In this week’s Top 5, we have a whole heaping bucket of programmery goodness. We’re controlling clouds, helping machines learn, using C#, discovering the best route to learning to code in a new language, and figuring out how to get started programming in the first place. It’s the week of filling up the space in your braincase!

Top 5 articles of the week

5. 4 new OpenStack how-tos and guides

If you’re interested in managing your own cloud, Jason Baker has a great list of guides to help clear away the fog and wrap your head around OpenStack.

4. Book review: Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn and TensorFlow

How about dipping into machine learning and artificial intelligence? Lakshmanan G reviews Aurélien Géron’s Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn and TensorFlow. This book can help you quickly get started with machine learning using a couple production-ready Python frameworks.

3. More than just apps: 5 innovative uses for C#

If programming in C# and .NET environments is your thing, Alistair Chapman has a five very cool projects that use C# in some pretty interesting and unconventional ways. These tools cover the full gamut from simple scripting to writing code that writes code.

2. 5 ways to succeed at learning a programming language

So you’re in the throes of your journey to learn a new programming language. What’s the best way to actually go about it? Have a look at E. Dunham’s article has some fantastic tips that can help get you up to speed with confidence.

1. How to get started learning to program

Of course, perhaps it’s not just a new language that you’re learning. Perhaps it’s your first foray in to working with code at all. Vicky Brasseur comes to the rescue with a series of steps that will get you from zero to your first “tabs versus spaces” argument in no time flat (don’t worry if you don’t catch that reference, I promise you’ll think it’s super clever once you’re comfortable coding).