Getting Ready For Your Coding Boot camp Classes
This morning I got a message from a student from a couple of years ago. Looks like he is taking things to the next level, signing up for a full stack coding course.
He was prepping for it, and he was primarily concerned about the computer to buy for the classes. Another student of mine from India, is finally back on her campus after the pandemic related limitations. Similar questions. I am putting together a common list of things that should help them.
Note : This post is part of my own web programming boot camp. More details here.
Part 2 — Getting Your Computer Ready for Web Programming
Computer Laptop PC
The biggest expense (other than what you might be paying for your learning course or university fees) for learning programming is the computer. A cheap but functional laptop can be had for as little as $400 to $600 dollars. At the same time, expensive laptops (upwards of $1000) come with a tiny little improvements which improve the overall quality of learning.
More importantly, more money equals faster computer with a longer battery power. Two things that really matter when you are learning.
So, here is my suggestion.
- Any Dell or HP, if your budget is less than $600. If possible, see if you can get a SSD hard drive based computer.
- Got a higher budget? Say, $1000 or something? Buy a Macbook Air. It’s really the ultimate beginner learning computer. 10 hours of battery life. Weighs practically nothing and looks super cool.
- No limit on budget? Get a Macbook Pro or a Surface Laptop/Surface Pro with at least 16 GB of RAM.
Communication
You might joining a classroom boot camp. Or, you may be going for one to one learning sessions. Either way, the same communication tools are used.
- Email — It’s amazing how many times, the first struggle with many students is their email. Most folks do not seem to remember their own email address. So, please, remember your email password. If possible, before you go to class, setup Email on your laptop/Macbook because the first few sessions, you will be getting a lot of emails. If you want to keep things organized, create a separate email just for this training.
- Slack/Teams/Zoom — I cannot remember a single training session I conducted where one of these tools was not used. If possible, download these apps and get familiar with them. Ask your room mate, family member or friend to help use these apps by conducting a zoom session, a Teams Discussion or a Slack channel.
- GitHub — Almost every tutor I know, including myself, will have GitHub account. Create an account on GitHub, and see if you can get familiar with this. If possible, watch some YouTube videos on how to use GitHub.
- Google Drive/Dropbox/One Drive — Some tutors, at least in the beginning days, will avoid using GitHub to share files. In such a case, one of the above services might be used. Get familiar with at least one of these services, particularly Google Drive and Dropbox which are widely used.
- Visual Studio Code — In all likelihood, your tutor will be using this software for coding. Install it. Use it. Get familiar with it.
- Webcam and Headphones— Ideally your laptop should already come with a webcam and microphone built in. If you are on a PC, invest in a 1080p web camera, preferably from Logitech. Of course, invest in a good headphone. Wired headphones easy to use. Wireless headphones are better, if you can keep them charged and know how to use them on a regular basis. Lastly, if you have too much noise in your home (kids, noisy neighbors and so on), grab a cheap clip microphone.
Internet and Connectivity
I have found that you need at least 10 MBPS of speed to have a hassle free online discussion. If possible, see if you can get a separate router, and a separate connection just for your learning. More and more people are stuck at home, and everybody is consuming internet like crazy.
Having a separate connection for learning (if that is an option) will ensure that you wont face frequent disconnections, dropped video because someone else in your house started streaming Netflix in 4K or something. If you do get a separate connection, just for learning, please do not share the WiFi password, no matter what.
As it with computers, the more speed you have, the better your learning experience will be.
Wireless Mouse
Laptops come with their own keyboard, which is good enough. Unfortunately, using the track pad (the touch square space thing to move cursor) is cumbersome and productivity nightmare.
Buy a wireless mouse. Any wireless mouse of any budget.
Pen and Notebook
Trust me on this. Please make notes with your notebook and pen.
Final Note
Learning is not easy. Especially software and computers. For every one thing that becomes easy, there are ten more complicated things that are introduced. The first few days/weeks is where you will be most frustrated. You are suddenly exposed to a ton of new tools, you are forced to sign up for GitHub, Zoom, Slack and Google Drive and god knows how many other services and accounts you have to create.
Be patient and you will be okay.
I work as a full time freelance software developer and coding tutor. Hire me at UpWork or Fiverr. My personal website is here. I also have a Podcast. Thanks for reading.
