Oh. I fell asleep. Is Ubuntu loaded yet? It looks like it is.

We’re in Chapter Two now, and if you’re doing a dual-boot installation for the first time, pick up the book and do a little reading or you might risk whacking the other operating system on your computer, along with all the software and data that goes along with it. Not good!

This is where Ubuntu Made Easy shines. It gives you accurate, complete descriptions of what you should do, and when and how you should do it. Every minute spent reading can save you up to an hour of cursing and redoing or undoing mistakes.

Much Ado About Applications

Some years ago I wrote a book called Point and Click Linux! (which is now totally obsolete) in which I gave only the briefest instructions on how to use popular Linux applications because I didn’t want the book to get too heavy or intimidating. Ubuntu Made Easy is thicker and wordier than my book, and it goes into more detail than I did about how to use LibreOffice, Audacity, Gimp, and other other useful programs you can download (for free) from the Ubuntu servers.

Between the basic information about how to download, set up, and run Ubuntu Linux and the application use instructions, this book is a decent deal for $34.95 (paper) or $27.95 (ebook), which are publisher’s prices you can easily beat with a little shopping around.

But where is the command line?

Ubuntu Made Easy is entirely about pointing and clicking. Nothing wrong with that, especially since Ubuntu Linux has gotten to the point where it is a fully-functional desktop operating system suitable for use by great-grandmothers and toddlers and everybody in between. But for professional work? You’d better learn how to administer Linux from the command line now that you’ve got Ubuntu Linux running on at least one computer in your home or office.

In fact, to teach yourself what you need to know to handle even the most basic, entry-level small business sysadmin job, you should have two or more computers running Linux and at least one running Windows so that you can create a network and learn how to administer it.

This is when you buy a copy of Essential System Administration, 3rd Edition or a similar tome and start scratching your head as you learn the ins and outs of Linux (and Unix) by working with your own little network.

But to start? Ubuntu Made Easy is all you need, and Ubuntu is just about the easiest desktop Linux variant to use and learn from until you’re ready to hit that command line and become a Linux professional.

PS – This article, by Lisa Vaas, is “must” reading if you want to get into IT security work: Transform Your Puny Weakling Tech Muscles into InfoSec BRAWN! I mention it because “How do I learn IT security?” is one of the questions I get asked most often.

Imagine this scenario: a gardener lays a stone incorrectly, causing a country’s monarch to stumble. The monarch orders the gardener’s execution. When allowed to defend himself, the gardener attacks the monarch and explains that, while executing him for a simple mistake would be cruel, executing him for attacking the monarch would be rational behavior. The monarch sees the logic and releases the gardener.

The story about the gardener is a Birbal story, and Birbal stories are Indian versions of Sufi stories — or perhaps Birbal stories are Sufi versions of Birbal stories. Either way, both sets of stories are about simple wisdom winning the day, said wisdom generally coming about by looking at a problem in a way others have not.

Dr. Ness tells about a modern, scientific version of the Birbola/Sufi approach applied to stem cell research: The reason embryonic stem cells are so highly prized by biologists working to regenerate human limbs and organs is that they are generic; they have not yet become toe cells or liver cells. The story is about a research group at Stanford that stops looking at adult human cells, which have hardly any capacity to regenerate, but at newt cells. Adult newts, unlike humans, do regenerate after an injury. In newts, it seems, cells can and do revert to an embryonic state when they regenerate. Humans have two genes that specifically prevent this from happening. What if we suppress those two genes in humans? Hmmmm….

This idea came about because researchers from two different disciplines — evolutionary biology and regenerative medicine — worked together, and viewed the problem of regeneration from outside the frame (or point of view) of either discipline alone. This research only got going in 2010, so we don’t yet have people growing their own clone hearts. But give it time….

I have written before about IT + business hybrid education and job functions, and how someone whose knowledge crosses disciplines is inherently more valuable to an employer than someone whose knowledge is limited to a single field.

But cross-fertilization is not Dr. Ness’s only idea-generating thought. She has lots more of them, and if you buy a copy of Innovation Generation, put it on your bedside table or nightstand, and read a few pages ever night, some of her ideas might spur you to have a few of your own.

With (a lot of) luck, it’s possible that an idea you have after reading this book might even propel you into the elite ranks of developers who become wealthy from writing software. And even if you don’t get rich, creativity is fulfilling in and of itself.

They say, “Computer Science or Engineering backgrounds are preferred, although exceptional candidates from all backgrounds will be considered,” which leaves things pretty wide-open.

Acquia will offer jobs to their favorite Acquia U grads, but others need not despair. According to a press release Acquia sent me, “Job aggregation site indeed.com [is] reporting nearly 3,000 open positions for those with Drupal skills.”

The downside here is that Acquia is only going to put 10 people through their first session. But this is just a beta. They plan to continue Acquia U, with new sessions every semester, and they have plans to give their course in other places, some of which will hopefully be warmer than the greater Boston area. And chances are, they’ll have more than 10 people in future courses, so if you apply for Round 1 but are not selected (or don’t want to spend winter in Massachusetts), don’t despair. You’ll have many other chances to have Acquia teach you about Drupal.

There are also many other ways to learn about Drupal, including both paid and free online courses. (Google is your friend.)

It’s also possible that Acquia will put some or all of their course material online. An awful lot of companies are doing this, because in a world where airline travel seems to get nastier every month, online teaching saves crazy amounts of money and trouble.

And now, with the advent of simple content management systems like WordPress, it has become the work of moments to set up a basic instructional site, and a dozen hours or a few hundred dollars can make that site into a true work of art.

Wait! Did I just say WordPress? I meant Drupal. Really. WordPress is simple, but Drupal is much better for a high-finish professional site, especially if it has a lot of embedded video and graphics — as a serious instructional site should.

Please note that this is a limited offer. If you don’t jump on it soon (this article was posted July 13, 2011) you will probably not get a free cloud computing trial — from GNAX, anyway.

Aside from risk, military service demands conformity. You wear clothes chosen by others. Your hairstyle and grooming choices are limited. If, one morning, you don’t feel like getting up at 5 a.m. and running five miles before your workday starts, too bad. You will make formation. And you will exercise by the numbers two… three… four… and yes, you will roll the socks in your locker or drawer exactly the way you are told or you will do extra pushups or run laps or do something else you’d rather not do.

And guns. You will shoot a rifle and probably a handgun and, at least in the Army and Marines, you will both throw hand grenades and learn how to shoot them with a grenade launcher. If you have a strong aversion to firearms or are morally opposed to war, you do not belong in the military.

In return for all these annoyances, though, you will go to school without paying a dime in tuition, and if you choose your school wisely (my Army experience is too far out of date for me to give useful advice on this choice) you will learn a lot more, a lot faster, than you would in a civilian junior college or the first two years of a four-year college.

Looking for a civilian job as a veteran gives you several advantages over people who have no military experience. Chief among them is that an employer can see, just because you have an honorable discharge, that you can be trusted to show up on time, dress appropriately, and take orders without a lot of fuss — and if you manage to make E-5 (Sergeant in the Army) they have solid proof that you can lead people, too.

Other Veterans’ benefits include house-buying help (low/no down financing) and V.A. medical, which may not sound like a big deal when you’re 28 but is — trust me on this — a very big deal when you’re 58 and self-employed.

The military isn’t for everyone. But if you are (or can become) physically fit enough to handle it, you can get a pretty decent education, all the way through to a PhD or MD if you want to stay in long enough.

Again, something I’m not current on, but “back in the day” the U.S. Army Intelligence School at Ft. Devens (USAISD) was an accredited college, which meant the credits I earned there were instantly transferrable to just about any college or university. Ft. Devens is no more, but the Army now has a similar school at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, and there are other Army schools scattered here and there.

All in all, serving your country while you learn and gain college credits is not a bad deal. I’m glad I did it, even though when I did the military was not held in nearly as high regard as it is now.

And the V.A. medical? I’m extremely glad I have it today. Without V.A. health care, I don’t think I’d be able to maintain my freelance independence — and that means a lot to me.

There’s server-side Flash conversion software, too, which has the advantage that you aren’t asking users to download anything to use your (or your clients’) sites, games or other online bundles of joy.

So if you’re accustomed to Flash, and good at working with Flash, says Sterling, there’s no reason to stop using it. With software that’s out there now, and with lots more that’s coming soon, you can transmogrify your Flash to HTML5 in the blink of an eye.

Software Development is Accelerating; Training Needs to Keep Up

Can you write reasonably well? Do you like writing? If so, have you thought about becoming a technical writer? With scads of new software tools and IDEs coming out every year, there is a huge need for people to write and edit software manuals. Glamorous work? No. Satisfying? Sometimes. The pay’s generally decent. And since people who can both code and write about coding are rarer than people who can only do one or the other, technical writers have more job security than a lot of other people.

What’s going on in software development today, says Sterling, is similar to what happened when DTP (Desktop Publishing) was brand-new, many moons ago, in that new tools are opening a whole field of endeavor to people who don’t have huge amounts of technical knowledge. And who will teach all these people? It might be you, either in person or through Webinars, written texts or interactive Courseware.

Who Pays for Software Training These Days?

We know. You don’t pay for software training. You search online and figure things out on your own. And we love you for that. But some corporate types don’t have time for hit-or-miss learning but need to have new knowledge crammed into their people’s heads as quickly as possible. This corporate training is where people like Sterling make their livings — and where you, too, might find a market for your skills either as a trainer or as someone who develops the software that trainers use to help them interact with students.

Sterling says his company charges on the order of $450 per day per student, which is a staggering amount when you look at it from an hourly worker’s perspective, but isn’t much if you’re an IT manager and you need to add a tricky piece of new software to your Web servers and you can’t afford to have your people poke around but need them to know what they’re doing, for real, as soon as possible.

But if, like most of us, you are paying for your own education, one area Sterling suggests could be worth studying is the humble open source Content Management System (CMS). It is, in many ways, the modern equivalent of the once-hot DTP. Another bit of advice: the CMS you may want to learn in most depth (at least at first) is WordPress, because it’s the most popular CMS there is.

And remember: even as you explore the latest CMS revisions, don’t give up on Flash because Steve Jobs doesn’t like it or even because it is no longer in or cool or hot-hot-hot. Both mainframes and COBOL have been considered obsolete for a couple of decades now, but thousands of people still earn large salaries working with them.