A curated list of Computer Engineering resources | Hacker News Reader

A curated list of Computer Engineering resources

rajesh-s.gitbook.io

111 pointsrajesh-s15 comments

And, of course, let's not forget:

- Free Computer Science degree-like path at [1]

- Free collection of Math resources at [2]

As a self-taught person, I recently started attending a college for computer science. I don't need the degree, but I wanted the knowledge. Granted, I'm just at the end of 1st year, but a lot of what is being taught is nothing more than giving formal definitions and formal names of things I've already taught myself.

So, I truly believe there are so much free good education out there for you. All you have to do is have the right mindset to get it.

[1] https://github.com/ossu/computer-science

[2] https://github.com/rossant/awesome-math

About 95% of the value of a degree for me has just been not ever having to explain why I don't have one. Maybe 99%.

That's basically why I'm going through the university myself. I already have a job, being in a mid-level SWE position, but because of quite large imposter syndrome, I decided to try the uni.

At this point, I'm past the disappointment. I'll finish the degree just to demonstrate "see? I could do it" and not to justify to my future employers why I don't have one.

Are you doing it part time?

Yes, there are a number of good online degrees, OMSCS [1] being probably the most popular one.

[1] http://www.omscs.gatech.edu/

On the other hand, I use things learned during my university education on a regular basis.

If a person goes into jobs that don't require the use of their education, well, the college did not send out their job applications, the person did.

The point is not that the information is useless. The point is that I firmly believe you can get the education (and consequently, all the information) for free, on your own.

Getting a degree is nothing but formalization of that process that'll set you back a pretty penny.

I'm also dropping https://quanticdev.com

It has articles on software engineering, case studies, and 'how to' guides on engineering in general.

Unrelated: gotta love GitBook. Looks so clean and it has built-in navigation. Now I'm having seconds thoughts about having built quanticdev.com using GitHub Pages.

Why not call "Computer Engineering" 'Computing'?

Why? As the diagram shows a degree in computer engineering is basically a mashup of CS and EE.

Yes! Thanks for noticing it. That was one of the primary reasons I decided to keep it. There seems to be a general confusion about CE/CS.

Computing is the act of computation.

Computer engineering is the act of engineering performed to build computers, which are devices that compute.

The act of computation can be done with abacuses, gears and mechanical linkages (Babbage difference engine and other mechanical computers), fluid logic, and a variety of other mechanisms. The means of implementation has little to do with the mathematics of computing itself.

Astronomy isn't about telescopes, as Dijkstra famously noted in his analogy about CS, but it's difficult to deny that astronomers wouldn't have much to do other than twiddle their thumbs without the aid of them. Computer engineering is about building the telescopes.

It’s funny you should ask that as I was just watching a lecture by Harold Abelson in which he addresses this exact question.

https://youtu.be/-J_xL4IGhJA

In case you don’t have the time or inclination to watch the video it can basically be summarized by saying the following. When the Egyptians first discovered geometry it was considered crop science as it’s primary application was for determining crop yields and when to plant and harvest. In the same way now that computers science is applied to computers today. But just like Geometry is really about farming, computer science is not really about computers. Professor Abelson goes on to explain that computer science provides a means to determine proofs for abstract mathematics a reasoning, so that we can understand with definitive proof things that until now were only theoretical.

Thank you for sharing this!

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