Many amateurs or hobbyists have faced this dilemma in their own personal (and professional) work spaces for centuries nows. Two groups I know a little about are wood workers and machinists, who have written dozens of books and articles about this subject, in both the general and specific case.

0. Safety equipment: dust masks, goggles, safety glasses (with side protection), gloves (nitrile, latax, neoprene), hearing protection (ear muffs, ear plugs), and as needed!
1. Tools
2. Storage / management of those tools
3. Hard copy (dead-tree) documentation, it is being rapidly moved online thanks to cheap and compact computers and laptops, but much older reference material is still in old-school paper form (which can be handy) (example references to collect: ARRL Handbook, Art of Electronics, Machinery's Handbook, Woodworking Basics, Understanding Wood, Wiring Simplified)
4. Commonly used materials (lumber, hoses, holes clamps, fabric, sheet metal, dowels, nuts & bolts, wood and metal screws, etc.)
5. Parts (in anti-static containers for any static sensitive parts like CMOS ICs)
6. Labelling tools
7. Log / Lab notebooks . These should be paper-based, though can be complimented with online documents, a honest to goodness hard copy lab book is essential.
8. Chemicals
9. Large, easy to read clock
10. Test equipment: rulers, tape measures, calipers, digital multi-meter
11. Plenty of AC mains circuits and outlets. Preferably with a separate circuit for lighting versus wall outlets. - Avoid extended use of extension cables, and excessive use of power bars.

And time.

Perhaps bluntly said, but I agree at least in part: Access to structure and assistance can be a huge benefit.

In fact, part of this story does involve access to assistance for the "students", via the Internet for asking questions. I think this part of learning is necessary. The potential issue is that taken as a whole, the Internet is a mixed bag, and not all forums are of high quality value sources for answers.

One of the most common quotes from new university or college students, is that they don't know what they want to do. So rather than make 17-18 years old pick (guess) their first / primary vocation for the rest of the life, they can self-select "streams" of learning, which are pre-packaged by people with similar inclinations into a coherent, if basic, form, outlining a background that should create opportunities that the individuals can seize for themselves as they become more experienced and more familiar with those "streams" and their associated professions.

I would say you are teaching your friend, but you are not lecturing (or "hand-holding" / "spoon-feeding") him, since he is an adult (I assume).

It's that you are acting more as a mentor, than a lecturer which is different than the majority of formal education, but that doesn't make you any less of a teacher.

Drawing up a plain language version of a CS degree program (complete with possible electives) for your friend might be a helpful way to also help your friend, Map out what topics he has 'yet' to learn, so he at least knowns what he knowns versus the entire domain of knowledge (which he can learn as needed, as time permits).

And best of luck to your friend.

No need for an alternate universe, tool libraries, while not common, do exist. In part associated with the maker "movement" which has increased the number of formal open-membership hacker spaces around the world.

I suspect any medium to large city could make a tool library work, and a number of public libraries are acting as catalysts for the tool libraries, in the cases where they are not yet large enough to be free-standing organizations.

You forgot the United States of America.

Welcome to statistical analysis.

The majority of errors and mistakes should be random, but cheaters copy both correct answers and mistakes, in a pattern that is non-typical. The errors or mistakes that relate to faulty understanding of the course material are the exception mentioned. E.g. applying the wrong approximation/ rule/ theory/ calculation in order to answer the question.

Of course, using more complex evaluation is another method to deter cheating. It's harder to copy hand written essays than multiple choice questions, during a test or exam, though they also take far longer to mark and are more subjective for the marker to evaluate.

We just try not to be recorded saying that.

Actaully we'd say, AC wants massive exothermic reaction

So what checks-and-balance exist to verify that a police officer is not abusing such rapid access authority to spy on their current or former spouse or partner? It seems that is the officer makes false claims of a violent stalking complaint to the telecom or ISP, and then "fails" to do the follow-up paperwork with the Crown, he/she gets aware with it. Something similar happened before, I think it was, in L.A. where officers spied on current and former girlfriends and spouses.

While I am sympathetic to lawful officers burden to complete 60-100+ pages of paperwork to obtain a straight forward warrant, given the option, law enforcement will attempt to maximize the usage of warranty-less wiretaps regardless of actual need. It's human nature. I'm sympathetic to 90% of law enforcement officers, but still distressed at the growing number of lapses in judgment or criminal behaviour officers of major units including the RCMP have been found guilty of.

I haven't had a chance to read the proposed bill and current legislation myself, I would suggest that things like this have the habit of morphing into a large broken mess, if allowed to, akin to the long-gun registry. Regardless whether you think such a database has merit, it evolved into a billion dollar piece of garbage (in its first year alone) because too many "vested parties" tweaked the implementation to include their own pet desires. My favourite is the self-declaration regarding mental health. It's sad to see that law enforcement take such an un-enlightened look at issues such as PTSD and depression, two mental health conditions rampant within their own ranks. Of which if their own ranks were held to the same standard, most LEO veterans would be desk bound and weapon-less.

BT;DT;

Hindawi affair back in April 1986.

But the Israelis don't tolerate groping children like the USA does.

It is actually so HLS can recruit more TSA 'agents' from the talent pool of candidates that aren't suitable for jobs like priests, halfway house workers, hockey coaches, and fugly homosexuals*.

*) Not suggesting homosexuals are any more likely to abuse than the general population. Problem is, there are too many people from the general population that are already willing to abuse minors, of both sexes, and I doubt the TSA is going to successfully screen them out before they are let loose upon the public with near perfect federal and state immunity.

Maybe the US army? Well, I'm not sure, but I believe both the US and British navies (navy plural) have dropped star (sextant) navigation training. Although given the growing reliance of most NATO and US-friendly countries on GPS (et all Sat nav), it wouldn't surprise me if land based navigation is no longer taught. Map and compass is hard to learn with an iPhone for a map. Most working maps are digital, and increasingly only viewed in digital form.

That depends, not everyone is good at, or prefers dealing with the analyst role. For many medium and small firms they don't even have designated analysts because many strong programmers don't function well in purely that role.

Anyhow, I know programmers-turn-whatever adaptable types that were laid off from IBM and others regardless.

Thankfully, my employer can't outsource due to business nature, and our customer depends upon us to manage so much of their own business (process, assets, strategy) that we don't expect to go away anytime soon.

No, many of them never worked for Microsoft. The book was published by Microsoft Press as I remember.

Though most if not all were microcomputer (i.e. Personal Computer aka PC) programmers. That's were the revolution was happening. Mini and mainframes had been around for a while by that time in computing's history.

• Gary Kildall
• Andy Hertzfeld
• Jef Raskin
• Toru Iwatani
• C. Wayne Ratliff
• Dan Bricklin
• Scott Kim
• ...

All of these programmers never worked at Microsoft, and neither did I.

Are you suggesting the OP, a self-described interested lay person, learns or even mere follow mathematic research by reading arXiv? If so, WTF!?

arXiv is a pre-print archive of original research articles, not exactly a welcoming place for a non-mathematician (or non-subject specialist, e.g. physics, and computer science also use it). Even with an undergrad degree in mathematics, I find it a difficult (and/or useless) place to try to follow progress in the field, without the editorial assistants to filter the wheat from the chaff. And I've been reading original (first source) research papers since the mid-1990s in multiple research disciplines.

You might as well ask him to read Euclid's Elements in its original Greek. Heck, after the translation, it would be more accessible, as it is intended to be a textbook for learning.

I would rather suggest, try reading some of the mathematics journals that are intended to be more accessible, such as from MAA and AMS societies. Some are aimed at students of two-year and four-year "colleges" (aka polytechs / technical colleges and universities), while others are just interesting yet often accessible, such as Journal of Recreational Mathematics and Mathematics Magazine and online columns such as Kevin Devlin's Devlin's Angle.

In the more general sense, I would recommend popular math writers such as Ian Stewart, Simon Singh, Paul J. Nahin, the recently deceased Martin Gardner (slashdot), and many more authors that I cannot recall.

Unfortunately I can't think of any pop-math books or articles on linear algebra, in the vein of "e: The Story of a Number" (Maor), "An Imaginary Tale" (Nahin), "Flatland" (Abbott), "Flatterland" (Stwart), "A Mathematician's Apology" (Hardy), "Fermat's Last Theorm" / "Fermat's Engima" (US) (Singh), "Does God Play Dice?" (Stewart), "Chaos" (Gleick), and many others.

To wit, mathematics is I believe the only discipline where fourth year undergrad students take third or fourth year courses with "introduction" or "elementary" in their course titles. But I digress. My point is that one "problem" is that given mathematics long history, and that is has fascinated people across cultures throughout history, the subject has accumulated such a vast body of knowledge, so it is difficult to get a firm understanding on every field within mathematics. So feeling overwhelmed with all the facts and fields to learn is normal.

Maybe I dreamt it, but I thought that the US and Canadian government bailed out multiple US automotive manufacturers, and where told to stop be dumb-***** pissing away money on dumb products, and concentrate on improving fuel economy, emissions, and affordability in a time of economy downturn (recession or depression).

I forget what was it in the end, something like $19 billion+ US dollars? Guess that doesn't buy much these days.

I still think they should of required every CEO and VP of the affected companies to spend four weeks doing various jobs at their companies, including two weeks of factory workers in order to keep their jobs. (I'm think in the style of Undercover Boss television show).