Programming, .NET, Silverlight & More

I know this is very optimistic, but gotta start somewhere. If for nothing else, I’d like to get introduced to computer programming.

C would be a great place to start. Try to learn a few different types of programming languages, too… it’ll help keep your mind nimble, so you can think outside the box of any one language’s traditional approach. So learn Prolog and Lisp, and one of those crappy object-oriented languages like Java. Learn a scripting language like Perl.

Windows Update just notified me that there’s an update to Silverlight. I didn’t remember that I even had that program in my computer. What is Silverlight and do I need it? Or can I uninstall it?

Silverlight is a media streaming software from Microsoft for web sites. If you have a subscription to NetFlix you use Silverlight to view movies online.

It’s becoming more popular, so I would’t delete it. If you do delete it, then if you try to run a silverlight application you’ll just have to reinstall it and all of the updates for it.

I want to take an AP computer programming class at my school, but I would like to learn the basics of essentially how computers work. I want to know like how to effectively write/ read script and use the command prompt. Really anything that you think would be useful. If there is a good informative website you could give me that would be great. Thanks a ton.

You totally have the wrong idea of a computer course. You will be doing stuff like this all year:

public class Demo
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
for(int n=0; n<=10; n++)
System.out.println("Hello, even though I already said it "+n+" times!");
}
}

You make cool programs such as that. The best thing to do is download either eclipse or textpad (IDEs) beforehand and get used to programming with those. Get a java book at your local library and read the first five chapters. (Up until where you are very familiar with loops and arrays)

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO KNOW HOW A COMPUTER WORKS
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE COMMAND PROMPT (if you have the IDE)

I have an acer aspire net book, and a gateway regular computer. What I want to do is somehow connect my acer to both monitors via network or ethernet cord. I use both computers, but I use my acer more and it has a small screen.
OH! Is there anyway I can use the gateway speakers, too?

Not unless you use a VNC program.

Silverlight has around 18 mb and another I can’t remove is something called "Uniblue" with 0 megs

U use add & remove in the control panel, fine it & click remove>:)

I want to go in one of these fields. I’m a senior in high school. I want to stay close to home and only one school around offers computer programming. A bunch offer computer science. What is the difference between the two? Can I also get an example of what each job would do?

Programming could be just vocational training, to enable you to program computers in some language or languages and that’s it, just so’s you can get a job say. Computer science would be a more generalized study of computational theory and the various kinds of machines that use it, though you’d probably get some programming training along the way. You could probably spend a lot more time studying that if you wanted to. Depends on what you’re after.

i want to learn computer programming but i’m not sure where to start. i know alot of people say start off learning one language then move on to another, but i’m not familiar with them at all. i want to start off learning to program websites or something in that field. should i use visual basic? c or c+?

For websites you want to begin with html/xhtml, then move onto CSS, then advance onto javascript and php/mysql.

And all of those languages are best written in a more lightweight program than Visual Basic. I personally use Notepad++ for all web design

When I wanted to watch a movie on netflix it said to install the Microsoft Silverlight, when it pops up to click run. Well when mine pops up it just says "save" and "cancel" what should i do?

You can save it in a folder you can remember then delete it when it’s done.

Can anybody tells me what would be the best way to build itself or to buy virtual keyboard wpf code?

it’s depend from your goals and project dead line. in case if you have a lot of time you can do it itself but in my opinion better way is to buy source code or similar project and integrate him in to your project.
in this way I would recommend you to visit http://fpscomponents.com/Products/WPF/virtual-keyboard.aspx they have Virtual keyboard probably the same what you are looking for.

I’d like to link Dreamweaver to my website so I can update the page in Dreamweaver and it update my website. Is that possible?

You don’t. You update a local copy of the page, then upload the page to the host computer. You could use Dreamweaver to do that, but swaying that Dreamweaver’s FTP function sucks would be complimenting it. If it just sucked it wouldn’t be so bad. In the time it takes to get it set up properly for most situations (if you already know how to do it), I can write a page and upload it with an FTP client.