Links
Online Quiz!
Resources for this Course
- Solutions to selected homework problems
- Some notes on passwords
- Lifehacker: How I'd Hack Your Weak Passwords
- The First-Timer's Guide to Building a Computer from Scratch, by Gina Trapani
- Ubuntu on a Flash Drive - Although you'll be getting a 4GB flash drive with Ubuntu and data partitions that you can use in this class, here's how you can actually go about making your own.
Websites
- slashdot.com — Computer geek central, online
- boingboing.net — Where technology and culture clash.
Recreational Reading
- In the Beginning Was the Command Line, by Neal Stephenson
- Microserfs, by Douglas Coupland
- Close to the Machine: Technophila and its discontents, by Ellen Ullman
Python
- Python.org - The official Python website
- Python Tutorial - A nice online reference
- How to Think Like a Computer Scientist - Elkner J., Downey, A.B., and Meyers, C. 2009. Online textbook.
- Dive Into Python - Pilgrim, M. Excellent introduction to Python, especially for experienced programmers
- Software Carpentry - An intensive introduction to basic software development practices for scientists and engineers, using Python
- Computer Programming for Everybody, by Guido van Rossum
- Audio/Video Instructional Materials for Python
- A Byte of Python, by Swaroop C H. Online text/tutorial.
- Wikibooks: Python, an open-content textbook, online and available for PDF download.
- Pygame.org - Not a bad little module if you want to experiment with programming games
- Switch On the Code: Pygame, a nice set of links with some good tutorials (found by Buike--thanks!)
Open Source Stuff
- http://www.ubuntu.com/ - Free operating systems don't get any user-friendlier than this.
- http://www.linuxmint.com - A really nice Debian Linux distro.
- Contributing to Open Source - There are lots of ways to do this!
- Contributing to OpenOffice.org - Ways to contribute to this specific project.
Project Inspirations
There's nothing like putting together a little project to get you knee deep into programming. The following programs might serve as inspiration:
- http://www.nethack.org/ - A classic, terminal-based, adventure game.
Hardware
- Ars Technica System Guide: September 2008 Edition - Build your own box; all the cool kids are doing it.
Miscellaneous
Odds and ends. Explore.
- Robots... need programs. This is why we code!
- Proton Radio - Music to code by...!
- How I'd Hack Your Weak Passwords - This is not a tutorial! It's an explanation of why strong passwords are important.
- TuringMachine.com - Wow. Serious.