Wow! Didn't expect to see this here for a while. We've just finished redeveloping the entire Dev Bootcamp website. Still a few kinks to iron out, especially for smaller screen sizes. We'll be making it responsive.
I'd be curious why RoR (not that I disagree with that decision)? Did you find a competitive advantage over say PHP or Python? Is it easier to teach? More job opportunities? Picked out of a hat?
I'm really jealous of the folks who can do this. Unfortunately, I feel like young people will not be able to afford this. Which makes me wonder, what's the average age of people attending?
Despite being really jealous for how easy this makes it look to 'learn to be a hacker', I personally will stick to the Zed Shaw school of learning.
"You qualify for a $500 scholarship if you're female or from an ethnic minority group underrepresented in the software engineering field (African American, Chicano/Latino, Native American, Pacific Islander, etc.). The tech world is notoriously unrepresentative of the larger population. We believe that the sooner that changes, the better off we all are."
tl;dr: The worst argument in the world is "X is Y, therefore, X must be a typical case of Y". Here, "The DBC policy is discrimination, therefore you should associate with it all the bad things you usually associate with discrimination, irrespective of whether they apply here."
Stripped of its misdirection, your question/argument is, "Isn't that bad for the same reason that 'we don't hire blacks' is bad?" No, it's not. There is a sense in which this kind of discrimination is bad, but there's also a sense in which its good (i.e. disrupting the self-reinforcing cycle of certain demographics dominating the programming field and making those outside of it feel out of place).
There are great arguments about which effect is stronger and/or worse, but they aren't helped by saying "That is discrimination."
Disclaimer: I was in the Spring (first) cohort of DBC, though don't have as glowing a review of the program as everyone else seems to.
Disclaimer: I'm heading out to DBC to join the Fall Cohort!
The revamp looks fantastic. The home page and the video give a great explanation as to why devbootcamp can be of such benefit. No time wasters needed. People who are willing to put in the hours and get the work done. The FAQ gives a good insight into what it's all about. A coherent well put together targeted approach to learning web development.
I'm sure DBC will be as engaging as the new website is.
This site is absolutely beautiful. Well done. I'd love to know a little more about the tools (generators?) that were used as it appears to be a completely static site.
How do employers weight this kind of experience when considering a graduate of this program? I'm sure there's a lot of companies in around SF who already know DevBootCamp, but what about employers outside of California?
I'm sure the right employers love it. These are literally the least pricy Rubyists available in the U.S. that can be proven to actually know how to code.
Good fit for a fast growing Ruby shop that is not too picky about depth of technical skills.
[+] [-] lachyg|13 years ago|reply
Chris Jennings (from http://chrisjennings.com) did all the creative work.
I'm more than happy to answer any questions about Dev Bootcamp, but I think this does a good job at tackling a few of them: http://www.quora.com/Programming-Bootcamps/Other-than-locati...
[+] [-] elmuchoprez|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] irollboozers|13 years ago|reply
Despite being really jealous for how easy this makes it look to 'learn to be a hacker', I personally will stick to the Zed Shaw school of learning.
[+] [-] dladowitz|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nhangen|13 years ago|reply
"You qualify for a $500 scholarship if you're female or from an ethnic minority group underrepresented in the software engineering field (African American, Chicano/Latino, Native American, Pacific Islander, etc.). The tech world is notoriously unrepresentative of the larger population. We believe that the sooner that changes, the better off we all are."
How is that not discrimination?
[+] [-] theevocater|13 years ago|reply
http://www.etsy.com/blog/news/2012/etsy-hacker-grants-suppor... is why etsy is sponsoring this kind of grant at a different but similar Hacker School.
[+] [-] xiaoma|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SilasX|13 years ago|reply
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4441734
tl;dr: The worst argument in the world is "X is Y, therefore, X must be a typical case of Y". Here, "The DBC policy is discrimination, therefore you should associate with it all the bad things you usually associate with discrimination, irrespective of whether they apply here."
Stripped of its misdirection, your question/argument is, "Isn't that bad for the same reason that 'we don't hire blacks' is bad?" No, it's not. There is a sense in which this kind of discrimination is bad, but there's also a sense in which its good (i.e. disrupting the self-reinforcing cycle of certain demographics dominating the programming field and making those outside of it feel out of place).
There are great arguments about which effect is stronger and/or worse, but they aren't helped by saying "That is discrimination."
Disclaimer: I was in the Spring (first) cohort of DBC, though don't have as glowing a review of the program as everyone else seems to.
[+] [-] getsat|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kabuks|13 years ago|reply
If you can think of better ways to encourage more balance in our industry I am sincerely open to suggestions.
[+] [-] s_henry_paulson|13 years ago|reply
Athletes, young mothers, honor students, mcdonalds employees, etc.
[+] [-] kapilkale|13 years ago|reply
I'm curious about how employers have felt about the engineers they've hired from such services vs fresh / semi-experienced engineers with CS degrees.
[+] [-] lachyg|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bjoyce1|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] suter|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jfarmer|13 years ago|reply
* http://pages.github.com/
* https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll
* https://www.cloudflare.com
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] at-fates-hands|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dpritchett|13 years ago|reply
Good fit for a fast growing Ruby shop that is not too picky about depth of technical skills.
[+] [-] crazypyro|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aidscholar|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mattnguyen|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lsiebert|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ProfessorNipple|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] photoGrant|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lachyg|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] D9u|13 years ago|reply