[plug] [OT] After Year 12

[Jon Miller]

Tim,
I can see you're an enthusiastic young man, but take the advice of those of us that have been there before you.  Education is something no one can take away from you, so the more you have the better, as someone has mentioned before get some practical experience while you are doing the education trip.  I have a young man come in on either Monday or Fridays doing contract work at a reasonable rate and he is attending uni.  Also as someone has mentioned Uni is there for learning, and the more you learn the more you can offer.
As someone wise told me when I was a youngster - get the schooling out of the way now and party later.  In my experience get the schooling now while you're still young and somewhat in the groove of it, it gets harder to go back to school later (family, girlfriend, parties, and job).
Also remember in this field (IT) education is a constant and forever changing field, so if you hate school then look into a field where schooling isn't require.  As I look back over the years I think I've attended at least a class every other year since '76 when I graduated from Uni and said I will never step a foot back on campus.... yeah right!!!






Jon L. Miller,  ASE, CNS, CLS, MCNE
Director/Sr Systems Consultant
MMT Networks Pty Ltd
http://www.mmtnetworks.com.au

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure
 is trying to please everybody." -Bill Cosby



>>> weirdo at tigris.org 5:08:33 am 4/08/2004 >>>
Hi.
Some of you may know me personally and others just from inrequent posts. 
My name is Tim in case you hadn't read my header and I am currently in 
year 12.
As some of you may know I have a passion in computers, mainly 
programming. This as taken me to Canberra to attend the AIC selection 
school twice.
I have been using linux since the start of the year that the last Debian 
2.2.X was released around Sept (If you can remember which year it was 
please tell me, I am think 2001 as 3.0 was released 2002)
Since then I have picked up a greater desire to program and am often 
found spending a whole weekend developing an application[1] instead of 
doing study or homework. I don't enjoy study or homework unless it is on 
a computer. I am alright at Calculus[2] and Applicable maths. I am also 
doing physics, geography and English all of which I can do if I study 
harder.
I have topped WA in the UNSW Computer Competition 3 out of 4 years so I 
am confident that I have skills in the computer area apart from the fact 
that I enjoy it heaps.
Apart from the fact that I hate school and am not looking forward to the 
upcoming TEE exams I am still going to do them. What I am writing this 
for is guidance. I really enjoy programming especially when it can help 
someone else other than just me. I am not sure of what to do after year 12.
I know that there is Computer Science and Software Enginerring that I 
can do at Uni but I'm not sure if I want to.
I also know that I can't live off prgramming for the Open Source 
community unless my work is so good that donations come pouring in or I 
get commercial customers [3]
I am open to any suggestions. Also if you know away that I can combine 
my love for lighting (thearter) with computers/programming then please 
tell me.
Thanks
Tim
[1] As most of you can't know I am developing a web based chat client 
similar to IRC which will soon be found at http://ihcc.sourceforge.net 
(In the next week or so) or for an old version 
http://plug.linux.org.au/~linuxalien/public/talk/. Any guesses on what I 
was doing last week end considering it is now on SF
[2] If I study/do home work
[3] Side note, what license should I release an application under if I 
wish for it to be free for general public but not for commercial use?
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