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learn to code

Why You Don’t Need Top Technical Talent

Posted by | Oct 5, 2015

I’ve always been passionate about technology, but I’ve never been a student of programming. I took a course here and there—middle school, high school, the required junk in college. I’m still shaky on the roots, the bits and bytes that make up the cred of any programmer with a degree. I’ve forgotten more about coding than I know today, and I’ve never been that concerned about keeping my skills sharp.    But I’ve built a bunch of tech.    Last week I had a meeting with a company who was looking to bring Automated Insights technology to one of...

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Iron Yard Coders Impress at Demo Day

Posted by | Aug 25, 2014

Reciperocity is a response to creator Erin Brown’s (pictured right) love of cooking and potlucks. It has a two-fold mission, to help people more easily and seamlessly organize potluck events and to find, store and share recipes. Inter-I isn’t live, but it’s worth mentioning because it’s so dang cool. Its founder Josh Tarkington exported 40 gigabytes of Wikipedia data (that’s about 40 percent of the entire site!) and created a way to search an idea and pull up topics that relate. The site will eventually help people find things based on context. Minter’s response to that project? “Black magic.”...

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Inside Durham’s Iron Yard Academy

Posted by | Aug 6, 2014

The community has rallied around the program. An Employer Advisory Board meets regularly to advise The Iron Yard on the skill sets they need and the jobs they hope to fill. Members of that board are executives at companies like Cactus Consulting, Bronto, Red Hat and Smashing Boxes. It’s their need for Python developers that’s prompting the January class, Mitsch says. Developers and executives at Fugitive Labs, Shoeboxed, School Dude, Validic and other Triangle companies have provided guest lectures. The students went on field trips to Bronto and Spoonflower, and the Ruby students attended the Ruby for Good conference...

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Smashing Boxes Schools Durham in Code

Posted by | Apr 1, 2014

Nick Jordan spends as much time recruiting new employees as selling into clients of his fast-growing web development agency Smashing Boxes. The company has grown to 38 employees over the last four years, and its greatest need is capable coders. But despite relationships with local universities and recruiters actively seeking workers around the nation, there never seems to be enough talent. Jordan isn’t one to sit back and wait for a solution. Like much of his last eight years starting companies, when he has an idea, he launches it. And his new Durham coding school is no exception. Coming...

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Learning To Code Has Taught Me Nothing

Posted by | Jun 25, 2013

Note: This is part 2 in James Kotecki’s ongoing saga You Should Learn To Code. He’s planning on going from blogger to rockstar coder with nothing but Codecademy and a sense of humor. Dear coders of the world, How the hell am I ever supposed to catch up to you? Seriously, how? I’ve been working in Codecademy for 10 days straight now, and you know what I’ve realized? I. Know. Nothing. Sure, it feels like I’ve made a lot of progress. It was fun to blaze through HTML and CSS. Now I’m on to Javascript, where I’ve gained the...

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You Should Learn To Code

Posted by | Jun 18, 2013

Call me crazy, but this whole Internet thing seems like it’s really catching on. Barring the planet-wide collapse of civilization, it’s pretty safe bet that computers will just keep getting more important to our lives. Maybe now is a good time to understand how they work. Mashable says coding is “21st-Century literacy.” As a blogger, I’m still at a Sesame Street level. Douglas Rushkoff frames the issue quite starkly for me in the title of his book: Program or be Programmed. “Choose the former,” says Rushkoff, “and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter,...

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