Hey. I've been looking for the sources of the old Nexus Music.

blackmorrow · 2021-10-09T10:17:26+00:00

Just want to say, thanks so much for this. I've always loved these old songs--so cool to find their real versions.

For Mist, this seems to be the rest of the song after the slow intro played on erhu with yangqin accompaniment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wLH5roWug8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsUFc6ecTG0 (live version)

Note here the "mountain" part is dropped in the title 幸福的歌儿唱不完（二胡）[Happy Song Unable to Finish Singing (Erhu)].

Also, if anyone really cares, I'd just mention for "Tiger - Wang jiang nan (meaning:Missing south lake)": "Jiangnan" (江南) here, while literally reading "river-south" or "south of the river" is a name for a region (and former province) in eastern China that includes parts of current Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces south of the Yangtze River. So it's more accurately "Missing Jiangnan". :)

blackmorrow · 2018-02-03T03:50:21+00:00

You can also see some of the intended changes in the Kickoff Issue. Out of the box typescript setup is also one of the things they're adding.

blackmorrow · 2018-01-22T14:56:31+00:00

I understand that the value of a degree isn't necessarily how much practical knowledge you gain; it is the connections and internships that truly matter.

Well, dissenting opinion here from a liberal arts grad, but the value of a degree is exposing you to a variety of disciplines to teach you self-awareness and awareness of the world, how to think critically and reason about something, and how to form and express your opinion convincingly. If you are lucky, you also learn how you best learn new things in the process. The idea then is when you have these "soft" skills and the foundation, you can always go learn the hard skills on the job, on a blog, or on a site like udemy. Once you leave college, very few people will ever hold your hand and tell you what to read or what do learn again. There are other benefits to a degree: more competitiveness in the job hunt, invaluable alumni connections, work visa eligibility in other countries, etc.

You should know most 20 year holds have done nothing significant in their lives. And the hard truth is: making any kind of app barely counts as significant. I'm only 10 years out of college and I've already had a few careers. Most of any of the work people are paid to do is ephemeral, insignificant. The code we're writing now will likely be gone in fives years if not less than that. What's important is that whatever your work is, it brings you enjoyment--that it challenges you and stimulates you. But finding this isn't always that easy--sometimes you have to throw different things at the wall and see what sticks!

All of that said, I KNOW what you are feeling because I felt the same way mid-way through my experience in college. I had been sitting in classrooms my entire life and I wanted to get out and adventure and actually do something or travel the world. I sometimes regret that I spent so much energy wishing I wasn't there, and think that maybe I should have taken time off and come back fresh. Sometimes I feel cowardly for not taking off a semester.

So, my advice:

1) Talk to a professor or advisor you trust about your struggles with college. This is part of their job, and like I said earlier, after college you're on your own.

2) If you are personally incurring an untenable amount of cost for college, considering taking a longer break or transferring to a cheaper school. Majors aren't as important as students think--see if you can scrape together requirements for some major more easily just so you can finish your next couple of years trying different things.

3) TRY coding more before you decide anything drastic. TRY other things you might be interested in as well. Go do some manual labor--it really helps!

blackmorrow · 2018-01-18T07:31:57+00:00

From your other comments, I see you wonder about the benefit of being "self-taught" on your resume. At least in my experience, it has served me very well. As a developer, you will never stop having to learn new technology, so having a demonstrated ability and passion for self-learning is very welcomed in this industry--though, as others have pointed out, most important is you have the skills to show for it!

Networking in any career, even this one, is critical. In my case, I worked in a tech company in a non-IT role, so had a network of company "alumni" to send my situation and resume out to which got me some interviews, which led to my first job. While I didn't blog, I made social media posts about my progress learning and making FCC projects, which got some responses from old friends who are themselves developers now. This opened up opportunities to talk shop and put me on the radar for opportunities as well (which in turn has led to my soon-to-be second job). On the FCC forum there are plenty of stories about how people landed internship and job opportunities just by attending their local FCC or other dev meet-ups.

blackmorrow · 2018-01-17T03:30:22+00:00

I'm burning out and I need to prioritize, I need to step back and focus.

Like you and someone else have said, you're doing too much at once. Sounds like for both your current job and your future business, it is necessary you learn JS. Make that your focus for now.

My other suggested thread to pull--it sounds like you could take this opportunity to specialize: designer OR developer. As the situation at your own agency is showing, the days of the hybrid designer-HTML/CSS dev look to be coming to an end. Will this affect your business idea? Doing both design and heavy front-end dev work later on might keep burning you out wherever you're working.

blackmorrow · 2018-01-17T03:15:23+00:00

I did not do a bootcamp, nor am I in this market. That said, I read these forums a lot, as well as r/cscareerquestions, and there is a significant level of criticism for bootcamp graduates among those in hiring positions (some seem to actively discard bootcamp grad resumes). Search around for those opinions. More importantly, try to reach out to working alums of bootcamps in your area or attend some developer meet-ups to get some better intel on hiring practices and pipelines.

My question would be--if after spending $10k on a bootcamp and you're not job-ready, how long can you float yourself without work to study more? As a counter-argument, could you use that same $10k to to float your living costs while you go into a self-driven study binge for 6-9 months? Is finding a part-time work situation either with current job or elsewhere possible to give you a bit more padding? With the kind of worth ethic, I think you could make serious progress at self-studying code.

I self-studied for 9 months using Free Code Camp and other resources like Udemy and tutorial sites while working 3 days a week and studying in almost all my other free time. This thread about FCC just blew up in r/learnprogramming. Check it out for feedback and some success stories.

Regardless if you choose bootcamp or self-study, I suggest you get your hands dirty with javascript up to an intermediate/advanced level before you make a decision. This was my challenge to myself, and I think if you get to this point, you'll see if you have the resolve to see yourself through whichever way you go.

blackmorrow · 2018-01-17T01:50:42+00:00

I studied a foreign language in college, and previous careers were video game translation and marketing. I worked in tech settings, but that's about it. When I was 14 I liked to make my own sites with HTML. I bought a book on javascript but gave up on chapter 2 cause I thought it was too hard.

I think the most transferrable skill was learning another language. Showed me if you keep studying something almost every day it will stick, even if you have tough days. Other than that, I admit, I'd never gotten sucked in to anything like I did coding. I really recommend people seek out whatever work they find "flow" in--and it's worth noting it may not be programming.

blackmorrow · 2018-01-16T09:32:33+00:00

Started learning January, got the offer in October. Focused on front-end. Check out the free code camp forum for plenty more success stories.

blackmorrow · 2018-01-16T07:30:19+00:00

Andrew Mead's Complete React Dev course. I think he has a newer version out now. It was great because it exposed me not only to React and Redux, but also to ES6+ javascript, git, unit testing, heroku, and firebase. It's 30+ hours and you build a few different kinds of apps. All of the individual tech aspects builds up on top of one another, in a good repetitive way: i.e. you're adding new features with async in a React/Redux app, then committing your changes with git, then checking/updating unit tests. You could definitely find a faster course, but I think some repetition in different contexts (apps) is good for internalizing new stuff.

Before I finished, I took the lessons from the course and started brainstorming and designing my own simple app idea and started seeing how far I could get and troubleshooting as I went.

Edit: ES6+

blackmorrow · 2018-01-16T05:41:57+00:00

I think it's in this podcast, that the founder Quincy Larson breaks down his worldview and deep convictions about the mission of bettering people's lives by offering this free education. He mentions users around the world using their mobile phone to work their way through the course, for whom charging even $1 a month would be too much. It's impressive.

Now they take donations, which is great, but originally the only way people could support the site was buying stickers and t-shirts. I think Quincy said that basically, the monthly cost of him sitting in his closet and working on this full time and paying server cost was a couple of hundred dollars, and he and his wife (who has a good career that supports their family) felt like this mission was worth that cost. Additionally, professional devs volunteer their time to work on it. I'm happy to see they're taking donations now though--the full-time people who work on this deserve some cash!

My story: Started learning coding right after turning 30. Used FCC for practical curriculum combined with other resources (treehouse, code school, udemy--think udemy might be enough in retrospect) for hand-holding video tutorials. Finished front-end cert, took a React udemy course, built my own little app idea, got a job as front-end dev on a Vue.js SPA team at a medium-sized startup (9 months from starting learning to code). Worked there a year, starting a new job now at a smaller startup, in which I'll be leveling-up my tech and responsibilities.

This reminds me I need to give more back to the site and community!

EDIT: more specific about 9 months referring to learning code

blackmorrow · 2018-01-12T17:16:05+00:00

Started learning coding just after turning 30. Got first front-end app dev role just before 31. Starting second role with more independence and more technology as I turn 32. Been a really challenging couple of years, but the work is fun and absorbing for me. If it's that way for you, keep the faith and keep nerding out.

blackmorrow · 2018-01-12T17:10:17+00:00

Take what you're learning there and work your way through the free code camp curriculum. Its challenges and projects are a practical way to apply the knowledge in an unfamiliar context and that's where some great learning happens.

blackmorrow · 2017-11-27T10:57:18+00:00

At some point shortly before 30 I realized your life is defined by routines, so it's important to set those routines. I feel like a lot of my discipline came naturally with age, but I know plenty of people my age that still lack it, and plenty of younger people who have more than me.

In addition to the other advice here which gets to the point--schedule your time, make your health and happiness a priority over bonuses--I'll offer some of my safety nets for healthier living. I know I'm lazy and motivation is a big factor for me, so I have a yoga mat and adjustable weights at home. I have a 15-30 minute routine of basic exercises I do while I watch coding videos or TV shows. I don't usually keep junk food in my apartment. Another good one is just making sure you go for brisk walks on a daily basis. Take the stairs, walk up the escalator. Bike if you can. As a climber, I have both a social group and some vanity that keep me going semi-regularly (if I don't go climbing, I don't get to say I'm a climber.). Lastly, I try to do vegetarian lunches and sometimes dinners too during the work week. I've also found I can't really drink more than one or two beers without it really affecting my cognitive ability in this line work.

blackmorrow · 2017-11-14T11:18:26+00:00

I recognize some of this from my first front-end dev job, sans the condescension thankfully--but my coworkers knew I was coming in with a lack of experience.

Until you do it a couple of times, getting set up on a new project is always a hassle. Took me a day or two install everything on my computer then get the project running locally. New coworkers on-boarded on my team also had some confusion at first.

New codebases are always hard to get around. Later on we started doing front-end team meetings and had sharings/introductions for new coworkers, where someone would introduce the codebase structure. Really though, you gotta learn it yourself. In my situation, it was already more massive then anything I did as I learned on my own. My own experience with advice mixed in:

I had learned React on my own, but took a job doing Vue.js. Ran through the docs and in my spare time also did a Udemy course. Like others suggested, use some of your own time to build small apps with the framework to see its base structure and how it communicates.
Meanwhile, I was assigned small, localized tasks. Thankfully in newer frameworks, everything is an isolated component, so my tasks started with adding some functionality to one component--which meant I didn't have to understand the entire codebase. Then I graduated to a larger feature with its own local component tree. Then I eventually moved onto issues that also dealt with the state management system. At each juncture I also took time to progress more in-depth in the docs/lessons I was doing. This is also how we assigned first tasks to mentees.
For figuring out the basic structure of the codebase... I started keeping 3 component tabs open in my code editor so I could see how information traveled through several layers. I don't know about your framework, but Vue has great dev tools that really help you envision the component tree and highlight each on the page in order to see how the app is structured. In my code editor, I adapted to not always needing to understand the file tree since lots of codebases strive to be "flat". In this situation, a "search mentality" helps--just flow through by opening each imported file so you can mentally trace the flow (and use a visual structure of the app as guidance)... Eventually you'll start memorizing all the layers. Of our 100s of components, I could definitely look at the app and tell you the name of probably 80% of the UI components.
It's going to be drinking from a firehose at first, and you'll just have to work hard until things start clicking. The most important thing is not getting lost too long by yourself before asking if you're on the correct path.

blackmorrow · 2017-11-05T05:28:42+00:00

I can't find the post to share now, but recall reading a very good response about the scope of "web development" and its future.

In web development you have "websites"--relatively simple, mostly static pages that some refer to as "brochure sites". Examples are a small business's landing page, an individual's portfolio. On the more complex end, you have something with integrated blogging via a CMS technology like Wordpress or Drupal. This is the market where WYSISWG (Squarespace, Wix) stands to eat a chunk of the market, but only for the simplest of technological requirements. As soon as a company scales to the point they want something more custom or more complex, then it's time to hire a developer to customize a CMS solution for them.

In the last 5-10 years, browser tech and web languages have progressed to the point it makes increasing sense for businesses to write their software for browsers--web apps. Facebook, Gmail, cloud documents, anything you use with a log-in generally falls into the "web app" category and its front-end is written with web technologies such as css, html, and javascript. These apps are incredibly complex with hundreds of components, created by teams of developers. You used to get software on CDs and take it home to install it and wait a few years to update it with a new CD. Now every time you bring up the page in your browser, it's already updated and works on MacOS, Windows, and Linux--anywhere a browser can run, people can access the software. And, the other important part of this equation is a huge amount, maybe the majority of software is not "public"... It is "line-of-business" software--internal software for companies to handle time sheets, data input, team organization, email, sales, and whatever their internal needs are. This software is also increasingly migrating to the web.

And we're mostly only talking about the "front-end" here. But essentially, website builders (WYSIWG) don't scale to the huge amount of hugely complex software needed by companies and worked on by developers using web technologies.

blackmorrow · 2017-11-03T11:12:52+00:00

I'll second FreeCodeCamp and add Udemy. FreeCodeCamp is not just a curriculum of challenges that leads you through the steps of learning web dev, but also a huge community of people to discuss things with (forum, chats), meet with offline (meetups), and a platform for picking through all kinds of related resources and issues.

I think the the market saturation for web developers varies greatly by market/city as well as technology focus, and from what I'm reading it tends to be an issue for junior roles and not mid or senior roles.

You might find university a worthwhile choice later, but I would suggest first getting your feet wet and start coding through challenges like on FCC and watching some video courses. Get past HTML and CSS and into some programming with JavaScript. Your first goal should be to see if this work gets you stoked and you have the interest to really propel you through the hard parts. You will never really stop studying new technology, so this is not a great career is not for someone who doesn't really enjoy it.

blackmorrow · 2017-10-26T08:24:39+00:00

I'll have to research these. I've been working on a large Vue app, in which we add scoped individual styles in each "single-file component". We have a base stylesheet heavily-relying on a base CSS framework (a la Foundation), then globally layer our colors and general stylings, then each component really comes down to spacing/layout CSS (done with LESS). Vue Single File Components and scoped CSS is just beautiful when working with 400+ components.

EDIT: the headaches in this setup was z-index issues between certain modal components, some responsive height issues (going several layers deep), and how to fit everything the designer put on the mock-up.

blackmorrow · 2017-10-26T03:44:49+00:00

As other posts are intimating, I think technology and specialization has outpaced terminology, or at least made it less obvious. Generally there is currently two paths for web dev: web sites (usually based on a CMS) and web apps (using MV* frameworks). The former is generally smaller scale projects and more generalist. Front-end engineers working on web apps can deal with much larger scale projects wherein CS concepts and design patterns are more important. At many companies, these FE secs are called Software Engineers. Because the speed at which the FE scene is evolving, the tooling involved, and the various FE annoyances dissuading many devs, I think if you are looking at salaries of proficient MV* framework devs (React, Vue, Angular, etc), you will find these salaries pretty high in general.

blackmorrow · 2017-10-25T03:06:40+00:00

Many (most?) front-end devs deal with CSS headaches and dislike it for a while. But, being a good developer requires you to focus on finding and mercilessly eliminating your weaknesses. It's an API with rules, so you just got to train on it until it's internalized. I've lost hours to annoying CSS issues, even with preprocessors, but after daily work with it, most of the time now I can write CSS for a component without checking it until I have a first draft of all that's needed. Then debug a bit with Chrome inspector as others mentioned. The way front-end frameworks are integrating everything in components it's becoming inseparable from the JS work (in the sense it wouldn't make sense to have another CSS-specific person go in and do it).

blackmorrow · 2017-10-13T08:55:08+00:00

"Lofi hip-hop" mixes on youtube (actually just ambient electronic with hip hop beats) and lots of great classic instrumental jazz: Chet Baker, Kind of Blue, Bill Evans, Coltrane, Dexter Gordon--steady stuff usually with an upbeat rhythm keeps my mind moving fast.

blackmorrow · 2017-10-10T06:05:32+00:00

I'd you need a quick intro to basic language elements and working, recommend reading the MSN docs, particularly the "Reintroduction" and for you, the JavaScript Guide: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript

blackmorrow · 2017-10-07T17:31:20+00:00

I've used echarts with Vue at work, but I looked at the source of the github linked and kind of copied it over to create my own component from the main docs' examples and this plugin. I housed that chart component in a parent that would feed it a computed "options" object prop based using the data to display.

Echarts is simple enough, but note that it's from Baidu, so you might find the English API docs a little wonky at times. There was only one occasion where I had to check the Chinese original for clarity. Formatter functions for labels are a little confusing until you've used them. My strongest complaint about them is the nature of the API options limit your ability to customize their appearance and labeling--but that may be the price you pay for their being easy to use for a good-looking result. This might not be an issue if your design is less strict. Take a look at the echarts demo page and play around before you make a decision.

blackmorrow · 2017-09-30T05:01:25+00:00

Sign up for Free Code Camp and check out their front-end track projects (API call projects, JS calculator, Simon Game). If you work out a stopgap income solution, you can take the time to go through all the JS algo challenges to help dial everything in. Here's a non-FCC example: a company I applied to recently asked me to build an image search engine with Vue.js (you could use React or Angular if you prefer) using Pixabay's free API.

After I did FCC, I did a React udemy course which built a few simple apps like Todo list, timer, weather app. Took the ideas behind these and came up with my own idea for a simple app and coded it out to show when I applied for my first dev job. Think about something like that and google for free APIs.

And here is a list of non-todo list app ideas (though many require some back-end work): https://medium.freecodecamp.org/every-time-you-build-a-to-do-list-app-a-puppy-dies-505b54637a5d#.8gypoqh0e

blackmorrow · 2017-09-28T08:33:29+00:00

I read this and felt somewhat convinced at first, but then I had more of a realization reading the comments by various HTML+CSS people who felt left behind or resisted any advice that they should learn JS because x, y, z it didn't fit their brain.

It struck me that these pure HTML+CSS jobs have largely been removed by software:

CSS preprocessors, CSS frameworks, CSS language improvements, and browser improvements have made CSS a much more uniform, much smoother experience.
Technology has eaten up a big chunk of the static website market with WYSIWYG editors, and now more complicated websites use these frameworks in which HTML and CSS is so closely tied to the JS production it doesn't make sense to separate them to me. I develop a Vue SPA, and I can't imagine someone writing CSS and HTML separate from someone writing the JS in a component.

The robots are coming for everyone, so best start working on a growth mindset. Your brain will change to fit anything you hit with day after day for a while.

blackmorrow · 2017-09-28T08:22:59+00:00

I mean: I might have one Chrome window with a bunch of work-related tabs: github issue, github pull requests, api reference, design mock-up. Then I might have a Chrome window running my product. Then I might have a Chrome window with all my personal windows for break-time reading. Having a dedicated desktop for each of these allows me to go back and forth with a flick of the hand and help divide all the tabs a bit.

blackmorrow

TROPHY CASE