hey,

Im new (im sorry, you guys must of heard that phrase way too much..) anyhoo, i want to gain as much knowledge as i can to becomming a white hat. and its to my understanding that the key to achieving this goal, is to read, read, and read about tcp/ip, different OS, security, and most importantly is to learn as much as i can about the C/C++ programming language. if im not mistaken, this is the first step to achieving my goal.. If its not too much trouble, i would most appreciate any type of link to the most understandible guide to learning C++. i tried to go to the "learn C++ in 28 days" site, but i get an error. i tried other links but after an hour or so i felt so helpless, i just wanted to crawl into the fetal position and suck my thumb.. to me, programming is VERY new, yet i want to learn and get to be able to fully understand C++.. if anyone could help me or give me a resource to the most understanable tutorial, i would be most appreciative.

Dude, soooo many people have asked this same question. Look through the forums here or in the Newbie section. You'll find it.

Some starting points:
http://www.undergroundnews.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=000036
http://www.undergroundnews.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=000019
http://www.undergroundnews.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=000018
http://www.undergroundnews.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=000032

Learn to study with Rave music playing in the background, extremely loud...

Now, on to books...
Get yourself a few TCP/IP books, also some linux/bsd/windows/mac books... By mac I mean MAC OS X and Mac OS 9; their both differant, OSX is closer to the BSD linux system.

I sugguest getting into web design, it opens an insight on computers and differant setups that one normally wouldn't have...

If you are going to go for creating programs, I sugguest either C and C++ or ASM.

yep... good old assembly.
if you are going into the field of game programming for nintendo 8-bit systems.
Then some good old asm or C would be the call...

go to the book store and buy a book like me and learn it

*hint*
People often tend to think it's easier to learn C++ with large books that contain a lot of "hands-on" examples.

This may go for you also, I don't know.
One thing for sure, if you REALLY want to learn C++
do NOT under any circumstances buy a book with the following title:

(-) Learn C++ in [4-25] hours
(-) C++ for [dummies/idiots/suckers]
(-) Easy C++ in [rand()%25+4] hours

Get yourself a real book, those that tend to top the
list are books of the type:

(+) The complete C++ reference
(+) C++ [bible/coran/"whatever religious book"]
(+) C++ Introduction (written by some University lector)

Hope that helps, you don't want to spend $60 on a book and then realizing it sucks...

how about not get a book at all and use tutorials ..but in the end it all comes down to you..
Everyone has a choice to make there is no right or wrong language they are all capable of doing the same thing but just different ways of going about it..
in the end you have to do the hard yards and make a choice based on what you found out about the language u choose.. and what os and distro or what not you want, its just like shopping u check ur options then make a decision based on your analysis

how bout no books or tutorials and just get example code and a reference manual online. But I only say that to point out that whether you use books, tutorials, or references, it doesn't matter how you learn. Just do it.

or how about no example code or reference manual at all...
you could learn just having a list of all possible functions and descriptors, and a short description of the common syntax layout.

=P

How does one that is not a machine, learn machine language? Become a machine? You can't talk to one, in voice...yet;P Fotran/C/ASM/VB/C++/Java/Html, All flawed human tries at a mutual language between us, and computers. Because face it, most humans don't want to bug check binary, or learn binary for that matter. Binary is the closet thing to machine language we have living today. But as to this question. One should get source, in many ways. Read it, and compare it to things you do understand. After a time aloted to your mind alone, you will get a light bulb, and start toward the path of being able to say. I am self taught in " ". Meh, being self taught is nice, but anything not binary, as in a 1 to a 0 or a 0 to 1, is lonely. A dual perspective, or share is nice. Hence why as a binary lifeform, we seek something we all feel, yet don't know. After you learn enough, share it, free source, give, and take in parts. But the ethical choice is not to use without a thank you or asking. Learning from others, and teaching them with your mind is something that we can choose. Just like the choice of good or bad. We have few real choices in this realm, imo.

Here is my success at programming, not an expert but getting better. I have a project on the go but school is in the way so it kinda slowwwed down.

year 1-2 - junior high
I started with HTML, went to try javascript.
year 3 - junior high
Tried JAVA.
yeard 4-6 - high school
I testing programming with VB, tried JAVA.
year 7-8 - some college classes
I did some Linux script.
I gave JavaScript another go.
I tried old stuff with COBOL and PowerHouse on a unix system.
Got into C/C++ and the standard libraries.
Going to try JAVA , VB and RPG.

Right now I have a project on slow, school's almost over.
the future
I plan on finishing the project, which is a small role playing game. With a story idea and one other programmer.

Before that I just had some experience with a little DOS and windows 3.1 doing what most kids do on computers...play games. I still play games in between all of my daily activities and computer sessions. lately I haven't been doing any programming other than reading new stuff and testing it out. I'm taking a look at DirectDraw

Hope this helps...you know on the realization that this type of things takes time...

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
I don't have any links to give you that I can remember except google.ca.

Why do I have a problem writing a resume?