[ciapug] Hello...and what time is Monday's meeting?

[Bill Davis]

On Sep 30, 2007, at 4:54 PM, Carl Olsen wrote:

> It's the first Monday of the month unless that is a holiday (then I  
> think it
> is the first Tuesday).

Thanks! I like regular ones, so I can set up a repeating reminder in  
my PDA so I won't forget.

> I took the Invitation to Computer Science class but
> I'm too busy to keep on taking classes.  I was amazed at how much I  
> learned
> in that class.  I thought I already knew it all.  Just kidding.

I programmed most recently in Visual Basic 6 for about 7 years and  
VMS Basic and DCL for 9 years, and NEVER thought I knew it all  
despite learning new stuff constantly.

I'm presently trying to find projects to do to learn more about Java  
(taken 3 courses at DMACC a couple of years ago), JavaScript, VB.NET  
or C#.NET (taken some courses in ASP.NET and SQL Server last year),  
PHP, Python (can't find a local group, looks like there was one once  
though but the link to the Pyowa mailing list points to CIALUG's  
mailing list page.)  Also very interested in Ruby which just had a  
local group just start up  (www.iowaruby.org) though there's no call  
for it here locally to speak of...but I keep reading about it and  
Rails in the professional and trade press so  I figure it might be  
wise to start to learn about it NOW.

All that's going to take a while, obviously!   Meanwhile I'm also  
trying to find a job...which is a full time job on it's own. But in  
the long term it won't hurt to be decently knowledgeable about all of  
the above.   Not to mention XML, CSS, HTML (knowledgeable but rusty  
on the part that relates to CSS), XSLT, and so on.  Whew.     That  
oughta keep me out of trouble!

>
> I want to take Linear Algebra next.

Took that.  About 1981.   Haven't used it since.  Nor Calculus or  
trig.   Dang it.

I should take a look at the Drake CS and CIS programs these days, and  
compare 'em to what the job market's looking for too.   Should be an  
interesting bit o' research. I got more use out of the CIS courses  
than I did the CS courses, frankly.   Hmmmm...I wonder if Drake still  
has a placement office for grads and if they'd still help out an  
older alum like me.   They placed me with Pioneer Hi-Bred back in  
''84.  Pioneer called ME. Pretty nice.   They still court grads, I  
attended a job fair at the Pioneer campus in Johnston a few months back.

>
> Thanks for joining!
>
> Carl
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ciapug-bounces at cialug.org [mailto:ciapug-bounces at cialug.org]  
> On Behalf
> Of Bill Davis
> Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 4:38 PM
> To: Central Iowa PHP Users Group
> Subject: Re: [ciapug] Hello...and what time is Monday's meeting?
>
> Thanks  for the welcome and the info, Carl (and also John).
>
> Good to see someone from Drake!  I'm an alum (BA in Computer Science,
> 1984) and so is my girlfriend (Masters, 2003) and she used to work
> there too (Jolie Prentice).
>
> Hope to see everyone there tomorrow night.     Is it always the first
> Monday now, or does it shift around like the web site seems to show?
>
> _______________________
> Bill Davis
> 5214 Meredith Drive
> Des Moines, IA
> 50310-2956 USA
> bill.davis at gmail.com
> +1 (515) 360-0445 cellular
> +1 (515) 270-6729 home