How To Become a Programmer
You can become a computer programmer by going to college to study computer science and beginning an entry level computer programmer job after college. However, if you cannot afford to spend years in college before you begin your programming career, you can learn programming from experienced developers or teach yourself computer programming using affordable textbooks, training courses and or coaching programs. I have written a series of articles telling people how to become a programmer in the shortest possible time frame. In this article I will show you how to become a computer programmer without going to college.
What Qualifications or Degrees are Needed?
It's not as difficult as you may think to enter the programming job market without having a computer science degree. This is because when it comes to programming, employers put more emphasis on your ability to write good quality code than your educational credentials. Many programmers have taken advantage of this to forgo college and focus on developing their programming skills to the best of their ability.
What Do Employers Want?
You've made over your resume, submitted it and begun preparing for programming interviews; but you should slow down and ask yourself "What do the employers really want?" No matter if you taught yourself programming from home or learned it from college or a correspondence training course, employers want to see good competent software development skills more than anything else. After you are hired employers expect you to be able to document and design software applications and write good quality code, regardless of where you learned the skill.
It Is Easy To Study Computer Programming and Get a Job
One of the best kept advantages of becoming a computer programmer is that you can learn computer programming at home and advance your skills to a competent level without first getting a programming job. When I realized this more than 12 years ago that I could just buy a computer, connect it to the internet and learn as much programming as I wanted without having to get a job first, I was excited. Of course, I realized that I would still need to invest in programming books, buy software development tools, and invest in training packages that would allow me to learn programming on my own. I figured out that the total cost of my investments in computer programming training would pale in comparison to how much I would earn as a programmer and how much more time it would take me to study medicine or law in college. I took my developer training and got a well-paying contract programming job within 6 months, an opportunity I knew I would not have had with any other high paying career.
How to Get a Computer Programming Job without a College Degree
What you need to emphasize when looking for a computer programming job is your software development knowledge, coding skills and any programming experience that is related to the job you are interviewing for. If you don't have a college degree emphasizes the other skills you have attained, like your ability to learn technology quickly, how you keep up with technology or solve real programming problems. In other words, you have to prove to prospective employers or hiring managers that you can do the job well if given the chance. Make sure your prospective employer sees the list of programming projects you have completed in a short time, web sites or software programs you have built and a list of books and future projects you are planning to work on. Show your prospective employer that you have a beautiful mind and make the case that you are an asset to any one who hires you!
Where Does This Leave You?
This leaves you without an excuse for not taking action. I am granting you the liberty to pursue your passion, your dream and your personal excellence to learn or master computer programming. As a software developer mentor, IT Career Coach and Contract Programmer, I have worked with people who overcame all sorts of personal situations, handicaps and obstacles to begin their software developer career. On my blog, I coach, mentor and train individuals who want to transition to a software developer career or become an expert computer programmer. From my personal experience and observation helping programmers from all over the world succeed in software development professions, your success in programming boils down to how skilled you are at software development and how much experience you have in solving real-world computer problems. If you gain a lot of practical programming skills and knowledge your software development career will go into overdrive.
If you want to improve your programming skills and take your career to the next level, I encourage you to read the book "The Street Smart Guide to Computer Programmer Careers". It explains how to master computer programming in as little as 6 months. It will shave years off your learning curve by showing you how to learn programming fast, how to prepare your resume so you get noticed by hiring managers, how to prepare and excel at technical job interviews so you get job offers more easily and how to consistently gain the kind of programming experience that keeps your career moving forward.
Monday, April 27, 2009
When a Windows computer has been used for some time it tends to slow down,freeze sometimes and occasionally even crash completely. It may take months or years depending on how much you use your machine but it will happen.
Why is this so? The reason is nearly always a corrupt registry which has become bloated with data and useless files. Every time you install or uninstall a program incompletely, fragments of the program will remain in the registry causing it to become choked with data after some time.
The registry is something which all Windows PCs have. It is basically a database of entries which the operating system uses to run the machine. When it becomes bloated with too many fragments of data the operating system has to find its way through all the excess entries to locate the data it needs to run the computer and programs. This causes a very noticeable slow down and balkiness in the operation of the machine.
The only way to correct this problem is to remove all the unwanted data entries from the registry. All windows PCs have a function called Regedit which is intended for just this purpose. You can access Regedit by clicking START-RUN then typing Regedit in the box. When you are ready to start using Regedit you must first back up your registry so that you can restore it if something goes wrong. This is done by clicking FILE then selecting EXPORT. Name the backup file so that you can find it and save to your desktop or elsewhere.
You can now proceed to go through the registry entries and remove any you do not want. When you examine the registry entries you will see that you are faced with a formidable task. Unless you really know what you are doing it will be obvious to you that you need help at this point. Just remove one wrong entry and you can completely disable the computer which we certainly do not want to do.
Fortunately help is readily available in the form of an online registry cleaner application which can do the job quickly and safely. A good registry repair utility will backup your registry then delete all unecessary entries from the registry. This will easily and safely clean the registry in a matter of minutes and return the computer to being the sweet running fast machine it was before the registry became corrupt.
We purchased several of the most popular registry cleaner applications and tested them to see which was best. We found that they vary greatly in ability to detect errors in the registry. The best registry cleaner applications could detect many more wrong entries than some of the others.
Why is this so? The reason is nearly always a corrupt registry which has become bloated with data and useless files. Every time you install or uninstall a program incompletely, fragments of the program will remain in the registry causing it to become choked with data after some time.
The registry is something which all Windows PCs have. It is basically a database of entries which the operating system uses to run the machine. When it becomes bloated with too many fragments of data the operating system has to find its way through all the excess entries to locate the data it needs to run the computer and programs. This causes a very noticeable slow down and balkiness in the operation of the machine.
The only way to correct this problem is to remove all the unwanted data entries from the registry. All windows PCs have a function called Regedit which is intended for just this purpose. You can access Regedit by clicking START-RUN then typing Regedit in the box. When you are ready to start using Regedit you must first back up your registry so that you can restore it if something goes wrong. This is done by clicking FILE then selecting EXPORT. Name the backup file so that you can find it and save to your desktop or elsewhere.
You can now proceed to go through the registry entries and remove any you do not want. When you examine the registry entries you will see that you are faced with a formidable task. Unless you really know what you are doing it will be obvious to you that you need help at this point. Just remove one wrong entry and you can completely disable the computer which we certainly do not want to do.
Fortunately help is readily available in the form of an online registry cleaner application which can do the job quickly and safely. A good registry repair utility will backup your registry then delete all unecessary entries from the registry. This will easily and safely clean the registry in a matter of minutes and return the computer to being the sweet running fast machine it was before the registry became corrupt.
We purchased several of the most popular registry cleaner applications and tested them to see which was best. We found that they vary greatly in ability to detect errors in the registry. The best registry cleaner applications could detect many more wrong entries than some of the others.
If your computer runs slow and has Windows XP startup problems you should know how startup works and how to correct these problems easily.
When you start up your computer a sequence of events will take place.
1.The Power On Self Test (POST) is the first item to run. The BIOS firmware settings are used by the computer to test and make sure that the systems hardware which includes storage media,RAM,power supply and several other computer peripherals is working correctly. POST also will check to ensure that the operating system is properly installed. If any of these tests should fail a beeping sound will tell you that there is a problem.
2. After the POST tests are finished other tests are run which will ascertain that hardware such as the hard drive and video card etc are working properly. Should there be a problem you will once again get an error message.
3.The NT Loader which is usually called the boot loader or ntldr will start to run. The ntldr loads startup programs,starts the files system and will check the boot.ini file to find where the operating system should be uploaded to. Once more errors may occur if you have a damaged hard drive or Master Boot Record (MBR).
4. The next event is for ntdetect.com to identify and configure many of the computer hardware items such as the mouse,keyboard,hard drive,video adapter etc.
5. The next step is for ntoskml.exe to load the Windows kernel which is the main component of the Windows operating system. Once ntoskml.exe and the hardware files have been loaded successfully the computer registry is then consulted in order to load the programs which will keep the system running properly.
6. The next step to run is smss.exe which is the Session Manager. This allows Windows to go to GUI mode from text mode.
7. Now the Windows operating system is in place and controls the computer. You can now log in and start using the machine. Normally boot up will take no more than 2 to 3 minutes or less. However if any of the above listed steps should fail the startup could be very prolonged or the computer may freeze and will not boot at all.
Common failure signs are:
1. During the initial POST(Power On Self Test) the computer emits a beeping sound and will freeze or shut down.
2. The computer screen remains blank with nothing displayed on it.
3. The text which scrolls during bootup freezes.
4. A blue screen or stop error is shown on the screen and the computer stops running.
5. During startup you have an error message shown and the machine freezes.
6. An error message shows and the boot fails completely.
7. Windows is loading message remains on display but the system will not load.
Troubleshooting startup problems and when your computer runs slow depends greatly on finding at what time in the sequence of events the error happened.
Guideline For Troubleshooting Startup
1.If an error message displays you may use the text and error codes in the message to determine the source of the trouble. The Microsoft knowledge base or other help sites may be of assistance to you with this.
2.If the problem occurs during the text mode of the boot up sequence take a look at the last few lines of text to find which process succeeded. You might with a bit of luck get information about the failed process also.
3.If the "Windows is loading" keeps on display or if the screen goes completely blank try:
A. Wait for a few minutes to see if the problem will resolve itself.
B. If it does not then press the Escape key (ESC) a few times.
C. If you still do not have success try hitting the reset button in order to hard boot the system.
D. Next try booting the computer in safe mode. To try this press the F8 key just after POST and choose SAFE MODE from the options which are displayed.
E. If there is a mouse cursor showing on the screen move the mouse to determine if the cursor will move. If the cursor does move this suggests that windows is loading. If it does not move you have a system freeze and should try hard booting the computer.
If your computer runs slow and has Windows XP startup problems the common reason is a bloated corrupt registry. Over a period of time as the machine is used the registry accumulates many pieces of files and data which are of no use. These come from incompletely uninstalled programs,programs which did not install properly,old drivers,unused shortcuts,adware,spyware and numerous other sources.
The operating system is greatly slowed down as it trys to access the files needed to run the computer in this corrupt registry. The easy way to eliminate this problem when your computer runs slow and has Windows XP startup problems is to use one of the good windows XP registry cleaners.
Windows XP registry cleaners can be downloaded from the internet for your use. Good windows registry repair software will first offer you a free scan to find what errors you have in your computer registry. You can check the results of this scan and decide whether you want to use the repair function of the windows reg cleaner to fix the problems.
We recommend that you do this and do not attempt to do the job manually.Do your registry repair the safe way. One wrong item removed by mistake can cause you problems even to the point that your computer will completely cease to function. You can get a free scan from the top registry cleaners to correct registry errors.
1.The Power On Self Test (POST) is the first item to run. The BIOS firmware settings are used by the computer to test and make sure that the systems hardware which includes storage media,RAM,power supply and several other computer peripherals is working correctly. POST also will check to ensure that the operating system is properly installed. If any of these tests should fail a beeping sound will tell you that there is a problem.
2. After the POST tests are finished other tests are run which will ascertain that hardware such as the hard drive and video card etc are working properly. Should there be a problem you will once again get an error message.
3.The NT Loader which is usually called the boot loader or ntldr will start to run. The ntldr loads startup programs,starts the files system and will check the boot.ini file to find where the operating system should be uploaded to. Once more errors may occur if you have a damaged hard drive or Master Boot Record (MBR).
4. The next event is for ntdetect.com to identify and configure many of the computer hardware items such as the mouse,keyboard,hard drive,video adapter etc.
5. The next step is for ntoskml.exe to load the Windows kernel which is the main component of the Windows operating system. Once ntoskml.exe and the hardware files have been loaded successfully the computer registry is then consulted in order to load the programs which will keep the system running properly.
6. The next step to run is smss.exe which is the Session Manager. This allows Windows to go to GUI mode from text mode.
7. Now the Windows operating system is in place and controls the computer. You can now log in and start using the machine. Normally boot up will take no more than 2 to 3 minutes or less. However if any of the above listed steps should fail the startup could be very prolonged or the computer may freeze and will not boot at all.
Common failure signs are:
1. During the initial POST(Power On Self Test) the computer emits a beeping sound and will freeze or shut down.
2. The computer screen remains blank with nothing displayed on it.
3. The text which scrolls during bootup freezes.
4. A blue screen or stop error is shown on the screen and the computer stops running.
5. During startup you have an error message shown and the machine freezes.
6. An error message shows and the boot fails completely.
7. Windows is loading message remains on display but the system will not load.
Troubleshooting startup problems and when your computer runs slow depends greatly on finding at what time in the sequence of events the error happened.
Guideline For Troubleshooting Startup
1.If an error message displays you may use the text and error codes in the message to determine the source of the trouble. The Microsoft knowledge base or other help sites may be of assistance to you with this.
2.If the problem occurs during the text mode of the boot up sequence take a look at the last few lines of text to find which process succeeded. You might with a bit of luck get information about the failed process also.
3.If the "Windows is loading" keeps on display or if the screen goes completely blank try:
A. Wait for a few minutes to see if the problem will resolve itself.
B. If it does not then press the Escape key (ESC) a few times.
C. If you still do not have success try hitting the reset button in order to hard boot the system.
D. Next try booting the computer in safe mode. To try this press the F8 key just after POST and choose SAFE MODE from the options which are displayed.
E. If there is a mouse cursor showing on the screen move the mouse to determine if the cursor will move. If the cursor does move this suggests that windows is loading. If it does not move you have a system freeze and should try hard booting the computer.
If your computer runs slow and has Windows XP startup problems the common reason is a bloated corrupt registry. Over a period of time as the machine is used the registry accumulates many pieces of files and data which are of no use. These come from incompletely uninstalled programs,programs which did not install properly,old drivers,unused shortcuts,adware,spyware and numerous other sources.
The operating system is greatly slowed down as it trys to access the files needed to run the computer in this corrupt registry. The easy way to eliminate this problem when your computer runs slow and has Windows XP startup problems is to use one of the good windows XP registry cleaners.
Windows XP registry cleaners can be downloaded from the internet for your use. Good windows registry repair software will first offer you a free scan to find what errors you have in your computer registry. You can check the results of this scan and decide whether you want to use the repair function of the windows reg cleaner to fix the problems.
We recommend that you do this and do not attempt to do the job manually.Do your registry repair the safe way. One wrong item removed by mistake can cause you problems even to the point that your computer will completely cease to function. You can get a free scan from the top registry cleaners to correct registry errors.
Computer Runs Slowly--7 Easy Ways to Speed It Up
When a computer is new it will run at full speed. Exactly how fast it runs depends of course on how it is equipped. If you need a really fast computer you should invest in a high end machine with the very best processor and lots of memory.
Then again your speed for surfing the internet depends entirely on your internet connection speed. Obviously a high speed cable connection is much faster than a dial up.
When your computer seems to gradually run slower over a period of time there can be a number of reasons for this and you can correct the problems fairly easily in most cases.
1. Do you have enough memory in your machine? Anything less than 1 gigabyte of RAM is barely enough these days. If you have less you should upgrade to at least 1 Gigabyte of RAM and 2 or more gigabytes would be better. Same applies to your hard drive. If you download a lot of stuff you should have a big hard drive. A minimum of 100 gigabytes is needed these days.
2. Do you have a lot of never used programs on your hard drive? Uninstall as many as possible. The extra hard drive space will speed things up especially if you have a small hard drive. Aim to have no more than 50 to 60 percent of your hard drive space in use.
3. You should defragment your hard drive regularly to keep things running fast and smoothly. When your hard drive has bits and pieces of programs scattered all over it this greatly slows down the machine as it tries to locate the various pieces of a program. Defragmenting will bring all the pieces of each program together, where they should be, for fast access.
4. Regular use of an antispyware program will eliminate spyware which has been installed on your machine by someone unknown. You can download a free program such as Spybot or Adaware. Spyware uses up your computer resources to accomplish it's dirty work. Take it out and speed up your machine.
5. Many people will have months or even years of old emails taking up hard drive space. Remove all deleted items,sent items and old inbox items regularly and you will free up a surprising amount of hard drive room. This will enable your machine to run faster.
6. Your startup menu may be clutterd with all kinds of material which need not be there. You can access any of these programs quite easily if you need them. No need to have them slow down the booting of the machine. Edit them out of the startup menu. You don't have to delete them just get them out of startup and your boot time will be much less.
7. All Windows PCs will slow down over a period of time. The computer registry gradually becomes choked with excess material. This greatly slows down the operating system as it tries to locate the data it needs to run your computer. The solution is to remove all the unwanted data from the registry and clean it up.
If you have the necessary computer knowledge you can do this manually using the Regedit function which is installed in all Windows computers for this purpose. Regedit will give you access to the registry files and you can then delete any material you don't want in there.
A serious caution is in order at this point however. If you do not know exactly what you are doing you should not remove any data from the registry. Many entries are there for the purpose of running the computer and if you should delete any of these important files your computer could be disabled. You might even have to reinstall the operating system to get the machine going again. Needless to say you want to avoid this at all costs.
Fortunately there is a safe and easy way to remove the unecessary material from the registry. You simply need to download a registry repair application from the internet and this will take care of the problem for you quickly and easily.
There are several of these applications available for download and they do vary in performance and ease of use. We purchased and tested several of them and found that some were superior to others.
The first thing you should do is to obtain a free scan of your registry which is offered by most of these applications. This will determine whether or not you do have a registry problem and will report to you what the problems are.
You can look at this report and decide what you would like to do. The reasonable price which is charged for repairing your registry is well worthwhile and this is what we would recommend that you do.
The registry cleaner will quickly do it's work and your computer will be returned to full operating speed. Your computer will run like a new machine again.
-Pratik Kothawade
Then again your speed for surfing the internet depends entirely on your internet connection speed. Obviously a high speed cable connection is much faster than a dial up.
When your computer seems to gradually run slower over a period of time there can be a number of reasons for this and you can correct the problems fairly easily in most cases.
1. Do you have enough memory in your machine? Anything less than 1 gigabyte of RAM is barely enough these days. If you have less you should upgrade to at least 1 Gigabyte of RAM and 2 or more gigabytes would be better. Same applies to your hard drive. If you download a lot of stuff you should have a big hard drive. A minimum of 100 gigabytes is needed these days.
2. Do you have a lot of never used programs on your hard drive? Uninstall as many as possible. The extra hard drive space will speed things up especially if you have a small hard drive. Aim to have no more than 50 to 60 percent of your hard drive space in use.
3. You should defragment your hard drive regularly to keep things running fast and smoothly. When your hard drive has bits and pieces of programs scattered all over it this greatly slows down the machine as it tries to locate the various pieces of a program. Defragmenting will bring all the pieces of each program together, where they should be, for fast access.
4. Regular use of an antispyware program will eliminate spyware which has been installed on your machine by someone unknown. You can download a free program such as Spybot or Adaware. Spyware uses up your computer resources to accomplish it's dirty work. Take it out and speed up your machine.
5. Many people will have months or even years of old emails taking up hard drive space. Remove all deleted items,sent items and old inbox items regularly and you will free up a surprising amount of hard drive room. This will enable your machine to run faster.
6. Your startup menu may be clutterd with all kinds of material which need not be there. You can access any of these programs quite easily if you need them. No need to have them slow down the booting of the machine. Edit them out of the startup menu. You don't have to delete them just get them out of startup and your boot time will be much less.
7. All Windows PCs will slow down over a period of time. The computer registry gradually becomes choked with excess material. This greatly slows down the operating system as it tries to locate the data it needs to run your computer. The solution is to remove all the unwanted data from the registry and clean it up.
If you have the necessary computer knowledge you can do this manually using the Regedit function which is installed in all Windows computers for this purpose. Regedit will give you access to the registry files and you can then delete any material you don't want in there.
A serious caution is in order at this point however. If you do not know exactly what you are doing you should not remove any data from the registry. Many entries are there for the purpose of running the computer and if you should delete any of these important files your computer could be disabled. You might even have to reinstall the operating system to get the machine going again. Needless to say you want to avoid this at all costs.
Fortunately there is a safe and easy way to remove the unecessary material from the registry. You simply need to download a registry repair application from the internet and this will take care of the problem for you quickly and easily.
There are several of these applications available for download and they do vary in performance and ease of use. We purchased and tested several of them and found that some were superior to others.
The first thing you should do is to obtain a free scan of your registry which is offered by most of these applications. This will determine whether or not you do have a registry problem and will report to you what the problems are.
You can look at this report and decide what you would like to do. The reasonable price which is charged for repairing your registry is well worthwhile and this is what we would recommend that you do.
The registry cleaner will quickly do it's work and your computer will be returned to full operating speed. Your computer will run like a new machine again.
-Pratik Kothawade
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