jonathanmccormickjr / ossp-cs

My self-directed MIT OCW [et al] Computer Science Education.

🚀 My Open-Source Study Path — Computer Science (OSSP-CS)

College-level Computer Science education equivalent using a diverse range of resources.

View Jonathan's TRANSCRIPT here: ./transcript.md

Computer art prompted by Jonathan McCormick, Jr. and generated using Craiyon AI. 24 Feb, 2023.

Intro

Inspired by the Open-Source Computer Science Degree and Open Source Society University, this project aims to document my path toward becoming at least as knowledgable and competent in the field of Computer Science as a person with 2-years, 4-years, 6-years, and 8-years CS degrees, respectively. The following document outlines my study resources used. The groupings by Term are meant to pace and structure the course more or less according to a typical Computer Science track at a college or university. The focus is on the core Computer Science courses, but other subject matters will be included here and there as I see fit.

Why did I make OSSP-CS?

This project is for me to document my personal journey as a self-directed student of computer science. I recognize that the traditional college experience has lots of pros and cons. One of the pros is a sense of structure. That is something that I want to bring here.

Key:

Progress key	Item	Term	Degree
Not started	🔴	🟥	❤️
In progress	🟡	🟨	💛
Completed	🟢	🟩	💚

Table of Contents

💛 "Weatherstone Degree" (≈ 2-years associate's degree)

Named after the "Weather Stone", a primitive tool for meteorological measurement based mostly on the intuitive perception of the reader.

• 🟩 Term 0: Andrews University: Fall 2019
• 🟩 Term 1: Andrews University: Spring 2020
• 🟩 Term 2: Andrews University: May 2020
• 🟩 Term 3: Sololearn, Hack the Box Academy, edX, et al: Summer 2020 - Spring 2022
• 🟨 Term 4: MIT OCW: Summer 2022 - Summer 2024

❤️ "Fahrenheit Degree" (≈ 4-years bachelor's degree)

Named after the Fahrenheit scale for measuring temperature (used mostly by the Americans), where the melting point of purified water ice is ~32 °F (31.9998 °F) and the boiling point of water is ~212 °F (211.971 °F).

• 🟥 Term 5
• 🟥 Term 6
• 🟥 Term 7
• 🟥 Term 8

❤️ "Celsius Degree" (≈ 6-years master's degree)

Named after the Celsius scale for measuring temperature (used mostly by the rest of the world), where the melting point of purified water ice is ~0 °C (−0.0001 °C) and the boiling point of water is ~100 °C (99.9839 °C).

• 🟥 Term 9
• 🟥 Term 10
• 🟥 Term 11
• 🟥 Term 12

❤️ "Kelvin Degree" (≈ 8-years doctor's degree)

Named after the Kelvin scale for measuring temperature (increments between points are ≈ to those of Celsius), but where absolute zero is 0 K (exact), the melting point of purified water ice is ~273 K (273.1499 K) and the boiling point of water is ~373 K (373.1339 K).

• 🟥 Term 13
• 🟥 Term 14
• 🟥 Term 15
• 🟥 Term 16

Study topic chooser

In an effort to prevent overthinking, I should use this aid to choose which subject I should study:

import random

classes = ["Calculus", "Computation Structures", "Computer Architecture", "Driver's License", "Intro to CS"]

selected_class = random.choice(classes)
print(f"You get to study {selected_class} RIGHT NOW!!!")

Future Course Options

Info on courses that I may choose to add to a future docket for my educational journey.

Have a suggestion to add? I'd love to hear it! Write a comment here on GitHub or tag me on Twitter @LiberlandHacker.

Unfinished Courses

My progress for courses that I dropped for any given term and did not assign to a specific future term.

A word on file naming conventions

Where applicable, subject notes, code snippets, etc. will generally have the following naming convention. This is to preserve a sense of organization regarding my progress.

[DATE CREATED YYYYMMDD]-[FILENAME].[EXTENSION]

Example:

20220623-myProgram.go

Academic Honesty

If you are a student who is interested in using my notes for your own study, please first check to make sure you do not violate your own institution's academic honesty policies by using my notes, which may include answers to graded and ungraded problems.

Of course, as long as your academic authorities allow it, you are welcome to use this repo as a resource for your own learning, subject to the included LICENSE.

Notes on Notes

Note: Not all notes are posted here. Some are handwritten, as I find it more convenient in many cases, especially for notations which Markdown is not well-suited for. If you are an interested party who desires to review my handwritten notes for any course, please send me a request directly and I'll see what I can do for you.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to everyone who helped make this education journey possible for me, including

• MIT Open Learning,
• Project Gutenburg,
• Sololearn,
• HTB Academy,
• freeCodeCamp,
• my high school teachers at Maplewood Academy,
• Andrews University (esp. the Math Dept.),
• Bartlesville Public Library,
• the many authors, content creators who share their knowledge with the world,
• et al.

ossp-cs's Issues

For Term 4 Satan, include more apocryphal texts

Paradise Lost needs to be formatted as a poem

Markdown requires 2 new lines in the raw to get 1 new line in the output. Thus, the "Paradise Lost" file needs to have those extra lines inserted via a script.

Do this in Python and update the file accordingly.

PROOFREAD FORMAT BEFORE COMMITTING.

Decide on what your term project will be

It needs to be something in Python.

https://github.com/LiberlandHacker/OSSP-CS/blob/main/Term-04/project0/README.md

Finish organizing Satanism I README to have the Readings organized by date first published

https://github.com/LiberlandHacker/OSSP-CS/blob/main/Term-04/satan/README.md

Add chores assignment system when finished

Once your chores assignment system is finished, reference it in your Term 4 Intro CS class.

• provide link to that project
• write explanation of your development process for that project

Find grants and that type of stuff, if available.

For finding an internship, prioritize remote ones

You will just need to treat it with the diligence that you would give to an in-person job.

Re-structure the Term 4: Satan in Pop Culture section to be based on title of work, NOT name of author

This is to keep things inclusive and fair for works that have multiple authors.

Term-04/satan/ has WAY too much reading material, and must be split into multiple courses and/or pruned to the most essential elements

Term-04/satan/ has WAY too much reading material, and must be split into multiple courses and/or pruned to the most essential elements

Integrate certs into your path

IEEE professional software developer certification: https://www.computer.org/product/education/professional-software-developer-certification

Network+
CompTIA Secure Infrastructure Expert (Security+ / CySA+ / PenTest+ / CASP+)

Many employers seem to want people who have a traditional college degree. What is the solution?

Traditional industries

These tend to have a lot of dogma over what they are looking for in a job candidate. The Computer Science field may not be as old as farming, but it is still several hundred years old (if you count Blaise Pascal's ~1642 mechanical counter).

Regardless of prevailing dogma, I suspect that the right people will be open-minded enough to let my OSSP-CS education speak for itself.

This may not be as sure a bet compared to if I had a formal CS degree, but demonstrating competence equivalent or greater than a CS grad will open doors with the right people IMHO.

Newer industries that rely on CS

These tend to have more open-minded HR people in my experience.

Examples: crypto+blockchain, NFTs, social media, etc.

Learn an open hardware system

https://shop.mntre.com/products/mnt-reform