# How can I get myself up to date on programming skills? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 29, 2013, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-myself-up-to-date-on-programming-skills/659650 "2013-05-29T19:24:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-myself-up-to-date-on-programming-skills/659650/1 "2013-05-29T19:24:27Z")
Due to an unforeseen turn of budgetary cutbacks, I now find myself with a summer full of free time. Unfortunately, my job has left me woefully out of date on the latest software trends. I’m up to speed on Access 2003, SQL Server mgmt. studio 2003 (or whatever it is), old-timey ASP, and that’s about it. I never did learn [ASP.NET](http://ASP.NET) or [VB.NET](http://VB.NET), and I was not up to date on those 10 years ago. What do I need to learn in order to make myself marketable again, and how can I learn it with no budget and only a crappy laptop? ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-myself-up-to-date-on-programming-skills/659650/2 "2013-05-29T19:27:56Z")
HTML 5 and the Internet? ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-myself-up-to-date-on-programming-skills/659650/3 "2013-05-29T19:28:56Z")
My husband likes to listen to the free lectures from MIT and IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology). There are plenty of programming courses there, free to listen and watch. He prefers IIT, fwiw. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-myself-up-to-date-on-programming-skills/659650/4 "2013-05-29T19:51:53Z")
> [@Andy](#): > > HTML 5 and the Internet? I’m pretty up to speed on some version of HTML. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-myself-up-to-date-on-programming-skills/659650/5 "2013-05-29T20:11:13Z")
Can you afford anything at all? If so, I can highly recommend [PluralSight](http://www.pluralsight.com/training). They have online courses on about a gazillion different tech topics, and I’ve gone through several of them. They’re high-quality and up-to-date. One thing I really like Pluralsight for over a lot of similar places is that it also has transcripts of the lectures, and you can switch between the transcript and the video just by clicking on the sentence you’re on. That way, you can read through the intros and the stuff you already know, and when you get to something you really want to watch, you just click and you’re there. Really handy for going a little faster through parts of the course that you don’t feel you need to concentrate on. There’s a free trial. Even if you don’t have any budget at all, I’d highly suggest taking advantage of that. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-myself-up-to-date-on-programming-skills/659650/6 "2013-05-29T20:18:31Z")
> **[Learn to Code - for Free | Codecademy](https://www.codecademy.com)** > > Learn the technical skills to get the job you want. Join over 50 million people choosing Codecademy to start a new career (or advance in their current one). ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-myself-up-to-date-on-programming-skills/659650/7 "2013-05-29T20:37:04Z")
Coursera and MIT’s OpenCourseWare are video lecture style courses - most of them more more CS curricula based but I think some of them are tech based. If you’re really feeling perky, get a github account, pick a language, and write some applications to show off. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-myself-up-to-date-on-programming-skills/659650/8 "2013-05-29T20:42:20Z")
Also there are online judges for programming challenges. I used to work problems from [SPOJ](http://www.spoj.com/) and [UVa](http://uva.onlinejudge.org/) for grins. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-myself-up-to-date-on-programming-skills/659650/9 "2013-05-29T21:48:22Z")
Udacity is approaching a pretty complete CS curriculum, and everything is still free. That’s worth checking out. ---
**Author:** ![Nippless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/df788c/32.png) [@Nippless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nippless)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-myself-up-to-date-on-programming-skills/659650/10 "2013-05-30T10:34:23Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I’m pretty up to speed on some version of HTML. Do you know which version? Do you know CSS? I was in a similar boat last year and sort of got myself up-to-date on web technologies - at least enough to understand what all the acronyms meant in advertised job requirements :smack:. I’d advise first considering what direction you’d like to head in before jumping in with learning anything. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-myself-up-to-date-on-programming-skills/659650/11 "2013-05-30T13:03:35Z")
[Lynda.com](http://Lynda.com) covers a lot of techie subjects. You can subscribe month-to-month.