So I realised the other day that even though I've been using PCs probably 10 hours a day every day (at least) for 15 years... I know shamefully little about them. I mean sure, I can knock up a good spec and put one together but that's not exactly difficult is it. The problem is, I'm really not sure what it is that I want to know. I'd like to learn a little bit about networks, maybe some basic programming. I'd like to be able to fix a broken OS without reinstalling it! My method for testing broken PCs is try every bit until you find the one that doesn't work! Is there a better way? Does anyone have any advice/suggestions/books/learning resources?? I know this thread is a bit vague, that's probably because I'm a bit vague on the issue myself so my apologies for that but any help would be appreciated. Cheers Ash
Turning it off and on again. That's about it.... isn't it? Seriously though, I know what you mean. I'm trying to learn ASP.Net, C# & SQL but it blows my mind everytime I try to get my head around the stuff. I think to get a good grounding, you probably won't go wrong looking into the A+ Certification. With so many different avenues to explore, I'd say try and build up on what you know already, then look into other areas that interest you.
If I could do anything differently, I would have left school at 16 and worked long hours, so I could invest ASAP, (whilst still having some time and money spare for a bit of fun) and be retired by ~30 years old. If everyone did this however, it would take much, much longer to retire, so don't tell too many people.
What do you mean by invest ASAP? Don't worry I won't divulge your vague plans about making money. Back on topic, I have been trying to improve my knowledge for around a year now, not sure which way go go. I will probably try to learn a couple of programming languages.
That depends really, what are you looking to learn? Hardware, software, networking and user interaction would be the major areas to know about, each of them further broken down into research, development, management, and then each of those broken down into server, client, infrastuctre. In short, you are asking too much If you want to know more about the hardware side of things, just start reading various support forums, and wiki stuff that you don't know when you come across it. You think i knew what FIS-based switching was until somebody asked me a question about it? If you want to know more about the software side of things, go and start doing some HTML, CSS and javascript. There are plenty of good free starter courses online, that set you up for learning loads, but you can pick up the basics by just doing the first chapters. Networking, i really have no clue where to start.
My profesional opinion for first response in broken down machines as: a mechanical engineer: Give it a hearty slap* and restart it. a mechatronics engineer: Disconnect from power for an hour or two, then give it a hearty slap* and restart it. *Unless it's a big machine...then you kick it instead.
If you seriously don't know what invest ASAP means, then definitely stay in school for a while longer I'm absolutely on topic. OP asked how to turn things up a notch, and I'm suggesting that he could take things up a level from not just actively earning an income, to also becoming a passive earner
Basically you do "shotgun" troubleshooting. This works to an extent but it takes 10x longer to find the problem than when you are trained on how to troubleshoot. I went to Tech School but here is what I would say to do if you can't do that. For networking: There are some free networking simulatition programs out there. You can google for them and google for some CISCO commands. Then its just pratice, pratice, pratice. Figure out what you want to do and make it happen. For OS troubleshooting: I learned alot in tech school but you learn alot over the years of encountering different issues. Again google is your friend when encoutering a new issue. If you can learn to troubleshoot and describe the issue correctly you can find it with google in one search. You could also download some study guides for the MCP certifications. Also the A+ and N+ certs. Studying those will give you a huge amount of informatation. I think I still have my MCP and A+ discs that I could put up on media fire for you to DL.
Invest in what? Your statement is like saying, make money now! Also the topic was how to take IT knowledge up a notch, not life in general.
Start with the basics. OSI modell, networking, general communication between client and server. Subnetting. If you want to learn programming, start with something basic, learn to read code. I found PHP to be real good for starters... then go on to c#, Java or .NET. I'm afraid I only know of German sites with alot of infos and tutorials to help you get into the basics and advance, but I'm sure there are more than enough English sites out there that offer online learning material for free... google should be able to help you there. In some places, Cisco offers classes at community colleges for getting into networking, that would be your best option to really learn fundamentally important facts and practices. Have a look if something like that is offered near your home.
Nearly. What I'm saying, is that if you've got a half decent job, you probably can start on the road to making serious money, right now. There's more options than I can think of, and many have low risk methods. Researching them isn't that hard, but most people cbf doing the research, or practicing delayed gratification - this last point is usually the biggest reason why most people don't even try to invest. The purpose of improving his knowledge, is to improve the size and/or reliability of his income, no? Improving investment knowledge, can lead to a much greater and more reliable income. Passive income doesn't care if you are sick, or playing video games all day, or on holidays, etc, and passive income can be replicated into multiple passive income streams.
That's quite a lot of rhetoric there. No offence, but nothing you've said is any use to anyone. Telling us life is better when other people earn your money for you is hardly groundbreaking stuff.
I'm in the same boat as OP, so it's helpful to see this stuff about the certification etc, thanks Done.
Oh, I forgot PowerShell... and XML. Two of most used things in Windows environments, so if you know how to read/use these two, then you have your two basics for trouble shooting... and in general, if you can afford the costs for the tests and have a possibility of learning at home and/or over the internet, go ahead and do the MS certifications, those'll help you understand quite alot about windows systems and open a lot of doors in the IT industry for you.
...or, you could flesh it out a little. 'Invest' is a pretty open term. Perhaps you'd like to elaborate just a little on some of the successes you're implying you've had.
