Okay, so couple of days ago was my birthday, and to my surprise, my aunt gave me 200 dollars. That's a lot. 
So, I was wondering, anybody have any ideas of any good electronics I should get? I was gonna go to Future Shop tomorrow, and pick a couple things. By the way, don't take this as a completely personal question, cause I know this is off-topic, but this question is a little personal. But I was thinking of getting a good flash drive, maybe with U3, just for the launch mechanism which I would replace with PortableApps uysing SmithTech's gadget. Or I thought I might get one of those For Dummies book on a program writing lauguage, I'm just not sure which program is best? I wan't to learn a program writing language that is free and maybe open-source, and has a wide amount of possibilities. I know questions like have already been asked as well, but if anybody has any other ideas on some good electronics, etc they have tried and work well, please let me know. Thanks.
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200$-What should I get?
May 3, 2007 - 8:20pm
#1
200$-What should I get?
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Well, DON'T buy an Apacer. I went through two in two months. As for what TO get, I seem to remember that about half a year ago, a bunch of people were talking about what the best stick is. Search around. I seem to remember the brand name David was good...
as for programming languages, it depends on what you want to do. Web programming? Real programming? I'll assume you mean real programming.
What my University does is they start you out on Java. Java is fairly easy to get a grip on (I started with it) and you can do a huge amount with it. The problem is that Java software is not portable and you can't just double-click and run a Java executable. It has to run on top of the Java Virtual Machine. If you get a book on Java, Try Cay Horstmann's "Java Concepts". I used it for the class I took on Java. I liked it.
Other people really like C or C++, the difference between the two being that C++ is object-oriented (which can be good or bad, depending on who you ask). Most Windows and *NIX executables are written in C or C++. Unfortunately, I don't know a huge amount about C(++), so I can't recommend a book.
C(++) would be a good one to learn from the standpoint of freeness. If you're a Linux junkie, you'll have what they call the 'gcc' libraries which let you compile C(++) code. You just write up all your header files and .c (or .cpp) files and your configure file and MAKEFILE, type ./configure, then make and then make install. It's also open source, but my guess is that you'd need to be a computer god to be able to understand the code for gcc.
well, hope that helps...
____________
chris
It is not your audience's responsibility to puzzle out what you intended to say; it is your responsibility to express yourself so clearly that no one with a modicum of intelligence and good will could possibly mistake your meaning
__
chris
It is not your audience's responsibility to puzzle out what you intended to say; it is your responsibility to express yourself so clearly that no one with a modicum of intelligence and good will could possibly mistake your meaning.
I have learnt C at university, and it's great for simulations and things like that - the code does exactly what you want, which is great for a simulation, where you want speed more than anything else. It's a very Unixy/Linuxy language though - I have never compiled any Windows binaries, as the language seems at home in Linux.
I have not done any work with graphical interfaces though
, apart from the very basic.
It depends what you want to program, and for what use...
C for simulations or software that is quite "low-level" and communicates almost directly with the computer. Very efficient.
Python for rapid development of ideas in Linux
PHP for web programming.
That's all I have really had experience with.
What do you want to make?
"I have learn't..." "Learn't" is not a word.
And you say you are at a university. (don't worry I'm only joking with you, although "learn't" isn't a word)
-Ummm...
OliverK> you don't live on a cow
IRC: It brings out the best in all of us...Especially when tired.
I'm gonna try to learn PHP from my cousin, but I was hoping to make some really small program that's still useful, but in an actual language, not like autoit.
And after making a small program, not command line thought, but not crazy graphical either, I was hopinh to just work as it and get better.
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I felt so different without a signature.
Well, $200 goes further over there than it does here, so I have no idea. I have a U3, just for testing.
I have C++ For Dummies, but note that it's all command line stuff, if you want visual stuff too, you'd need a wxWidgets book too. Or you could try Delphi
----
Ryan McCue.
Blog.
So all that Airbus-delay trouble over here in Europe is because of YOU!
Simeon.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Do you think I would get Delhi after a while of checking it out and using a book?
And, is there a download for Making non-profit application with it? Cause I thought there was, but I can't find one. Someone link me if possible please.
This question's for anyone btw, cause Ryan prolly won't be back on before I go to future shop to get a book for one of them. Or somewhere else (Like Chapters).
_____________________________
I felt so different without a signature.
Delhi is a city in India. Delphi is an island in Greece (where people went to speak to the Oracle of god Apollo, hence the name for the language).
"The spell checker fails when you right the wrong word the write way"
Delphi has evolved quite a lot, from Turbo Pascal 1.0 in the 70's.
In it's present form, it is a VERY powerful IDE (program to make programs) that will let you write programs in several languages, including C++ and an enhanced version of Pascal, called Object Pascal, which is what people normally have in mind when they talk of Delphi.
Depending on the version, it also has support for PHP and Java. But it's four digits.
So now, they are recirculating the name "Turbo" (There used to be Turbo Pascal and Turbo C++) and letting people use a free (only gratis, not open source) version that only handles one language and has less features (none of which will be missed by a beginner).
You'll find it here:
http://www.turboexplorer.com/
Delphi (Object Pascal) is a very nice programming language for developing programs that run on your computer (sometimes dubbed "real programming"). PAM is written in Delphi. And if you learn more, you'll also be able to do some server (web pages) development with it.
It's very easy to write Windows programs with it, and it let's you develop very fast and also do very precise and efficient code, depending on what you focus on.
But if what you have in mind is developing web pages, go for PHP.
The best book I have seen about Delphi is the Mastering Delphi [insert version here] series by Marco Cantù. They are rather advanced however, and not fit at all for someone who does not know any programming at all. But in his site:
http://www.marcocantu.com/
he used to have e-books teaching the more basic stuff for free!!! (I haven't checked in a loooong while, but I hope they're still there) (Also, by the time I found them, I wasn't a beginner any more).
So you have a free IDE, and free books for beginners for the language that powers PAM. Go for it!!! (and save your money for boos and chics!)
Great Reply Wences. Helpful. I'll check out all those links, thanks. I meant to spell Delphi. But I think a lot of the time my fingers s[pelt it like that and I didn't notice. Thanks.
Very helpful reply.
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I felt so different without a signature.
Delhi
Of course, you could just go to your local library and borrow it, and if you likey then buy.
They just made our library like 5 times bigger and it's got at least 200 computing books. Coincidently, there's also a computer store underneath.
For web programming languages, the most common would be PHP, Perl and Ruby on Rails. Perl is really powerful, but not for beginners. Ruby I haven't tried. PHP, in my opinion, is the best because it's got most of Perl's features and the functions are simplified.
Example: If you were to access http://example.com/page?test=true you could get the value of test like this in PHP:
$_GET['test'];whereas in Perl, you have to parse the string to find it.Oh and I didn't learn PHP from a book, but it (and NSIS) are my most fluent programming languages. The easiest way to learn is to go through the PHP site's manual and look at existing scripts. If you ever want any help you can just IM me
----
Ryan McCue.
Blog.
So all that Airbus-delay trouble over here in Europe is because of YOU!
Simeon.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Yea, I could borrow it, but by the time I realize it's way overdue, I would owe more in late charges than the book costs.
But I think I MAY look into that PHP too, cause my dad and cousin use it. And my cousin does it like for a living/
_____________________________
I felt so different without a signature.
For less than $40, you can get a 2 Gb Sandisk Titanium Cruzer U3. Don't get the 4 Gb Titanium U3 because it is twice as slow as the 2 Gb. I have both and prefer the speed of the 2 Gb, but the 4 Gb is really practical. I uninstalled U3 on both of them.
For about $100, you can get the Corsair Voyager GT 8 Gb. Very fast for large files, but not slow for small files. For small files, it is about as fast as the 2 Gb Titanium Cruzer U3.
I really like these 2 drives. I find that others are too plastic, too slow or just plain to ugly.
8 Gig for a hundred bucks, I like that! That in Canada or America? (Or somewhere else). Hopefully it'll be the same here, if you say it's as fast as it is. Thanks!
Edit:Or France...
But I'll go check online in Canada for it.
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I felt so different without a signature.
Well, technically I bought 8 Gb for 100 Euros in France (good catch, HSP). But I have compared internet prices between French sites and US internet sites for a long time and have noticed a common trend -- French internet prices including taxes in Euros is more or less the same as US internet prices excluding taxes in USD. So 100 Euros after taxes in France is more or less the same as 100 USD before taxes in the US.
This is not true for brick and mortar stores, but true for internet purchases. But you just made me doubt myself so I looked on pricegrabber.com and the best price is $110 USD excluding taxes and delivery.
Cheers.
A Euro is worth a little more than a US dollar.
--
If there were a serial make-up artist putting make-up on random women, you'd expect to see millions of women walking around with make-up on. What do you find? Millions of women walking around with make-up on.
Vintage!
Technically it is worth about 36% more since the current exchange rate is 1.36 USD to 1 Euro. But in terms of buying power for high tech gadgets, it is as you said, just a little bit more buying power.
The exchange rate isn't constant, so it's not a good idea to post a constant. However, I did not realize that the Euro was worth that much more.
Vintage!
Portable Hardrive. Maxtor maybe. But segate bought Maxtor.
There's a maxtor sitting beside me, but it's my dads...
I got a 250 gig hard drive (not portable) for christmas, some cheap kind, but it works, and it's fairly fast, I did see a nice portable hard drive at costco tho.
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I felt so different without a signature.
Well, contrary to what Chris thinks, I would recommend buying an Apacer. They're fast and mine lasted 3 years. A portable HD would be good. Well, I don't know much about programming, but my friend knows a bit about C (I think) and that may be good.
Electronic gadget: Depending on whether you are interested in music, I would recommend a Sandisk Sansa e-series player. Maybe a Palm Pilot if you are interested in those...
"If there was a Genesis Flood, you would find billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth. What do you find? Billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth."
Ken Ham
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
yeah, I had a friend who had an Apacer which lasted him forever. I should have made my caution more clear. Don't buy an apacer which is really cheap, considering how much memory you're getting. I bought a 4G stick for $120. I should have known better.
__
chris
It is not your audience's responsibility to puzzle out what you intended to say; it is your responsibility to express yourself so clearly that no one with a modicum of intelligence and good will could possibly mistake your meaning.
__
chris
It is not your audience's responsibility to puzzle out what you intended to say; it is your responsibility to express yourself so clearly that no one with a modicum of intelligence and good will could possibly mistake your meaning.
Try http://hacketyhack.net/ I'm going to use to start off. Looks nice IMO.
Yea. Is Ruby the launguage?
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I felt so different without a signature.
I personally don't like Ruby, and for that reason haven't really tried it. I just don't understand the syntax.
----
Ryan McCue.
Blog.
So all that Airbus-delay trouble over here in Europe is because of YOU!
Simeon.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
the Ruby syntax is incredibly elegant, I just haven't quite got round to put the time in to learn it properly yet.
Yours
Steve Lamerton
My Blog
I still don't like it.
PHP all the way for web and C++ for Widnows.
----
Ryan McCue.
Blog.
So all that Airbus-delay trouble over here in Europe is because of YOU!
Simeon.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Yesterday, I went to a place called Simple Computer Solutions in my town, he had a 2 gig Kingston for 30 bucks, and a gig for 20. Said he could get me a 4 gig for 70. I just don't know what kind. I bough my 2 gig Kingston for 70 at another place in town, and they still have it for 160 at future shop lol!
I feel so jipped, I think I'll pick up another 2 gig, maybe for someone as a gift, of extra use, cause 30 bucks, Kingston, can't gio wrong. They're not bad.
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I felt so different without a signature.
Is a nice idea to. Cause what my sister did when she went to university is got a Palm Pilot, then a portable keyboard, so I could just use that, and have my apps on the hard drive too. Right?
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I felt so different without a signature.
I'm not sure I follow you.
"America has never been an empire. We may be the only great power in history that had the chance, and refused – preferring greatness to power and justice to glory."
George W. Bush
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
... you'd have to pay for the Palm Pilot and a memory card.
Would be really cool if the portable apps could integrate with the PalmOS software, eh? Ultra-portable settings!
Rick Smith // Paladin225
Rick Smith // Paladin225
Yes.
Would be cool. 
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I felt so different without a signature.
I'm downloading Borland Delphi Personal Edition right now to check out, and I already downloaded Dev C++, I bought the Corsair Voyager GT 8 GB which should be in by friday.
I was thinking of buying this book as it says it includes a CD with Dev C++ I think. Ryan, what version of C++ do you have? I want one to make graphical programs, which is the best, cause I see a few. Anyone?
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I felt so different without a signature.