Installing a Linux Distro: choosing between 32-bit and 64-bit

A slow week, learning wise.

Setting up my learning to code environment for The Odin Project required some hard drive file maintenance.

And, of course, all my backup medium were full.

With clean up accomplished, this past weekend I geared up for TOP on my Windows 7 machine. Memo to the file: it helps to read the instructions, no matter the excitement level.

The install of Oracle VirtualBox went as advertised. No problems there.

Xubuntu 18.04, not so much, as I fixated on my CPU brand (Intel) instead of its data width (64-bits) which resulted in a VM snit.

Off to the TOP Discord and a suggestion from @bycdiaz#1505 (thanks!) to try the 64-bit version got me back on track.

If I had done a bit of Googling first, I would have found the explanation. Apparently, while 32-bit will run for many folks on 64-bit machines, the AMD distro is preferable regardless of who makes the 64-bit CPU.

My laptop was very fussy and wanted xubuntu-18.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso and absolutely refused to play with 32-bit.

Curiosity has me researching why the 32-bit version would not run. From what I’ve read, it should have, at least, limped along.

If you can offer any guidance in this realm, please share in the comments.

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Imposter Syndrome: it is real and it can be overcome

While on a Twitter “break” I ran across a post by Jo Franchetti; she is also on Mastodon as @thisisjofrank@Mastodon.Technology

She has provided her complete slides and notes on her talk, Impostor Syndrome, Perfectionism, Anxiety and Learning to be Kind to Yourself on Google Docs.

This excellent presentation gives a very good overview of imposter syndrome and I highly encourage anyone who remotely questions their ability to go view the slides and read the speaker’s notes.

I’m not that familiar with Google Docs slide presentations and I was on mobile the first time I viewed this file. While the slides are very effective in their own right, be sure to select the gear icon and then “Open Speakers Notes”.

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Code Connective: finding local support for learning how to code

I’m not sure how I ran across Code Connective on Slack, it may have been on Reddit’s /r/learnprogramming. This group provides a mechanism for newbies, such as yours truly, to find others of like mind for meet ups.

Many thanks to Code Connective for this and the other resources on their website . With the intent to help folks who can’t afford, or aren’t ready, for a coding school or boot camp, they are trying to help folks link up with free or low cost learning experiences.

Now to just find a group near me and muster up the courage to attend a coding event.

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Getting help on The Odin Project

And I immediately get locked out of my Odin Project account.

A login account is not required to view the coding and web development lessons, but a login is very useful to keep track of your progress.

When I could not reset my password, I went looking for a way to contact the TOP team and found The Odin Project Forum and their Odin Project Discord Chat.

I opted to join the Discord chat and was quickly assisted by someone who I now cannot find to properly thank.

Looks like one of my next steps is to learn how to navigate Discord.

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Getting started in web development: who should I follow on Twitter?

In one of the first lessons in Introduction to Web Development on The Odin Project, there is a link to a question on Quora regarding how to become a really good web developer. Read the lesson if you want to go to the fantastic answers.

In Ryan Barr’s detailed response, he suggests some folks to follow in the web development community.

Starting with his suggestions, I’ve created a public Web Development twitter list to which I hope to keep adding. Feel free to subscribe to my list as well as suggest in the comments any additional folks who should be added.

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Revisiting web development and coding

I am taking another run at learning web development as I ran, yet again, into a situation where I just know the answer to my problem is out there, but struggled to find and implement the solution.

The Odin Project’s curriculum seems to fit my learning style better than Free Code Camp’s (definitely not a swipe at FCC: I like what they are doing, but for at least the early learning stages, it didn’t work for me.)

As with most such learn-to-code sites, there are a bewildering array of resources on TOP and I quickly went down the rabbit hole following links.

Stay tuned for what I hope becomes a curated list of resources that I’ve found useful.

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How to find HP laptop serial number in Windows 7

Yes, I’m still stuck on Windows 7…I’ll leave out the sordid details of why.

Regardless, I needed to quickly find my serial number of my HP Elitebook Revolve 910 G2 so I could look up some driver information on the HP driver support website. When I could not get the HP device detection option to work, nor the FN-Esc key routine, I found this command line solution:

  • Go to the Windows Start and type cmd and hit enter
  • In the cmd dialog box, enter “wmic bios get serialnumber” and hit enter

Violia! One serial number. No idea if this works on other laptops, have not had a chance to try it.

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An untold story?

We visited the big city yesterday and I made a point to wander through my favorite used bookstore and happened upon Clare Walker Leslie’s Nature Drawing: A Tool For Learning. The book was in good shape and the price was right, so home with me it went (along with too many other books, as always.)

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This morning I was flipping through the book and noticed the title page. I had missed it while at the bookstore. I can’t help wondering. Did Molly put the book to use and, if so, what happened to her work? What is the story behind the inscription?

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