A Pilgrim's Progress: Looking Back on the IRLS 672 Journey

My journey through this course has often been beset by the Giant Despair and I’ve spent much time in Doubting Castle. Not to belabour the reference to Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, I feel like indeed I have gone through many valleys and my progress has been slow. Nevertheless, I have come a long way.

I started out with very little knowledge of open source software. I’d heard about open source of course – Linux, Apache, MySQL, PhP, etc. but that’s about it. I was also aware of different commercial operating systems – mainly MicroSoft and Mac. (I'm a "lifelong" PC user.) I've lived through most of the history of modern computing and the WWW (at least from the 1980’s forward) but not really been aware of the changes, except at a very superficial level.

This course has opened my eyes to so much and has given me an enhanced appreciation for "white hat" hackers, for open source software, for the intricacies of database design and implementation.

I have greater confidence in my ability to do things with the hardware and software of my primary workstation and the demo machine. I’ve definitely developed my trouble-shooting skills when those attempts to “do things” have run into barriers.

Nevertheless, I don’t have any illusions about my amateur status in all of this. I am still very much a beginner – not fluent in the language; not very far in the pilgrim's journey. Still, I’m looking forward to continuing to learn!