Hi David,

What you are asking about is what I was hoping this Meetup would be about. I'm a Network Infrastructure Engineer (routing, switching, firewalls, loadbalancing, etc.) and would like to keep growing my overall skills. I'm finding more and more that there are certain skills that I need to be able to have in order to keep up with the changing IT landscape. With tech like SDN, NFV, and DPDK imminently upon us, as well as the prevalence of linux as the base of most all virtual appliances (Vyatta, pFsense, Juniper, etc.), I'm finding that what I really need to be concentrating on is learning scripting with BASH, FreeBSD, and Python/Django. I know that it is a slightly long row to hoe but it's better to start now than never. I'm currently in the research stage of finding resources to best facilitate my learning. What other options have you come across in the free variety? My philosophy is to first exhaust my free options to prove to myself that I've earned the right to pay for continuing to pursue a goal. That way I learn what I can on my own and make better use of paid services when I get to them, and my understanding is more reinforced. My company has paid for a Pluralsight subscription for us that has some really nice course offerings that I'll be able to take advantage of, but seems like they don't go as deep as some of us would like. Anyhow, let me know what else you've tried and what you felt like helped to give you a solid foundation to work from.

Thanks,

Ellis

Thank you,

Ellis Lofton, CCNA, CCP-N, CCP-M, MCP

On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 3:06 PM, Doug Hellmann <[address removed]> wrote:

That’s great information to have, David, thanks for sharing. I’ve heard of the O’Reilly courses, but never looked at them closely before. I’m asked frequently about good resources for folks who want to learn Python, so it’s good to have your evaluation to relay.

Doug

On Jul 3, 2015, at 2:16 PM, David Jackson <[address removed]> wrote:

I guess it just depends on what you're willing to pay for.  I suspect too that it's an easy trap to read the lessons but not actually work through difficult problems.  I like O'Reilly because there's plenty of expertise there.  I've read lots of O'Reilly books over the years, and I feel like I'm in pretty good hands.  At the end of the courses, I have challenges I have coded my way through and a history of projects that I have met within a timeline.  Each class is a meaningful accomplishment. 

Python 4 may be the most challenging of all, to me at least.  I'm on lesson 3, and I'm already pretty deep into composition and delegation.  So, it's a challenge  But I understand some people might want to find a more affordable way.  I took the Code Academy Python course in about  two weeks, and that wasn't even a tickle compared to what we're getting into here.  So I suspect there's some truth to the old adage, "you get what you pay for."  At least some of the time.  So I can recommend O'Reilly.  However, YMMV. 

Cheers,

Dave

On Friday, July 3,[masked]:34 PM, Amit <[address removed]> wrote:

Wow! I just checked the pricing. Why pay so much when you can learn Python on your own? If you need some discipline, take Coursera or EDX MOOCS.

Amit

On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 12:26 PM, Eila Elyaskordi <[address removed]> wrote:

Hey David,

How do you like the class? I'm assuming it's not bad considering you've continued up to level 4.

Was thinking about taking it. Do you think it's worth the cost?

Thanks,

Eila

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 27, 2015, at 3:24 PM, David Jackson <[address removed]> wrote:

I hope this isn't inappropriate, but I could use some help in my Python studies.  Some in-person type of help, since I tend to need face-to-face learning in addition to the old-fashioned face-in-a-book kind. 

I've been taking the O'Reilly School of Technology Python classes, and I'm on Python4 (Advanced Python) now, and I could really use some face-to-face help. 

Is it appropriate to get some help here?

My online mentor has been great, but it usually takes a couple of days at least to get back on emails, and at this point, he wants me to struggle.  Which, I AM.  But what I really need is to ask questions in real time, if possible.  I think that's a big disadvantage of online learning.  I miss out on all the collaboration you get with other students. 

Plus, I know sometimes all I need is a single sentence to get me back on track to solving the problem du jour. 

Is anyone game?

I'm stuck on implementing a 3-D array as a list right now.  Trying to get the __getitem__ and __setitem__ methods right.  I'm struggling at the moment.

Thanks in advance!

Dave

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