and when I went back in to write that app from my last article, it felt like I was trying to learn Greek (which I have tried and is way harder by the way!).
Just kept plodding away, picking off each problem statement one at a time.....until it did what I want.
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One author would always write a program to score bowling games in each new language they wanted to learn (with unit tests to verify) A different spin on the n queens problem.
Sudoku solver? Wordle solver?
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Find a project to complete and start chipping away, and start with a template app that has all the new bits baked in.
I wanted to learn Vue, EntityFramework and .NET Core on Linux, so I googled for a day before working out how to get
- How to get Windows Subsystem for Linux working in windows (wasn't too hard!)
- a .NET Core app with EF running on Linux (click, click...and done!)
- Adding Vue to an ASP.NET Core app, and getting it to build and run. That took a couple of days of swearing
- writing something... This is where the fun started
I had an app, it used the tech I wanted to use, but I had no idea how any of it worked so it was a process of googling, cutting and pasting, searching very specific questions for my very specific problems and bit by bit, small problem by small problem, I worked it out.
The trick for me is I had an app that used the tech I want and all I had to do was change small things and add to what was there. I could always run it and see it working, from even before I had written a line of code.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Try the wonderful world of IoT and embedded. All the old problems are new again! 512kB of RAM is generous. 6mhz isn't unheard of. No OS. And fiddling with wires and sensors to boot.
Seriously though, it actually is a different kind of development, and is far more bare metal than most bizdev and web dev stuff is. You might enjoy it.
Not sure how monetizable it is for most people, but it worked for me.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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If programming is "optional", you need a project / subject you can be passionate about. For the ones I work on, the background research was the most enjoyable (mine currently is 19th century war games). And as long as the app is responsive, don't sweat the internals in terms of what's trending.
And even "fun projects", that have any worth, will run into (many) man-months when you're managing things yourself.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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dan!sh wrote: what made you restore your dignity in your mind
I accepted that I only worked (as a developer) for the money, so yes I'm a tart. Have not written a functioning program in 3 years!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Quote: I will definitely try alcohol but was looking if there
 ... I think you mean something else like docker or kubernetes
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I understand how you feel. While I've continued to work as a developer the last several years, I've had to assume responsibility for other people's code as they've retired, left the company, or been laid off. It's reached the point now where I typically work more than half the time on code that isn't mine. Much of it is poorly done, at least from my tight-ass compulsively-neat perspective. This leaves me feeling stupid and frustrated a lot of the time.
I've learned that I occasionally have to work on something else, either code that I wrote or something new I can write. This helps to re-validate my faith in my skills.
My suggestion is to go back to something fun you worked on back when you were actively programming, and give thought to updating it. That gives you a known foundation to start from and you can learn the new stuff piecemeal rather than all at once.
Software Zen: delete this;
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dan!sh wrote: I will definitely try alcohol but was looking if there are alternatives
Vinegar is an alternative. Alcohol as a last resort not even, it will betray you. Like a bad ex wife.
3 years since work, so also useless. Jealous on people asking questions, for they work and get paid.
dan!sh wrote: what made you restore your dignity
Dignity is no longer on the menu here
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Sacred hour, it's heard aloud. (8)
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HALLOWED?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Yes, you solved it.
Sacred hour, it's heard aloud. (8)
Sacred (definition)
hour H
it's heard (homophone indicator)
aloud allowed Hallowed
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Ah! I get it now.
I was assuming "sacred" was HALLOWED, and "it's heard, aloud" was "Hello" becoming "HALLOW" but I couldn't fit the "hour" in there - hence the question mark.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Nice clue - a bit straightforward for you though 
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Time for an Oi Randor !
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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I'm busy ... my new SQL Server Dev instance isn't showing up on my local network, but the old Express edition is ... sodding software ...
Oi! @Randor
Where's the CCC?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Spiritbox - Sun Killer[^]
A friend of mine went to Graspop last week and when he came back he recommended Spiritbox to me.
Said it sounded like VOLA, but with a female vocalist.
I don't hear VOLA all that much, sounds more like Vexed to me, who were featured in a SOTW last year.
Like Vexed, they play energetic female-fronted metalcore.
Spiritbox is lead by two members of iwrestledabearonce, who are now also husband and wife.
A spirit box is a box that uses common radio signals to communicate with spirits.
The entire latest album is pretty great, but this opening song convinced me instantly.
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