I was very excited to begin my classes last week at The Iron Yard in Atlanta.  I have been professionally designing websites for years but to stay competitive, I realized that I not only should know how to create a great looking website using online platforms, but I should also know how to code the entire website from scratch.  This includes knowledge of current industry standard tools and techniques.  At the Iron Yard I will be learning front end development as well as back end development.   The coding languages that I am learning include: HTML, CSS, Javascript, Node.JS, JQuery, and I have the choice of specializing in Ruby on Rails, Java, or concentrating on Front End Development by the end of the bootcamp. 

All potential students are interviewed after applying to the Iron Yard so that the staff can determine if you will be a good fit for the program.  During the interview they tell you that the program is an immersive program and that it is styled like a bootcamp.  They tell you that the learning will be intense and demanding.  Well folks, after the first week, I am here to tell you that they are telling the truth!  The information is coming at you at a very fast rate and you must utilize your best time management techniques to stay on track.  The course is hard, but you also have the assistance of the staff and your other classmates to help you where you may need help.  This is one of the benefits of learning to code in a cohort setting.  I must say, I'm having fun while learning cutting edge programming languages!

It helps that the Atlanta Iron Yard campus is a pretty cool place.  It has two kitchens in which we have access to bring our own food.  A VERY utilized ping pong table (a great stress reliever), multiple sofas, private rooms, and places to just code and chill.  Our coding projects keep us busy and it's nice to have a place that's comfortable.

In addition to learning computer programming, the Iron Yard staff is preparing us mentally and professionally, but offering workshops and lectures designed to help us make the transition into working in the tech field.  We already have had representatives from local companies visit us and help explain what they're looking for in new hires.  Whether you're looking for a job with a local company or just trying to level up your skills in computer programming, the Iron Yard program is receiving a 5 star rating from me so far.  Now I really would like to say more but I have got to get back to coding... I have projects due!

Until next week...

​Stephen

Today was a pretty cool day.  We had our "Install Party" at the Iron Yard Atlanta plus I learned a little of the Ruby programming language.  The "Install Party" is the day when the cohort meets up with the instructors and downloads the software that we'll need for the course onto our computers.  I also met my classmates for the first time.  Everyone seems pretty cool.  

We were also given our first assignment to complete for Monday.  I can't wait to get it going.  I am currently finishing up some pre-work assignments including an introduction to the Ruby programming language.  I must admit I had to take a little mental break before starting the Ruby module because I had just written my first "Madlibs" program using Javascript and that took a minute to figure out.  But it was fun.  See you Monday1

​Stephen

  12 Days Until The Start of Bootcamp: Newbie Fun!  So today I coded a "back to the top of the page" button for my website using Javascript and CSS.  I peeped code from W3Schools to jump start the effort.   All before, I would have had to outsource that type of code to use in my projects.  Now I can code it myself.

I modified the css to get the look of the button that would be consistent with my overall site design and the location of the button as it appears.  The Javascript code makes it appear only after the website visitor scrolls 20 pixels from the top of the page.

I made the button float on the left side instead of the right because I already have a customer service button that floats on the right.  It works fine on desktop and tablet.  I will monitor user feedback to see if it interferes with the natural scrolling when using a mobile device.  

It's been fun delving  into the coding side of things after specializing in UI / UX design for so long.  The start date for The Iron Yard is approaching at lightning speed.  I'm excited.  Can't wait to get the skills to truly "build something from nothing!"  Computer programming is awesome!

Until tomorrow,

Stephen

PS.  You can see how the back to the top button works by visiting my homepage at http://www.StephenWicks.com  Scroll down the page a little and it will appear on the left side of the page.  Cheers!

13 Days Until The Start of Bootcamp: Today was a great day.  The Iron Yard - Atlanta was the venue for a talk given by Jeff Levy entitled, "Using Lean Start-Up Techniques in the Real World."  

Mr. Levy is a serial entrepreneur who has had a lot of success in the tech field.  He currently is an adjunct professor at Georgia State University and is the Founder / Managing Director of Nektr.io   Nektr is a technology company that focuses on Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality products.  Pretty cool stuff.

His mini lecture was packed with information that could help anyone understand the benefits of using the lean start up model for launching new businesses.  We gained a lot from his insight.

I met some very interesting people at the event who are involved in either the tech or entrepreneurial space in Atlanta.  This was my first event that I attended at the Iron Yard and I can't wait for the next one.  I'm considering an event this week.  There are a lot of events happening in Atlanta since this is StartUp Week.

Click Here to learn more about Atlanta Startup Week and view the events schedule.

Until tomorrow,

Stephen

14 Days until coding bootcamp.  Today I started training on GitHub.  It's the industry standard code version control product.  I completed the first level tutorials on how to use it.  It's a very powerful tool packed with many features.  I can see how important it is for teams to use when working on a codebase.  Tomorrow I'll continue with a couple of more training exercises.  Fun stuff!

Until tomorrow,

Stephen

15 Days to go before the first day of coding bootcamp.  I was informed that we should pick a text editor to use for the cohort.  We will be coding pretty much all day so we need to have a text editor that will allow us to code comfortably.  I chose Atom as my text editor for the cohort.  It's widely used and it's also a project of Github.

In my effort to get my feet wet with the editor, I researched some Javascript code that would be useful for a client website.  I first tested the editor by coding the Hello World program, then I wrote some code for a snippet of html to appear on various pages of the website by being displayed with Javascript.  It worked.  Yay!  I felt accomplished.  I can only imagine how I will feel after the classes begin!  #winning!

Until tomorrow,

Stephen

16 Days before the first day of my coding boot camp:  Today I did some independent study on the Java Virtual Machine.  It was great.  I learned how cool the Java programming language is at being able to be used on many different platforms via the JVM.   I'm excited to be learning to write code that can be used on computers, phones, and many other electronic devices.

Today, I also learned a little bit more about the LESS pre-processor when modifying the CSS for a client's website.  I used the Firefox inspect element tool to drill down the location of the css setting that was giving me trouble.

I'm also preparing my mind to get ready for the amount of learning and coding that's to come.

Until tomorrow.

Stephen

I am very excited to announce that I will be attending an intense 3 month coding boot camp in Atlanta.  The name of the coding school is The Iron Yard.  After extensive research, I feel as though The Iron Yard is the right coding school for me to attend.  I am going to work on learning and improving my skills with full stack web development.  Today was orientation day and I really enjoyed meeting the instructors, staff, and fellow co-hort students.

I will be blogging my journey at the Iron Yard for the next 3 months.  I will be eating, sleeping, and dreaming of code. lol

Currently, I believe I will focus primarily on Java as a specialty but that may change as the course gets underway.  I'll keep you posted on that.  To get ready for the rigorous schedule I'll be doing as many self directed Java exercises until then to ease the attack on my brain that is coming.

I will also now be working and coding with a Mac which will be new for me.  I've only used PCs and getting to know the Mac will be interesting to say the least.

To cap off the exciting day, my wife took me to a very nice Thai restaurant in Decatur.  The name of the restaurant is Siam.  It's REALLY good.  Check them out if you get a chance.  You won't be disappointed.

I also heard very good news from a client.  She's going to be featured on a radio show hosted by a nationally known recording artist.  She's excited and I'm excited for her.  I'll be updating her website with the latest news.

Until tomorrow.

Stephen