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Hey all! Let me start with this. I've been in the Business/IT field for going on 10 yrs now. For those 10 years i've been coding on mainframe systems...yes, they do still exist. I've recently started going back to school to finish my B.A. Business - Information Technology Management (some schools call it Management Information Systems). I eventually plan on moving forward to an MBA in the same study area. While all of this is amazing, i've been wanting to learn more Java as i see more and more openings for it. Since most all of my work experience is on the mainframe i know so little about open systems code. What do you guys recommend as a good starting place? Any specific resources? Anyone willing to work with me? Thanks in advance!

* coffee = I am a java programmer, reference to my life goal bender = this challenge will mostly be about flexibility Fit Intro: As a kid, I sucked at everything sport related and was known at my school for failing almost every time on P.E. The last couple of years I have discovered that I actually do love to push my body, but that I'm not a fan of team sports. I love dancing, yoga and strength training(free weights and body weight). My most recent victory was the 5k race that I ran in May and I hope to get a <30 min time on that soon. Nerd Life Intro: I recently graduated as a Java Developer, but still taking on extra courses like Android. Programming is computers + puzzles and therefor awesome. I love reading fantasy and scifi and playing RPG's like WoW and Divinity (it's Belgian!). Civ V is another favorite (and The Sims, but sssh). My gaming skills are not nearly what I want them to be but I enjoy myself. I also love drawing, painting (both mostly nudes) and spending way too much time on Tumblr. Main quest: I want to become the most flexible developer ever. Gymnasts are crazy impressive. Missions: Be able to perform the splits on both sides and really improve my wheel pose. Practice every day. Points of completion will be given based on improvement(I will take pictures every week) and if I have practiced enough count: 1 point for DEX for improvement of wheel pose, 1 for STA for training every day, same for splits (4 total) Be able to do a handstand Practice every other day. Right now I can hold a headstand without support for 10 seconds but no handstand, not even against a wall. I actually think this is more a mental problem than not having enough strength. count: 2 for STA, 1 for WIS Run 5k in under 30 minutes Run 3 times/week with Zombies, Run! app. Not flexibility related, but I really want this too. My current time is 35:27. count: 2 points for DEX based on improved speed, 2 points for STA based on consistent trainingImportant note for week 1: The first week of the challenge I will be on a trip in Berlin and the idea is to make it cardio week: swimming in the hotel pool every day, lots of walking and at night dancing. I will also spend some time in the sauna, to train myself if an assassin mission would ever take me to the desert Life quest: Get a job and move out First job, then move out, so this mostly means applying for a lot of jobs, creating stuff to add to my resume and improving my skills count: 3 for CHA, 2 for looking for jobs, 1 if I actually get one Side quest: (apparently split related) Go climbing or bouldering with my friend C. We have been talking about this for over a year, but he messed up his shoulder in February. Last week he said he would probably be ready for it this month, so here we go. count: 1 point for STA Motivation: I want to be amazed by what my body is capable of, what I am capable of. I want to proof that I am not lazy and that I can do anything if I put my mind to it. This will be a serious challenge of persistence but I like challenges! Why be less when you can be more?

OK I HATE that NONE of the example code on the Android developers site actually works. So... Can someone who really understands Android Service/binding/messaging help an ancient programmer out whose last real programming job was in Fortran with some Pascal who is trying to get a Java Android system up and running in time for a demo by the first of July? I have 2 working programs, an EID reader that uses bluetooth to read an electronic ear tag on a sheep. And a LambTracker program that queries a SQLite database using an ear tag number and pulls up lambing data and health records. I need to get the EID reader to send to the LambTracker an EID tag and have the LambTracker automatically pull up the data as the ear tags are read. I've been tearing my hair out on this because none of the examples work and I'm just getting lost in the differences between services, binding, broadcast etc. etc. etc.