what to learn

Mon Aug 26 14:56:25 MST 2013

okey-dokey. I'll work with ruby then. Now I need to know of the best free
training guide for ruby. I know of Learn RUBY the Hard Way but does anyone
know of anything better or more in-depth?

:-)~MIKE~(-:

On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 2:36 PM, Mark Phillips
<mark at phillipsmarketing.biz>wrote:

> My two cents....
>
> Learn what interests you.
>
> Find a project that you like, and start working on it. It can be personal,
> or opensource.
>
> Learning is life long.
>
> Just start scratching those itches!
>
> ;-)
>
> Mark
> On Aug 26, 2013 2:10 PM, "Paul Mooring" <paul at opscode.com> wrote:
>
>>  <ignore>I don't care for python at all and actively avoid it.
>>  Syntactically is a bad idea that should go away and the "there's only one
>> way to do it" attitude is completely wrong.</ignore>
>>
>>  Bash vs. <insert your scripting language of choice> are good at
>> teaching different things.  Bash is mandatory for sys-admins but generally
>> doesn't teach great scripting/programming practices as semantically it
>> works quite different.  Any other more robust language (perl, python and
>> ruby being the big 3) will do a much better job of teaching you "how to
>> code" by introducing proper usage of things like functions, objects
>> (hopefully) and data structures.  In my opinion you would be well served by
>> either one depending on what you're hoping to gain from it (bash for
>> leveling up your sys-admin or python for building a dev baseline).
>>
>>
>>  Paul Mooring
>> Operations Engineer
>> www.opscode.com
>>
>>  ------------------------------
>> *From:* plug-discuss-bounces at lists.phxlinux.org <
>> plug-discuss-bounces at lists.phxlinux.org> on behalf of Michael Havens <
>> bmike1 at gmail.com>
>> *Sent:* Monday, August 26, 2013 1:58 PM
>> *To:* Main PLUG discussion list
>> *Subject:* Re: what to learn
>>
>>  Thank you so much for your answers. Okay... here is what I think I'll
>> do; scripting and linux from scratch first. While programs are compiling
>> with LFS I'll work on python. I have a python book, it is Python, How to
>> Program but it is old (2002). I also have a book entitled "Linux Shell
>> Scripting with BASH". What do you recommend? I think I should do scripting
>> with BASH because, while it too is old (2004), BASH has always been the
>> same and therefore the age of the book is irrelevant (I think).
>>
>> :-)~MIKE~(-:
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 8:34 AM, George Toft <george at georgetoft.com>wrote:
>>
>>>  To add to what Paul said . . .
>>>
>>> What interests you?  I know many sysadmins that don't develop code; many
>>> developers that can't spell Linux (OK, they can, but they also think 777
>>> permissions fix everything, even access to data files).  I've even met SA's
>>> that couldn't script, but that limits their usefulness and shows a lack of
>>> motivation and curiosity - both highly desirable traits in the workplace.
>>> IMHO, learn scripting not just to learn it, learn it to make your work more
>>> efficient.  If you can document some manual task, you can automate it.
>>> Then you can then run that automation on all the servers in your care and
>>> have time left over, which makes you efficient.  In a previous job, I had
>>> over twice the number of servers as anyone else on my team, and four times
>>> the company average because I documented and semi-automated the server
>>> build finishing process, and I automated the daily health check.  So all my
>>> servers were consistent (almost identical) and I was done with my daily
>>> routine by 10am.  This gave me time to help others, project work, find ways
>>> to improve processes, collateral duties and irritate management.
>>>
>>> And then there's security . . . I got a phone call one day asking to
>>> speak to the head of IT Security.  I work at a large organization and
>>> quickly counted up 11 different security organizations - which one would
>>> you like to talk to?  Click.  LOL.  We have network, application,
>>> infrastructure security organizations, and their operations, engineering
>>> and architectural groups.  And don't forget audit, compliance, and CISO.
>>> Most people think network operations when they think of security, but there
>>> is so much more to it.  Looking at the 10 Domains of the CISSP (Certified
>>> Information System Security Professional) certification shows there is a
>>> lot to "IT Security."
>>>
>>> So whereas I hate to see security last in your list (most companies put
>>> security last on their list, too), the reality is you need to have a solid
>>> foundation doing *something* before you go down that road.  Understanding
>>> the fundamentals and history will help, like . . . why is there a shadow
>>> file?  . . . what is the directory sticky bit used for? . . . why isn't the
>>> classic File Security Packet suitable for some common security situations?
>>> Why did the NSA develop SELinux, then absolutely fail at deploying THEIR
>>> OWN CREATION and allow Edward Snowden* inappropriate access to classified
>>> materials (hidden question is what does SELinux provide that would have
>>> prevented this situation; and the bonus question is prove my implied
>>> assertion false)?  If I were to point to one thing in security to pique
>>> your curiosity, I would suggest looking up the FBI Top Ten for Unix
>>> Security and understand how to find and fix those problems.  As you can
>>> tell by my questions, I'm not a developer, even though I was (a long time
>>> ago in a galaxy far, far away), and that's a whole different world, too.
>>> If coding interests you, pursue certification in secure code development -
>>> that will help you in many ways.
>>>
>>> * I hope you ratbastards at the NSA read this email and understand how
>>> you utterly failed in the most incompetent way.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> George Toft
>>>
>>>  On 8/23/2013 1:11 PM, Paul Mooring wrote:
>>>
>>>   I think there's a bit of a misconception for how the industry works
>>> that leads to questions like this.  Web design is really more of it's own
>>> thing centered around graphic design and css, although programs *have* to
>>> know html these days.  Outside that it sounds like you are getting ahead of
>>> yourself in terms of specialization, everyone doing non-entry level IT work
>>> needs to know a bit of programming (you can call it scripting if you like)
>>> and any non-entry level programmer needs to know a bit the systems they
>>> right code for (sys-admin 101).
>>>
>>>  If what you're worried about is building up the knowledge needed for a
>>> career, in my opinion the right approach is "what don't I know?"  If you
>>> have never written any code before don't worry about learning web
>>> development, go learn some basic scripting simple perl/ruby/python scripts
>>> and the basics of writing code in general.  If you're comfortable with that
>>> but you don't know how your OS works, go set up a linux server or compile a
>>> kernel or whatever else interests you.  If you already know all that dive
>>> into something deeper, pick up a new programming language or run through
>>> linux from scratch.
>>>
>>>  One more thought, I'm of the opinion you can't "learn security"
>>>  Securing a system is really more of a by-product of intrinsically
>>> understanding that system and how it can be exploited.  That implies that
>>> if you aren't already very competent writing code and understanding system
>>> internals you can't be a useful security person until you are.
>>>
>>>
>>>  Paul Mooring
>>> Operations Engineer
>>> www.opscode.com
>>>
>>>  ------------------------------
>>> *From:* plug-discuss-bounces at lists.phxlinux.org
>>> <plug-discuss-bounces at lists.phxlinux.org><plug-discuss-bounces at lists.phxlinux.org>on behalf of Michael Havens
>>> <bmike1 at gmail.com> <bmike1 at gmail.com>
>>> *Sent:* Friday, August 23, 2013 11:31 AM
>>> *To:* PLUG
>>> *Subject:* what to learn
>>>
>>>  you know, I've asked the question about what to learn multiple times.
>>> I think I've been asking the wrong question. The new incarnation of my
>>> question is what do you think I should learn. Programming is one option and
>>> web design is another. Is there another option i'm not thinking  of? I
>>> guess security is a third. Any others? Things to consider when answering
>>> that question would be what is needed? What is the potential? What isn't
>>> being addressed.... things like that.
>>>
>>>  I have more questions but I guess we should get that question out of
>>> the way first.
>>> :-)~MIKE~(-:
>>>
>>>
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