There are many languages that you can learn for front end other than RoR and PHP, but they are two of the most popular right now, and will almost certainly suit your needs. Good luck, and stick with it when it gets frustrating, learning how to code is definitely worth it!
Just to clarify RoR is a framework, and PHP is a language. Each language has many frameworks to choose from. You need to learn Ruby before learning Ruby on Rails. Each framework allows for rapid development of websites or web apps, and should be learned separately from the language they support.
If you want to learn how to code backend stuff pick either python, ruby or php.
Thanks for clarifying this. I'm sure it sounds oversimplified to non-beginners but I didn't fully get the difference until I tried out Code School's Rails for Zombies and they directed me to "Tryruby.org" 1st.
I am on it! I'm getting enough here to keep me busy for quite a while! How can I find the other thread? I'm going to keep track of all of the people that help me out on this post so I can shoot you a note when I finally build something cool! Thanks so much for sharing these resources.
There are many languages that you can learn for front end other than RoR and PHP, but they are two of the most popular right now, and will almost certainly suit your needs. Good luck, and stick with it when it gets frustrating, learning how to code is definitely worth it!
Also, do you have any recommendations on whether I should have a end target to build mobile apps or web apps? I know the mobile app industry is growing,but I'm not sure which path to take. Is there a specific language targeted towards mobile app vs. web development? or is it the same background?
Thanks! This is exactly the advice I needed! I'm majoring in business, but I realized I actually really love computer science; however, I think if I majored in it then I wouldn't really love it anymore.
Unfortunately, I really think this is going to be a bust, just like the first time they tried to introduce Questions, for a few reasons.
First, some people have a very impersonal friend network, meaning that they probably don't care about the "favorite movie" (this was an example in the article, I'll use it here) of a lot of the people on their friends list. For example, people they met once, or people that they went to high school with 5 or 6 years ago, etc.
Secondly, Facebook is trying to have their cake and eat it too. Their entire basis for this new direction is that Quora and others are too impersonal, but then they add that you can query the network of your friends' friends. Friends' friends is a pretty wide net, and the original argument for Facebook Questions becomes invalid if you expand the question to that many people. Yes, I know that it's optional, but to me it shows that Facebook is trying for the shotgun method, trying to cover as much ground as possible instead of focusing on a feature that people actually want.
Finally, if I want to know what my friends' favorite movies are (again, using the cited example), there's already a place on Facebook for that: their info page. I don't know if people still fill that out, but I know they used to before Facebook mandated that everything on the info page be tied to Pages (which was another goof on FB's part, IMO).
They may prove me wrong, but this just seems like something Facebook won't quit pursuing because it's trying to be the Internet. Personally, I'm more interested, and optimistic in seeing how and if Deals is going to dethrone Groupon and its ilk.
I'd take it a step further, as well - as wide as the friend's friends net may be, I'm still probably not learning anything new. If my group of friends is defined mostly by some common interest, and theirs is too, I'm probably not going to get a good answer to anything outside of that field of interest.
To take the example on the page of restaurants - I'm probably not going to learn about any new restaurants if my friends and I mostly go to the same restaurants, and they go to the same ones with their friends, too.
I just moved to San Francisco not too long ago. Maybe I don't want to know about the best Mexican food in SF from someone from SF, maybe I want the opinion of my Texan pals, who share a similar taste in Mexican food....cuz damnit, I want that certain type of salsa (or something).
Of course, on the Internet, we are always in danger of ending up in an echo chamber.
And besides, there's still Yelp. And Foodspotting. And every other one of those apps out there to get outside my friends' opinions. I just think this makes it easier than ever to get friends' feedback.
Only thing I wonder is, will FB prioritize these entries? Because seeking friends' opinions on FB always seems to get answers from people you weren't looking for answers from.
Don't get me wrong, I think it has its uses, I just think it's pretty limited in scope, to the point that it probably shouldn't be compared with Quora and Yelp. Not only are you unlikely to find the best Mexican in SF, you're not likely to find out about too many new places with that particular type of salsa: chances are good that you've at least heard of the place that everyone's voting for, and that awesome new place doesn't look too appealing, 'cause it only got one vote.
On the other hand, it'd be pretty good for confirming that your friends actually like your favorite Mexican restaurant as much as you do (or maybe that you should have that party somewhere else), and everyone in Texas thinking of visiting SF will probably be happy to be able to make a poll of where they should eat (granted, they could have just posted a comment and counted the "likes" on each response).
>I just moved to San Francisco not too long ago. Maybe I don't want to know about the best Mexican food in SF from someone from SF, maybe I want the opinion of my Texan pals, who share a similar taste in Mexican food....cuz damnit, I want that certain type of salsa (or something).
I agree with the sentiment (DFW'er here!), but how are Texans supposed to know about restaurants in the Bay Area?
I have plenty of Texan friends on Facebook that have either lived here or visited. The point is still the same, really - this seems to make it easy to poll your friends for information. Quora is more about getting a community-approved answer.
It's my impression that the quick poll is a better mean to get to content from your friends than looking at 200 profiles for an information that may have not been there at all. I often ask for suggestions for a good book about X and would be willing to give one, but i don't put them in my info page.
I have to admit that it is actually refreshing and enjoyable to see the YC application process come and go without being an applicant this time. I applied for the W'11 batch and was all I could think about was the application, the possibility of an interview, and obviously the ultimate possibility of getting into YC.
I couldn't look at others' demos and ideas without viewing them as the competition. I was judging the other projects instead of actually being interested in them. Since I'm not applying this round (not because I've become disillusioned with YC or don't think it would be a good opportunity, I've just determined that I'm at the point in my life where I need to focus on taking care of more immediate needs than swinging for the fences), I'm actually enjoying seeing what everyone is bringing to the table. It makes me smile to see everyone's enthusiasm to get into YC. Good luck to everyone out there, and if you have something that you truly believe in, make it happen, YC or not.
Thanks. :) Although from graduation til about December it was about what I wanted, I have definitely realized at this point that there are bigger priorities in life, and I am working on being responsible for those priorities.
The goal is to build a consistent, and eventually large audience, and the value of the site being access to that audience. Yes, you can host your content on Youtube, LinkedIn, Wordpress, or any number of CMSs, but you still have to find a way to drive traffic to your content, and that is usually not easy. The selling point down the line will essentially be, renting the eyeballs for a day to jumpstart awareness for your content.
Like a Groupon Daily deal, but for websites? All eyes on one site, hosting one particular content. I can see how that could catch one. It would depend on the traction initially. Meaning you would need very unique and viral content to get the first viewers there. After you have a viewer base then it can become quite beneficial as a daily advertising platform.
Not to be brash, but just because you are spending $25 a day on ads and are making $300 a day, does not mean that formula is going to scale linearly upwards ($600 if you spend $50 a day, $1200 if you spend $100 a day).
That said congratulations! $300 a day is nothing to sneeze at, and I hope it's consistent for you.
We'll I didn't reveal my actual formula I'm using but I'm confident in my linear monetization scale for the simple fact that I've scaled several times already to get to $300 daily and it worked so far.
Started with $1, then $10, then $20 and now $25...going to test it out Wednesday-Thursday at $100 a day spent on advertising.
If you want to do front end web dev, learn these languages in this order:
HTML - http://www.w3schools.com/html/ CSS - http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp Javascript - http://eloquentjavascript.net/contents.html
And then pick one of the following two: PHP - http://www.tuxradar.com/practicalphp or Rails - http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book
There are many languages that you can learn for front end other than RoR and PHP, but they are two of the most popular right now, and will almost certainly suit your needs. Good luck, and stick with it when it gets frustrating, learning how to code is definitely worth it!