Hello folks. Don't know if you've seen this: http://www.ai-class.com/ (didn't find any mention in the forum by searching).

It's an online course provided by Stanford covering theory of artificial intelligence. I registered, although I an extremely newbish programmer, because I've always been interested in computer theory and programming and this seems like the ideal opportunity to get to grips with it.

The course starts in October 10th. Since my university in Athens will probably be closed by 50 c*nts resisting a law, which has already passed and reduces the power of the mafia known as university political parties (sorry, a bit bitter about that), I won't be giving my regular exams and I have quite a lot of time to prepare and spruce up in basic programming theory. Could anyone suggest some good book/ site/ whatever resource for an amateur programmer? Specifically, the course suggest python for newbies, so I thought to start from there. Any suggestions?

Now that looks very interesting. Thanks for posting

This is about artificial intelligence not programming like you said?

Yes, but as the FAQ states algorithms (which I know are not synonymous with programming) will be useful, as would be a basic knowledge of python.I guess that could be considered general computer theory, which I would also need to study.

Personally however I treat that course as a starting point so that I can learn programming in general. I will not use any learning resources only for the course. I plan to continue messing with coding, so the more I can learn at this point, the better. Basic theory and some easy language (I assume that this is why the professors suggest python) will be a good starting point.

Oh Thrun is teaching it. I think Ng had taught CS221 for the last few years, though I might be thinking of CS229. Both are very good and well regarded. This class is good but also a lot of work, you should make sure you have good deal of time to spend on it. Norvig's book is also highly regarded.

Python is a great language. If you're just starting out, the O'Reilly book "Learning Python" is easily recommended. I expect the Python's Numpy package to be used liberally (provides Matlab-like functionality), the scipy.org is the premere resource for that.

A few other stanford EE/CS courses are available at see.stanford.edu

resistance is futile - is that what you mean?
That's a rhetorical question - politics is not allowed here..

To give a noncontroversial, factual response, that would not encourage trolling or anything like that, the last guy to try and stand up to these 50 people had to be taken with an ambulance to a hospital to treat for concussion and have 15 stitches, and now they are much more agitated and dangerous that they were now. When I said mafia, I was only _slightly_ exaggerating.