Get hold of an embedded microprocessor and write some silly app for it. E.g. ZigBee or Digi's rabbit microprocessors. I learned all my "deep C" on the rabbit.

Get hold of an embedded microprocessor and write some silly app for it. E.g. ZigBee or Digi's rabbit microprocessors. I learned all my "deep C" on the rabbit. The architecture is based on Z80 and the compiler is a really shitty non-standard C compiler with some custom syntax. You will very quickly learn to throw away many assumptions you might have about how things work. Learn how to write mutithreaded code without an operating system or a thread library (hint: co-routines). Learn how memory layout, very quickly get a feel for the time/space tradeoffs of different algorithms, etc.