Foundations

Wiki ▸ 🔰 Foundations

Our Foundations pages are designed to help you get up to speed quickly, or fill in gaps in fundamental knowledge areas. These explanations assume you have no prior knowledge or experience. Pair these pages with a suggested learning path.

• BitTorrent
• Bytes
• Command line interface (CLI)
• Configuration file
• Cryptographic hash
• DDoS
• DHCP
• Dark web (dark net)
• Graphical user interface (GUI)
• Hash algorithms
• IP address
• Internet
• Malware
• Open source
• Operating system
• Password cracking
• passwd file
• SQL injection
• Salted hash
• Servers
• Secure Shell (SSH)
• Shell
• Terminal
• Tor
• Torrents

See also: Glossary.

Contents

1. Suggested learning path
   • General programming
   • Web development
   • Information security

Suggested learning path

If you don't know where to start and don't really know where to go in your studies next, consider starting here:

1. Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

   Read this before you read anything else. Everything in the world of computer code is ultimately a way of expressing the full range of complex ideas a human being can imagine using nothing more complex than two words: "yes" and "no." And what is a computer "word?" This book explains it, and does it very well.

General programming

1. Exercises in Programming Style - A companion code repository is on GitHub.

Web development

Web development ("WebDev") is a general term that describes the process of creating a Web site or Web application for publication on the Internet or for private use within an organization's intranet. Be careful not to confuse Web development with architecting digital infrastructure more generally; Web development can result in the creation of tools such as event calendars (like Google Calendar), contact lists (like Facebook friend lists), group chats (like Slack), or media streaming sites (like Spotify), but each of these capabilities can be accomplished without Web sites. For this reason (among others), we intentionally avoid focusing on Web development as a core skill.

Nevertheless, the ubiquity of Web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript means that a working knowledge of WebDev foundations can be very useful. Here, we present a heavily curated ordered list of suggested reading material to jumpstart your capabilities in this area.

1. Foundation Website Creation - Before you read any other Web development resource, read chapters 4, 5, and 6 of this book. Ignore the other chapters (as they focus primarily with business considerations and general programming information). These chapters will lay a foundation that is almost always missing from other reosurces on the topic.
2. AdvancED CSS
3. The New CSS Layout

Information security

Information security ("InfoSec") is the practice of protecting (possibly very sensitive) information from unauthorized or unintentional access, modification, or outright destruction. Our collective's work is atypical in that we make every attempt to discuss security-related concepts and considerations inline at every opportunity, which supports our Train the Trainers project. Nevertheless, we also offer a learning path and study guide for those interested in developing their InfoSec skills, specifically.

See Getting started on InfoSec for InfoSec learning path recommendations.