Nothing is more frustrating than being at the mercy of a professional when things go wrong with either your car or your computer. Computers impact much more of our lives than the automobile which makes the need for even basic computer programming even more important. In fact computer programming is inclusive of car maintenance, car design and car operation in today’s automobiles.

Why is it that some people feel they should know how to change the oil in their car even if they will never actually change the oil in their car, but blithely wander around using programs all the time without the slightest idea of how programs work and what they do? There are some people that lack a basic knowledge of how automobiles operate and continue to function as drivers and as a part of our society, but these people are in the path of being acted upon by their everyday objects instead of acting on the objects they use on a daily basis.

This is the kind of attitude that needs to change as even the simplest jobs are being inundated by automation, computerization and even data collection about how the job is being performed. Knowledge of computer programming goes even deeper as within the next 10 to 25 years there may be the world’s first completely automated fast food restaurant. People on the low and middle range of income that are not craftsmen will face increasing danger of their jobs being swallowed by computer controlled golems. People on the high-end of the economic scale, well, you’ll just get richer, but a knowledge of computer programming and what it can and cannot do will enable you to make smarter and better decisions in business. Being wealthy does not reduce the embarrassment caused by paying too much for services or being taken in by a scam.

To the point of this article: Why do you need to know computer programming? You need to know about computer programming to maintain control of your life and to ensure that your future will be one of increasing value and not obsolescence and struggle. You need to know computer programming because if the world continues in the direction it is going there will not be a single profession that is unaffected by computers and will more than likely require computers. As automation decreases in cost and drops below the costs for people to perform specific jobs, those jobs will disappear.

What can you do to learn about programming? The answer to this question is not nearly as simple as the basic answer that yes – you the everyday person wandering the World Wide Web, do need to know about computer programming. There is hope. Computer programming has produced a vast amount of ‘literature’ teaching on the subject from the very basic to the most advanced DirectX 9.x libraries for 3D game programming.

The problem is not that there is not enough information out there, but that there is too much and a basic inability to know what is important to a beginner. A person browsing the aisles in Barnes & Noble might find a number of beginner books of various computer programming languages, but what about the most basic question – which programming language is right for you?

It is nice to point out the ills of the world and quite another thing to actually attempt to do something about it. The thing to do is write articles teaching about programming – teaching as if teaching to someone who knows absolutely nothing about programming but wants to learn.

The environment needs to be free. People that are learning programming as a hobby cannot afford to spend money on tools that they will not be using to make money. The vast number of people own Windows XP on their home computer. Windows XP has an update for something called the Microsoft .NET Framework which is provided by Microsoft for free. This framework provides in essence all the tools necessary to learn basic programming.

If you own Windows XP Professional (which I recommend over Windows XP Home even for non-programmer users) it comes with Internet Information Services (IIS). An article might have to be devoted to the install of IIS, but in combination with IIS a person can get the free programming tool from Microsoft called “Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition” which will allow people the ability to develop web pages using ASP.NET.

Finally, programs can be written for the .NET framework using a program as simple as notepad and compiled on the command line. The choice for me to teach in the .NET framework is a matter of expediency. I program in the .NET framework using the language called VB.NET, and I program in a language called ABAP which is proprietary to SAP. Very few people have access to SAP and even fewer have a developer key which would enable them to develop in SAP. So, teach what you know – which is exactly what I propose to do. Teach what people can use – which means the .NET Framework.

I hope there will be those of you out there that will learn from my articles about how to program and in turn this might increase your value in the world around you. Don’t be a victim of the technology around you – be a technology user. The next time a techie says ‘You wouldn’t understand.’ Tell them ‘Try me; I’ve done a bit of programming myself.’

------------

About the author: Alexander Flynn has been many things in his short 34 years of life. He was a member of the Air National Guard in New Jersey (170th and 108th) and a unit in South Carolina for 10 years. He has been a surfer at night in Seaside Heights, New Jersey (ok, maybe so not so great at surfing). He has worked as a temp in offices, data entry, programmer, software designer, database maintenance, SAP ABAP programmer and as a sales representative.

He graduated High School in 1989, but not with any great honor. Frankly, school was the most boring exercise he has experienced. There were some teachers that were exceptions: Mrs. Higgins, Mr. Sninski, the high school electronics teacher, a band teacher, a summer school English 4 teacher and my geometry teacher were the best that he can remember at this particular moment. He attended community college and never took the SATs (small loophole) but continued on to a four year institution where he graduated with a B.A. in Economics. He has lived in the south of the United States where he failed to be assimilated and as a result returned to New Jersey.

He has been married for 8 years and currently has one child (2.5 years old) and hopes to have another. As an only child he can say that it seems he missed something in childhood compared to all the people he knows who had siblings and he hopes his son gets to experience having a sibling.

He has written over 20 articles on Useless-Knowledge accounting for over 20,000 words. He has traveled to a few countries and will state succinctly that the key to some knowledge is experiencing other cultures. Then you find out that the way things are at home is not the way they have to be. In his journeys he has discovered Finland to be one of the most beautiful places in the world.

The hope in writing for Useless-Knowledge or any other web site is to improve his writing skills so that he will be able to write Science Fiction and actually get paid for it. Perhaps one day he will even succeed at the dream formed when he was fifteen years old and write an entire Science Fiction novel.

Regardless of political leaning, religion or nationalism he hopes that you are all well and that you are safe.

His blog is located here: http://searchbalance.blogspot.com/ -which is updated periodically.

Email: rhadamygg@hotmail.com

Tell a friend about this site!

------------

All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal).