[sf-lug] Teaching programming at SF-LUG meetings

[Asheesh Laroia]

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008, Jeffrey Malone wrote:

> You could of course just use straight vnc, and have all the participants 
> install a vnc viewer and connect to you in a monitor only mode (or if 
> you prefer, the iTalc program is GPL, and you could have people install 
> it).

Good point.  There's something really nice about physical presence - it 
helps keep people focused, I think.

> In fact, after reviewing that features of iTalc, it sounds great for a
> lab -- but I would never install it on my own system.  Something about
> giving someone else the ability to lock, reboot, and otherwise control
> my computer at will is not encouraging.

Whatever, patch it so those functions don't work. (-;

> But in short of a projector, which we would be highly unlikely to have, 
> the idea of using something like VNC seems good.  It can be quite nice 
> to see it done first hand.

Ya!

> It seems likely that I'll be attending today, in part to learn.
> I already have a working knowledge of python, but it could stand to be
> well expanded upon.  I imagine I could also assist Asheesh in
> answering question people may have, as my general programming
> knowledge is somewhat robust on top of the knowledge of python I
> already have.

("Somewhat robust" is an understatement, but Jeff isn't known for his 
overstatements.)

Totally awesome!  I'd love it if you'd do the week's readings, even if 
that seems totally unnecessary for you, just so that if people ask you 
things you can be sure to use the same vocabulary as others.

Also, you might like this for your own learning, if you haven't read it 
yet:
http://diveintopython.org/toc/index.html

-- Asheesh.

-- 
The chains of marriage are so heavy that it takes two to carry them, and
sometimes three.
 		-- Alexandre Dumas