Pocket Programming: Learning New Skills Anywhere

[rudenoise]

http://www.joelhughes.co.uk/blog/2009/06/pocket-programming-learning-new-skills-anywhere/

[bdfh42]

Grab a copy of "The little Schemer" (Daniel P Friedman and Matthias Felleisen) and a pencil and you can skip the phone and the notebook - oh and learn scheme of course.

Travel light but make sure you travel.

[pxlpshr]

If I was a programmer I would probably pickup a Dell Netbook, install OSX on it, and use that as my learning tool. I appreciate your objective, but I think that calculator is a step backward. Maybe since I'm not a programmer, I'm missing something.

[hypermatt → pxlpshr]

It was a smartphone ... did you even read the text

[pxlpshr → hypermatt]

lol, I did read---skim it but I guess I just mentally correlated that picture with the old Ti-8X calculators that people (and me) use to program on. My bad, it's Friday. :)

[rudenoise → pxlpshr]

For me it's the simplicity of using the most basic tool you can get away with while still improving skills in a meaningful way.

But, you're absolutely right a net-book would be a great tool.

[rudenoise]

On a random off-shoot: is there something analogue (e.g. an abacus) that can be used for logic games or calculations that would fit in a pocket (and require no electricity)?

[J_McQuade → rudenoise]

A few scraps of paper and a pencil! There are countless books of logic puzzles around, or you could just brush up on your maths and prove a simple lemma or two, if that's your cup of tea.

[buugs → rudenoise]

slide rule?

And this is one of the few times that I would use a netbook, just a slight bigger than the notebook and not very heavy.

[mmphosis]

I'd like to learn new hardware skills and build a better pocket computer.